3 Upcoming Events at Brown Family Amphitheater, Ball State University

Lost Bayou Ramblers

Acclaimed progressive Cajun band and GRAMMY winners Lost Bayou Ramblers (LBR) will be performing in a FREE outdoor concert as part of the 206 Muncie Three Trails Music Series. The Lost Bayou Ramblers will also be performing a special traditional acoustic set at 7 PM to open the show. 

Lost Bayou Ramblers’ evolution as a perversely progressive band rooted in Cajun traditions continues to excite, challenge, and redefine both genre expectations as well as cultural preconceptions. The band was formed in 1999 by brothers Andre and Louis Michot, performing the roots Cajun music they learned as members of Les Frères Michot, the family band their father and uncles formed in the 80's. The current LBR line-up is headed-up by Louis (fiddle and lead vocals) and Andre (accordion and lapsteel), now joined by Bryan Webre (electric bass), Johnny Campos (electric guitar), Eric Heigle (electronics and acoustic guitar), and Kirkland Middleton (drums). The group stands at the crosscurrents of Louisiana culture by inhabiting the gray area between Cajun and Creole, convention and innovation, mystery and a revelation, experimenting and growing the show to what it's become today: an eclectic mix of modern sounds and rhythms with ancient Cajun melodies and lyrics.  With eight albums, a GRAMMY win in the Best Regional Roots Music category for their most recent studio album, Kalenda, contributions to the score of the Oscar-nominated Beasts Of The Southern Wild, and touring with both Arcade Fire and the Violent Femmes, Lost Bayou Ramblers continue to swing wide from their Louisiana home base. 

Flor De Toloache

Latin GRAMMY winners Flor De Toloache, an all-female Mariachi ensemble, will be returning to Muncie and performing in a FREE outdoor concert as part of the 2026 Muncie Three Trails Music Series. Cincinnati-based Estrada Do Sol will open the show.

Flor De Toloache, which translates as “deadly flower” and also refers to a main ingredient in traditional love potions, was founded in 2008 by singers Mireya Ramos and Shae Fiol. The group weaves a variety of influences (e.g., salsa, bactata, cumbia, gypsy, Latin jazz, pop, hip-hop, soul) into their unique sound, giving them an edgy, versatile and fresh take on traditional Mexican music. They perform original songs, new arrangements of classic Mariachi tunes, as well as an eclectic selection of covers that can include songs by artists such as Adele, AC/DC, and Erykah Badu. Their mélange of the traditional and the modern pushes the boundaries of the genre and brings Mariachi music to new audiences. Flor De Toloache’s critically acclaimed self-titled debut album received a Latin GRAMMY nomination for “Best Ranchero/Mariachi Album” of 2015, and their 2017 release, Las Caras Lindas, won that award. Indestructible, a 2019 GRAMMY nominee for “Best Latin Rock, Urban, or Alternative Album,”  showcased their collaboration with multi-platinum singer-songwriter John Legend. National Public Radio says the album “… pushes the boundaries of mariachi music and its instruments through reimagined pop covers, originals and original collaborations.”

Over the course of the last few years, Flor de Toloache have played to sold out audiences in the UK, Germany, Holland, Italy, France, as well as performing at Coachella and at such legendary venues as First Avenue in Minneapolis, The Vic in Chicago, Terminal 5 in New York, DC’s 930 Club, and Nashville’s Ryman Theater (The Grand Ole Opry). The group was invited to perform at the GRAMMY Museum’s Latin Music Gallery Exhibition ribbon-cutting. They were also invited to pay tribute to Linda Ronstadt at the 42nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors. Needless to say, their previous performances at the Muncie Three Trails Music Series they have brought down the house.

Mike Farris & The Fortunate Few

GRAMMY award winning musician Mike Farris, along with his band The Fortunate Few, will be performing a FREE outdoor concert as part of the 2026 Muncie Three Trails Music Series. Locals Mike Martin & the Beautiful Mess will open the show.

Mike Farris is an artist’s artist and a musician’s musician, celebrated and revered by his fellow performers. He is a GRAMMY, Americana Association, and Dove Music award winner, with six solo albums since 2001. He is also a founding member of 90’s mainstream rock group, The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies.

Farris was born in 1968 in Winchester, TN. With a gospel-fueled voice that sounds like a cross between the hard rock blast of Bon Scott and the joyful sweetness of Al Green, Mike has taken a long time to balance his life and considerable talent. Devastated when his parents divorced when he was 11 years old, Farris tumbled early into the world of drugs and alcohol, a lifestyle that landed him in reform school. Nearly dying from an accidental overdose, he moved in with his father and began playing guitar and writing songs, gradually pulling himself out of the depths of his addictions. After forming the seminal 1990s blues jam band the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, however, the endless touring and bars sent him right back to his old bad habits, and while he put out fine music with SCW, with Peaceful Knievel, and during his stint as the singer for Double Trouble, Stevie Ray Vaughan's old rhythm section, Farris was in deep emotional trouble. Finally, in 2004, while attending the funeral of a friend, he decided he had enough, and embraced both God and sobriety. 

Since that time, Mike has put out four studio releases, two live records, and one charity EP (as Mike Farris and the Cumberland Saints. His music is diverse but tends to be rooted in early American gospel and blues. In 2008, Farris won the Americana Music Award for New and Emerging Artist, in 2010 , SHOUT!! Live won the Dove Award for Traditional Gospel Album of the Year,  and his 2014 release, Shine For All The People, won the GRAMMY for Best Roots Gospel Album. For 2025’s The Sound of Muscle Shoals, Mike Farris’s first album since 2018’s Silver & Stone, Farris made the pilgrimage to the doors of the legendary Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. The resulting album is a  culmination of all of Farris’s musical influences and life lessons learned, captured in a location that holds deep meaning for him. In collaboration with members of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, the band captures lightning in a bottle, channeling the spirit of their musical forebearers, conjuring up the intrinsic magic of the Muscle Shoals sound, and wrapping it around Farris’s heartfelt and hardscrabble blue-eyed soul vocals. In the intertwining threads of spiritual and earthly, of gospel and rock ‘n’ roll, of faith and fire, Farris once again brings what Rolling Stone Country describes as his “supersized voice filled with the electricity of Saturday night and the godly grace of Sunday mornings” to the album’s 11 tracks.