Our annual Summer Stars series features a variety of groups making the rounds on the festival circuit. Today we kick things off with moe.

moe.‘s Chuck Garvey is a summer festival enthusiast thanks, in part, to his perspective as a touring musician. “Playing festivals is a lot of fun because you get to hang out with friends and peers and swap war stories…and you end up getting into trouble,” he laughs. "Playing with other bands also makes you want to up your game, so it’s competitive and fun at the same time."

Once again, the group will bookend their itinerary with Summer Camp and moe.down. “Summer Camp has a bunch of stages, tons of bands and the camping scene is pretty insane. It’s great to start things off that way because, you know, there’s a whole season of that kind of stuff on the horizon. Then as much as Summer Camp is the big kickoff, moe.down is the family picnic
at the end of the summer. It’s one of those giant laid-back, family reunion festivals that just happens to be ours and it’s awesome.”

In between the two events, moe. will also make their first appearance at Germany’s Burg Herzberg Festival. “We had a great experience the last time we played Europe [March 2012],” he explains. “So we were interested in revisiting those places, especially the German towns where we had a great reaction.”

Fans may also get a taste of moe.‘s next studio release during their shows this summer. "I don’t know if we’re supposed to talk about it," he confides, “but we’re making plans to record this coming fall. We’re going to be at Levon Helm’s studio, and we’re setting up the details for all that right now. We’re trying to write a little bit and get a bunch of material together that we’ll work on over the summer.”

Album for a Hot Summer Night: J.J. Cale, Live. The songs are great and it’s got this peaceful thing to it that reminds me of hanging out with other people in the backyard. Also Jane’s Addiction Nothing’s Shocking always reminds me of summer.

Summer Drink: Ice cold PBR [Pabst Blue Ribbon] in a bottle or Bell’s Oberon Ale which is just fantastic. Gin and tonic has also been a really good summer drink for me. I haven’t had one in years but it always reminds me of hot, crazy, getting-into-trouble summers.

Festival Stops: Summer Camp, High Sierra, Burg Herzberg Festival, moe.down, more.