Chicago has a storied history as a musical hotbed.

Jazz, blues and gospel all have strong roots here, and more recently the city has been a hot spot for rap, hip hop and rock music.

Country music, though, has been a lesser known staple on the Chicago music scene.

While country music hasn’t quite earned the reputation that it has in cities like Nashville, Tennessee, and Austin, Texas, there is a growing scene here in Chicago.

Capitalizing on that is the now annual Country on Western music festival, which celebrates the city’s country music community, said Joe Pacelli, one of the event’s founders and organizers.

This year’s Country on Western will be June 29 at Barney Callaghan’s Pub. The musical lineup includes South City Revival, Driveway Thriftdwellers, Angela Perley, the Second Winds, the Stoned Lonesome, Jennifer Fletcher and the Reckoning, MC Whiskey and DJ Sean Morgan.

Although it may not be as well-known as other musical genres in the city, the Southwest Side has a vibrant country scene, Pacelli said.

“There’s a lot of talent on the South Side, and it’s kind of a burgeoning Americana scene,” he said.

Country on Western aims to showcase that scene and spirit with “good food, good booze and good music,” Pacelli said.

“Not to dumb it down, but that’s what it’s about. Cold beer, sunshine and good music,” he said.

The idea for Country on Western originated four or five years ago, starting with a smaller event held in February. In a city known for its summer festivals and events, the winter concert seemed less than ideal.

“Why are we doing this when there’s 2 feet of snow on the ground?” Pacelli said he asked himself after one of the February events.

From there, Country on Western evolved into the summer event it is now. This is the third year for the summer version of the festival.

“In the city of Chicago, it’s so great in the summertime,” he said. “There’s something going on every day of the week.”

“I wanted to tap into that, get people out into the sunshine,” Pacelli said.

His own band, South City Revival, will be a part of the lineup, bringing its “red dirt and Texas country” vibe to the stage. Pacelli said if he had to describe the band’s musical style, he would say “it’s like a Springsteen meets country kind of feel.”

The country music scene in Chicago goes beyond the pop-culture tropes of people listening to music and drinking beer in pickup trucks at parties in farm fields, he said.

“There’s a history here,” he said. “There’s a hunger for it.”

The lineup for this year’s Country on Western is designed to showcase the different subgenres within country music.

“We kind of lean into the variety,” he said, adding the festival will include traditional and bluegrass acts as well as more alternative and rock-driven country artists.

Pacelli said he and others would love to grow the festival for the future, but right now they are dedicated to delivering a quality event for this summer. He said organizers want to give people a “good experience that we an get our hands around,” adding they don’t want to bite off more than they can chew.

This year will feature a few new bands as well as two food vendors: Americano’s and Fat Tommy’s. There will also be a dance instructor teaching line dancing and two-step, and at the end of the night there will be a DJ in the bar doing a “taste of country” for people to dance to and enjoy.

Eventually, they hope to grow Country on Western into a multiday event, Pacelli said, drawing people from outside Beverly and the Southwest Side, making it more of a destination event with bigger acts.

“We just ultimately want to make it above all a good concert experience,” he said.

Meghan McMahon is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.