For nearly 20 years, All Good Music Festival and Campout served as the preeminent jam band festival in the Southeast and Midwest. Before Bonnaroo, before Summer Camp, before 10,000 Lakes, Wakarusa, Rothbury, and LOCKN’, there was All Good. Every summer from 1997 to 2013, and once more in 2015, All Good presented the biggest names in jam, live-tronic, bluegrass, and everything in between.
Over 18 gatherings, All Good hosted the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, the Allman Brothers Band, Widespread Panic, Trey Anastasio Band, The String Cheese Incident, Ween, Pretty Lights, and just about any band that played the festival circuit through the 2000s. The festival took place at six venues in four states, spending 2003–2011 at Marvin’s Mountaintop in Masontown, WV before moving to Thornville, OH’s Legend Valley in 2012 and 2013, and finally Berry Hill Farm in Summit Point, WV in 2015, near where the festival was born in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. metro area.
I was born the same year as All Good, and was just getting into the wide world of jam bands the year it retired. Coming up in the jam scene in Ohio and cutting my teeth at Legend Valley, All Good carried a mythical status. This lore only deepened thanks to my college couch guy, who proudly hung his 2013 flyer on the wall of my apartment where he occasionally paid rent (shoutout Scott). I’d marvel at that lineup poster in disbelief: Furthur with Phil and Bobby, Pretty Lights, Primus, Yonder Mountain String Band, STS9, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Keller Williams with The Travelin’ McCourys, and on and on. The Werks and Papadosio, the locally-grown Ohio bands I was seeing headline Legend Valley every summer, were in the middle of this lineup.
For years, I’ve been all too familiar with the feeling of being a bright-eyed young recruit in the jam scene (or Tony Soprano): “Lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over…”
Then came All Good Now.
All Good was reborn over the weekend as All Good Now, a two-day, two-stage festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. Though the landscape of festivals and live music as a whole have transformed since All Good’s last dance a decade ago, many of the same bands that led it to prominence have kept the festival’s spirit alive. The first day of All Good Now (the only one I attended) was a reunion of the good ol’ days with The String Cheese Incident and The Disco Biscuits, plus fresh faces Molly Tuttle, Neal Francis, and Dogs In A Pile, with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead filling the “Dead-centric headliner” position to close things out.
All Good Now already had a huge chip on its shoulder coming into the weekend. The full name of the original festival was All Good Music Festival and Campout, and Merriweather Post Pavilion—located in a business park surrounded by hotels, doctor’s offices, and nice-enough-looking restaurants—didn’t seem the place to pitch a tent. How could a day-long show at a commercial amphitheater (with no re-entry) capture the feeling of a camping festival?
As far as outdoor sheds go, Merriweather Post is unique. Beyond the usual stands selling beer and chicken fingers, there’s an additional village of booths and vendors, plus a back lawn with the appropriately-named Chrysalis Stage. An open-air bandshell with a large, lime-green larva of a covering hatched up-and-comers all weekend like Dogs In A Pile, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, and Eggy alongside All Good vets moe., The Bridge, and Keller Williams (who played 12 out of 18 original All Goods).
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Though I never went to All Good, I have gone to enough festivals to recognize that All Good Now was more than just a multi-band show at MPP without camping. Walking through the Tulip tree-lined, woodchip path through Shakedown, with Neal Francis’ sweet vintage R&B playing behind me, that old familiar feeling of a music festival came right back, regardless of the re-entry policy—one of those days when the sun hits your face, the breeze cools your sweaty back, you smell something dropping into a deep fryer, and you just think, “God, it’s good to be alive.” That’s the essence of the festival experience, and that’s what All Good Now captured.
Beyond all the tingly feelings, All Good Now celebrated the jam band culture that took campgrounds across America by storm through the dawn of the 21st century. Though many were dismayed at All Good vets The Disco Biscuits’ perilously short, one-hour set time, the trancefusion pioneers didn’t waste a minute of it as guitarist Jon “Barber” Gutwillig revved the engines on the opening “Mulberry’s Dream”.
The mid-day performance took on added significance as it came during the band’s 30th anniversary tour, with the Merriweather lawn and pavilion filling up a hundred and something miles from where The Biscuits were born at the University of Pennsylvania. For their return to All Good, The Disco Biscuits balanced old-school walks down memory lane (“Mulberry’s Dream”, “Tricycle”, “Svenghali”) with the third-ever “Scars of the Brave” (debuted back in March), and emerging live favorite “Country Royale” (debuted last summer). Each song displayed how The Biscuits have grown in the years between All Goods, from Marc Brownstein setting down his bass for some extra MIDI on “Scars of the Brave” to Aron Magner letting off synthwave glory as the band hit its stride on a Miami Vice-meets-rave “Tricycle” jam to the blissful, closing “Svenghali” that underscored the set’s brevity. But it’s All Good.
The Disco Biscuits — “Tricycle” — 6/14/25
[Video: Daniel Marino]
Modernizing things a bit, Molly Tuttle closed out the Chrysalis Stage on Saturday by unveiling her new backing band. The two-time International Bluegrass Music Awards “Guitar Player of the Year” recently announced the dissolution of her longtime backing group, Golden Highway, in favor of a new, all-female ensemble. With her new sidewomen came a new sound, one that departs from her bluegrass roots for a decidedly more Americana feel. The most jarring difference was the addition of a drummer, Megan Jane, but Tuttle’s new, yet unnamed band was full of surprises.
