Story by Matt Olson

The Muddy Roots Music Festival, where the attendees referred to as, “Muddy Buddies,” are trusted with low responsibility, with one simple rule, “don’t be a dick,” returned to Junebug Boogie Ranch in Cookeville, Tennessee, September 4-6, drawing music lovers from across Middle Tennessee and around the world.

Beyond that ethos, Muddy Roots is a non-conformist retreat where dysfunction comes with solidarity.

An annual, Thursday pre-party featured familiar names, including the last living of Bentonia School bluesman, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, as well as James Leg, Sarah Slade the Slow Burn, Matt Pless, and Strayhound, with fans especially surprised to see Muddy Roots Festival, Cookeville, staple, Joe Buck Yourself, perform as a three-piece band rather than a solo act.

The night ended with an open campfire jam, and folks were welcome to bring an instrument and gather round.

Friday, the festival grounds featured side-show-themed attractions like the Circus of Mud’s Strangest People human oddities, long-established Knoxville tintype photographer Kelsey Dillow capturing memories kept old and dear, and a Lady and the Tramp hot dog-eating photo booth.

A new “Kick-It” tent was set up with chairs and lights by the Big Tent. Scheduled time slots taught people to write poetry and make their own DIY battle jackets.

Plenty of clowning around went with the theme this year. Horse Breakfast played their anti-folk, piss-magic camping songs out of the little tent with Scarlet Storm, who also fool’n around at Clussy Emporium on vendor row all weekend. Bosko Baker’s washboard-playing clown, Clous, stole the show with a burlesque performance that included a Marionette clown she hand-made herself.

On Saturday at 10:00 pm on the Wood Stage, Yes Ma’am was scheduled before Mac Sabbath’s set at the Big Tent. Around that time, the sorrowful reveal came that Matt Coztanza—affectionately known in the travelers’ community as Lil’ Matt—had passed away. Bosko Baker, a fellow street band artist who knew Matt from their time living in New Orleans and playing co-billed shows, gathered with Matt’s friends at the Wood Stage. Together, they played songs, related stories, and showed confidence that Matt would have wanted everyone to make the most of Muddy Roots.

Near the bottom of the hill, just left of the wooden stage, an ofrenda stood in a spot most people passed after entering the festival. Muddy Roots has lost several loved ones near this field, and the memorial carried that history forward. Recently, Jason Galaz, the festival founder, lost his father, best known as Jungle Jim. Everyone was welcome to mourn, and many left offerings that reflected the person they were grieving.

Mac Sabbath, a Black Sabbath tribute band, served up fast-food puns to the crowd. Ronald Osborne crowd-surfed at the Big Tent riding an inflatable cheeseburger. The band paid tribute to the late Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne. The band played a non-satire cover of Paranoid.

Murfreesboro local Alyson Blake Dellinger, founder of the unconstrained progressive, somewhat improvised band Flummox, plays the role of Mickey Dio. Alyson says the role came about while Flummox was touring with Mac Sabbath and to her Black Sabbath is scripture. 

“Obviously, with the whole wormhole thing, me and the roadies soundcheck everything before the band gets there, and there were a lot of times I would end up soundchecking the vocals for Ronald, and of course I wasn’t doing the alternate lyrics; I was doing the BLACK SABBATH lyrics,” recalled Alyson.

Later, Saturday, during the 11:00 pm time slot in the big tent, Monolord evoked the late crowd with atmospheric Doom Metal. 

Hayden Gist has worked as a stage manager at Muddy Roots for about six years and plays guitar with Murfreesboro-based, the Oitakus, an anime-themed punk band that has played Muddy Roots. Hayden has managed stages, working the wood stage and little tent stage on the grounds; this year, his main post was the little tent stage. When he’s not at the festival, he runs sound at Cobra in East Nashville, mixing board and all. 

This was the first year Hayden walked in ready to call shots, rather than waiting for instructions — helped along by experienced stagehands Joe, Finn and Donna, and by a radio that now brings the ice to him instead of a golf cart he has to drive himself.

Hayden recalled that all the acts at Lil Tent were great, and several stood out to him in their own way. Matt Pless was great because his vocals sounded exactly like his albums, even from years back, and because Hayden had seen him at a small house venue outside MTSU about a year ago.

Joe Buck Yourself stood out to Hayden as well, since this time Joe appeared as a frontman rather than a one-person band, joined by Jason Dietz—known for playing with Serotonin and, more recently, Gary Welch—on bass, and Elliot Turner—who has played with The Beat Creeps—on drums. 

