Over the final weekend in June, fans of indie country music made their way to Pendleton, Oregon for the 2025 Jackalope Jamboree to take in three days of music, beer and food! From being immersed in this festival for the three days, we can confidently say that these fans had a great time.
Six years in, the Jackalope Jamboree has become one of the finest festivals of indie-country around. When it began in 2019, it was a one-day event that expanded to two days in 2021 as the 2020 was paused. Then with the 2022 festival it expanded to its current three-day format with additional stages.
This year’s headliners were 49 Winchester, Paul Cauthen, and Midland that was supported by a solid undercard. But in recent years as the indie-country gains more momentum, it has become a bit more difficult to attract the most popular talent as other festivals with deeper pockets have popped up.
Just two years ago, C3 Productions, that is majority owned by Live Nation, debuted the Farewell Festival in Redmond, Oregon. With this ownership, it is able to write contracts that prohibit artists from performing a set number of days prior or after the Farewell Festival. Obviously, this hurts smaller festivals such as the Jackalope Jamboree that relies on the booking of bands that are out on tour in the Pacific Northwest in late June. But this dynamic is one that plays out each year and it allows for festivals such as the Jackalope Jamboree to stay relevant with artists that are truly close to the fans.
The other benefit with a festival like the Jackalope is that tickets are affordably priced and the lineup brings forth some well-known artists alongside some new discoveries. And it’s the discoveries that we truly look forward to each year!
From partaking in this year’s Jackalope Jamboree, over the course of three days we discovered plenty of new music while enjoying artists that we were a bit familiar with. It was great to see headliners 49 Winchester, Paul Cauthen, and Midland, but it’s the undercard that truly makes this festival shine!
Each day of the festival, The Great Pacific, in downtown Pendleton, hosts the first performance of the day at 1:00pm. It’s a great spot to grab lunch with its top-notch food offerings and its well curated list of beers from the region’s finesse craft breweries.
The 2025 Jackalope Jamboree officially kicked off on Thursday, June 26 with Darby Sparkman taking the stage at The Great Pacific at 1:00pm. After her performance, things moved down to the Happy Canyon Arena, located next door to the legendary Pendleton Round Up. The afternoon performances took place from 2:05pm to 4:45pm on the Queens Barn Stage. From there, the Jackalope takes over the two outdoor stages at the Happy Canyon Arena with some great country that lasts until about 10:30pm.
The first day performances were great and allowed for us to find some remarkable bands. We arrived in time to catch Darby and then made a stop for a beer at Prodigal Son Brewery where the beer is offering something intriguing.
Once at the Happy Canyon Arena on the Thursday we enjoyed a set from Clover County in the Queens Barn Stage. The duo offers a sort of emo leaning country songs, including a new song, Virginia Slim, about giving up and moving on from love and relationships.
On the Blue Mountain Stage our highlights of the day were Rachel Baiman and The Lowdown Drifters. Baiman was a great new discovery for us at the Jackalope, Her sound is a bit reminiscent of Gillian Welch in style and a bit in the songwriting.
But the band we were most intrigued by on this stage was the stage’s headliner, The Lowdown Drifters. Formed ten years ago in Stanwood, Washington, the band has gone through a few changes but has been led by Big John Cannon since its infancy. Now based in Fort Worth, Texas, the bang was one of our favorites of the weekend with its songs about some serious hard livin’. We’ll be seeing them the next time they make their way to Portland!
Over on the Hodgen Main Stage, the Thursday bands that made it to the top of our list were Taylor Hunnicut and 49 Winchester, the stage’s headliner. Taylor Hunnicut, known as “The Queen of Alabama”, brought her southern country rock sound to the masses. She even ventured over to the Blue Mountain Stage after her set to perform the duet, Fire In Her Eyes, she recorded with The Lowdown Drifters. A great performer that livened up the crowd!
The evening’s headliners, 49 Windhester, took the stage to boisterous fanfare. The Virginia based band brought their A-game to the stage and performed their most recognized songs for the fans. Lead singer, Isaac Gibson, could easily be fronting a ZZ Top tribute band with his killer read beard, but his vocals provided songs of despair with a perfect mix of alt-country and rock n’ roll.
Jackalope’s Friday lineup was the one we were looking forward to being headlined by Big Velvet or better known as Paul Cauthen. But prior to his set the other bands on the both the Blue Mountain Stage and Hodgen Main Stage were the ones we were most excited about!
Unfortunately, Ken Pomeroy had to cancel her performance inside the Queens Barn Stage due to travel delays, but that didn’t dampen our mood. She was one of the artists we really wanted to check out, but fortunately she’ll be making her way here to Portland this fall to Mississippi Studios on October 8.
