Could two festivals, Moon Crush Pink Moon at Miramar Beach, Florida, and High Water in Charleston, South Carolina, be models for future fests? As this column reported last year, the former bills itself as a “connected music vacation” next […]
MerleFest was founded in 1988 in memory of Eddy Merle Watson, Doc Watson’s son who died in a tractor accident. Doc himself called the festival a celebration of “traditional plus” music: roots-oriented sounds of the Appalachian region, including bluegrass […]
Ninety-seven artists are scheduled to perform across 12 stages at this year’s MerleFest, held April 25-28 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The 17 artists highlighted below are, with a couple notable exceptions, ones […]
This week’s column features two fests, the Treefort Music Fest (March 20-24) and the Suwannee Spring Reunion (March 21-24) held at opposite ends of the country: Treefort in Boise, Idaho, and Suwannee in Live Oak, Florida. Longtime Lens contributor […]
With SXSW and Luck Reunion both on the calendar, the roots and indie music world headquarters is in and around Austin, Texas, for the month of March. You might think of those two events as the yin and yang […]
This week’s column focuses on two festivals featuring world music of different sorts. First, WOMADelaide, March 8-11 in Australia, offered roots music from a variety of countries, including Ukraine, Brazil, Nigeria, and Tunisia. Second, Flogging Molly’s two-day Shamrock Rebellion, […]
During a talk with NPR’s Ann Powers, Kristen Hersh said that when a performance goes especially well with a receptive audience it’s “extrapolating creativity into the fingerprints of others.” That pretty much sums up the Big Ears Festival, which […]
The 16th edition of the Cayamo cruise set sail from Miami on March 1 for a week of roots music at sea. Promoted by founder Sixthman as “A Journey Through Song,” the floating festival once again delivered on its […]
Which came first, baseball or roots music? While that may be somewhat of a trick question, in this week’s column we get the best of both worlds: a report from two roots music festivals in Arizona just as Major […]
Ever wanted to attend an indoor winter roots music festival that’s all under one roof? If so, the Wintergrass fest in Bellevue, Washington, is for you. This year held Feb. 22-25, Wintergrass features four performance stages in the Hyatt Regency, […]
