The Richmond Folk Festival strives to present the very finest traditional artists from across the nation. In making its selections, the local Programming Committee is guided by the following definition, which is the guide for the National Council for Traditional Arts and the National Folk Festival, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts:
FOLK & TRADITIONAL ARTS – a definition
The folk and traditional arts are rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a community. Community members may share a common ethnic heritage, language, religion, occupation, or geographic region. These vital and constantly reinvigorated artistic traditions are shaped by values and standards of excellence that are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community, through demonstration, conversation, and practice. Genres of artistic activity include, but are not limited to, music, dance, crafts, and oral expression.
- National Endowment for the Arts
If you're interested in performing in next year's festival, check out "How to be a performer at the Richmond Folk Festival".
Here are the artists that thrilled crowds in 2009
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From the CenterStage Virginia Folklife Area's program Sacred Sounds - Sacred Spaces:
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Richmond Folk Festival In The Schools
Through the generous support of its sponsors, the Richmond Folk Festival will fill Richmond city school auditoriums and classrooms with performances and presentations of deeply-rooted cultural expressions.
The week prior to the festival master musicians and artists will visit 15 public schools. Together, the artists and students share music, song, craft, stories and memories that will last a lifetime.
Aubrey Ghent
Sacred Steel
Nashville, TN
Third generation lap steel guitar master Aubrey Ghent is one of the country’s most exciting players of “sacred steel,” a music that originated in House of God churches 75 years ago. Holiness-Pentecostal churches cite Psalms 150:4, “. . . praise him with stringed instruments. . . ,” and 149:3, “Let them praise his name in the dance,” as scriptural support for celebratory, spirit-filled worship in which the presence of the Holy Spirit is manifested through music and holy dancing.
Up until the early 1990s, Sacred Steel music was virtually unknown outside of House of God churches. That all changed when Florida folklorist Robert Stone walked into a South Florida music store in 1992 and heard Aubrey Ghent. Stone had never heard music remotely like that which Ghent was playing. It led him to delve into the tradition and discover that there were dozens of great steel guitar players in House of God congregations from Florida to upstate New York, each with its own deep history and variation on the style.
Aubrey Ghent was born in 1959 in Fort Pierce, Florida into a family linked to the very creation of the Sacred Steel tradition. His uncle was Willie Eason, who taught Aubrey's father Henry Nelson to play. A notable innovator who expanded upon Eason’s style, Nelson played for more than 50 years in the church and around the country with gospel greats like Rosetta Thorpe and Mahalia Jackson. Aubrey began playing at age six and by nine was performing at church services. As a teenager Ghent began to preach and became known as the “Gospel Tornado,” as much for the intensity of his preaching as his astonishing instrumental prowess. Later his wife Lori became his musical partner and the lead singer in his group, and together the couple has dedicated their lives to the music and ministry of the House of God Keith Dominion.
Ghent was featured on the ground-breaking 1995 Arhoolie CD Sacred Steel: Traditional Sacred African-American Steel Guitar Music in Florida, and soon followed up with his solo recording, Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus, which brought him national acclaim and performance opportunities throughout the country, as well as additional recordings. In 2000 the Ghents moved to Nashville, formed a new band and have become ambassadors for Sacred Steel, appearing at festivals throughout the country and on European tours. They have worked with gospel legends Shirley Caesar, Albertina Walker and Tremaine Hawkins.
Bob French's Original Tuxedo Jazz Band
traditional New Orleans jazz
New Orleans, LA
 ©Erika Goldring 2006 |
Bob French is only the fourth leader the band has had during it long and illustrious career. Oscar “Papa” Celestin organized the ensemble in 1910 and named it for the Tuxedo Dance Hall where the band played in its early years. After Celestin’s passing in 1954, trombonist Eddie Pierson took over and maintained the band until his death in 1958. Famed banjo player Albert “Papa” French led the band from 1958 until his death in 1977 when the reins passed to his son, drummer and bandleader Bob French.
Bob French grew up steeped in New Orleans jazz at home, but he initially gravitated to popular styles. He was already making a name for himself in rhythm and blues when one night his father asked him to fill in for the regular Original Tuxedo Jazz Band drummer who was ill. Bob French recounts: “He had a hell of a band. By the end of the night, I found out how much I didn’t know about music…. From that day on, I respected traditional jazz. And I’ve been playing it ever since.”
Bob French’s dedication to New Orleans jazz runs deep, just like his love of New Orleans itself. Two months after Hurricane Katrina hit, French returned to the city with trombonist Frederick Lonzo to photograph the devastation on behalf of “Musicians’ Village,” a Habitat for Humanity project building homes for displaced musicians in the Upper Ninth Ward.
Bob French’s Original Tuxedo Jazz Band has performed for presidents and kings and traveled the world. An icon in a city steeped in musical tradition, the group has become something more than just a band; it’s an institution.
Clinton Fearon & The Boogie Brown Band
Jamaican Reggae
Tacoma, WA
A member of the legendary Gladiators, one of the most popular vocal groups to emerge from Jamaica in the formative years of reggae, singer and songwriter Clinton Fearon has been bringing roots reggae music to audiences across the globe for close to four decades. Emerging from the island of Jamaica in the 1960s, reggae captivated the world with its musical calls for justice, freedom and equality, and messages of hope and redemption. Clinton’s vibrant voice and powerful songs continue to remind listeners that reggae has always been more than a musical style.
Clinton Fearon grew up in Jamaica at a time when different musical and historical streams were converging to create what is now popularly known as reggae. The reggae beat, slow and steady like the human heartbeat, has roots in the island’s indigenous folk percussion and the religious drumming known as nyahbingi. Mento, a Jamaican folk music closely related to Trinidadian calypso, also contributed to the development of reggae. Finally, reggae drew from two popular homegrown dance styles that preceded it, ska and rock steady, both influenced by American R&B and jump blues.
