We got some excellent, if mostly overlooked, information this week from the Rothbury folks. In their email detailing the new 2-day ticket (complete with a lower price), they broke down which headliners are playing on which days.

In case you missed it, here’s what we now know…
Friday (7/3): String Cheese Incident
Saturday (7/4): The Dead
Sunday (7/5): Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Friends

There are plenty of interesting pieces to take away from this small announcement. First, Willie Nelson is not a separate headliner, as implied by the revelation of the original line-up. Second, if you were to visit Pollstar.com (which you should be doing if you enjoy live music), you would find that the Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson performance is not a one-off show. It is actually a full-on summer tour… and it also includes John Mellencamp. Does this mean Mellencamp is playing Rothbury? Hopefully. It would make sense to have him play first, followed by Willie, with Dylan to close out the festival. Think something like Mellencamp from 5-6pm, Willie from 6:30-7:30pm, and Dylan from 8-10pm. It’s almost like a mini-Farm Aid.

However, the biggest thing that the new schedule tells us is this – there’s still one more headliner to be announced. Now, before the line-up had been officially announced, I did correctly predict that a String Cheese reunion would happen at Rothbury. But then, I was predicting that last year, too, and I was shut out. With my mediocre track record in mind, the rumor I’m hearing most often for that final headliner spot is Neil Young. He brought Crazy Horse with him to Bonnaroo a few years back, and turned in a scorching (and loud) set.

And yes, I’m hearing the Phish rumors, too. So are the folks on the Rothfest.com message boards. And the folks on the Infobury.com message boards. Officially, Phish is playing Bonnaroo as their “only summer festival appearance”. But what happens after Bonnaroo? Can Rothbury announce that they also have booked Phish, as long as it happens after Bonnaroo, and is therefore not affecting the Tennessee festival’s ticket sales? Maybe so, maybe not (sorry, weak audio on that video clip, but Chris Kuroda is a lighting genius).

Oh, by the way… welcome to the RothBlog. We’ll be talking about all things Rothbury over the next couple months – look here for more about the bands, the experience, and what to expect (or not expect) at this year’s Festival.

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