Third annual ConvergeNC shakes up Southern music conceptions

UPDATE: Due to rain, ConvergeNC will be moving the festival indoors, to Nightlight Bar & Club at 405 West Rosemary Street. Doors will open at 8 p.m.. 

Today, the third annual ConvergeNC Southern Music Festival will hit UNC, this time with a new location and unique acts.

Libby Rodenbough, a 2014 UNC graduate and co-founder of the festival, said she hopes to continue the sense of community the festival has brought in the past. 

“When we started, the goal was to put on really good music on UNC’s campus,” said Rodenbough, who plays the fiddle in the local folk band Mipso. “And to have it explore the meaning of Southern music and, more importantly, to bring together students and music fans in the community.” 

Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation will sponsor the festival, along with the Water Institute, which chose to sponsor the festival as a concluding celebration because the campus-wide theme of “Water In Our World” ends this year. 

Amanda Fletcher, supervisor of festivals and community celebrations with Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation, said the department deals with some of the logistical elements of the festival. One such task will be closing Church Street this year for the festival's new location in the 140 West Franklin Street Plaza. 

“I think the talents that Converge has booked are a big draw,” Fletcher said. “They really know what they’re doing, as far as picking the right bands for their festival.”

Fletcher said having a pulse on the community makes her feel hip. 

“Anytime we can be associated with anything that draws students, we want to be there,” she said.

There will be two bands performing — The Dead Tongues and The Suffers — both which bring important aspects of Southern music to the festival. 

“We want be pretty committed to bringing in local music,” Rodenbough said. “But we wanted to explore music across the South.”

This desire is reflected in the bands the festival has hired. 

The Dead Tongues is a group of local musicians with a folk-centric feel, spearheaded by Ryan Gustafson, who is a familiar name in the Triangle area.

The Suffers are a super-group of 10 musicians from Houston who are also set to perform on “The David Letterman Show” on Monday. They define themselves as “Gulf Coast Soul.” 

Adam Castaneda, the bass player for the Suffers, said the influence of Southern music is deeply important.

“I think our biggest influence is the city and the area we live,” he said. “The American South is where a lot of American music (originates) from — blues, jazz, rock and roll, soul, country, gospel — and we bring a lot of those elements together.”

Castaneda said he is most proud of the rich sound their 10-piece band produces.

“It can make a powerful sound,” he said. “You sing in a band like that on stage, and it can make a powerful statement and sound.”

This is the band's first time performing in Chapel Hill, but Castaneda said he has lived in Chapel Hill previously.  

Clay Sutton, a UNC junior and public relations major, is one of four students helping to organize the festival. He said they ultimately tried to reform the conceptions of Southern music through the mix of local and up-and-coming bands. 

“It’s like working to redefine what people think of when they think of Southern music,” Sutton said. “As long as the music or the artist are from the South, what’s defined as the American South, that flies with us.”

The festival is free — a perk that Sutton said he hopes draws a crowd. 

“For us we wanted to make it a very inclusive event,” Sutton said. “The fact that it is free makes it very accessible to everyone, and just kind of adds to the fun environment to bring people out.”

arts@dailytarheel.com