Amplify Decatur returns, celebrating 10 years of community support  

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” laughs Mike Killeen. “It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for a whole decade now.”

Along with Christine Mahin and Drew Robinson, Killeen co-chairs an organization called Amplify My Community. The flagship attraction produced by the local association is the annual Amplify Decatur Music Festival.

In celebration of a decade of offering live music and charitable community support, the Festival returns this Thursday, June 4, through Sunday, June 7, with a series of free and ticketed events. The gala includes an all-star concert scheduled from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, June 6, on the new downtown Decatur stage.

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers, Dylan LeBlanc, Kyshona and Georgia Mountain Stringband are the featured attractions.  

“Way back in 2009 or 2010,” Killeen explained, “I founded the organization.” Initially called Poverty Is Real, he said the association has always relied on the community and volunteers to accomplish its objectives: “As they say, it takes a village.”

Killeen said the ongoing support from a number of charitable corporations has led to a steadily growing partnership. “We couldn’t do any of this without corporate and community help. The most visible part of what the Festival offers is an impressively wide selection of live musical performances, but it’s a very layered approach.”  

Killeen said the musical entertainment presentation isn’t a profit-driven entity. “This organization isn’t about merely profiting from a music festival,” he said. “It’s about people helping people, and those are the real stars of it all. Every net dollar we make — and sometimes some dollars that we don’t make — we give to charitable organizations because that’s the bottom line for us.”

Proceeds from the 2026 Festival will be directed to Decatur Cooperative Ministry (DCM) and Decatur Education Foundation (DEF) to aid their missions.

Killeen noted that Amplify Decatur has grown substantially since its inception. “The first time it came together, it was just me playing a show at Eddie’s Attic and donating 200 dollars to a political organization.”

From small shows to sporadic happenings in Athens and surrounding areas, the Decatur-based project eventually expanded to three nights at Eddie’s Attic. “Now, the reason we are celebrating 10 years is because a decade ago we finally took the big leap to call it a festival and have it on the square, complete with all of the logistics that go along with organizing a big outdoor spectacle.”

Now a four-day jubilee with a Thursday night kickoff party at the Avon Theater, Amplify Decatur continues with various pop-up stages at multiple sites throughout the city. The Festival includes a free Friday night show on Decatur’s new downtown stage.

“In all, we’ll probably have over 25 performers over four days in around a dozen locations,” Killeen explained. “It’s to the point where people are planning a whole weekend around it.” 

The musical fare covers a wide swath of genres. The criterion for selecting performers is as diverse as the historic musical community it celebrates. “We embrace the broadest possible definition of what people call ‘Americana,’ and we want diversity of every kind,” Killeen said.  

“Our first mission is to raise funds to help the more vulnerable members of our community, and the secondary mission is Decatur deserves a sustainable music festival because it’s an extremely creative town with such an incredible history. We want it to be something that feels like it’s a festival that just belongs in Decatur. We’re proud to be a part of this community.”

On Saturday, the marquee ticketed event on the Square kicks off at 3 p.m. with a performance by the winners of a recent high school Battle of the Bands contest. A set from the Georgia Mountain Stringband with special guest Reverend Hylton follows at 3:45 p.m.

For over a decade, Jason Waller has led versions of the Georgia Mountain Stringband. “I’ve played Amplify solo and with the band several times,” he said. “We even did live streams during the pandemic, and I truly love what they’re doing. It’s a great way to be exposed to new music and musicians, and Amplify is putting a lot of effort into making our community a better place to be.”

Waller recalled that he originally started the Stringband as “basically a pick-up bluegrass group. I’d get paid gigs and then call up guys I knew who were familiar with standard bluegrass tunes.” Eventually, the lineup solidified, and the band recorded an EP nearly a decade ago. “The day after we released it, I was like, ‘OK, guys, we’re a real band now.’”

The group deftly mixes traditional bluegrass instrumentation with rock and punk influences. Waller and company maintain a loyal following via YouTube clips of the band’s originals and inspired cover choices. A few times a year, the group performs at Waller’s Coffee Shop, the Decatur community events space he manages.

“With three songwriters in the band, we have plenty of material,” said Waller. “We say no to drums and try to stay as traditional as possible. But music shouldn’t have strict rules; it should just be authentic, so we aren’t exactly limited in any way. Our goal is just to laugh and have a good time. That sort of invisible bond is what makes playing music magical for us.”

Voted Best Bluegrass Band by Creative Loafing a couple of years ago, Waller said the Stringband enjoys being part of the Decatur music community. “It’s just good people who support each other.”

When reminded that he plays at 7:15 p.m., between Dylan LeBlanc and Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, singer-songwriter Patterson Hood said, “I’m thrilled to be on the bill because I love Decatur. I’ve done a couple of the festivals there, and, of course, I’ve played Eddie’s Attic more times than I can count. I’ll be driving in from Charleston that day, so it’ll be a bit of a haul to get there, but I’ll get up early for this show.”

The Eddie’s Attic scene holds particularly fond memories for Hood. “I played the Monday night open mic night there before I was able to get a gig anywhere in the state of Georgia.”

“They had an open mic night, and the winner would get fifty bucks or something. Then the winner would be invited back to a grand finale thing where the previous winners would compete against each other, and the winner of that would get a thousand bucks.”

“I had just moved to Athens. I didn’t have a band yet, and I didn’t really know anybody. I drove over one night to do the open mic night, and I actually won the damn thing. I went back a week or two later, and I won it again! I was like, ‘Man, this is so cool. I’m gonna be a star,’” he laughed.

“Then I went to the finale, where all the winners competed. I think I was the only one there that had won it twice at that time. And then I got eliminated in the first round, I was like, ‘Dammit, I guess I’m not gonna be a big star in Decatur, Georgia.’ But I kept coming back to play.”

Hood remembered that he wrote the title cut to his second solo record at one of those open mic nights, while someone else was playing. “Yeah, I wrote ‘Murdering Oscar’ right there at Eddie’s.”

Although Hood eventually formed the Drive-By Truckers in Athens, he said Decatur and Atlanta were the first Georgia cities to fully embrace his music.   

“I couldn’t get a gig in Athens at all at that time,” he remembered. “Back then, if you didn’t have a band, there wasn’t much for you in Athens. So I kept coming back over to Atlanta to play, and the first club we ever sold out was the Star Bar. Even though I’d been playing in Alabama for years before I moved to Athens, a lot of good things kinda started for me right there in Decatur.”  

Hood said he’ll begin working on a new Truckers record in August, but he’s currently touring in support of his recent solo album, 2025’s Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams.

“There’s things I can do with the solo thing that I just can’t do with the band, so it’s nice to have two completely different things going on and a good place to play it all,” Hood concluded. “I definitely want to do some stuff from Exploding Trees because I’m really proud of that record. But my set will be all over the place, of what I want to play. I’ll know when I get there.”

“Then, after I play, I get to see Gillian and David play — and Dylan LeBlanc is on the bill right before me. We used to tour together. So I think I’m just as excited about this show as anybody. I’m really looking forward to getting there early, because it’s gonna be a really fun day.”   

Where & when

The Amplify Decatur Music Festival celebrates a decade of music on the square, June 4 through June 7, with free, ticketed and VIP access. Prices range from free admission to $90.04. For more information and tickets, visit the official website for tickets, updated lineups and showtimes: www.amplifydecatur.org.

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Lee Valentine Smith is an Atlanta-born artist, writer and musician. Currently a regular contributor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, his work has been syndicated internationally. He has appeared at Music Midtown, on CBS Radio and on Air America. He also served as art director, consultant and archivist for projects with ’80s hitmakers The Go-Go’s.