Turn On, Tune In, Check Out The Folk & Roots Festival
By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 7, 2010 7:20PM
On a recent trip to Woodstock, New York, we visited one of the best kitchen supply stores we've ever been in. Woodstock may be a fortress of hippitude - a tradition that dates beyond the 1969 festival (which, in any case, actually took place some forty miles away) to the 1902 establishment of the utopian arts colony Byrdcliffe - but, for just as long, the town has been a second home for many Manhattanites. These crowds coexist, even overlap, and the Gilded Carriage, a turn-of-the-20th-century house crammed with high-end wares (All-Clad, Le Creuset, etc.) and other specialty items, such as locally handmade soaps and candles, is this synthesis in microcosm.
The single employee working the day we were there, a spry boomer with long blond hair, commented on our t-shirt, which was the official shirt from the 2008 Chicago Folk and Roots Festival. She was pleased to see a young person openly endorsing folk music. "That's all we used to listen to. That's nice that it's still getting attention." We told her this year's festival was coming up soon and should she find herself in the Chicago area, she should check it out.
We doubt she'll be able to swing by, and that's a damn shame, because she is the quintessential Folk and Roots Festival attendee. The hippie-yuppie hybrid - or, perhaps a more palatable conjunction, the affluent hippie - is conscious yet capitalist, and lives wholesomely yet comfortably. The assemblage of degree-holding lefties that will flock to Welles Park this weekend is unique among Chicago festivals: friendly, no less diverse than other festival crowds, and startlingly happy. The good vibes flow in torrents at the Folk and Roots Festival.
But people don't come for the good vibes alone; the Old Town School of Folk Music consistently throws together a varied mix of music you probably haven't heard before. LaSalle Bank pulled its sponsorship last year, and this weekend's festival, like last year's version, has fewer big names and more local acts, but the thoughtful programming has provided plenty of musical reasons to head up to Lincoln Square on Saturday and Sunday.
Broadly, the first day will be American folk music-heavy, with the Red Stick Ramblers from Baton Rouge and bluegrass crooner James King following local honky-tonkers the Hoyle Brothers. The Chicago-based Occidental Brothers Dance Band International will provide an international interlude before the night ends with a pair of lively, must-see acts, blues singer Shemekia Copeland and Staten Island Afrobeat funk outfit the Budos Band.
Sunday afternoon will feature a quartet of local folks, the WAZO County Warblers and the Fly Boys, Irish trio the Boils, the jug band the Sanctified Grumblers, and the Andreas Kapsalis and Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo, before giving way to a more international flavor, with performances by Venezuelan harpist Leonard Jacome (cooler than it sounds), drum-heavy Bhangra brass band Red Baraat, Frenchmen Les Saltimbanks, and closing act Etran Finatawa, a group that melds music from two Sahelian cultures, the Wodaabe and the Tuareg. For the full main stage schedule, including music samples, go here.
As always, there will be additional activities, including a dance tent, a kids tent, a stage featuring performances by Old Town staff members, come-one-come-all jam sessions at the gazebo, and Nuestra Música, the culmination of a project by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage researching Latin American cultures in Chicago.
Oh, and the official Folk and Roots Festival t-shirts, redesigned and put on sale every year, are darn fine t-shirts.
Noon to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Welles Park at N. Lincoln and W. Montrose, $10 suggested donation, $5 for seniors and children