Eric Essix

Main stage performance scheduled for 2:30 p.m. 

Growing up in Birmingham, Eric Essix played for years in quartet gospel groups and can trace his passion for contemporary jazz to his late teens, when he saw Jaco Pastorius and Weather Report perform. Since launching his own indie label, Essential Recordings, in 2002, Essix has scored numerous radio hits, starting with “Sweet Tea” from 2004’s Somewhere in Alabama and continuing with “Shuttlesworth Drive,” a musical tribute to the great civil rights pioneer Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. To date, Essix has released 28 albums, including his most recent, STRiDE. Essix was the headlining artist in the Gogue Center’s GPAC LIVE: Alabama Artists Series in December 2020.

Elley Duhé

Main stage performance scheduled for 4 p.m. 

Born near Mobile, Alabama, Elley Duhé’s formative years were spent surrounded by working musicians in the New Orleans scene. By 14, she was writing her own songs, and after seizing every opportunity she could, Duhé came to the attention of RCA. In 2016, she dropped her debut single, “Millennium,” precipitating a long run of smash singles and her EP, Dragon Mentality. She has racked up millions of streams, played Coachella and Lollapalooza, recorded with the likes of Gryffin and Zedd, and formed an unbreakable bond with her legions of fans. Duhé was the headlining artist in the Gogue Center’s GPAC LIVE: Alabama Artists Series in November 2020.

John Paul White

Main stage performance scheduled for 5:30 p.m. 

Now living in Florence, Alabama, not far from Muscle Shoals, John Paul White cultivated his career in Nashville for two decades, first as a songwriter for a major publisher, then as half of The Civil Wars—a groundbreaking duo that won four Grammy Awards before disbanding in 2014. White has since released two more solo albums, Beulah (2016) and The Hurting Kind (2019), and is the co-owner of Single Lock Records, a Florence-based record label he co-founded with Will Trapp and the Alabama Shakes’ Ben Tanner. White was the headlining artist in the Gogue Center’s GPAC LIVE: Alabama Artists Series in November 2020.

Blind Boys of Alabama

Main stage performance scheduled for 7 p.m. 

The Blind Boys of Alabama are without a doubt a pillar of American music. A group of blind, African American singers, they helped to define 20th-century gospel traditions as well as create a new gospel sound for the 21st. Beginning their epic career in the midst of the Jim Crow era, the Blind Boys are the recipients of five Grammy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, have performed at the White House for three different presidents and collaborated with the likes of Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Allen Toussaint and Peter Gabriel.