In just two short weeks, Radio Bristol’s celebrated Farm and Fun Time variety show will light up the stage of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum with an evening that blends boundary-pushing roots music and heartfelt songwriting. On Wednesday, July 23, guitar slinger Chuck Prophet arrives with His Cumbia Shoes to headline the program, joined by acclaimed Southern troubadour A. Lee Edwards. The evening will be steered by host Kris Truelsen alongside the energetic Farm and Fun Time house band, with every moment captured for broadcast and future syndication on PBS stations nationwide.
Fresh off the release of his electrifying new album Wake The Dead, Prophet brings a story as inspiring as his music. Diagnosed with stage-four lymphoma and forced from the road, he found salvation in the rhythmic pulse of Cumbia, the centuries-old Colombian style that now courses through his latest work. Recorded live in the studio with San Francisco brothers-in-groove ¿Qiensave?, Wake The Dead fuses rock-and-roll grit, surf swagger, and soul fire into irresistible dance-floor alchemy. “I was going through a tunnel,” Prophet recalls of his health battle. “It was dark. But I had music… music was my savior.” Now in full remission, he’s revived, retooled, and ready to make Bristol move.
Sharing the bill, A. Lee Edwards offers a stark, intimate counterpoint. Revered for plain-spoken lyricism that evokes John Prine’s wit and Townes Van Zandt’s emotional candor, Edwards pares everything to the marrow on his forthcoming collection Interpreting Heart Sounds Vol. I (February 2025). Three decades of life on (and off) the road have honed a voice that finds grace in the smallest moments, earning praise from Mojo, Glide Magazine, No Depression, and more. His set promises understated arrangements, piercing narratives, and hard-won wisdom.
Farm and Fun Time has long been a proving ground for artists breaking new ground in American roots music, and July 23 will be no exception. Audiences inside the museum’s Performance Theater will experience the show exactly as generations once did over the airwaves—complete with jingles, live adverts, and community vignettes—while PBS viewers across the country will enjoy the broadcast later this season.
Tickets are on sale now and moving fast. Prices start at $38 (fees included) and can be secured at tixr.com/groups/bcm/events/farm-fun-time-chuck-prophet-and-a-lee-edwards-143162. Seating is limited in the museum’s intimate theater, so early purchase is strongly encouraged.
