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99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
Jax Beach Country Fest: A Free Show with Country Music's Rising Stars
Ready for a sun-soaked day of country music that won't cost you a dime? The Jax Beach Country Fest returns to the Seawalk Pavilion on Saturday, June 14th, bringing an impressive lineup of rising stars from Nashville, as well as talented local performers.
After drawing nearly 7,000 fans to its inaugural event last year, this free festival has quickly established itself as a must-attend summer concert. The 2025 lineup features The Voice Season 22 Winner Bryce Leatherwood, whose powerful traditional country sound and newly-released EP are generating serious buzz in Nashville. You'll also catch John Morgan, who's currently riding high with his #1 hit collaboration with Jason Aldean, "Friends Like That." Tigirlily Gold rounds out the national acts as headliner, bringing their energetic performance style to the beach stage. Local talents Darrell Rae, Emily Mikus, and The Voice alum Katie O complete the diverse lineup.
What makes Jax Beach Country Fest special is the opportunity to see tomorrow's country music headliners in an intimate beach setting before they're selling out arenas. As 99.9 Gator Country Program Director Brian Jordan mentioned, "This is the last time you're probably going to see John Morgan for free." The festival area will feature food trucks, vendor booths, and even a mechanical bull for those feeling adventurous.
Gates open at 2pm with music starting at 3pm. The event follows clear bag policies (similar to Jaguars games), and while coolers aren't permitted, attendees can bring one sealed water bottle per person. Public parking is available, though biking or rideshare is recommended. Don't miss what's quickly becoming Jacksonville Beach's signature summer music event – completely free and open to all country music fans!
Welcome to a very special episode of Live from Jacksonville. Special because there's a great free concert happening at the Jacksonville Beach Seawalk Pavilion on Saturday, june 14th. We'll have Allison Riley from the City of Jax Beach and Brian Jordan from 99.9 Gator Country joining us to talk about the event, as well as one of the stars, bryce Leatherwood. But first here's a quick rundown of what's happening for the rest of June in the Jacksonville area. Rising country star Max McNown will play at Jacksonville's newest music venue, 5 in Riverside, on Sunday, june 15th. Bailey Zimmerman is coming to the St Augustine Amphitheater for two nights Thursday and Friday, june 19th and 20th. Ringo Starr and his all-star band will be at the Amph on Sunday With. Ringo Starr and his all-star band will be at the Amp on Sunday, june 22nd. This is a show I highly recommend If you've never seen Ringo and his all-star band. It is a fantastic fun night.
Speaker 1:Avril Lavigne's Greatest Hits Tour is coming to Daily's Place on Monday, june 23rd. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band with Ann and Nancy Wilson Hart are playing the Amp on Tuesday, june 24th. The Totally 80s Tour featuring Big Country Bow Wow, wow, gene Loves, jezebel and Tommy Two-Tone is coming to the Florida Theater on Tuesday June 24th. Billy Currington and Kip Moore this is a double headliner show are at the Amp St Augustine on Friday June 27th. And finally, molly Hatchett will be at the Florida Theater on Saturday, june 28th. Joining me now is Allison Riley from the city of Jacksonville Beach and 99.9 Gator Country Program Director, brian Jordan, talking about the free Jacksonville Beach Country Fest Saturday June 14th at the Jax Beach Seawalk Pavilion. We're kind of just dropping in on the conversation as it was already in progress.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited. I'm hoping the weather is a little cooler than it's been recently. We got so lucky with the weather. Last year I mean last year was perfect. We had such a good crowd out for year number one, and I think it's going to be even better this year, so I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Wait, have you already started the podcast? What Gotcha she did. So I was going to introduce you, but now, oh, I thought we were just going, we were, we were, you were like you took the bull by the horns. Here we go. So we have Allison here with us from the city of Jacksonville Beach, the JacksBeach Country Fest. Are we going to start calling this the annual I think we should I do too.
Speaker 1:So it's the second annual Jack's Beach Country Fest. It's Saturday, June 14th. Let's talk about real quick. Last year's was our first Jack's Beach.