The development of reggae is intertwined with the history of Rastafarianism, a spiritual, social, and political movement that began to develop among the island’s poor during the 1930s. Rastas, as they came to be known, believed in the divine nature of Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, and helped to revitalize pan-African nationalism throughout Jamaica. In the volatile political climate of the 1960s, reggae music fused with Rasta consciousness and became the representative musical outlet for expressing the hopes and fears of the Jamaican people.
Fearon was an active participant in Jamaica’s burgeoning reggae scene. As an early member of The Gladiators, which he joined in 1969 as both a bass player and harmony singer, Fearon appeared on recordings of many of the groups most well-known songs, including “Freedom Train” and “Downtown Rebel,” the latter of which was recorded at the famous Studio One with Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd. Fearon’s talent for songwriting attracted the attention of legendary producer Joe Gibbs, who recorded many of Fearon’s original songs on a 1974 Gladiators album. Lee “Scratch” Perry, impressed with his commanding bass playing, also hired Fearon as a house musician for his Black Ark Studio.
In 1986, on the heels of a Gladiators tour, Fearon remained in Seattle to undertake a musical project. Its success eventually prompted a permanent move to the Pacific Northwest. Fearon started his own band to showcase his original songs, and has released several well-received albums. The Boogie Brown Band has developed into one of the strongest groups in the genre. Their most recent album is Vision, a musical meditation on love and spirituality. With his passionate singing and socially-conscious lyrics, Clinton remains a righteous and powerful force in roots reggae music.
Debashish Bhattacharya
Indian slide guitar
Kolkata, India
Who could have imagined that an old Hawaiian lap steel guitar lying in the corner of an Indian home, a nearly forgotten relic from the Hawaiian music craze that had overtaken Calcutta in the 1930s after a visit from legendary Hawaiian slide guitarist Tau Moe, would lead to an Indian slide guitar revolution? Debashish Bhattacharya was only three years old when he discovered the instrument to which he would dedicate his life’s work. “For me,” he says, “it was love at first touch.” Since then Bhattacharya’s remarkable playing and musical innovations have propelled him to the forefront of Indian music and attracted world attention.
Debashish Bhattacharya was born in 1963 into a family of accomplished devotional singers in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India. Under his parents’ tutelage, he learned to sing before he could talk.
During his youth, Debashish studied classical singing as well as traditional instruments including the sitar, fully immersing himself in the tradition of raga. Ragas are the melodic frameworks for improvisation upon classical Indian music is based. Each of the several hundred extant ragas evokes a specific mood or atmosphere. Debashish also continued to experiment with the slide guitar, and at age 20 he became the first slide guitarist to win the President of India Award in national competition. Shortly thereafter, he began a decade of study with Brij Bhushan Kabra, a pioneer in the use of guitar in Indian classical music, and also studied under the eminent vocalist Ajoy Chakraborty.
In his quest to better adapt the slide guitar to the Indian raga, the inventive Bhattacharya has created a new family of slide guitars that incorporate characteristics of other Indian instruments. He calls his three favorites his Trinity: the 14-string Gandharvi, the tiny Anandi (slide ukulele), and Debashish’s primary instrument, the Chaturangui. This 22-string guitar, whose name means “four attributes,” incorporates the timbres of violin, sitar, sarod, and veena through the addition of both sympathetic and drone strings. The raga tradition is the departure point for far-flung musical excursions. As he explains, “My tradition is my foundation as it represents my roots. It enables me to be wild in terms of innovation, without losing control… to be able to play with fire in the musical sense, to live dangerously and come out unscathed.”
At age 40, Debashish was made a Pandit (master), and along with his siblings, established Bhattacharya’s International School of Universal Music in Kolkata. He has toured internationally and collaborated with master musicians from around the globe, including jazz musician John McLaughlin, dobro player Jerry Douglas, and Hawaiian slide guitarist Bob Brozman.
Performing with Debashish at the Richmond Folk Festival is his younger brother, Subhasis Bhattacharya, a master tabla player, percussion teacher, and leading studio musician in India. Subasis accompanies his brother on Debashish’s albums, including the latest, the 2009 Grammy-nominated Calcutta Chronicles: Indian Slide-Guitar.
Don Roy Trio
Maine French Fiddle
Gorham, ME
Don Roy has been called “the dean of Franco-American fiddling in Maine,” a title which reflects both his skilled playing and his dedication to sharing his musical heritage. House parties with fiddling and singing were a weekly occurrence among Don’s extended family in the Winslow, Maine area. His uncle Norman Mathieu taught him to play guitar when Don was six, and another uncle, Lucien Mathieu, taught him to play the fiddle at age 15. Don traveled with his “Uncle Lou” to the homes of noted fiddler friends and to fiddle contests throughout New England and Canada, where he refined his skills. He now leads the Don Roy Trio, one of the finest Franco-American ensembles in the country.
According to ethnomusicologist Bau Graves, Don Roy’s playing "exactly exemplifies what Franco American fiddling is all about. It is simultaneously precisely controlled and wildly danceable." Inspired by fiddlers like Ben Guillemette, Joe and Gerry Robichaud, and Graham Townsend, Don’s fiddling blends the sounds of Quebec, Ireland, Ontario and the Maritime Provinces. French settlers in Maine brought with them both Acadian and Quebecois musical styles, with the Quebecois emphasizing multi-part tune structures and the Acadian generally exhibiting a repeated two-part structure. The tradition in southern Maine primarily reflects the Acadian style, which incorporates melodies from the Irish and Scottish repertoire. More recently, the tradition has begun to show the influence of decades of fiddle contests, emphasizing clear, precise, and—perhaps most significantly—fast playing, all the better to bring audiences to their feet.
