Dr. Pepper’s Jaded Hearts Club Band, Salt-N-Pepa & Girl Talk Playing Rachael Ray’s SXSW Feedback Showcase
Rachael Ray has gotten by with a little help from her musical friends during the past 11 years at South By Southwest. And this year that's particularly true.
The syndicated TV host's annual Feedback day party at Stubb's BBQ in Austin, taking place on March 17, will be headlined by Dr. Pepper's Jaded Hearts Club Band, the Beatles tribute side project from Muse frontman Matt Bellamy that also includes Jet's Chris Cester, Last Shadow Puppets' Miles Kane, the Zutons' Sean Payne and others. The lineup also features Salt-N-Pepa, Girl Talk, Kurt Vile, Waxahatchee, Kevin Morby, Albert Hammond Jr., Hinds, Erika Wennerstrom, Ron Gallo, Caroline Rose and Lucy Dacus, along with mainstays Bob Schneider and The Cringe, which is fronted by Ray's husband John Cusimano.
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"John and I are both Beatles-obsessed, so we're so excited for (Dr. Pepper's)," Ray, who recently appeared with Cusimano as guest DJs on SiriusXM's Beatles channel, tells Billboard. "It's such a fresh, hot, loud, cool take on it, and they're such gentlemen. They just want to take the main stage and lift people up with how essential and quintessential the Beatles are for music."
Dr. Pepper's of course, received the endorsement of Paul McCartney when he joined the group for "Helter Skelter" at the launch of daughter Stella McCartney's new clothing line during January in Los Angeles.
Feedback is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Ray will again feed the masses with a menu that includes "Refried" Beans hot dogs, Pimento Cheese Dogs, Lil Veg-Head Corn Dogs with Tamatillo Gazpacho Shooters and serious Three-Meat Sloppy Joes. Modelo Beer, King's Hawaiian and Ray's Nutrish pet foods are sponsoring partners.
The event, Ray says, "means everything to me. I hope people get my sincerity. I fell in love with Austin 20 years ago, and 11 years ago I tried to figure out a way to go and hang out there and become part of the community in some small way. The idea that we could marry music and food and a cocktail and create an event I would stand on line for…that's what we always strive to do. It's part of the fabric of my life now, and I just add a stitch every year."
Previous Feedback parties have featured early career performances by Imagine Dragons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, the Strumbellas, Of Monsters and Men, JR JR and others, along with headline sets by Weezer, Train, Kenny Loggins, De La Soul, the New York Dolls, Blondie, She & Him, the late Scott Weiland, CeeLo Green, Wanda Jackson and more. Green Day side project Foxboro Hot Tubs played in Stubb's tiny indoor room during 2015, and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons has made several guest appearances with the Cringe. Attendance at the 2017 Feedback was estimated at 3,400 throughout the six hours.
Ray will also operate her invitation-only Feedback House from March 15-17, hosting performances by Naked Giants, the Teskey Brothers, Arlie, Jukebox The Ghost, Hayley Coupon with David Garza, the Cringe and more. And Ray will re-open the Moxie Shop pop-up shop she introduced last year, selling fashion and lifestyle items curated by Ray and stylists Gretta Monahan and Cara Apotheker in a vintage Airstream from March 14-18.
Information and updates will be available at www.rachaelray.com/feedback .
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