Emmylou Harris, Rodney Cromwell and Rosanne Cash top the bill at Sage Gateshead in July

SAGE Gateshead’s SummerTyne festival is set to party over the weekend of July 17 to 19. Celebrating a decade of SummerTyne festivals, organisers promise a party atmosphere full of American roots music from both sides of the Atlantic along with a southern soul, blues and gospel as well as an eminent cast of country, rock and Americana stars.

Headliners include Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal, Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, The Shires, Jace Everett, Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens, Cedric Burnside Project, The McCrary Sisters, Gruff Rhys, The Felice Brothers, James Hunter, Della Mae, Ward Thomas and many more still to be announced.

Country music star Emmylou Harris, a name that easily rolls off the tongue, kicks off the festival with her long time collaborator and friend, Rodney Crowell. From the first family of American music, Rosanne Cash and John Levanthal return to SummerTyne for an intimate duo show, performing material from Cash’s remarkable Grammy-winning album The River and The Thread.

Young British country act The Shires stormed into the top of the UK charts in 2014 with their debut album Brave, giving a welcome boost to the popularity for country music in the UK. Sharing the bill with The Shires is Nashville country star and song-writer, Jace Everett, who’s song Bad Things is the sultry theme for the HBO series True Blood.

Festival organisers are thrilled that this year's programme includes from the Alabama duo Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham , who are two of the most important song-writers to emerge from the deep south during the boom of 1960s soul music. They composed soul classics including I’m Your Puppet and Cry Like a Baby. Penn (with Chips Moman) wrote the defining Aretha Franklin track Do Right Woman and Oldham’s distinctive keyboard sound was key to seminal recordings including When a Man Loves a Woman and Mustang Sally.

If alternative rock and Americana is more your thing, the Super Furry Animals’ front man Gruff Rhys will be treating the SummerTyne audience with his concept travelogue American Interior, which combines song writing and storytelling with film and live music, conveying a quest of continental proportions. Also on the bill is New York’s Felice Brothers with their inimitable brand of rustic American folk cooked up with a rock & roll flavour.

In keeping with the Southern theme, gospel as well as soul music plays a big part of SummerTyne with appearances by female vocalists, Alabama-born Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens and Nashville’s legendary McCrary Sisters, who between them deliver a combination of close-harmony vocals, funk, blues, soul and foot-stomping R&B. Alongside the McCrary’s there’s the grandson of the legendary RL Burnside, award-winning drummer Cedric Burnside, who infuses his music with Mississippi Hill county blues, funk and R&B.

A highlight is the free DFDS Seaways Outdoor Stage. The line-up here includes the soulful sounds of James Hunter Six, country duo and sisters Ward Thomas, Marty O’Reilly and The Old Soul Orchestra, rootsy blues from Moreland and Arebuckle, Nashville’s feisty female combo Della Mae plus many moreThe James Hunter Six.

Also appearing on the outdoor stage are: the John Lewis Trio, Suzette Lawrence and The Neon Angels, Hillfolk Noir, Lewis Leigh, Dom & The Iko’s, The Hallelujah Trails, Lost Bros, Mush, Big Red and the Grinners, King Size Voodoo Traveller, Miss Mary and The Mr Rights, Gilded Thieves, Michael Littlefield, El Cid, Caroline Mary and more artists to be announced (watch the website at summertyne.com for more details).

Sponsored by DFDS Seaways, the outdoor stage is hugely popular with audiences and artists alike. Max Foster, passenger services director at DFDS Seaways comments; “Live music and entertainment is an important part of our Newcastle-Amsterdam cruise ferry service and we are very happy to be able to support this vibrant and popular festival on Gateshead Quays.”

All events take place in or around Sage Gateshead, and there’s plenty keep festival-goers entertained with musical river cruises, film programme, talks, a record fair, street food, themed fun family activities, family concerts and join in and sing choirs.

  • The SummerTyne Festival takes place from July 17 to 19. For details summertyne.com Box Office: 0191-443-4661