Don organized and then managed The Maine French Fiddlers, a large fiddle orchestra, for 11 years, and has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” Closer to home, he has twice won the Maine Fellowship for Excellence in Traditional Music. Don has recently begun to pursue his interest in making stringed instruments, working under the tutelage of his friend, master craftsman Jon Cooper. He finds great joy in “taking a piece of wood and making it alive.”
The other members of the Don Roy Trio are Cindy Roy and Jay Young. Growing up in the Acadian-American community, Cindy was encouraged to take up the piano by her grandfather, fiddler Alphy Martin, who played twin fiddles with Don’s Uncle Lucien. While she had classical training in her youth, Cindy began to focus on learning traditional Franco-American piano chording in 1980 when she met her future husband Don. In performance she also incorporates the step dancing she has loved since childhood; Cindy recalls having to be carried off to bed crying as a young girl because she wanted to keep dancing all night at family soirees. Bassist Jay Young comes to the tradition via a more circuitous route through rock and roll and bluegrass, and teamed up with Don in 1985. In the last few years Jay has taken another great leap, literally, studying with Cindy to become, perhaps, the only step-dancing upright bass player in the world.
Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys
Zydeco
Lafayette, LA
Featuring the masterful accordion and singing of front man Jeffrey Broussard, Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys is making waves on the Southwest Louisiana zydeco scene, delivering pack-the-floor renditions of Creole classics as well as its own brand of contemporary zydeco. Drawing inspiration from earlier Creole music legends Canray Fontenot and Jeffery’s father, accordion player Delton Broussard, Jeffrey Broussard & the Creole Cowboys are interpreting this infectious dance music for a new generation, and presenting it with contemporary flair.
An accordion-led dance style that fused older Creole music with blues and R&B, zydeco emerged during the post-WWII years. Its development and popularity can largely be credited to accordionist Clifton Chenier (1925-1987). Jeffrey’s father’s band, Delton Broussard and the Lawtell Playboys, was one of the pioneering zydeco ensembles that, in addition to Delton’s driving accordion, featured the great Creole fiddler Calvin Carriere.
The youngest of 11 children, Jeffery Broussard was raised on a farm in the rural community Frilot Cove, Louisiana. At age eight he started playing drums in his father’s band. After seventh grade, Jeffery left school to farm, helping his parents make ends meet by digging and sorting potatoes. Whenever he could, Jeffery would sneak his daddy’s accordion out of the closet, and he taught himself how to play. During his teen years, Jeffery was the drummer in his oldest brother Clinton’s band, The Zydeco Machines, and while in this band made his public debut on the accordion. At the time he was too shy even to speak on stage, let alone sing, but his brother let him play a few songs from time to time. Jeffrey went on to front the influential group Zydeco Force, both as lead singer and accordionist, before forming The Creole Cowboys in 2004. Jeffery plays both the one-row and three-row button accordions, and in 2007 received the Zydeco Music & Creole Heritage Award for
"Accordionist of the Year."
The band’s unique combination of talents and shared interest in the Creole musical legacy has created a special chemistry, one that has made Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys the “band with the buzz” in Louisiana and beyond. This year, the band won Best Zydeco Album for offBEAT Magazine’s Best of the Beat Awards and toured in Europe and Africa.
Jorge Negron’s Master Bomba Ensemble
Puerto Rican Bomba Percussion and Dance Ensemble
San Juan, PR
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With some of Puerto Rico’s finest master bomba drummers and dancers in tow, former Richmonder Jorge Negron returns with one of Puerto Rico’s most engaging Afro-Latin ensembles. |
Khogzhumchu
Tuvan Throat-singing
Kyzyl, Tuva (Russian Federation)
One of the oldest and most striking vocal traditions of mankind is xöömei (throat-singing) from the heart of Central Asia. The ethereal tones of throat-singing evoke sounds of nature—the wind whistling down from the mountains, the deep lowing of the yak, and the high trill of birdsong—all set to the rhythm of trotting horses ridden by the nomadic herdsmen of the tiny republic of Tuva. Largely unknown to the outside world until the 1990s, Tuvan throat-singing expanded western conceptions of the limits of the human voice, and quickly became a sensation worldwide. The members of Khogzhumchu are leaders in a new, post-Soviet generation of musicians who masterfully incorporate elements from western styles in a way that only enhances the breathtaking impact of this ancient traditional form.
Throat-singing is a unique kind of overtone singing that involves one singer simultaneously producing two or three notes of different pitches – a low fundamental tone, often a drone, and harmonic tones several octaves higher (sometimes lower) that, with virtuosic skill, are shaped into a melody. The effect is miraculous; nothing exists in western vocal music that resembles this eerie and beautiful Central Asian sound. Such singing was also practical, since the sounds of xöömei carried far across the thinly-populated steppes. The music expresses the cultural value placed on nature in traditional Tuvan spiritual beliefs—although its lyrics, like those of many folk songs, often focus on pretty girls and fast horses.
