music

Washington Square Park Folk Festival – Comin’ Up!

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Look out for the Washington Square Park Folk Festival! Comin’ up!  Free and open to the public!
www.WSPFolkFest.com

Saturday Sept. 24th

1pm Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues
1:45pm Ali Dineen
2:30pm Feral Foster
3:15pm The Tillers
4pm Bulla en el Barrio

Sunday Sept. 25th

1pm The Freakniks
1:45pm Kenny Kosek
2:30pm Julia Patinella
3:15pm The Down Hill Strugglers w/ John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers
4pm Square Dance w/ Alex Kramer Calling

Hope to see you there!
– Eli

Washington Square Park Folk Fest 2012

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Come check out the festival – It’s free and open to the public, out in Washington Square Park in New York’s own Greenwhich Village!


Saturday Sept. 15th
2pm Jackson Lynch – Blues and old-time singer, multi-instrumentalist
3pm Randy Burns – Songwriter
4pm Ian Link – Songwriter
5pm Stephanie Coleman – Old-time fiddler
6pm Banjorama – Banjo oriented jug band
7pm Whiskey Spitters – Blues and old-time stringband

Sunday Sept. 16th
1pm Mamie Minch and Tamar Korn – Blues and jazz singers
2pm Piedmont Bluz – Country blues duet
3pm Unnamed Hillbilly Orchestra w/ John Cohen
4pm Ginny Hawker and Tracy Schwarz – Old-time and country duet
5pm Blind Boy Paxton – Country blues guitarist
6pm 4 O’Clock Flowers – Folk duet
7pm Feral Foster – Songwriter

* The stage is located just East of the central plaza/fountain area of the park.  Seating will be provided.

Here’s what happened last year at the inaugural 2011 festival!


[Banner by C. Cassano]

Hello everybody, just letting you know about the upcoming Washington Square Park Folk Festival.  I got hired by the Parks Department to produce the first ever folk festival in Washington Square Park.  Gonna be fun!

The festival is FREE and open to the public!

Its gonna be an excellent two days of music, with 9 of my very favorite groups (including my own) gracing the stage and myself on hand to serve as your MC.  Hope to see you there!

Saturday Sept 17th, 2011:

2pm The Calamity Janes – old time string band
3pm Feral Foster – original songs and blues
4pm East River String Band – country blues & old time
5pm Whiskey Spitters – country blues & old time

Sunday Sept 18th, 2011:

2pm Bob Malenky – country blues
2:45pm Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues – jug band music
3:40 Frank Fairfield – Old Time songs and fiddle tunes
4:15pm The Dust Busters with John Cohen – old time string band
5:10pm Willy Gantrim & the Phantoms – original songs, country & blues
6pm Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob – make a wish for a potato

Proudly sponsored by:

http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/images/misc/parks_logo.jpg

2011 also marks the 50th anniversary of the 1961 “Washington Square Folk Music Riot” when the City tried to revoke the permit for folk musicians to play and sing on Sundays in the park.  They needed to clear undesirable people out so that they could  satisfy local real estate interests and I heard possibly enact a crazy plan to extend 5th ave. through the park!  Luckily folkies resisted the attempt by the police to kick them out of their public space, resulting in the “riot,” and the planned extension of 5th ave never materialized. There’s been a film made about the “riot” and the film will be screened at the festival.

Coverage of the so called riot has been offered by The Indypendent and NPR.

Paxton and Fairfield in the NY Times

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[Paxton and Fairfield perform “Poor Little Bennie.”]

Down Home Radio favorites and past guests on the program Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton and Frank Fairfield have recently been featured in the New York Times, following their appearance last Tuesday at the Jalopy Theater.  CLICK HERE to read the NY Times piece by Ben Ratliff.

CLICK HERE for the Down Home Radio interview with Frank Fairfield, and HERE for the interview with Blind Boy Paxton.

