No-Joke Folk

(Toggle Switch photos of -- top to bottom -- Grupo Cimarron, Howard Tate and the fiddle traditions workshop)

Today I made a quick trip to Richmond to romp through the inaugural Richmond Folk Festival -- which is a free event happening this weekend along the downtown riverfront. Two previous Octobers, Richmond hosted big music festivals under the National Folk Festival banner. I admired those from afar. This year, I finally got to see it all up close.

Damn, it was impressive. Generally speaking, big music festivals can be a pain. Bands tend to play one short 45-minute set. Sound can be sketchy. Lines can be long. Crowds can be irritating. Parking can be a pain in the neck. But organizers at the Richmond Folk Festival have most of the logistics sorted out. I was able to park quickly, walk a few blocks to the festival area near Browns Island and bounce between six stages with few snags.

In less than three hours, I was able to hear:

1) Grupo Cimarron, a joropo band from Colombia. These guys were an eye-opener -- and very entertaining. I'm familiar with some Colombian folk styles, but not joropo. I turns out to be based on stringed instruments -- nylon-string acoustic guitars, harp and bass -- along with hand percussion and singing. The sound reminded me of flamenco guitar at times, but the rhythmic elements were very different. The band's two vocalists were both very strong and fun to watch. Carlos Rojas' group, for me, was a revelation.

2) Howard Tate, a 70-year-old, classic-style soul singer. Howard's music has been rediscovered recently and he was in fine form in Richmond Saturday. While he's not all that mobile on stage, his voice was powerful and precise. I heard him sing Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927," as well as "Solid Ground" "I Learned it All The Hard Way" and "Ain't Nobody Home." That last song, Howard introduced saying "This is the first song that put me on the front line of music and I haven't looked back since ... except for the 30 years I disappeared." He also made it clear that he's thankful to have survived years of drug abuse and personal struggles to make music again. "I'm going to give God a clap for delivering me -- and I still have the voice," he said. "He'll deliver you, too."

3) A session featuring fiddlers from several different groups playing the festival. I came in late so I didn't get to hear everybody get introduced, but I know that Michael Doucet from Beausoleil and James Cheechoo, a Cree fiddler from Ontario, Canada, participated. I believe the fiddlers from the Irish group Liadan were also part of the action. Hearing these diverse fiddle styles helped me see subtle differences and similarities. This is the kind of thing I love about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the mall in Washington. Great to hear it a little bit closer to home.