The founder of the Khogzhumchu, Andrey Mongush, is recognized as one of the foremost young leaders of this tradition. He has received numerous distinctions and awards both in Tuva and abroad. A musician and composer, he is a veteran of two of the most well known throat-singing groups, Huun Huur Tu and Chirgilchin. Mongush travels to the remote regions in his homeland to collect songs and inspire other performers. The group is rounded out by Ayhan Ooshaz who sings and plays the igil (two –stringed upright fiddle), multi-instrumentalist and singer Evgeny Saryglar, and Kan-Khular Saaya, an instrument-maker, singer and multi-instrumentalist who plays the igil, the byzaanchy (four-stringed upright fiddle), and the chadagan (plucked zither). Although formed just two years ago, Khogzhumchu has already performed for the Dalai Lama in India and at the Ustu-Huure world music festival in Tuva. This is the group’s first trip to the United States.
La Gran Banda
Colombian Papayera
Miami, FL
The papayera band is a distinctive and much-loved feature of the towns of Colombia’s Caribbean coast, a region which includes bandleader Henry March’s native city of Barranquilla. There, big papayera bands of 20 or more musicians are a fixture in the celebratory life of each town. The papayera style combines the European municipal brass band tradition with the percussion instruments and African-influenced dance rhythms typical of the Colombian coastal region. The music of La Gran Banda covers the wide range of regional dance styles—including porro, cumbia, vallenato, fandango, and paseo—wrapping them all in the brass flair that characterizes the traditional papayera.
When Henry March emigrated from Colombia to Miami, Florida in 1986, he was already an accomplished professional musician, producer, and a composer of jazz as well as a variety of Afro-Caribbean dance music styles. He also had a deep and abiding interest in the folk music of the coastal region where he grew up, and a wide-ranging collection of traditional instruments from that area. March built on this knowledge of regional traditions to find a musical niche for himself in his new home of Miami; with well over 100,000 Colombians in Miami-Dade County, Miami provided a huge and enthusiastic audience for traditional Colombian music. Many vallenato bands already served the community, so March chose instead to offer Miami audiences the sound of the papayera bands of Barranquilla, a style instantly identifiable as Colombian, and yet unique among Miami ensembles. Thus, in 1992, he founded La Gran Banda: Orquesta y Papayera, a smaller papayera band suited to the venues of Miami. In addition to bandleader and saxophonist Henry A. March, this band assembles a roster of some of Miami’s great Colombian brass and percussion players. Together, as La Gran Banda, they bring the big brass sound of the papayera band from Colombia’s coast to the stages of the Richmond Folk Festival for the very first time.
Lloyd Arneach
Cherokee Storyteller
Cherokee, NC
“There is a great power and wisdom in the old stories,” says master storyteller Lloyd Arneach. A member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, Arneach learned the old stories told by two of his uncles while he was growing up. It wasn’t until later, however, after a career of teaching about his traditional culture, as well as a stint working for AT&T, that he took up storytelling full time. Like other great storytellers, Arneach possess a keen wit and the ability to draw from personal experience. “I’m fortunate to have a wealth of stories to share,” he says, “and I’ll tell stories to anyone who will sit down and listen.” At the festival, Lloyd will share his humorous, informative and moving stories, which are sure to engage audiences of all ages.
In the 1830s, the majority of the Cherokee were evicted from their homeland in the southeastern United States and forced to march westward to Oklahoma on what became known as "The Trail of Tears." A few Cherokee families avoided the removal by hiding in remote hollows of the Great Smoky Mountains. One such hollow in western North Carolina became the home of Lloyd’s ancestors. Although cut off from much of the Western Cherokee population, this band, now based in the Qualla Boundary land trust in Cherokee, North Carolina, kept many of their traditional stories alive. Storytelling has played a crucial role in passing on Cherokee history and knowledge from one generation to the next. Lloyd absorbed the traditional Cherokee stories and storytelling style and has built upon this foundation, adding stories from his own experiences, other elders, as well as contemporary and historical stories of other Native American tribes.
Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill
Irish Fiddle and Guitar Duo
West Hartford, CT and Chicago, IL
Irish fiddle virtuoso Martin Hayes and Irish American guitarist Dennis Cahill possess a rare musical kinship, and have created one of the most memorable musical partnerships of our era. The duo has garnered international renown for taking traditional music to the very edge of the genre, holding listeners spellbound as they weave music that slowly smolders before exploding with exhilarating energy. Hayes and Cahill work off each other like two jazz masters, exploring the tunes, spinning medleys that expand and contract with intensity. “Our allegiance is to the spirit of the moment,” says Hayes, “Our primary wish is that the musical experience be one that lifts our spirits and those of the audience.” The New York Times calls them “a Celtic complement to Steve Reich’s quartets or Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain,” and The Irish Times stated “If your live music rations were limited to a single concert in the entire year, then you'd be either crazy or foolish if you didn’t pass that precious time in the company of Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill.”
Fiddler Martin Hayes is regarded as one of the most exceptional talents to emerge in the world of Irish traditional music. His unique sound, his mastery of his chosen instrument, his acknowledgement of the past and his shaping of the future of the music, combine to express a formidable artistic intelligence. A native of County Clare, to which he returns for extended periods several times a year, Hayes has been based in the United States, now living in Connecticut, for the past twenty-three years. While he has drawn musical inspiration from sources as diverse as the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, the Spanish viola da gamba master, Jordi Savall, and the jazz genius, John Coltrane, Martin remains grounded in the music he grew up with in his own locality, Maghera, Feakle, East County Clare where the music which he learned from his late father, P. Joe Hayes, the legendary leader of the long-lived Tulla Ceili Band, profoundly influenced his musical accent and ideas forever after.