Speaker 2:Country Fest Way bigger than we expected, for sure. I mean, I had no clue what to expect. Going in and seeing people there for the opener. The early slot was amazing and I was like okay we did it.
Speaker 1:This is going to be good. Yeah, we knew, and brian and I we have. We got brian jordan with us, our program director here at gator country. We kind of had an idea, because we've done concerts like this at the landing, but it's been so long ago, way before covid, that we, uh we kind of stopped doing them there because the landing was knocked down yeah, right, so we like had like you know what they build it and they will come.
Speaker 3:Well, you know the Seawall Pavilion just sitting out there, a nice little jewel in Jacksonville Beach, yeah, and you know correct me if I'm wrong, allison there was every type of festival but country out there. So it was like ripe for the taking. You know, and I'm like you guys like no expectations. It was like what just happened when it was all said and done, I think I expected a couple of thousand people.
Speaker 1:I didn't. What did we end up with?
Speaker 2:6600 yeah, I think we were just shy of the 7 000 mark oh my goodness, we did not expect that.
Speaker 1:Brian brought up a good point. You guys haven't done a country music festival there before, have you?
Speaker 2:not as long as I've been here and from the records I can pull, there hasn't been one so I'm gonna say we're the first.
Speaker 1:It may not be right, but I think we're the first definitely the first in a long, long time yeah and brian kudos to you because you got some acts that you were able to help bring in that were just amazing it was uh, you know, timing is everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah with these things. And you know the fact that you know chase beckham had a lot of familiarity with uh american idol and hunter girl, hunter girl as well, and and and who would have thought that? You know, coming at what I think, two weeks before chase hit number one yeah, very first number one it was like wow. So you know, this guy's coming in to sing his number one song for everybody, and it was such a great time and your position all around.
Speaker 1:The program directors play that guessing game when they're trying to book an act to come into town. Six months, seven months, eight months out, You're like what's going to be the single where they're going to be? How popular it's a guessing game it is, but you've been doing this long enough that it's no longer a guessing game. You've gotten pretty dang good at it.
Speaker 3:Well, you know's, it's almost like rolling the dice. You know, yeah, it's. Uh, sometimes it could be a crap shoot, but, like for this year and I'll let allison reveal the lineup, but I won't spoil it but just like with this year's artist, it's the same thing. You, you have your eye on people and you're like, hmm, and you rolled three sevens in a row on this, well you know it, you know from again my position going around to different.
Speaker 3:You know shows or conventions and you know you see enough artists perform and you're like, hmm, or, and it can even be someone up and coming playing at like jackrabbits right or five, and you go, wow, you know, when they get your attention you're like, yeah, let me see and you have inside monitor on like where they're doing streaming wise or how many followers they have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which has a lot to do with it too, oh yeah so that plays a big part of it too with. That said, let's talk about this year's lineup allison. Can we start with the locals first?
Speaker 2:yeah, let's start with the locals. So for the first slot we have daryl ray. He's a local artist. He plays all over the place here in jacksonville. Uh, amazing voice, great stage presence.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited about him someone brought him to my attention right after last year's country fest. On facebook they're like oh, you got to get this guy for next year, and so I started following him and I'm very excited to see him live yes, I am too and then the next artist is someone that we had last year a little familiar if you were there last year.
Speaker 2:Emily micas is coming back. She was a crowd favorite.
Speaker 1:She blew me away yeah. I mean, I think she was one of my favorites of everyone last year Great set. She got the crowd. She got the upbeatness that needs to be there for a party atmosphere. Big fan of Emily.
Speaker 2:For sure, yeah. And then another local favorite, Katie O, who made an appearance on the Voice as well and she has a lot of buzz about her too and appearance on the Voice as well, and she has a lot of buzz about her too, and she went pretty far on the Voice too, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so she's gonna bring in a big crowd, I'm sure. All right, let's get to our national acts.
Speaker 2:And then the first national act is Bryce Leatherwood a stunning voice. So excited about him he's got. I think he just released an EP.
Speaker 3:There's a song on there and I know he'll do it here.
