Event Type : Festival Concert

When it’s time to escape from it all, it’s time to Roam Free.  An original band from Pittsburgh, PA, Roam Free believes in using music to free the mind from the mundane, to ride the waves of sound to wherever you want to be in your universe in that moment.  From explosive peaks to delicate valleys, Roam Free explores music organically, with songs that emote and tell stories that encourage us to leave behind the stress and pressures of the daily grind to escape, even if just momentarily, and enjoy life to the fullest as often as we can.

Looking to get away for a little while?  Of course you are.

Roam Free.

Josh Milligan grew up in western Pennsylvania and set out for New Orleans just a week before his nineteenth birthday. Packed in a Dodge Ram cargo van with drums, an acoustic guitar, and a futon mattress, was a deep rooted passion for music. After setting in with countless bands up and down Bourbon St. he finally landed a steady gig with Willie West at the Old Opera House. In addition, Josh free-lanced around town, playing a variety of styles such as funk, r&b, cajun/zydeco, country and blues with artists like Roy Pope, Mitch Cormier, Gary Brown, Dwight Breland, and the Rootdoctors.

One year later Josh got a call from Mem Shannon. “I hope you got enough drawers cause you goin’ on the road,” Mem told him after the audition. At just twenty one years old Josh was touring the U.S, South America, New Zealand, and Australia. Through his travels, Josh began writing songs from his encounters with interesting people such as, “Frenchy” the 76 year old cajun pimp living and working out of his friend’s winnebago, which inspired the song Lorene. Since then, Josh has used his work as a drummer to write songs from life experience.

In the past twelve years Josh Milligan has written, recorded, and toured with many different groups in an array of styles (prog. rock, soul/rock, americana folk/rock, funk, and country) from Austin, TX to New York City such as Sourtongue, Slim Francis, Yellow Lady Slipper, The Honeycutters, Forest Wayne Allen, Bruce Smith, and Much Love. Currently Josh lives and writes in the mountains of Asheville, NC.

Jam scene mainstays Joe Bellanti, Corey Kertzie and Dave Ruch met in 1983 as members of Buffalo NY Grateful Dead cover band “Wild Knights,” a group that still plays reunion shows to this day.

But it wasn’t until early 2020 that they wrote their first original music together, this time as three-piece instrumental organ trio/funky jam band Organ Fairchild.

“Fiery, passionate and deeply musical”
– Jeff Miers, The Buffalo News

The debut gig was just a month before COVID shutdowns, but the horse was out of the barn and the response was immediate!

Western PA’s western swing sensation, led by the inimitable Charlie Barath.