As I mentioned in last week’s column (“Music News,” Jan 7), Jambaloo, the free week-long festival that debuted in February 2024, is back, bringing another week of free shows, symposiums, and other live-music-related programming across North Texas. Jambaloo 2026 kicks off on Sat, Feb 7, at Tulips FTW with a symposium led by Cole Cuchna, host of the popular music criticism podcast Dissect, and concludes on Sun, Feb 15, at Dallas’ Granada Theater with a showcase of the city’s storied Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. This year’s festival, presented by Dallas-based law firm Mullen & Mullen, the firm’s Mullen & Mullen Music Project, and 91.7 KXT, will bring around 70 bands, solo artists, DJs, and rappers to nearly 20 venues in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Grand Prairie. Did I mention all the shows are free?
This being the Fort Worth Weekly and all, you’ll probably want to know about the shows in the Fort. Jambaloo’s biggest name is Tripping Daisy, who will headline Tulips on Fri, Feb 13, with Cut Throat Finches and Denver Williams in the opening slots. But the other shows in Fort Worth are nothing to shrug at either. The Cicada’s show on Tue, Feb 10, features power-pop band Meach Pango, party rockers Son of Stan, and Sam Cormier, an up-and-coming songwriter from Dallas. At Tulips on Wed, Feb 11, the Quaker City Night Hawks anchor a night with openers Jackson Scribner, Matthew McNeal, and Garrett T Capps. Dallas-based Amplified Minds, a nonprofit offering free mental health services to adults, focusing on those in the creative community, will start the night with a panel.
On Thu, Feb 12, Jeni Rose, frontwoman for Dallas cowpunks the Vandoliers, headlines The Post, with psych-punks Labels in the direct support slot and electro-pop artist Dev Lee Miller opening the night. And on Fri, Feb 13, Low Doubt will host DJ Splendor, whose sound builds a funky, Day-Glo sonic theme park on top of a foundation of bumping house grooves.
Photo by Andrew Calisterio
Now, I get that the long-standing position of Fort Worthians is unfortunately too often “Dallas = bad,” but I exhort you to put that attitude in the trash, because you’ll otherwise miss out on all the Jambaloo shows in our neighboring burg. Dallas Jambaloo events of note (to me, anyway) include: the hip-hop dance battle at Ruins and the show at Deep Ellum Art Co. by piano-lugging, boogie-woogie rock ’n’ rollers Low Cut Connie on Wed, Feb 11; country singer-songwriter Angel White, genre-bending soul singer Dezi 5, and local Americana artist Christian Carlos Carvajal at FireHouse Gastro Park in Grand Prairie on Fri, Feb 13, when dance music legend Mark Farina’s Mushroom Jazz and producer Adrian Quesada’s Assenio Trio have some really cool, secret shit planned for Josey Records.
As always for any music festival, consult the website for the full schedule and plan your week accordingly.
In addition to the diverse, cross-genre lineups —in a phone interview, Jambaloo co-founder Corey Pond said that Paris, Texas-based Tejano band Los Del North Texas who are playing FiresHouse Gastro Park on Wed, Feb 12, are a must-see — what is also really cool about Jambaloo is the attention it brings to the artist-adjacent parts of the DFW music scene. There’s the aforementioned symposium from Cole Cuchna and the Amplified Minds panel, as well as the Women in Music panel at Dallas’ Spinster Records on Wed, Feb 12, and the festival sponsors themselves showcase how many other entities contribute to the North Texas music scene. Besides Mullen & Mullen and KXT, additional support comes from Josey Records, Luminous Sounds, Prekindle, Do214.com, WFAA, the Texas Music Office, the Dallas Music Office, Hear Fort Worth, and Amplified Minds.
Co-founder Pond said the ultimate point of Jambaloo is to bring a ton of people out to celebrate the DFW music community by showcasing our scene’s best and brightest for the low-low cost of free. “If you live anywhere within 30 minutes of I-30, there’s a free show for you during [Jambaloo] week. You’re within 30 minutes of multiple free concerts, and in most cases, you’re going to be, like, 10 minutes away from them, right? Most genres are represented, and some of them are fairly well represented, and it’s free.”
In short, Jambaloo has something for everyone. All the festival’s organizers and sponsors need from you is to get out of the house and have fun.
