Dylan LeBlanc [no longer playing the Fest]

EDIT - they just announced that he is no longer playing the Fest.  NO indication as to why he is dissing us, but such is the way with the world.

One Liner:  Rock Americana in the vein of Ryan Adams

Wikipedia Genre:  Alt. Country, Folk, Americana
Home: Shreveport, LA

Poster Position: 18

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: My first thought about this guy is that he is the absolute perfect sound for ACL.  A little bit Neil Young, a nugget Strand of Oaks, a thick slice of Ryan Adams - some classic rock, some mellow rock, some Laurel Canyon influence, a good combination of head-nodding rock and gentleness.  Actually, the old tunes - like the 2010 debut album Paupers Field - is more country than rock.  But the general feel for this is some Ryan Adam-esque gentle rock.

Four albums - starting with that country/Americana tinged debut in 2010.  "Changing of the Seasons" has an almost My Morning Jacket with banjo feel.  But, dude managed to get Emmylou Harris to appear on a track for his debut album, so he's doing something right.  This is "If the Creek Don't Rise, with just over 9 million streams.

Hear that Ryan Adams sound in there?  That is his most streamed tune, likely for good reason because its a beaut.  His second-most streamed comes from his third album, 2016's Cautionary Tale.  This is the title track, with 7.3 million streams.

This one leaves some of that spare Americana sound behind and goes for a more slick rock sound - still quiet and gentle, but more of a rock sound.

He used to be a part of the band Abraham (which I have never heard of), but went out on his own at age 19 to become a solo guy.  He grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, watching his father take a shot at being a professional country music songwriter and session musician, where he got to hang in the recording studio for late nights by the age of ten.  But his Wikipedia mentions that he had to attend rehab while still in high school, and then instead of returning to high school he left to pursue music full time.  Holy shit, dude.  Rehab while in high school is some hardcore stuff for a dude making pretty Americana music.  

Then he has a new album, released June 7, 2019, called Renegade.  Slim number of streams, thus far, for any of the songs, within nothing breaking more than 250k streams.  In a generally bad sign for the power of the album, the top track is the first one (the title tracks, with 209k streams), and then the play count goes down from there.  But the final song actually bucks the trend, so I'll go with that one.  "Honor Among Thieves," with 68k streams.

Pretty damn good song.  Good guitar-work, good lyrics, kind of like one of Beck's violin-aided slow burn tracks.  Dave Cobb handled the production on this new album, and you can see a little Jason Isbell in the title track.  "Sand and Stone" is one of the ones that sounds like Neil Young.  A Rolling Stone article mentions that he now uses a band for backing called The Pollies.  Never heard of them either, but they make good tunes.

I'm into it.  Let's go see him!