Hayes has been the recipient of major national and international awards, most recently the prestigious Gradam Ceoil, Musician of the Year 2008 from the Irish language television station TG 4. He has received a National Entertainment Award (the Irish ‘Grammy’), won six All-Ireland fiddle championships (before the age of 19) and in 2000 was cited by the Irish Sunday Tribune as one of the 100 most influential Irish men and women in the fields of entertainment, politics and sports, as well as one of the most important musicians to come out of Ireland in the last fifty years. Hayes serves as the artistic director of the Masters of Tradition Festival held in August each year in West Cork, where Ireland’s most distinguished traditional musicians are invited to play. He has composed scores for film, theatre, and modern dance, and collaborated with musicians in other genres like jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. He views these explorations as a means of shedding light on his ongoing artistic journey, as well as a challenge to any rigidity of thought. His fundamental artistic quest is to go deeper and deeper within traditional Irish music and himself.
Dennis Cahill is a master guitarist, whose innovative accompaniment is acknowledged as being a major breakthrough for guitar in the Irish tradition. A native of Chicago born to parents from the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland, Cahill studied at the city’s prestigious Music College before becoming an active member of the local music scene. The musical rapport between Hayes and Cahill is so strong that it is often said they appear to be working telepathically, playing one instrument. While Martin pursues a melody, Dennis explores the harmony and rhythms within the tunes. He seems to know intuitively Hayes’ next move, consistently matching it with astonishing skill and grace. In addition to his work with Martin, Dennis has performed with such renowned fiddlers as Liz Carroll, Eileen Ivers and Kevin Burke, as well as many Irish musicians on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a sought after producer for musical artists whom he records in his own Chicago studio and is also an accomplished photographer. Taking full advantage of the Hayes and Cahill international travel, Dennis shoots photos that document both the backstage world as well whimsical glimpses of rural villages, towns and cities, far and wide. His photos can be viewed on his website: http://www.denniscahill.com.
Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill met in Chicago in the 1980s. They formed the jazz/rock/fusion band, Midnight Court, which allowed them to experiment with a variety of new music styles. When Martin reclaimed his traditional roots, he began a new musical relationship with Cahill, beginning with the lyrical music of East Clare. Their live performances start from the simplest of melodies, weaving an improvisational musical spell that builds in intensity and complexity, in what Hayes describes as “a three-way conversation between the two of us and the music.” Their touring schedule takes them around the world. In 1997 they released The Lonesome Touch, followed by Live in Seattle in 1999. After a ten-year hiatus, in February 2008, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill released the studio album Welcome Here Again available through Compass Records.Mr. Wiggles
Rhythm & Blues Pioneer
Richmond, VA
Richmond singer, producer, inventor of the “fatback sound,” “King of Richmond” and rhythm and blues pioneer, August “Mr. Wiggles” Moon will share his recollections on Virginia’s musical history and his experiences in the music industry. He will be participating in the festival’s Virginia’s Musical Icons session scheduled on Sunday, October 11, 2009, on the MWV Family Stage at 1:00 p.m.
North Bear
Northern Plains Drum
Lame Deer, MT
In American Indian pow-wows around the country, in both ceremonial and competitive settings, the intense, repetitive heartbeat of the drum and soaring falsetto singing are essential accompaniments to the agile movements of dancers. One of the newest and strongest of the Northern Plains drum groups is the youthful North Bear from the Cheyenne Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana. While firmly rooted in Plains tradition, the music of North Bear also represents an exciting new direction in American Indian tradition. The group’s repertoire includes newly composed songs influenced by modern R&B and hip-hop styles that contribute a surprising element to its powerful and exciting live performances.
Founded in 2003, North Bear has become recognized as one of the foremost exponents of the Northern Plains “straight” or “traditional” style of singing within the Cheyenne community. Employing powerful falsetto voices, and non-word musical syllables called “vocables,” the drum group increases the volume, tempo and intensity of its singing as it drives the progression of the dance. Since its formation, North Bear has traveled around the U.S. performing and competing in national pow-wows from Oklahoma to the Pacific Northwest, taking numerous prizes.
North Bear’s musical innovations are solidly grounded in tradition. The group is at the center of a resurgence of interest in the hand drum within the American Indian community. Hand drum competitions, in which the drums accompany love songs or topical songs with improvised and composed lyrics, akin to rap in the hip hop world, are a new feature of American Indian social gatherings. North Bear’s passionate, clever songs, both performed solo and as a group, have propelled them to the forefront of this musical movement in Native American song.
Paul Williams & The Victory Trio
Bluegrass Gospel
Russelville, TN
Born and raised in eastern Tennessee, Paul Williams was a bluegrass music pioneer, whose career blossomed during the music’s formative years following World War II. After a 30-year hiatus from full-time touring, but not from music, Williams formed the Victory Trio to promote bluegrass gospel music on a national level. With his distinctive tenor voice, powerful mandolin playing and very accomplished ensemble, Williams is now making some of the finest music of his career.
Paul Williams’ involvement with music began at age nine, when his father bought him a Gibson “A” model mandolin to play in prayer meetings and church services. His talent was soon evident, and by the early 1950s he had become a member of the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers, an important early bluegrass band. Williams first came to national attention in 1953 when he joined up with his brother-in law, Jimmy Martin, whose work with Bill Monroe’s band had helped shape the bluegrass sound. With Williams in tow, Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys went on to become one of the greatest bluegrass ensembles of all time. Williams’ clear, crisp tenor and carefully crafted mandolin playing and the young J. D. Crow’s clockwork banjo combined with Martin’s lead vocals and strong guitar work to propel the band to national attention.
After ten years of musical success, Williams quit touring to work for the U.S. Postal Service, a job he held for 30 years. However, his love for bluegrass remained with him, and he never stopped playing. Upon his retirement from the Postal Service he jumped right back into the music, this time focusing on bluegrass gospel. Since 1995, he has toured and recorded extensively with his group, the Victory Trio. Nine albums and a Grammy nomination later, the ensemble is at the top of the bluegrass gospel field. Williams continues to write moving and thoughtful songs, many of which have made their way into the larger bluegrass gospel repertoire.