Speaker 2:It's called shenandoah okay oh, it's beautiful wait, is it?
Speaker 1:about the old band or the actual shenandoah valley? Uh, neither, oh really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay when you, if you look up I guess the best way to put it is if you look up shenandoah, like the term shenandoah like what it's like what it means yeah, and then you listen to the song you're gonna go oh yeah, oh I can't wait to hear that it's a really
Speaker 2:good song, all right, cool and next up next up and the reason that if I go gambling I'm taking brian with me just because his track record is great with picking artists. We have john morgan coming in, who has just a smash hit out right now with jason aldean. Yeah, that song has it gone, number one, yet it hit.
Speaker 1:It hit one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought it did, and, and he too just put a new album out called Carolina Blue. I think it was so good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Allison, do you know the story of how Jason Aldean ended up on that record? No, so Jason heard the record, thought it was amazing. Then he reached out to John and said hey, how about I jump on this track with you? Maybe my name will help give us some traction. And that's exactly what happened, Crazy. He went in the studio, cut his lines, they mixed it down together, put it out to radio and boom, it's a number one hit. So when you have someone like Jason Aldean, you know seeing your talent and backing you, you know there's something there.
Speaker 2:For sure, and I think John Morgan's written a ton of hits for artists all over the place, so just really talented guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's going to be an amazing performance.
Speaker 3:Make sure you come see John at this event, because this is the last time I'm just going out on a limb.
Speaker 5:It's the last time.
Speaker 3:You're probably going to see him for free.
Speaker 1:Just putting that out there We've had shows at the fair and at the landing, where we'll have literally like Jason Aldean or Luke Bryan or someone like that, and then, a year later, their tickets are $100, you know. So you're right, you're not going to see John Morgan again for free.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of crazy out of the beach how many artists that you can see for free, because all the events are free at the pavilion. Luke Combs played here not that long ago and then I mean you guys know where he's at now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So.
Speaker 2:that brings us up to To our headliner, Tiger Lily Gold.
Speaker 1:Who I absolutely am in love with. We've interviewed them a couple of times. They're so fun and sweet and they're so friendly. I think this is going to be so much fun, like a beach day with Tiger.
Speaker 3:Lily Gold, I agree, there's probably going to be some tequila shots before that show, because those girls like a little tequila here and there and one of them is married or engaged, I think, to the son of a famous country star and I'm not going to say it's going to happen, but there's a good chance there could be a cameo surprise. We'll see. I'm just you know I like a good tease.
Speaker 1:I'm just putting that out there. I've been thinking since Jason Aldean recently bought a house in the Panhandle and his friend like that, john Morgan, is going to be here Maybe there could be a cameo there. I'm not saying there will be, I'm not saying there won't be, but you just never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 3:That's right. You never know man there could be there, there could be a nice little. He's familiar, put it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:He's the son of a famous country star who had some good hits in the 90s like oh Soul, the Grundy County Auction Song.
Speaker 1:And if you know who sung that, then you know who his son is. You're not saying any names. I'm not saying any names. All right, saturday, june 14th, gates open at three. Let's talk about things like the bags that you can bring in and some of those rules.
Speaker 2:For sure. Yeah, so we are going to be posting some know before you go items soon. But just so you know, here we're following the Jaguars stadium bag policy. So if you can't take it to a Jaguars game, you can't bring it into the festival, clear bags only. You cannot bring coolers. You can't bring one sealed water bottle per person. We will have a locker bus nearby. So if you do bring something, if you're coming off the beach and just want to stash something somewhere, you're welcome to do that.
Speaker 1:And you guys have a ton of food trucks and a little picnic table area. It's going to be a really, really fun day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the vendor area is going to be great. We'll have a mechanical bull, so maybe, after hitting up the Southern Swells tent, you'll want to go hop on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can I?
Speaker 3:get a tequila shot and ride a bull. I'm definitely going to get on that. I'm just going to say that right now you are, I will get on there. Oh my gosh, what the heck that's crazy.