Other sets that stood out to Hayden were Middle Tennessee’s S.A.I.G.O.N., who, Hayden says, always put on a loud, intense show, and Bask, who delivered a great heavy atmospheric set. Pollute and Sex Mex gave memorable performances, especially since Hayden had been looking forward to seeing them.

According to Hayden, Los Pistoleros did a fantastic job keeping the crowd entertained after the lightning storm incident, and Black Tarpoon’s set made an emotional effect that’ll stay with Hayden forever. 

Hayden has watched Blake Marlow go from catching Hans Condor’s guitar one year to playing with Jake Kroll’s band another year, then playing with his own band this year. He told Chazz Zaster he made the best possible choice about who to throw it to that day. 

This year was Blake’s first time actually playing Muddy Roots with Commander Keen — but he’s been attending for roughly 10–12 years. The performance was a casual revisit, not a reunion. On paper, the band formed in 2012 in Clarksville, and in 2019 they started playing less; Blake admits, “I think it was more than a hiatus; I think we were broken up.” The band now plays occasional shows and hopes more Clarksville groups get a chance at Muddy Roots, which largely features acts from Middle Tennessee.

“It’s a scene I’ve been a big part of, and I think there’s a lot of talented people here. I’d like to see the homies get represented — especially the younger cats that are actually trying to do some shit, that aren’t old farts like me,” Blake said. 

Blake would likely nominate several local bands to play the festival: Repulsion, who he says are “really fucking good… they’re probably in their early 20s. I think they’re probably the best band in town right now.” He also mentioned Faraway Dogs, who are more Americana-leaning; he said they’re “perfect for Muddy Roots. I think they would kill it out there. I think everybody’d fucking love it.”

According to Hayden, Municipal Waste brought their own engineer, who pushed the system hard. Hard enough that the limiters in the power amps driving the mains pulled the plug mid-set. Hayden’s explanation is a small clinic in why that’s a feature, not a failure.

“Those speakers were passive … I think they were line arrays … it avoids what’s known as clipping. Clipping is when the signal is so strong that it causes the speaker to rumble … it starts to sound distorted. It could damage the speaker itself, especially when this equipment costs thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for each component, like tens of thousands of dollars for a system that big,” explains Hayden. 

Between tours, Municipal Waste has been working on a record. Their vocalist, Tony Foresta, says they just finished it vocally and it is ready to be mixed. Tony wouldn’t share the record’s name but said, “It’s gonna be good.” He added that Municipal Waste won’t be very active for the next few months until they complete their record. However, Tony said Municipal Waste will not turn down gigs with Circle Jerks and events like Muddy Roots. Essentially, Municipal Waste is trying to squeeze in as much as they can right now.

“We have a lot of history here. I think all of our side bands have played here. I even think… I could be wrong.. Cannibal Corpse played this. But Iron Reagan played this. Bat played. Municipal Waste.. Obviously. And we really love the vibe. Everyone is really kind and here to hang out. It’s a good kickoff to the end of Summer. Yeah. I dunno. It’s good to be here,” Tony said.

The Circle Jerks also lost a mic while Keith Morris was performing later that evening, and the set was briefly delayed by rain. The show was temporarily halted because lightning came within eight miles—the threshold that forces a shutdown for safety. The Circle Jerks played songs from the albums Group Sex, Golden Shower of Hits, Wild in the Streets, VI, and Wönderful, including songs Keith Keith originally played with Black Flag. Morris talked on stage about coming of age and the critical terms of collecting Social Security. Following Muddy Roots, Morris turned 71 on Sept 18th.

Muddy Roots Music Festival, Cookeville, is an annual country blues/roots/ rockabilly/hardcore/punk and metal music festival located at 115 Waterloo Rd, Cookeville, Tennessee traditionally around the last week of August/first week of September, and part of a worldwide, DIY festival organization, with sister fests located in Belgium, the UK, Brazil, and Argentina.

More information can be found at Muddy Roots Worldwide | Roots and Punk Festivals.

The Muddy Roots Edition, Summer 2026 Folk & Proper News physical copies can be found at:

-as well as Mystic Panther Tattoo, located at 2484 Old Fort Pkwy (as of 10/6/26), with more information about Alyson Dellinger, and the Murfreesboro-local, Punk/Metal scene (pt. 2) at https://folkandproper.news.

Walking-video of a Muddy Roots experience can be found here, on the B.E.Harmon TV channel.

Muddy Roots interviews can be found at Matt “Grady” Olson’s Bucket City Mouthwash TV channel, here.

Feature photo for this article, Nashville-based Boorloo quartet, The Gremlins, photo taken by Matt Olson.