Paul Williams and the Victory Trio is actually a quintet. In addition to Williams, the group includes Dan Moneyhan on guitar and lead vocals, Adam Winstead on rhythm guitar and vocals, Jerry Keys on banjo and Susie Keys on bass.
Paul Zarzyski
Cowboy poetry
Great Falls, MT
Recipient of the 2005 Governor’s Arts Award for Literature, Paul Zarzyski, Montana’s cowboy poet laureate, has been “spurring the words wild across the open range of the page,” as he puts it, for 35 years. When asked to describe himself, Paul Zarzyski (rhymes with whiskey) says that he’s a “rodeo poet, if any handle has to be hung on me at all.” This quibble is typical of Zarzyski’s modesty, and also his precision with words. In fact, Paul is one of the best known, and best, of the artists writing in the genre called “cowboy poetry.”
Zarzyski grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin where his father mined iron ore. At 22, he moved out to Montana to study under the well-known poet Richard Hugo in Missoula and within a year found himself pursuing his twin passions for poetry and a second “lucrative” career, bareback bronc riding. Paul spent more than a dozen years on the rodeo circuit, both amateur and professional, until a bad back (“the motor mounts rusted out”) ended his bronc riding days. He now makes his living, he says, borrowing the title of a James Dickey essay, “Barnstorming for Poetry.”
Unlike most cowboy poets, who use traditional rhymed verse forms, Zarzyski usually prefers free verse, although he has written some rhymed poems in the style of his mentor, National Heritage Fellow Wally McRae. In either form he masterfully employs all of the classic effects - onomatopoeia, alliteration, cacophony - to drive home his riveting images. His work is intensely lyrical, so it is no surprise that Paul has a number of admirers among musicians. He’s co-written songs with Ian Tyson, Tom Russell, David Wilkie and, most recently, with Wylie Gustafson.
Paul made his first appearance at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada in 1987, and has performed there every year since. Zarzyski has been featured on the Tonight Show and National Public Radio as well as the Library of Congress’ National Book Festival. His 10 books and chapbooks include Wolf Tracks on the Welcome Mat, winner of the Western Writers of America 2004 Spur Award for Poetry, and All This Way for the Short Ride, winner of the 1996 Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Paul also has recorded five spoken-word CDs, the latest of which are Collisions of Reckless Love and Rock ‘n’ Rowel.
Paul spends the rest of his time holed up on his Montana ranch in the foothills of the Rockies, writing poems and defending his title as “the one and only Polish-hobo-rodeo poet of Flat Creek.”
Phil Wiggins and Corey Harris
Acoustic Blues
Takoma Park, MD and Charlottesville, VA
Phil Wiggins and Corey Harris are among the most accomplished blues musicians of our time. They represent an ascendant younger generation that, while steeped in the tradition, brings a contemporary vitality and creativity to the genre. At this year’s festival, these two younger blues masters pair up for what promises to be a blues tour de force.
Phil Wiggins is a blues harmonica virtuoso. He achieved worldwide acclaim over three decades as one half of the premier Piedmont blues duo of Cephas & Wiggins. Since the death of blues guitarist and singer John Cephas in the spring of 2009, Phil has brought his harmonica wizardry to bear in a variety of musical collaborations.
Wiggins was born in Washington, D.C. in 1954 and spent his childhood summers at his grandmother’s home in Alabama, where he listened to old-time hymns sung in church in the traditional call-and-response style. Phil was attracted to the blues harp as a young man and began his musical career with some of Washington’s leading blues artists, including Archie Edwards and John Jackson, and attributes his style to his years spent accompanying locally noted slide guitarist and gospel singer Flora Molton.
Phil met blues guitarist and singer John Cephas in 1976 and, along with pianist Wilbert "Big Chief" Ellis and bassist James Bellamy, they formed the Barrelhouse Rockers. After Ellis' death in 1977, the duo of Cephas & Wiggins was born. Besides being a renowned harmonica player, Wiggins is also a fine songwriter whose material helped define the duo's sound.
Corey Harris has earned critical acclaim as one of the few contemporary bluesmen able to convincingly channel the raw, direct emotion of the Delta blues. Although he is well versed in the early history of blues guitar, he's no preservationist, mixing a variety of influences – from New Orleans to the Caribbean to Africa – into his richly expressive music. In doing so, he's managed to appeal to a wide spectrum of blues fans, from staunch traditionalists to those with more contemporary sensibilities.
Born in Denver, Colorado in 1969, Corey Harris got his first taste of the blues via his mother’s collection of Lightnin’ Hopkins records. He first picked up the guitar at age 12, and at the same time developed his singing abilities in church choirs. By high school, he was playing in rock bands.
After time spent playing in the clubs, coffeehouses and street corners of New Orleans. He earned a record deal with the Alligator label, and in 1995 released his debut album of acoustic Delta blues, Between Midnight and Day. This first outing earned high marks from the critics – enough to score a high-profile opening slot on tour with Natalie Merchant. Harris followed up with a series of recordings that built upon his solid blues foundation, adding New Orleans brass band music, funk, R&B, reggae, ska, rap, Latin and African sounds to Harris’ ever-expanding palette.Samba Mapangala & Orchestre Virunga
East African rumba and soukous
East Africa by way of Maryland
Despite having made his home in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. for over a decade, Samba Mapangala is still East Africa’s most beloved singer. He and his legendary group Orchestre Virunga created an innovative mix of Congolese and Kenyan sounds, with Mapangala composing and singing in both Lingala and Swahili, that has earned them worldwide attention. With an astonishing voice that has been described as “melting between the ears,” Mapangala offers commentaries on daily life in East Africa and beyond, while the uplifting melodies and rhythms of Orchestre Virunga beckon dancers to the floor.