Speaker 2:That's making the highlight reel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, listen on Facebook and follow 99.9 Gator Country. I'm actually following you guys, so if there's something pertinent, I can just share it on our page as well, but definitely make sure you're following both Facebook pages and get all the latest information, the do's and don'ts and the can'ts and should nots, and I'm just really looking forward. It's going to be an amazing day.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and thank you to, to, to you, to the city of Jacksonville beach, the mayor, everybody involved. I mean again, who knew that this was going to be a big event, yeah, and.
Speaker 1:Allison, it's been fun watching you grow. I know you were kind of new in this role when we first met and you just turned 15 this year, so you do look so young you. Honestly, we've been in this business for a long time and we have seen a huge, huge growth in you in the last year. You learned, you improved. I'm really impressed with what you've done. I really am.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that and it's been amazing working with you guys. It's been a huge learning curve coming into this and it could be intimidating coming in and working with a radio station to promote a big event and kind of start it from the ground up, but you guys have been so easy to work with and and it's been the best team atmosphere we love what we do and we were taught by some great people along the way and, uh, we're just passing that along I was just about to say you know, one of the things we learned a long time ago was you tell people what you're gonna do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, tell people what you're gonna do. You tell people what you're gonna do, and then you do it and then you tell them what you did.
Speaker 1:And you tell them what you did and invite them back for next year. We had this. We had this guy we worked for, named cat thomas, when we were our wap days, and he's probably one of the greatest radio minds we've ever known and everyone in this building has worked for him at one point. We all learned so much from him. So it's fun to go to an event and we can look around and be like this is how Kat would have done it. So, yeah, it's very, very cool. Any last minute things, anything we didn't cover.
Speaker 2:Parking. So all the city public parking lots will be open. We're not closing any lots down. There will be some road closures around the area, but if you can bike over, if you're local, please do that. We'll have bike racks out. Otherwise, if you are going to be visiting the beer tents, maybe Uber catch a ride. Yeah, Other than that, I think we've laid it all out.
Speaker 1:If you are new to the area, not familiar, the Seawalk Pavilion is located on First Street, just, I guess, north of where Beach Boulevard meets First Street. So when you get close you'll see the crowd. Just follow the people. Hope to see everyone out there Saturday June 14th Again. Gates open at 2. Music starts at 3. Don't be late. That was so much fun to talk with Allison and Brian about the event coming up Saturday, June 14th at the Jacksonville Beach Seawalk Pavilion. One of the artists that we're going to talk about, that's going to be playing, is Bryce Leatherwood. He was a winner on the Voice. I believe he was on Blakestein and my morning show co-host, Steve Sutton and I had a chance to speak with Bryce last week about the upcoming concert. Bryce, thanks for joining us. First off, congratulations on your debut album.
Speaker 5:Well, thank you so much, man. Everything's been incredible. All the feedback people are having about it and just getting to go out on the road and show it off has been amazing.
Speaker 1:I was looking at your Facebook page and saw you had gone 10,000 miles across the country and back twice.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we're still recovering.
Speaker 1:How was it being on Kelly Clarkson's show? That's one of my favorite shows and when I saw you were on I was really, really stoked. You were there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, man, she is one of the coolest A-listers. I think she's A-list in my opinion, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:And I met her a couple years back and it was actually when Blake was finishing up on the Voice and we were actually in the Universal Studio lot where they filmed Back to the Future, the main downtown area. That's where we were hanging out at having an after party, which is pretty cool already. But I look on the dance floor it's kelly clarkson. So I go on the dance floor and I meet and I dance with kelly clarkson and she's like oh my god, I love your voice, I love. Oh my god, that's so cool. I didn't know, you knew I existed.
Speaker 5:And uh, yeah, we became friends and so I got invited to go on her show, which is so cool because I mean she's just such a sweet person and it was a really cool opportunity. And I mean, you know, good people are good people. You know, doing the Today Show in New York and doing the Kelly Clarkson shows and the Voice, and I mean it's just been wild man. It's just been so great to have so much support from so many different people and I mean my team here in Nashville has just been incredible, you know, just great.
Speaker 4:So how do you do in the heat, the hot weather?
