I’ve got to admit: I was none too excited about this year’s Double Decker Festival. In fact, I pretty much had my bags packed for New Orleans and the Jazz & Heritage Festival before I even heard who was playing on its stages. I’d not seen one poster, one ad, one news story. Nothing.

As it turned out, I had to skip the Jazz Fest and stay home. So I searched to see what musical acts were playing, and after finally tracking it down on the Internet, I think I understand why folks weren’t so proud to spread the word.

Once again, the music lineup was less than stellar. For the third year in a row, an aging legend was propped up to support a handful of lower tier acts. Yes, Buddy Guy is a blues legend. Sure, there were some good acts, including a few local musicians, who provided fine entertainment for local folks. But few other than Guy carried the cache to be considered a real attraction for out-of-towners. Perhaps the goal has shifted. Perhaps it is just to provide entertainment to the locals, and not to spur tourism.

But if we do want to draw others to our town, and reflect the culture of our town, Double Decker should strive for more. Music should be an integral part of our culture and our festival, not just the background music for a picnic, or a soundtrack for an art show. All afternoon, it seemed that the music was an afterthought, not a draw. Maybe the crowds—which looked a little sparse to me, despite the best weather in recent memory—reflected that.

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My touring band pick for this issue is Eric McFadden Trio, who play Wednesday, May 9th, at Two Stick. The last time this maniac came through town, it took me a couple of days to retrieve my jaw from the floor. McFadden’s guitar playing is a devilish mixture of flamenco styling and hard rock riffing that Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools once described to me as “crazy clown music.” McFadden has toured with Schools in the jam-band supergroup Stockholm Syndrome and with the P-Funk Allstars, but here with his own trio you’ll have a prime opportunity to witness his demented and astonishingly impressive mastery.

My local band pick is Daybreakdown at Proud Larry’s on Friday, May 11th. It seems like this group of Oxford rockers just doesn’t play enough anymore. Always a crowd favorite, Daybreakdown has recently wrapped up recording the follow-up to their debut album Make Me Wiser. They enlisted former Oxford rocker Cary Hudson to helm the controls, and hopefully we’ll get to hear a preview of a few of the forthcoming tunes.

So help support Oxford’s music culture by going out and taking in some live music.