FolkBlog

My wife and I got back late Sunday from attending the Philadelphia Folk Festival, as well as spending some quality time with my wife’s aunt, who lives in Philly and attended with us on Saturday.  Among the highlights:

• Attending a workshop session where Pete Kennedy and Jake Shimabukuro went at the ukelele.  I’ve heard Pete Kennedy many times, and it’s always a pleasure, and I’m pretty much slackjawed every time I see him.  However, watching and hearing him jam with another master instrumentalist was fantastic.  I was not familiar with Shimabukuro coming in, and I was just as amazed at his instrumental prowess.
• Finally seeing The Strangelings live.  They are phenomenal, the new folk/rock supergroup for this generation.  Their version of “Matty Groves” brought the house down.   Those of you in the northeast who have not heard them yet should make the effort, especially if you dig Fairport Convention-style folk/rock (with three-part female harmony!).
• Finally seeing Red Molly.  I have been very impressed with their albums and they are just as talented and engaging live as they sound on their records. 
• The fest was truly a mecca for those who enjoy three-part female harmony, and I enjoyed seeing The Refugees as well.  They are also another folk supergroup, consisting of singer/songwriters Wendy Waldman (of Bryndle), Cindy Bullens and Deborah Holland.  They provided an entertaining show performing many of the hits they had written for other singers (”Fishing in the Dark”, “Saving the Best for Last”) as well as some tunes they had written together. 
• Seeing a workshop featuring Kathy Mattea, Jean Ritchie and Bill Vanaver trading coal songs.  It was fascinating to hear from Kathy Mattea just how much she was in awe of Jean Ritchie, and it was great hearing them all trade great old songs.   My grandmother is one of the lucky ones who got out of West Virginia coal country, escaping a hard-scrabble tobacco farm near the Kanawha River to Akron, Ohio, where she worked as a domestic during the Depression before marrying my grandfather.  My uncle drove a coal truck in eastern Ohio for many years.  The subject of coal mining and its consequences and effects resonates with me.  If this is a subject that resonates with you, do yourself a favor and pick up Mattea’s new album, Coal, because it is truly outstanding.  Mattea played several songs from it during the workshop with her guitarist and with the fullband onstage durking the Saturday evening concert.
• Steve Earle and Allison Moorer.  Really, what else needs said about that?
• The Saturday evening concert was pretty uneven.  Tom Paxton and Janis Ian put on the kind of professional performances one would expect them to turn in.  Ian’s voice still sounds as good as it did at “Seventeen.”  Kathy Mattea seemed pretty humbled at her acceptance by the folk music community she’s received from doing the Coal album, and did an excellent full band show featuring tracks from her new album as well as the obligatory hits, “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” and “Love at the Five and Dime.”  The Felice Brothers were energetic and fun, whirling about the stage liked crazed maniacs.  I’d never heard or seen them before, and I will definitely be tracking down some of their music for the station.  Craig Bickhardt played several of the maudlin country hits he’d written for other artists. Espers was awful.  It was like they were trying to be Pentangle without the same level of instrumental skill but with the added bonus of long droning harmonica notes and extra high levels of fuzz.  I can’t believe they were booked as the lead in to Judy Collins.  We’d had a long day, and couldn’t imagine sitting through enough of Espers to get to Judy Collins, so we left before seeing Judy Collins.  I’m sure seeing Judy Collins would have redeemed the whole thing, but we’d hit the wall.
• Tempest was excellent as always on Sunday afternoon, getting the whold crowd up to do a circle dance during their energetic set.  I love seeing Tempest - they’ve got folk cred and rock and roll stage moves.
• I saw part of a workshop on Sunday afternoon featuring Pete Kennedy, Anthony da Costa, Samuel James, and Oscar Lopez.  Oscar Lopez was phenomenal, and with Pete Kennedy strumming along - sublime.  I was not familiar with Samuel James, but you will be hearing him on the station very soon as well.
• We were too exhausted from getting up at 4 am to catch our plane to Philly, and we wanted some time to visit with my wife’s aunt, so we missed the Friday night show, and our plane departure time prevented us from seeing the Sunday evening show.  It would have been nice to see Al Stewart, Compadres (James Keelaghan and Oscar Lopez), Michael Doucet avec Beausoleil and Great Big Sea, as well as Jake Shimabukuro’s main stage set.  I did catch a little bit of Alan Doyle from GBS with James Keelaghan with Oscar Lopez doing a workshop on Sunday afternoon before we had to leave.

All in all, we heard some great music, got a lot of sun, and enjoyed visiting with relatives.