{"id":140463,"date":"2024-06-27T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T15:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=140463"},"modified":"2024-06-27T10:00:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T15:00:38","slug":"north-mississippi-hill-country-picnic-sponsor-spotlight-cetacea-sound-inc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/north-mississippi-hill-country-picnic-sponsor-spotlight-cetacea-sound-inc\/","title":{"rendered":"North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic Sponsor Spotlight: Cetacea Sound, Inc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Longtime Picnic Friend and Sponsor John McDowell Becomes Part of the Official Lineup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Davis Coen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For over forty years, Memphis\/Atlanta-based Cetacea Sound, Inc.<\/a><\/strong>, has been on the front edge of mobile communications in the United States, and offered in-house capabilities for \u201ctotal wireless system development,\u201d intended for large trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cetacea co-owner and Memphis native John McDowell<\/strong>, also a longtime musician who plays mostly acoustic instruments alongside partner Christine Conley<\/strong>, has graced the Hill Country Picnic stage for over a half a decade, but only for Saturday morning breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 will mark the first year that McDowell joins the official music line-up, as the duo kicks off the festival at 4 pm, Friday, June 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese two folks are kind enough to let me play there, but I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s because I\u2019m a sponsor,\u201d McDowell joked about organizers Sara<\/strong> and Kenny Brown<\/strong>, who are also his longtime neighbors. \u201cFor some reason this year they moved me to the opening act,\u201d he said modestly. \u201cMy girlfriend and I are just two old singer-songwriters. We just love doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDowell\u2019s admiration for the Browns also extends beyond just their annual event. \u201cI love Kenny\u2019s music. I wish I could play like that but I\u2019m not capable of getting that loud,\u201d he said, with a chuckle. He also reflected that \u201cblues was brought up on the fields, and the porch. Local people doing a simple thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he added, \u201cwe kind of slide away from that, and Kenny and Sara are trying to bring it back.\u201d He also expressed admiration for the general goal of the event, as it reads in the mission statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that they\u2019re working with young folks too\u2014it\u2019s wonderful,\u201d said McDowell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that his favorite memory from the many Picnics he\u2019s attended over the years was a great reaction he got from a lady in the audience, after playing his own original song called \u201cTogether Again.\u201d
She approached the stage \u201cwith a tear in her eye,\u201d McDowell said. \u201cThat song was beautiful. You made me cry,\u2019\u201d she told him. \u201cAs a writer, a compliment doesn\u2019t get much higher than that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the energy that Kenny and the other younger guys bring to the stage. I\u2019m way out of that energy, so it amazes me. People love it, and you can tell it by the crowd. They eat it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime Picnic Friend and Sponsor John McDowell Becomes Part of the Official Lineup by Davis Coen For over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123909,"featured_media":140431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25295],"tags":[2943,29247,25559,8978,3780,468,397,4],"class_list":["post-140463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-festivals","tag-atlanta","tag-cetacea-sound","tag-christine-conley","tag-davis-coen","tag-john-mcdowell","tag-memphis","tag-north-mississippi-hill-country-picnic","tag-oxford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/JohnMcDowell-ChristineConley-750.jpg?fit=750%2C501&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140463"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140675,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140463\/revisions\/140675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}