Samba Mapangala was born in Matadi, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and sang as a youth in his church choir. In the early 1970s, he moved to the capital city to attend secondary school. He soon became a part of Kinshasa’s vibrant music scene, beginning his musical career as a singer. In 1977, following a brief sojourn in Uganda, Mapangala and his first band, Les Kinois, moved to Nairobi, Kenya. His fame grew quickly, and in 1981 he founded Orchestre Virunga, named after a mountain chain that includes the two most active volcanoes in Africa.
Inspired by Kenya’s rich and culturally complex musical landscape, Mapangala and Orchestra Virunga, created a blend of African rumba (later called soukous) and benga, musical styles, respectively, from his Congolese birthplace and his adopted Kenyan homeland. African rumba emerged in the late 1930s and early 1940s when Congolese musicians fused Congolese and other African traditional music with Caribbean (especially Afro-Cuban, and Haitian music) and South American sounds. Beginning in the 1970s, the popularity of Congolese soukous spread throughout the African continent. Benga, most often performed in Swahili, emerged as a popular dance music in the 1950s when Kenyan performers began to adapt the lilting dance rhythms of the Luo people of the Lake Victoria region to western instruments. The incorporation of benga gives what is often described as an “earthier” aspect to Orchestra Virunga’s music.
The band’s fame spread globally in 1984 with the release of their widely heralded album Malako. (The CD reissue of this classic album, under the new title Virunga Volcano, was named one of the 100 Essential World Music CDs by the Rough Guide series.) Since relocating to the United States in 1997, Samba continues to perform around the world (in 2009 he toured East Africa as well as playing at one of the Obama Inaugural balls and at Lincoln Center) and to produce acclaimed—and eminently danceable—recordings, the latest of which is a greatest hits collection, African Classics, which was released in 2008.
Samba Mapangala’s unique infusion of Congolese rumba with the flavor of Kenya has made him an undisputed star of East African music. Now, in his third homeland, his star is just beginning to rise. Artist WebsiteSophia Bilides Trio
Greek Smyrneika
Natick, MA
Sophia Bilides has been called the foremost practitioner of Smyrneika, a cabaret tradition born of Asia Minor Greek refugees in the 1930s-40s. A second-generation Greek-Italian American, Sophia was raised in New Haven, Connecticut, absorbing the musical influences of her father's Permata (Asia Minor) Greek community.
For three millennia, Asia Minor, also called Anatolia (Turkey) was home to several million Greeks, part of a vibrant culture that was shattered when conflicts led to the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe: the destruction of the port city of Smyrna (now Izmir), the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, and an exchange of populations which saw the expulsion of two million Greeks from their homeland. This exodus of Asia Minor Hellenes resulted in the dissolution of communities, the dispersion of traditions, and a new societal caste--the Anatolian refugee. Fortunately, highly skilled musicians from Smyrna and Constantinople managed to keep alive and further develop their urban musical traditions by bringing their cosmopolitan talents to the Greek mainland and to America.
One of the most prominent styles to flourish was the cabaret tradition known as Smyrneika (of Smyrna), urban songs born in the cafe-aman (Anatolian Greek tavern). Richly intricate melodies and popular sing-along refrains are set to sensuous dance rhythms and accompanied on the santouri, outi, violi, clarino, lyra, kanoun, kythara, doumbeleki, and zilia. The colorful lyrics center around the universal topics of love, nostalgia for the lost homeland, and the celebration of life. These songs require a combination of superb vocal skills and a flair for entertaining on the part of the singers.
On stage, Sophia translates her songs, with the goal of transporting audiences to the cordial and intimate atmosphere of the cafe-aman. Accompanying herself on santouri (hammered dulcimer) and zilia (finger cymbals), she will be joined by Mike Gregian on doumbeleki (drum) and Tom Babbin on kythara (guitar).
Sophia has performed the songs of her Asia Minor Greek heritage for 20 years at concert halls, clubs, and festivals throughout North America at such venues as the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Boston’s Hatch Concert Shell. She is the recipient of an “Individual Artist Folklore Award” from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and was featured in a Singing Traditions tour by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Her music has garnered international praise as well. “Her superb voice is heard to excellent effect in this fascinating singing style that straddles the cultural divide between East and West” (Folk Roots Magazine). The International Greek Folklore Society describes her as ". . .a spirited performer making Greek folk music a significant force; she brings to life a musical heritage that still speaks from and to the heart."
Sounds of Korea
Korean Dance, Drumming and Music
New York, New York
Photo by Tom Pich |
Traditional Korean dance has its roots in Buddhist shaman rituals thousands of years old and incorporates both court and folk pieces. With its exquisite traditional attire, ensemble dance numbers, powerful choreographed drumming, and plaintive, solo dance pieces, watching Sounds of Korea is a highly visual experience and powerful journey into the deep and dynamic Korean artistic expression.
Sounds of Korea’s broad repertoire includes the s'am-g'o-m'oo (Buddhist drum dance). In Korea, the puk (drum) is traditionally thought to be an earthly symbol of heaven. The Korean creation story tells that the puk was brought to earth by the gods of wind, cloud, and rain. The s'am-g'o-m'oo dancers’ beating of the drum is meant to instruct the evil-minded on the ways of heaven and to save creatures from suffering. Another exciting dance is the buchae-ch'um (fan dance), which developed in the 18th century. The graceful music and the shifting geometric designs created by the dancers and their fans represent flower gardens. Apart from their everyday function, fans are an important element in Korean shamanistic rituals as they are believed to expel evil and encourage prosperity.
