Spotlight on The Artists of Magnolia Fest: The Congress

Held at the beautiful Spirit of The Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida, Magnolia Fest will be celebrating it's 19th year this October 15-18th. Magnolia Fest consistently features some of the world’s finest performers in Americana, Roots Rock, Acoustic Blues, Singer/Songwriter, Bluegrass & Newgrass, Cajun/Zydeco, New & Traditional Folk and American Roots music. In the second of a series focusing on the artists who will be performing at the Fest, Scott Lane of the Virginia based band The Congress kindly took the time to talk about playing the Fest for the first time, new music and more.

This is Magnolia Fest’s 19th year, but it is The Congress’ first year to play the festival. Are you honored and excited to be a part of it?

Yeah, absolutely. We’re excited to get down there; it looks like the line-up is going to be killer. We’re doing some shows with our good friends Lake Street Dive before the festival, and they’re doing the festival too, so that’s a big bonus for us.

What made you say yes to the invitation to perform at Magnolia Fest?

The Spirit of The Suwannee Music Park is legendary and whenever you mention the festival people get excited. In addition to that, the line-up is crazy, with artists like The Avett Brothers and Tedeschi Trucks Band as well as some artists I haven’t seen yet that I want to check out. I don’t see why one would not want to play there.

Mag Fest is in Florida, which has a vibrant music scene; does Denver, where you are based, have that as well?

Denver really does have a vibrant scene, but we actually just played our last hometown show there and moved back to Virginia where there is very much a vibrant scene as well. The Richmond music scene is super heavy into really old R&B with a mix of jazz and neo-soul in a really unique way. It’s something that’s been incubating there for decades, and we’re excited to be a part of that again.

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From listening to your music, you seem to mix southern rock, blues, and Americana, among others. Is this reflective of what you grew up on, or is it just the way it comes out when you write? 

I think it’s both. Jonathan and I are both from Richmond; I grew up listening to Motown, Waylon, jazz and punk. Richmond, being at the tip of the southern U.S., has all of these things as well as a tendency towards R&B and a heavy hardcore punk scene, which I don’t know is as evident in our music, but it plays into some of our sensibilities as well.

I kind of fell into music. I was a French major in college and worked at a bank in Richmond. The Congress is my first serious band, and it really is more of good luck that I ended up doing this and kept up with it (laughing). Mark [Levy] is a classically trained bad ass drummer, Chris [Speasmaker] minored in jazz piano, if I remember correctly, and Jonathan [Meadows] has been in a band and singing pretty much his whole life. We all arrived to where we are today in different ways.

Whatever You Want, your last album of new music, was released in 2012. Are there any plans for a new record?

Since we released that album, we have been road dogging it really hard. We woke up one day and realized that it had been two years since we released a record, and we were like “Whoa, what just happened?!” We had enough music for an entire record, which we finished over the last year.

Will the new record be along the same vein as the previous two?

It’s the first record where we really got a grip on being able to control what we sound like in the studio. I’d say sonically and songwriting wise, it goes all over the place, including some experimentation, but it really is song oriented. Both Jonathan and I sing lead and trade verses, and overall, it has a different vibe from anything we’ve ever done--I think for the best. It is four guys singing, playing guitars, piano, and drums; saying here are the songs we have, that we are playing to the best of our ability. It most represents what we sound like live, and we’re really proud of it.

What’s in store for you for the rest of the year and next?

We will probably release a track from the upcoming record in advance, and then we will start looking at dates touring the Northeast and hit the road pretty hard.

For more information on Magnolia Fest visit the official website.
Also, find Mag Fest on Facebook and Twitter

For more information on The Congress visit their official website
Find them on Facebook and Twitter

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