They may not be playing Bonnaroo, but Murfreesboro blues-rock outfit Blindman’s Peace will be representing our fair city at this summer’s Cornerstone Festival, a Christian music festival hosted by Jesus People USA.
The festival will be June 30-July 5 in Bushnell, Ill., on a track of land called Cornerstone Farm. Each year, tens of thousands flock to the farm, where more than 300 bands of all genres put on a wholesome festival, with Jesus at the center. This particular Jesus-fest has been going down since 1984.
Blindman’s Peace will take the Gallery Stage on Wednesday, July 2, at 1 p.m. They’ll appear alongside groups like Sixpence None the Richer, Anberlin, As I Lay Dying and Flyleaf.
It hasn’t always been bright lights at national festivals for this musical trio. In 2006 they were undergraduate students in Springfield, Mo.
“We formed in January of 2006. We all were going to school in Springfield, Mo.,” lead singer and guitarist David Talley explained. “I had just started getting into blues guitar and I wrote this riff of what would eventually become ?Quit Changin’ Your Mind.’ I knew Matt (Clyde) played drums so I showed him the riff.”
The two of them were looking for the “mustard to put on the musical burger” they were creating. Bassist and background vocalist Vic Avellino was the answer.
“Music is my passion and my life,” said Avellino, who started playing bass guitar at the age of 13. “I live, breath, eat and sleep it.”
Now the three friends from Missouri have relocated to Murfreesboro to pursue music and continue their education in the recording industry and international affairs. Artists like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jonny Lang, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews and Led Zeppelin all influence their blues-infused rock sound.
When they’re not working the local scene (Blindman’s Peace has been spotted recently in the Bluesboro Battle of the Bands Semi-Finals and putting down their easily accessible blues-pop with a message at Liquid Smoke), Talley, Avellino and Clyde stay true to their faith through organizations like the Mocha Club.
“Each guy in this band has a heart for hurting people and we want to do whatever we can to help the less fortunate,” Talley said. “We are teamed up with an organization called Mocha Club. It’s a great group that is project-based, and right now we give $21 a month to fund job creation in Africa, to help get prostitutes off the streets, to stop the spread of HIV.
“We can make a difference in other countries if we would just open our eyes and love,” he said.
These three guys are just trying to do good things. Their music isn’t overtly Christian, and from what I’ve heard they rarely refer to God by name, but their music follows the vocals-heavy pattern in the genre, and a lot of their music is about working through issues and being better people. It’s that sneaky kind of God-rock, a lot like what Lang and Ben Harper have been doing, mixing their faith and their art with a shrewd hand.
