Philadelphia Folk Fest Press Conference, April 20, World Cafe Live

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Philadelphia Folk Fest Press Conference, April 20, World Cafe Live

POSTED: Monday, April 20, 2009, 11:16 PM

Filed Under: Music Philly Bands

At mic: Gene Shay. Onstage: Adrien Reju, Chris Kasper, Zach Djanikian. At festival: still open to speculation.

Photo | John Vettese

"There's a guy who looks like he's singing folk music to me..."

My mind isn't blown. Not yet, anyway. Not like last year's press conference where Jesse Lundy and Rich Kardon from Point Entertainment told us Espers would spend a Saturday night in August on a giant outdoor stage in Schwenksville, channeling Pentangle and melting the faces of a placid, polite Philadelphia Folk Festival crowd.

When concert time rolled around, Greg Weeks and friends absolutely delivered, signifying daring, bold new things for a festival that simply must adapt and attract a younger crowd in order to survive. That process continues this year - though not to such an extreme degree.

To recap what Lundy and Kardon discussed at this afternoon's press conference: Iron and Wine was obviously the big reveal of the moment for Folk Fest '09 (Aug. 14 - Aug. 16, Old Pool Farm), even if it wasn't a huge surprise. Lundy tried to get Sam Beam on last year's lineup, but the South Carolina troubeardour's tour schedule prevented it...thankfully, his schedule this year is more open. "It's a perfect match, a perfect example of the direction we need to go in," Lundy says. Last time I saw Beam was at The Khyber in '03. Wonder how different he'll come across in front of a field of 5,000.

Other exciting inclusions include Virginville, Berks County's gothic Americana dudes Frog Holler ' who have an avid supporter in CP Editor Brian Howard ' as well as the lovely dreamy Marissa Nadler. Erstwhile local guy Langhorne Slim can be a bit MOR on an off night, but when the dude is on, he delivers; and The Low Anthem, well, they're freakin mood-swingy psychopaths. Sure, the trumpet and clarinet on that YouTube vid linked at left is all pretty and gentle, but have you heard this "Horizon is a Beltway" song? The hell?!

So yes, there's absolutely good stuff in here, with possibly more remaining to come. Two more headliners will be announced on June 7, and at least one of them will play Thursday night's campground concert that doubles as a taping for WXPN's Live at the World Cafe with David Dye.

"This year is really a chance to build on what we began last year," Kardon says. "Not losing the roots of what made the festival what it is, but still bringing in new and different acts that are more on the cutting edge."

At the same time, there's not the punch-in-the-face jolt of a band like Espers, who is very much on this edge Kardon speaks of, who perhaps was somewhat alienating to reserved festival-goers who want to just want to see Judy Collins sing for the 37-thousandth time₁...but who were absolutely relevant in terms of studied folk tradition and musical preservationism.

To be fair, the '09 Philly Folk Festival roster isn't exactly "usual suspects" to the degree of some of its competing festivals (why do people even bother traveling to Falcon Ridge anymore?). However, it seems that they played it a bit safer this year as compared to last: Tom Rush is something of a circuit mainstay, and it's jarring to see Justin Townes Earle so fast on the heels of his pop Steve's performance in '08. The Works Progress Administration is a great band name for a folk act, but since they're a collaboration between people from Toad The Wet Sprocket and Nickel Creek, I can't imagine they'll stray too far from the path. Ditto for Del McCoury, Wissahickon Chicken Shack and Enter the Haggis.

On the homegrown end, Chris Kasper and Adrien Reju are fine and good, but I think this will be the third Folk Fest in a row featuring their husky/mellow collaborativeness. They did perform a wonderfully harmonized "Killing The Blues" with Zach Djanikian to intro the press conference, though, so big ups for that; all three will comprise the Saturday Afternoon Philly Local stage with Boris Garcia, who closed the conference with a take on "Shady Grove" that was hardly as good as Doc Watson's.

Other not-quite-disappointments: last year, Greg Weeks curated an afternoon stage, a fantastic idea I hoped would return with one of this year's artists. No such luck: Lundy said he tried to bring in Will Oldham as curator this year(coincidental, as Oldham is curating an exhibit at Center City's Fleisher/Ollman gallery this summer), but as with Sam Beam last year, timing was not right. However, Oldham's interest could bode well for Folk Fest '10.

I digress. Point is: there is absolutely excitement in this year's lineup, but not as much as there could be. Perhaps the real "wow" factor remains in one of the two TBA headliners (who will be "huge, massive," per PFF's Lisa Schwartz).

Lundy noted several times during the conference that crossover with the famed Newport Folk Festival is high; the big names up thataway that don't already appear on Philly's lineup are Pete Seeger, Neko Case and The Decemberists.₂

Let's assume we could have our pick of those Newport people a few states to the south. While Neko would certainly be nice, she's a bit too conventional for what the programmers need to do this year. My money is on this year's Philadelphia Folk Festival being rounded out by the traditions of 90-year-old Mr. Seeger juxtaposing the ostentations of 34-year-old Mr. Meloy, creating the blend of roots and daring that the festival strives for.

Says Lundy: "We can show people that contemporary music is folk music, and vice versa."

¹I shouldn't make fun. Collins, who immediately followed Espers at last year's Saturday night concert, was very sweet in her onstage banter and even gave the band something of a shout-out: "This is all so wonderful, especially this band that just played, what were they called? Essence? Espers? Weren't they wonderful?!!"

² Other smaller Newport artists that don't crossover to this lineup include Fleet Foxes, Josh Ritter and Gillian Welch, all of whom would be welcome inclusions.

jesselun

Posted 2009-04-21 11:43:30

Keep guessin' Johnny Boy

Posted by john vettese @ 11:16 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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