Roots n Ruckus

The Brooklyn Folk Festival: May 15th-17th

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Thanks to everybody who made the festival such a big success.  See ya next year!

(Look out for audio, pictures and video from the festival coming up real soon here on DHR)

Brooklyn Folk Festival Logo by you.

Friday, May 15th thru Sunday, May 17th at the Jalopy Theater.

Down Home Radio is proud to announce the 1st annual Brooklyn Folk Festival.  This festival will feature the best in old-time music, blues, pre-blues, jug band music, New Orleans jazz, folk style songwriting, African folk music and Mexican folk music and dance.  Come down and check it out, its gonna be fun!

*This festival is brought to you by Down Home Radio, and will be MCed by Down Home Radio host Eli Smith.

$10 Per Day or $25 for 3 days – Afternoon Workshop Included!

Interview with Jessy Carolina

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On today’s show I speak with New York folk singer and song writer Jessy Carolina.  Originally from Venezuela, Jessy grew up in North Dakota and later New York City.  She sings a lot of early blues songs, old-time and folk songs, Woody Guthrie songs and writes her own songs. We recorded this interview in a park in New Orleans when we were both down there back in February, busking on Royal street and escaping the New York winter.  Jessy plays live on the show, talks about her background, the trip down South and life busking in NOLA.  I also play some live recordings that I made of Jessy at the Jalopy Theater in Redhook, Brooklyn.

Jessy will be performing, along with 20 other great acts, at the upcoming Brooklyn Folk Festival, which will be held at Jalopy the weekend of May 15th -17th.  Its gonna be fun!  Check out www.BrooklynFolkFest.com for details.

Jessy Carolina sings “Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie,” by Elizabeth Cotten on the streets of New Orleans, Feb. 2009.

Jalopy Theater on Brooklyn TV

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The Jalopy Theater & School of Music (the gravitational center of Down Home Radio) was recently featured on the Brooklyn Independent Television channel.  The show features interviews with owners Geoff and Lynette Wiley, with Roots n Ruckus host Feral Foster and with Eli Smith (me) as well as some excellent footage of the place.  This is from an excellent cable show, featuring different neighborhoods in Brooklyn each week.  We were included in the Redhook episode, Jalopy being located in the Redhook section of Brooklyn.

Jalopy has lots of great live music on weekends and throughout the week, sells and repairs instruments and offers music classes.  I teach the banjo class there.

Roots n Ruckus Live at Jalopy August 27th 2008

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Jessy Carolina Dom Flemons Feral Foster
Jessy Carolina                         Dom Flemons                         Feral Foster

Willy Gantrim at Jalopy Sam Shepard and Peter Stampfel Frank Hoier

Willy Gantrim               Sam Shepard & Peter Stampfel          Frank Hoier

Every Wednesday night I take part in a live folk music show called “Roots n Ruckus” that takes place at the Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn, NY. Here’s another live recording I made there back in August.  That night the show featured many of the Roots n Ruckus regulars as well as Dom Flemons from the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Peter Stampfel and Sam Shepard of the Holy Modal Rounders.

It was a great show!  Hope you enjoy.

The acts:

Part 1
0:00 – ???  Who is this?  I can’t remember, but he’s real good.
22:00 – Frank Hoier
45:30 – (Elements of the) Peach Colored Jug Smugglers w/ Eli Smith (me) on guitar & Dizzy on washboard
66:00 – Feral Foster
88:00 – Peter Stampfel & Sam Shepard w/ Jeannie Scofield & Eli Smith

Part 2
0:00 – Dom Flemons
38:00 – Willy Gantrim
68:00 – Jessy Carolina

Interview with Blind Boy Paxton

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Blind Boy Paxton by you.
(Blind Boy Paxton at the Jalopy Theater, Roots n Ruckus show, Sept. ’08.  Photo by Eli Smith)

On today’s show I speak with blues musician Blind Boy Paxton.  Paxton is a 19 year old musician and singer who plays the guitar, banjo and piano and is a walking encyclopedia of early blues and jazz.  He hails from the Watts section of Los Angeles, but we are lucky enough to have him here on the East Coast during the school year.  I visited him where he goes to college a couple of hours north of New York City and we recorded this interview.  Paxton is very influenced by the music and culture carried in his family, and grandmother in particular, who are from Louisiana.  Blind Boy plays plays live on the air, spins some of his favorite records and recounts some interesting stories!

See below for links, etc.