Here’s some more footage I shot at the Jalopy show:

Photos From the Festival

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[Radio Jarocho at The 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival.  Photo E. Smith]

Well, the 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival has come and gone, and I can tell you that it was a great success!  It sold out every night, the new outdoor stage was a huge success and people had a great time!  The whole thing was professionally recorded by Don Fierro and we look forward to the release of at least one Brooklyn Folk Festival 2010  CD/LP probably over the winter on the brand new Jalopy Records label.  The music that was played at this festival was to put it plainly AMAZING.  I knew it would be good, but didn’t realize just how good.  As the organizer and MC I was very emotionally moved by the whole proceeding!  Truly.  Already planning for next year… well maybe I’ll take a break.  But I’m already excited!

Below are some photos I took at the festival.  All of my photos from the event can be seen at this link. Look out in the reasonably near future for some films from the festival shot by filmmaker Chris Low.  I’ll be posting up a bunch of those plus audio and some videos I took, etc.


[The Calamity Janes.  Photo E. Smith]


[Feral Foster.  Photo E. Smith]


[Rashad Brown performs at the outdoor stage.  Photo Susan Heske]


[Clifton Hicks (R) The Dough Rollers (L)  Photo E. Smith]


[The Tillers. Photo E. Smith]


[John Cohen.  Photo E. Smith]


[John Cohen screens his new film “Roscoe Holcomb From Daisy Kentucky.” Photo by E. Smith]


[Brotherhood of the Jug Band Blues.  Photo E. Smith]

To see all my photos from the 2010 Brooklyn Folk Festival Click Here. And check back for audio and video from the festival coming soon…

The Dust Busters on Woodsongs

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While out on tour back in March my old-time string band The Dust Busters appeared on the Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour.  Woodsongs is a radio/TV show filmed weekly at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington (KY).  Thanks to Michael Johnathon and all the folks at Woodsongs for having us, it was a fun show!  Here is our appearance on that program:

And be sure to check us out, Friday May 21st, 10:15pm at the Brooklyn Folk Festival.

Article I wrote for the Music for Democracy website on music and politics.

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Here’s an article that I wrote for the Music For Democracy website on the interchange between music and politics. I tried to isolate different approaches to the question of music and politics and then pick one musician that exemplified each approach.

How Musicians Have Responded to Politics: A Brief Historical Overview

By Eli Smith September 10, 2008

Music creates and fosters community by speaking to people’s needs, hopes, fears, and intimate lives — and so does politics. Musicians have responded to this connection in a variety of ways over time. As the host of Down Home Radio, I thought it would be worthwhile to compile a brief survey of how certain musicians, each in a particular way, chose to explore the realm of politics. Obviously, I have only touched on a few musicians here, so please respond with amendments, qualifications, additions and corrections.

Pete Seeger (b. 1919)

Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger has worked it from almost every angle over his long career. He started out in the 1930s playing at union meetings, and in 1948, hit the road with Progressive party presidential candidate Henry Wallace to sing songs at campaign rallies. Since the era of the civil rights and peace movements, Seeger has appeared at demonstrations large and small, using his unique celebrity in conjunction with grassroots activism to draw crowds and attention to a wide range of issues, from war and racism, to nuclear power, to ecological awareness.

List of Free Internet Music Resources

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On today’s episode I play only tracks that I have downloaded for free from the internet. I actually ended up using only tracks that I got from the fantastic music blog www.eldiablotuntun.blogspot.com , but there are many other great ones out there! See my complete list below. The internet has made it possible to hear pretty much anything you want, even and especially obscure folk music, for free. This is quite a positive turn of events – the only trouble is finding out what you want to hear. Down Home Radio is here to help! But you can now really educate your self thoroughly, feed your aural addiction and generally have a great time, with out breaking the bank. This should be taken advantage of to the fullest extent.

Here’s my list of favorite music blogs, archives and downloading software:

(If anybody has additions to this list, please let me know!)

http://eldiablotuntun.blogspot.com

http://www.juneberry78s.com

http://totallyfuzzy.blogspot.com/ – Search the world of music blogs!

and more… See below: