Final benefit concert of series, bannered as Honky Tonk Highways is a salute to California country music
From the Bakersfield sound of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard to the music of Dwight Yoakam, Linda Ronstadt and generations of artists with deep Golden State connections, Folsom Americana Fest will travel down California’s musical highways Saturday night for the final performance of its inaugural summer series.
“Honky Tonk Highways — A Salute to the Heroes of California Country Music” takes the stage at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, bringing together an all-star lineup of regional performers for an evening of music and storytelling celebrating California’s considerable influence on American country music.
There is one important change for those planning to attend: The concert will not take place outdoors at the Zittel Family Amphitheater as originally scheduled.
With extreme summer heat affecting the region, organizers have relocated Saturday’s finale to the air-conditioned Folsom Eagles Lodge, 215 Scott St. in Historic Folsom. The move is intended to provide a more comfortable environment for performers and concertgoers while creating what organizers describe as a more intimate, up-close setting for the final show.
Presented by the Wildwood Performing Arts Foundation, “Honky Tonk Highways” will be hosted by Peter Petty and was conceived in association with Geoffrey Miller Music.
The show is designed as a musical journey through California’s country music history, highlighting both familiar stars and the broader collection of performers and musical movements that helped give the state its distinctive place in American music.
From Buck Owens and Merle Haggard to Dwight Yoakam, Linda Ronstadt and Ritchie Valens, Saturday’s audience will hear songs associated with artists whose careers and sounds have connections to California. The production pairs those familiar songs with storytelling about the musicians, their music and the state that played a role in their careers.
The musical territory stretches well beyond a single era or style. Artists celebrated through the production include Owens, Haggard, Yoakam, Ronstadt and Valens along with Janis Joplin, Jean Shepard, Gram Parsons, Wanda Jackson, The Byrds, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Dick Dale, The Monkees, The Mamas & the Papas, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, The Carter Family, Wynn Stewart and the Eagles.
Taking on that wide-ranging catalog will be a large cast of regional musicians assembled for the festival finale.
The lineup includes Geoffrey Miller, Socorro E. Carrillo-Lopez, Danny Morris, Sunny Mitchell, Flyin’ Eugene Flowers, Kevin Marcy, Todd Morgan, Marshall Goins, Steve French, Caroline Fairchild, Matt Dudman, Lizzy Malekos and Bella Lazaro.
Petty, known throughout the region for his theatrical stage presence and wide-ranging musical performances, will serve as host as the production moves between songs, artists, eras and stories.
The concert brings to a close a three-part Folsom Americana Fest season that has used live music and storytelling to explore different chapters of America’s musical heritage throughout the summer.
The Wildwood Performing Arts Foundation launched the series in June with the 10th anniversary presentation of “American Legend: A Tribute to Johnny Cash’s Life in Song.” The production originally debuted in Folsom in 2016 as a benefit concert for the City of Folsom’s Johnny Cash Art Trail and returned this summer to open Americana Fest.
That production took audiences through the musical influences that shaped Cash, including the Carter Family, his Sun Records years of the 1950s and 1960s and songs such as “I Walk the Line” and “Get Rhythm,” before continuing into the later American Recordings period of his career.
Saturday’s “Honky Tonk Highways” completes that journey by turning the spotlight specifically toward California and the musicians who helped establish the state as an important force in the development and evolution of country and American roots music.
The broader Folsom Americana Fest was created as a summer-long celebration of American roots music, storytelling and heritage. Its performances have drawn from Americana, roots country, bluegrass, rockabilly and folk traditions while bringing together established performers and emerging artists.
The series also comes during a milestone year in American history as the nation commemorates its 250th anniversary in 2026. Wildwood Performing Arts Foundation has used the festival to explore the music, storytelling and cultural traditions that have shaped generations of American life while creating opportunities for audiences to experience that history through live performance.
“As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, Folsom Americana Fest is a meaningful way to celebrate the music, storytelling, and traditions that continue to shape our culture,” Sunny Mitchell, founding director of the Wildwood Performing Arts Foundation, said when announcing the summer series. “There’s something incredibly special about bringing people together through live music in the heart of Historic Folsom.”
Proceeds from Folsom Americana Fest support the Wildwood Performing Arts Foundation’s workshops, concerts and educational programming focused on connecting the community through music and the performing arts.
Wildwood Performing Arts Foundation is a Folsom-based arts education nonprofit whose mission is to use performing arts as a vehicle for education, with direct emphasis on the unique tapestry of American heritage.
“Honky Tonk Highways — A Salute to the Heroes of California Country Music” begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Folsom Eagles Lodge, 215 Scott St. in Historic Folsom. The venue is air-conditioned, and concertgoers should take note of the change from the previously advertised Zittel Family Amphitheater location.
Tickets and additional information are available at www.wildwoodperformingarts.org/events.
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