The Blue Mountain Stage hosted a few heavy hitters on the Friday evening. Shelby Stone kicked things off with her Texas rock and was followed by one of our favorites from Idaho, Tylor & The Train Robbers. Just some great songwriting and performing from Tylor and his band! But damn did the Rob Leines, the stage’s headliner, steal the show with some excellent Southern Rock from his finely tuned trio. Even Rob loved it as he exclaimed from his set, “God damn, I love this festival!”
Over on the Hodgen Main Stage saw a lineup that included a band from Portland, William Surly & The Barroom Gospel Band, that we’ll be checking out once again on their home turf. But it was the next act that was one that put on one hell of a final show, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers.
Yes, the band has called it quits and decided to do so at the Jackalope Jamboree. The band’s farewell tour lineup consisted of Blake Tallent on guitar, Mason Thomas on bass, Ethan Standard on drums, the amazing Taylor Swan on pedal steel and of course River Shook on vocals and guitar. For its final show, this lineup played the some of the best songs from the catalog and even a brand new one, but seemed a bit more refined than the band’s early days.
Friday night’s headliner Paul Cauthen did not disappoint. He brought his soulful country sound to Pendleton and the fans took it all in. Earlier this year in March, Cauthen revealed that he was battling thyroid cancer and immediately cancelled all upcoming dates, but stated he hoped to keep a few of these summer festivals and he sure did. This diagnosis may have made him a bit more humble and definitely thankful; the rest sure did him well as he was moving all over the stage from singing to playing guitar. Big Velvet was a highlight of the weekend and his cover of Folsom Prison Blues was spectacular.
The final day of the 2025 Jackalope Jamboree brought us out early to catch a intriguing performance at The Great Pacific from songwriter turned author Willy Vlautin with Paul Brainard on pedal steel. This 45-minute set featured Vlautin reading excerpts from his lates book, The Horse, with some fine pedal steel from Brainard. The duo also performed a few songs and even came back for a mid-afternoon encore. Boy did this set remind us on how much we miss his performances!
Back down at the Happy Canyon Arena, we made it in time to catch Rose Gerber’s set inside the Queens Barn Stage. The Portland based musician was backed by a six-piece band with great harmonies and Tucker Jackson on pedal steel.
Over on the Blue Mountain Stage we were patiently waiting to see the more out of place musician on the festival’s bill, Samantha Crain. She was a last-minute addition to replace Christian Hayes who was unable to make it to Pendleton. Crain brought her indie rock leaning sound to the Jackalope and her trio was tight while performing many songs from her latest album, Gumshoe. This one has been on our rotation since it came out the other month.
To close out the three-day festival, the Hodgen Main Stage featured a couple of heavy hitters, Vandoliers and the night’s headliner, Midland. Prior to the Vandoliers taking the stage, Portland based musician Haley Johnsen warmed up the crowd wither her soulful country sound.
After Johnsen’s performance the Vandoliers took the stage and brought the Jackalope crowd to their feet in the pit. Maybe the most energetic the pit was the entire weekend! This is the third consecutive year that the Vandoliers have performed at the festival, each year gaining a stronger spot in the lineup.
The Texas based band is currently touring behind its latest album, Life Behind Bars, with the title track that brings the Old 97s to mind. Now fronted by Jeni Rose, formerly known as Joshua Fleming, she is a true band leader.
To bid the festival farewell for 2025, Midland headlined the Hodgen Main Stage to a crowd of devoted fans for 90 minutes. This more polished country act features four musicians on guitars at the front of the stage that are backed by three backing musicians on piano, pedal steel and drums. One member, Jess Carson is from Sheridan, Oregon.
Frontman, Mark Wystrach does a fine job at engaging the audience and even told a nice local story of shopping at the Pendleton Hat Company earlier in the dat. He even stated his true appreciation of his new hat. Later in the set Wystrach held up a bottle of Insolito to cheers the crowd. This is the tequila brand that the band is part of.
Overall, the Jackalope Jamboree does an excellent job at booking a solid lineup of indie-country music. And with that, a fair number of female performers! Unlike many other festivals, no performances overlap and the stages are so close that there is no need to run between stages. Plus, fans are able to easily fine a great vantage point, close enough to the stage to take in the music.
The only downside to this year, and to that many other festivals, it appears that the number of crowd talkers during the performances seem to increase each year. There’s not much that the festival can do about this but it is just a bit annoying when you position yourself up front to be next to people having 15-minute conversations. That said, we look forward to attending next year and once the dates are confirmed, we will update this article to include these details.
Here’s a rundown of photos from the three days spent at the 2025 Jackalope Jamboree!
