Wanee festival the go-to musical event in the Southeast

LIVE OAK, Fla. — Tens of thousands of music lovers will descend upon sleepy Live Oak, Fla., this week for the Wanee Music Festival scheduled for Thursday-Saturday. Wanee, an annual concert event held since 2005 at the Spirit of the Suwanee Music Park, is considered by many to be the premier outdoor musical event in the Southeast.

Festivalgoers and musicians alike will make the pilgrimage to the swampy lowlands of central Florida from all over the country to be a part of what musician Bobby Lee Rodgers of the Bobby Lee Rodgers Trio, who are playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday, described as an amalgamation of spiritual and harmonic energy.

“It is really an amazing event,” Rodgers said. “It’s like another world. It doesn’t feel like Florida. I mean, it has a swampy kind of vibe, but you’re not really in a swamp. The people are so cool. You can bring the family and camp in this beautiful place, and you get to listen to some incredible bands.”

Rodgers, who began playing guitar as a boy, majored in music at the University of Georgia, studied and taught at the famed Berkley College of Music in Boston, and launched a musical career that placed him in the midst of some of the biggest acts on the jam band scene and the world.

He has performed with such celebrated artists as Vassar Clements, Warren Haynes, Widespread Panic, George Porter Jr., to name just a few, and along with good friend Col. Bruce Hampton helped to found the near legendary Southern band The Code Talkers.

“Whether rocking out to his own compositions in jazz or presenting his unique interpretations of musical greats such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane or Wes Montgomery, guitarist Bobby Lee Rodgers is staking out a legendary path with fans and critics alike,” Rodgers’ official bio says. “His unique sound and stylings are garnering a growing popularity wherever he performs.”

Rodgers’ style of wandering modes and scale variations, an exercise in controlled chaos, at times, seems to channel the likes of guitarist John McLaughlin and the jazz fusion laid down on Miles Davis’ masterpiece “Bitch’s Brew.” During performances, Rodgers appears to achieve a meditative disconnect between mind, body, spirit and instrument, letting each flow freely from one into another.

“I love performing,” Rodgers said. “I mean, I like making albums, too. In fact, we just finished recording our new album in Miami, but the live performance is where it’s at. Our new album, I’m not sure when it will be out, like I said, we literally just finished recording it, is really upbeat and funked out. Most of the time I would rather just hear us live, but since we recorded that way, live, it turned out really cool.”

Rodgers, who began his solo career in 2009 at Wanee, performing in front of 10,000 people that year, made such an impact on the audience that he has been asked back numerous times to the annual concert.

“It feels kind of like going home,” he said.

The Bobby Lee Rodgers Trio, consisting of Rodgers on guitar, Brian Tate on bass and Brian Lange on drums, is scheduled to play at 2 p.m. Thursday on the Mushroom Stage and then on the Peach Stage at 11:45 a.m. Friday and again at 11:45 a.m. Saturday.

For more information, visit waneefestival.com or bobbyleerodgers.com.