69th National Folk Festival Comes to Richmond Virginia

by Rick Landers.

The 69th National Folk Festival entertained and educated over 175,000 visitors along the banks of the James River in Richmond, Virginia, on September 12-14, 2007. Just before the event opened, representatives from several Virginia Indian tribes blessed the grounds with a ritual sprinkle of homegrown tobacco. Over the festival's three days, guests were treated to Virginian musicians, artisans, dancers, storytellers, traditional crafts and the best of Southern hospitality.

Lisa Sims, the festival’s Director of Events, noted: “We doubled our shuttle ridership, we doubled water sales, we doubled beer sales and we sold out of all of our merchandise. And that’s never happened before!”

Besides offering a feast of roots music on the festival’s seven stages, visitors could learn from the experts in such areas as auto pin-striping, draft horse training, African dancing, boat building, mandolin and banjo making, Brunswick stew making, steel drum making and other folk traditions carried on in the Commonwealth.

The idea of a National Folk Festival goes back to the first that was held in 1934 and it’s the oldest annual celebration of traditional arts in the country. The annual festival holds residence in an American city for three years and then moves on to another part of the country.

The 69th festival held in Richmond is the last of the city’s three-year stint and festival officials announced that the festival will be held in Butte, Montaina in 2008. The concept is to draw local and regional artists and crafts people around a common traditional arts theme to a single site that will allow visitors to gain a greater appreciation for the region’s cultural traditions with the hope that the sponsoring city will allow the event to take root and become a local event after the National Folk Festival moves on.

Modern Guitars focused on the music but took time to visit a few of the exhibitors including snake cane carver Norman Amos, auto pin striper Tom VanNortwick, fiddle maker Audry Hash Ham, banjo makers Olen Gardner and Ross Mathews and others. The musician list included bluegrass fiddler Buddy Pendleton, banjoists Mike Seeger and Seth Swingle, bluesman John Cephas, pedal steel player Cindy Cashdollar, fiddler Elana James, bluegrass player Doyle Lawson, Irish singer Karan Casey and others.

One of the first acts on Saturday morning was the Holmes Brothers who offered up some sweet soul music that proved as rocky as it was funky. The three brothers Sherman (bassist/vocals); Wendell (guitarist/pianist/vocalist) and Popsy (percussionist/vocalist) are juke joint veterans who have shared the stage with Van Morrison, Odetta, Levon Helm, Peter Gabriel and once performed for saxophonist and President Bill Clinton. Their set got the morning crowd awake and a few early birds dancing.

Cindy Cashdollar arrived on stage with master fiddler and vocalist Elana James who charmed the audience with her sweet potato pie vocals while Cindy cranked up her Fender pedal steel, winding it up with some sweeping buttery licks. Backed by the Hot Club of Cowtown, the group held the Virginians captive for over an hour.

We met with master guitar builder Wayne Henderson and had an opportunity to check out his 400th guitar that was as beautiful as expected with some fine inlay work and a surprisingly light weight. He carried it around without a case for a good bit of the time and guitar enthusiasts surrounded him and asked about the axe's vital statistics. Later, Wayne would join John Cephas, Cindy Cashdollar and others on stage. He told us that he has about an eight year waiting list for his guitars and that he’s decided to keep the 400th for himself.

We sat with Piedmont blues master John Cephas (interview) and played a few guitar licks with him before he stepped on stage to play some soulful traditional Piedmont blues with his partner and harmonica master Phil Wiggins. Cephas explained that the Piedmont blues evolved from African music and was adopted by musicians between the Atlantic coast and the eastern ridge of the Shenandoah mountains.

If you’ve never heard of Irish vocalist extraordinaire Karan Casey, stand by because you will. Casey's captivating Irish lilt stunned the crowd with passersbys turning, stopping and sticking around until her set ended. Her guitarist, Robbie Overson, had the stage solo for a moment and played remarkably melodic tune that gave us a smile.

As the annual showcase event for the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the National Folk Festival events are a treasure for those who love roots music and the traditional arts of North America. Next year’s 70th National Folk Festival is scheduled for July 11-13, 2008, in what’s called the Richest Hill on Earth or Butte, Montana, and during the next three summers the festival will certainly add to that city’s cultural wealth.

Related Links
"Bowling Green" John Cephas Talks about the Piedmont Blues
National Council for the Traditional Arts
National Folklife Festival (Richmond, VA)

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