A new festival is bringing a piece of Nashville’s songwriting culture to the Delaware beaches this weekend, with performances designed to put the stories behind the music in the spotlight.
The inaugural Delaware Beaches Songwriters Festival runs Sept. 10–13 across Lewes, Rehoboth Beach and Milton. Co-founded by Steve Jawn of The 10:10 Creative, the festival features everything from intimate writers rounds to full-band performances.
Singer-songwriter Shawn Lacy, who lived in Nashville after growing up in Pennsylvania, said writers rounds offer an experience that can be difficult to recreate at a traditional bar or concert.
“It’s a time where people can sit and just be in the moment and listen and hear where a lot of these songs came from,” Lacy said.
Lacy will perform with Crystal Rose Friday at The Room at Cedar Grove, a venue he said already lends itself to that attentive atmosphere. On Saturday, he joins several artists for a writers round at Dogfish Head’s Milton Brewery.
Among the songs Lacy plans to perform is his newer On Top of My World, which includes a chance for audiences to sing along.
“It’s almost like a challenge,” Lacy said. “These people have never heard this song before. Can I get them singing along to it before the end of the song?”
The weekend also includes performances from the Davisson Brothers, Low Cut Connie, Lombardy and G. Love, along with a live Rolling Stone Nashville Now podcast.
“There’s a little of everything,” Lacy said, from acoustic songwriter performances to full-band shows. “If you want to go to bed by nine, you can still get a full day of music and shows in.”