AthFest Educates has announced the details for the 2016 AthFest compilation CD, which will be a special two-disc set this year in honor of the festival's 20th anniversary.

In addition to the usual CD of mostly-unreleased songs from local bands, this year's comp will feature a bonus disc featuring a "Best of AthFest" tracklist. The best-of disc will include songs by R.E.M., Elf Power, Drive-By Truckers, The Whigs, New Madrid, Vic Chesnutt, Widespread Panic and more.

This year's festival compilation, which was curated by a team of students in the Music Business program at UGA, features tunes by local acts Dream Culture, Son & Thief, Wieuca, Tarnation, Walden, The Orange Constant and Grassland String Band, among others. 

A CD release party for the compilation is set for Thursday, May 5 at the 40 Watt featuring live performances from Walden, Dream Culture and The Orange Constant. The CD will be available for purchase at that show; the official release date is June 21. 

More details, from the press release:

The 19 tracks chosen for the “Best of AthFest” album are: “Wanderlust,” R.E.M.; I Don’t Even Care About the One I Love,” The Whigs; “Rock Solkid,” Drive-By Truckers; “The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns,” Vic Chesnutt, “Walking With the Beggar Boys,” Elf Power; “Forest Gum,” New Madrid; “Frightened,” Easter Island; “Talks American,” The Fountains; “Hoghway 316 Revisited,” Kinney, Schools, Lesemann, Sell & Blackmon; “Whole Lotta Love,” Five Eight; “Learn How to Disappear,” Casper and the Cookies; “Do Me Right,” Ruby Kendrick; “Here Tonight,” Sam Burchfield; “Pie Pan,” Empire State; “Misdirection,” Widespread Panic; “Offset,” Monahan; “Thorn,” Bain Mattox; “Let It Be,” Lona; “Padawan of Your Love,” The Hernies.  

Artists with tracks featured on the “2016 Compilation CD” are: Big Morgan, DANK, Dream Culture, T.S. Woodward, Grand, Russell Vandiver, Blanks & Postage, Monkier, The Welcome Home, Summer Sonics, Son & Thief, The ArchAngel, Walden, Grassland String Band, Tarnation, Kayla Berrie, Wieuca, The Orange Constant, Grant Cowan, and Purses.  

The MBUS students worked with MBUS Director David Barbe, collecting and rating the songs, then deciding on the final line-up. Corin Rogers, the student liaison for the project said, “It was a really fun selection process. We had so many submissions with a wide range of genres and sub-genres. Overall, it was our goal to have musical variety on the album, in order to capture a sound that best represents the Athens music scene right now.”