Boy Named Banjo

Nashville's Boy Named Banjo gets royal treatment at Bonnaroo

MANCHESTER, Tenn. — Just as he has in each of the past three years, Barton Davies made his way from Nashville to Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival this week.

This time, though, he used a different entrance — the one for artists.

Davies is one of the lead singers of Nashville-bred band Boy Named Banjo, which transformed from a group of festival attendees to bona fide participants in the span of a month this spring.

The band, which takes inspiration from The Avett Brothers and primarily plays roots rock, won its Friday evening stage slot through an online contest held by Sonicbids — an online platform that connects artists with the gigs they are looking for.

In April, the group found out it won the 64-band, March Madness-style contest, thanks to an outpouring of support from their friends and family in Nashville.

Those same friends and family filled two buses that caravanned down to see Boy Named Banjo's Bonnaroo set, which was literally and figuratively miles from the frat-house shows they often play.

Learning of the contest victory was, until the Bonnaroo set, the highlight of the group's existence, which began in 2010 with two distracted students in a Montgomery Bell Academy classroom. A December 2013 performance between periods at a Predators game was another highlight.

The general admission tickets the band had bought for the festival were suddenly on the market.

"We were all texting each other on our group chat," Davies said of the day the contest concluded. "(Band co-founder William Reames) had the perfect message. He just said, 'Tears.' "

There were no tears, though — just smiles — when the band took the stage Friday night.

"So freaking excited," Davies said Friday before the set. "It's a dream come true."

In addition to Davies and Reames, the band has members who graduated from Father Ryan and Nashville School of the Arts. Their goal now, even ahead of steady gigs, is to graduate from Sewanee and the University of Tennessee, where they are students.

But on Friday, they were given the royal treatment, unlike the hordes of fellow college students roughing it in tents at the festival.

Boy Named Banjo has been there, done that. And while they love the Bonnaroo experience, they prefer the new one they're getting this weekend.

"The artists' camping area is great because you're out there in the shade and trees," Davies said. "You get a lot more space, access to showers.

"It's not Bonnaroo."

But they'll take it. - The Tennesseean

Over the past few weeks, 64 Sonicbids artists have duked it out in the Bonnaroo Battle of the Bracket, a competition to decide which talented bands will appear at this year's festival in Manchester, TN. The fans have spoken, and it's our pleasure to officially congratulate our two amazing winners: Tennessee's own Americana apostles Boy Named Banjo and New York rock and soul trio Wild Adriatic!

How were they chosen, you might ask? After submitting via Sonicbids, each of the 64 contenders was reviewed by a panel of industry curators including Jonnie Davis (Senior VP/A&R at Round Hill Music), American Authors, Rick Barker (former manager for Taylor Swift and founder of Music Industry Blueprint), Steve Rennie (longtime manager of Incubus and founder of Renman Music & Business), Grammy Award-winning producer Prince Charles Alexander, Amy Sciarretto of Atom Splitter PR, Steven Smith of Going Off Track and Fan Connection, Janelle Rogers of Green Light Go Publicity, Dave Kusek of the New Artist Model, and more. Then, they went head-to-head in the fan bracket voting round, whittling down the competition until only two remained.

Besides getting to play at one of the best and biggest festivals of the year, our two winning bands will also receive $1,000 in compensation from Sonicbids and Bonnaroo, along with being included in a variety of promotional materials (including full bios on the Bonnaroo site) and press opportunities. They'll also have the enviable chance to sell merch on-site at the festival. All of this sweetens an already sugary sweet deal to get their music heard by the thousands of attendees that flock to Tennessee every year.

As you can imagine, our winners are totally stoked. "It's a dream come true for us to have the opportunity to play Bonnaroo this year," says Wild Adriatic. "We're blown away by the outpouring of support from our friends and fans all over the world, and we are more than ready to bring the rock 'n' roll dance party to the farm this year!"

"We could not be more excited to be playing at Bonnaroo!" agrees Boy Named Banjo. "Everybody in Boy Named Banjo has been to the festival at least once, so we understand what an honor it is to perform on the farm alongside some of our biggest influences and some of the greatest bands in the world. It's absolutely a dream come true for us, and we are so thankful for Sonicbids, our amazing friends, family, and fans for giving us the opportunity of a lifetime. We won't let you down!" - Sonic bids