What looked like a typical indie-folk lineup with Molly on acoustic guitar and vocals, Vanessa McGowan on upright bass, Ellen Angelico on electric guitar, and Mair Meyer on mandolin transformed between songs to a roots-rock band as McGowan subbed in an electric bass, Angelico grabbed a lap steel guitar, and Meyer pivoted to keyboards. At their second-ever show together, the new ensemble previewed unreleased tracks from Tuttle’s forthcoming album, So Long Little Miss Sunshine, peppered in favorites from her Golden Highway catalog (“Crooked Tree”, “Dooley’s Farm”, “El Dorado”), and threw in some well-placed classic covers of “She’s A Rainbow” (The Rolling Stones) and “Octopus’ Garden” (The Beatles).
Molly Tuttle — “Everything Burns” — 6/14/25
[Video: Daniel Marino]
Molly Tuttle — “San Jaoquin” — 6/14/25
[Video: crg114]
While Tuttle served as an acoustic palate cleanser following The Biscuits’ electronic dance party, The String Cheese Incident combined both sounds as the day’s penultimate act. The show was a homecoming for Baltimore native keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth, who recalled seeing the Grateful Dead play the same stage where he now sat. Kyle connected with guitarist Michael Kang early on as they traded beautifully light, twinkling leads on “Can’t Wait Another Day”.
Now in its 32nd year as a band, SCI still had some new tricks to show off for the band’s first All Good appearance in 20 years. What sounded like the gentle bounce of Bob Marley‘s “Bend Down Low” took a surprising turn into a reggae-fied “Like A Rolling Stone”. Cheese played its unique take on the Bob Dylan classic just once before, last month in Wilmington, NC, and it served as an early highlight of Saturday’s show along with a Molly Tuttle-assisted pickin’ party on Townes Van Zandt‘s “White Freightliner Blues”. As the sun started to set, the all-night diner that is The String Cheese Incident started serving up all its influences: digitzed drums and Nord keyboard on “Hi Ho No Show”, punchy jams on “The Big Reveal”, story time with Bill Nershi on “Jellyfish”, lovely singalong reggae on “Sirens”, and a runaway freeway jam of “Black Clouds” > “Just One Story” to close it all out.
The String Cheese Incident — “Like A Rolling Stone” (Bob Dylan) — 6/14/25
[Video: crg114]
The String Cheese Incident, Molly Tuttle — “White Freightliner Blues” (Townes Van Zandt) — 6/14/25
The String Cheese Incident — “Jellyfish” — 6/14/25
[Video: whereshaynes]
Both days of All Good Now were anchored by bands that never played the original festival: Joe Russo’s Almost Dead on Saturday and Goose on Sunday. The progressive Grateful Dead tribute act wasn’t born until 2013, but in the previous decade, titular drummer Joe Russo and his keyboard companion Marco Benevento made numerous All Good appearances as the Benevento/Russo Duo, including a 2006 set with Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon (aka GRAB, aka Mikey & The Italians).
For its headlining set, JRAD seized this specific moment and shouted through its megaphone in the words of the Grateful Dead and a few other countercultural rabble-rousers. Some 25 miles from Washington, D.C., where earlier that day President Donald Trump‘s lavish, self-indulgent birthday military parade spawned No Kings protests around the country, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead delivered a politically-charged set without speaking a extra word. Instead, the band let the music do the talking, beginning with “New Speedway Boogie” and its lamentation “One way or another / This darkness has got to give.”
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “New Speedway Boogie” (Grateful Dead) > “Estimated Prophet” (Grateful Dead) — 6/14/25
[Video: Daniel Marino]
That weary hopefulness soon gave way to biting pessimism on the JRAD live debut of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s ubiquitous ’60s anthem “Fortunate Son” and the anarchic brutalism of The Rolling Stones‘ “Street Fighting Man” (though with the altered lyric, “The time is right for peaceful revolution”). There were moments of peace amid the unrest, like on “Jack Straw”, where Benevento rolled all over his baby grand piano before Russo called out thunder on his bass drum for “Throwing Stones”. The Bob Weir class struggle call-to-action is always a highlight of any JRAD show, and guitarist Scott Metzger threw as much vitriol as he could into this version, unleashing the pent-up frustration of watching overwhelmingly supported progressive ideals failing in a game that is rigged against the many for the benefit of the few.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “Fortunate Son” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) > “Street Fighting Man” (The Rolling Stones) — 6/14/25
[Video: crg114]
Perhaps the highlight of the band’s musical civil disobedience came with Tom Hamilton‘s reading of Pink Floyd‘s “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”. JRAD did not shy away from laying its message on thick: Get off your ass and do something.
Giving us just a little light, the band docked at “Terrapin Station” before a thunderous “The Other One” (“Spanish lady comes to me”), a perhaps just-for-fun “Fire on the Mountain”, and a closing “I Know You Rider” that shook Merriweather’s foundation. It’s worth noting that Joe Russo’s Almost Dead didn’t try to tie a neat bow on its set with “Touch of Grey” and its call of “We will get by / We will survive.” There was no happy ending, just a cathartic singalong about wishing you were a northbound train.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” (Pink Floyd) — 6/14/25
[Video: Gregory M]
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead — All Good Now — Columbia, MD — 6/14/25 — Full Audio
[Audio: McRoberts]
Something about being at a music festival while thousands—if not millions—of people nationwide and even 25 miles away spoke out in the streets felt a bit vapid. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead combated the guilt of burying one’s head in the sand by bringing the demonstration to us, delivering protest songs written half a lifetime ago and preserved by modern-day practitioners who have kept not just the music but its ideals alive.
It would be a lie to say that a day of jam bands and bluegrass made everything “All Good Now,” but as we all sat in the parking garage waiting for the angry red snake of taillights to finally start moving, things felt a bit more peaceful than they did as we drove through the nation’s capital earlier that day. And that’s about all you can ask for from a music festival.
Check out a gallery of photos from All Good Now 2025 below courtesy of photographer Allison Scavo.