Speaker 5:Man. You see, I grew up playing in South Georgia, Statesboro, so I'm used to hot and humid.
Speaker 4:Well, welcome to Jacksonville on the 14th of June brother, I bet it's going to be hot.
Speaker 5:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:It is going to be hot, especially on stage.
Speaker 5:We'll be all right, we're going to hydrate and then we're going to rehydrate after the show.
Speaker 1:No, I've been listening to the debut album and I have come up with a top five set list request. You don't have to commit to them right now, but I like to put my requests in. All right, I want to hear them. All right. And Lou of Flowers, I freaking love, oh yeah, I mean that gives me total Alan Jackson vibes and I know that's got to make you happy. You know, being from up in that Atlanta area.
Speaker 5:That's very good to hear. That means I'm doing my job. What about Still Learning? Oh yeah, we love Still Learning.
Speaker 1:The Firemen, of course. What a great cover.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you know, my granddaddy was a firefighter for 25 years and he was my superman and I mean, that's a song I was dancing and singing to since I was like three years old and I was just like there's a cover I'm gonna do. It's gotta be that one. It's just what makes sense and my upbringing and my music influence and we did it. It sounds cool, man. I'm really excited about the way that one turned out out.
Speaker 1:What I love about that cover is you didn't try to change anything. It's so good as it is and you just did a really respectful, pure cover of it.
Speaker 5:When you do a song like that, you know, by an artist like George Strait the king, there's two things you can't do you can't make a karaoke version and you can't change it the way we did. It was really cool, man. With my producer, will Bundy, who's one of the most talented people in this town, we kind of looked at it like, okay, maybe no fiddle, use electric guitar, Bryce, I know you love electric guitar. So we did that. We changed some instrumentation and some arrangements and some walks in there. I think it turned out really cool man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I loved it. All right number four on my set list. Request the Finger.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, man Dude, that's been the crowd favorite for over a year and a half man, that one's been in our set for a long time and people just love that song, man. That's by far my favorite song on the album.
Speaker 1:Come on, I saw Randy Montana's dad at a—I go to this Palm Coast Songwriters Festival just down the road from Jacksonville every year. Billy Montana was there and he's so amazing to see, perform, live and tell the stories of all the great songs that he's written and Randy's following in his footsteps.
Speaker 5:He is man and both of them guys are incredible. I've written with both of them and they're both just great people, man.
Speaker 1:The last thing on my request list is Hung Up On you. Can you tell us a little bit about that song?
Speaker 5:Yeah, man, to me that's one of those earworm songs that I've been listening to for the past two years. You know, as we started to look at building an album, I was like man, there's something weird about this song, but it's something so cool about it, I don't know. It's just like you know, it's got that Eric Church Smoke, a Little Smoke vibes. It's got this mean Southern rock, you know, a little ACDC in there. I don't know. Know, my first concert was acd since I was nine. You know that that's a big influence on me. But then also eric church, you know, with the chief album and everything, and uh, I heard it. I was like man, this is, this is unique. I've never heard a song like this, but it kind of took a lot of influences from when I was growing up and rolled into this weird ball and we threw it out there. Man, it's just, it's super cool. Man, I love this song you.
Speaker 4:I'm thinking Jack's Beach Country Fest is going to be the rope-a-rocket opportunity with you, because such a great album and such a great story to this point, this might be that tipping point that just sends you into the freaking stratosphere.
Speaker 5:I just can't wait to come down there and hang out at the beach. I haven't been able to take a vacation, so I'm going to use this as mine.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's going to be one about 100 feet away from you.
Speaker 5:That's a lot to hear.
Speaker 1:It's going to be a great time Saturday, june 14th, at Jacksonville Beach Country Fest. It's totally free. You're going to see so many great artists and hear so much great country music, and it's all absolutely free.
Speaker 5:Let's do it, man. Thank y'all so much.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for joining us on this very special episode. I hope to see everyone at the Jacksonville Beach Country Fest Saturday, june 14th at the Seawalk Pavilion and of course, I'll be back soon with another episode to let you know what's happening live from Jacksonville.