After a one-year hiatus, the venerable Philadelphia Folk Festival returned home to the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township, Pennsylvania, for its 61st edition Aug. 16-18. The one-year “pause” was necessary for the festival to reduce its financial debt, […]
This week’s column is dedicated to pickin’ in the backwoods, featuring two roots fests that are held in picturesque rural areas of their respective home states of Indiana and West Virginia. The inaugural Pickin’ in the Backwoods Music Festival was […]
It was a hot three days at this year’s Nelsonville Music Festival (July 25-28). But with plenty of free water and lots of shade trees and hospitality tents, there were many ways to escape the glaring afternoon sun. This […]
The 65th edition of the Newport Folk Festival was a humdinger. This year’s installment of the venerable fest that keeps renewing itself year after year featured poetry reading, impromptu dancing by fest grande dame Joan Baez and Rhiannon Giddens, […]
This week’s column features a double dose of the blues: the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon (July 4-7) and the Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival in Winthrop, Washington (July 19-21). These two fests have become staples for the […]
This week the column returns to festival coverage by featuring the Briggs Farm Blues Festival, which took place July 11-13 in Briggsville, Pennsylvania, and the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival (WoodyFest), July 10-14 in Guthrie’s hometown, Okemah, Oklahoma. Briggs […]
We are in the midst of a flood of new roots music releases right now, and invariably some extraordinary ones will slip through the cracks. This week’s column seeks to correct that a bit by featuring short takes (and […]
This week’s column features two roots music festivals located in America’s Pacific Northwest: the Fisherman’s Village Music Fest in Washington and Oregon’s Jackalope Jamboree. Now in its 11th year on Washington State’s Puget Sound, Fisherman’s Village took over the […]
After the pandemic had mostly subsided, the Americana West Music Festival began in 2022 as a way to bring the West Coast Americana, country, and roots community together again after the long hiatus. Presented by Blackbird Record Label, the […]
This column has been going full throttle through festival season lately, but it’s time to catch up with other shows ND photographers have been attending. This week’s Through the Lens features photos by 12 photographers in all, but I’d […]