Beloved by her community, Sue Yeon Park has received many awards for her dedication to her art. In 2004 she received the New York Governor’s “Award of Excellence” for her outstanding achievements and community service to the Empire State. She has also received the “Best Artist of the Year” Award from the Foundation for Korean Arts and Culture in Korea, and the “Award of Recognition and Appreciation” from the Asian American Cultural Center at Rutgers University for her dedication to Korean art and music. In 2008, Sue Yeon Park was awarded the prestigious NEA National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor this country bestows on traditional artists. As an elegant performer, a passionate teacher and a tireless advocate, Sue Yeon Park has played a critical role in preserving and disseminating traditional Korean music and dance, both within the Korean community and to the public at large.
Swamp Dogg
Rhythm & Blues
Canoga Park, California
Called by The New Yorker, “one of soul music’s greatest cult artists,” Virginia native Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams has had an enduring impact on American music, but his name is hardly a household word. An industry pioneer, journeyman soul singer, A&R legend, trailblazer, celebrated songwriter and producer, Swamp Dogg is a musical character of epic proportions – irreverent, eccentric, uncompromising, provocative, iconoclastic and, often hilariously, outspoken. Over his 50 years in the music business, he stands as a figure impossible to categorize.
The rich musical culture of the Tidewater, a region home to blues traditions, United House of Prayer gospel brass bands and country music sounds, has produced some of the greats of American soul and R&B. But as is often the case, it was not necessarily the most talented musicians that ultimately achieved fame. Swamp Dogg was born Jerry Williams in Portsmouth, Virginia. His mother, Vera Lee, who will be joining Swamp on stage at the Richmond Folk Festival, was a singer who performed up and down the East Coast as part of a long career in music that continues to this day. His stepfather, Nat Cross was one of the area’s most respected guitar players who regularly collaborated with Charlie Byrd and Lionel Hampton.
Williams’ skill as a songwriter, singer, and producer took him to a number of labels where he left a slew of now legendary soul singles in his wake. He produced the Drifters, Patti LaBelle, and Gary U.S. Bonds and, as the Commodore’s first producer, convinced Lionel Richie to put down his saxophone and sing.
As Swamp Dogg, Williams released the 1970 album Total Destruction to Your Mind, and his most successful single “Mama’s baby, Daddy’s maybe” (#33 on the R&B charts) and created a new, distinctive sound. Fusing country and R&B and recording in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and in Macon, Georgia, this sound became as much a part of Swamp Dogg as his hard-hitting lyrics. In 1971, he took his interest in country music even further by co-writing “She’s All I Got” with Tidewater native Gary Bonds. The song was a big hit for Johnny Paycheck, and reached #1 on the country charts. Williams created some of the greatest female soul ballads ever waxed, and oversaw sessions for Irma Thomas, Doris Duke, Sandra Phillips, Bette Williams Ruby Andrews and fellow Portsmouth native Ruth Brown, among others. But Swamp Dogg’s own cutting edge songs about war, sexual politics, race and other contemporary issues, delivered within a soul/R&B musical context, always seemed to be out of step with audiences.
Swamp’s later career never really took off, but his output never faltered. The last two years have found him truly at the top of his game, with release Resurrection, and most recently, Give ‘em as Little as You Can…As Often as you Have to…or… A Tribute to Rock ‘n’ Roll. Although his career is now 50 years strong, Swamp is still vital, creative and biding his time, waiting for the mainstream to come around. “They can’t find a hole for this pigeon,” says Swamp Dogg. “But I don’t feel rained on . . .I still consider myself the most successful failure in the United States, and that’s not really bad at all.” Artist Website
The Jerry Douglas Band
bluegrass innovator
Nashville, TN
Photo by Michael G. Stewart
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Jerry Douglas is widely recognized as the greatest innovator on the dobro in the last 40 years—possibly the greatest ever. He’s been described as the Jimi Hendrix and the Charlie Parker of acoustic music. The New York Times has called him "dobro's matchless contemporary master." He has won eight Grammy Awards, several Grammy Acknowledgments, and countless specialized awards. Though he got his start in bluegrass, he has made an impact in fields ranging from rock and roll to jazz, from blues to Celtic, from mainstream country to contemporary classical.
Douglas' legacy is multi-faceted with him having been a member of such bands as Alison Krauss & Union Station, the Whites, J.D. Crowe & the New South, the Country Gentlemen and Strength in Numbers. Having played on more than 1,000 albums, he has defined the sounds of many diverse recordings including discs released by Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bela Fleck, Reba McEntire, Yo Yo Ma, Phish and Ray Charles. His recording with mohan vina player Vishna Mohan Bhatt has given him a following of dobro players in India.
In 2000, Douglas came to broader public attention as a result of his collaboration with T-Bone Burnett in creating the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers’ movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? and appeared on screen with the Soggy Bottom Boys performing on “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow.” Since 1998 he has toured regularly as part Alison Krauss & Union Station where he is a featured soloist and one of Alison’s primary musical collaborators. In 2004, in recognition of his talent and the indelible impression he has made on the musical landscape of America, he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s highest honor for traditional artists.
For the 2009 Richmond Folk Festival, Jerry will perform with the genre-bending Jerry Douglas Band consisting of bassist Todd Parks, fiddler Luke Bulla, mandolin and guitar player Guthrie Trapp and drummer Chad Melton.
Trouble Funk
Go-Go
Washington, D.C.
“Old-school go-go is hot,” says Kato Hammond, a former musician who runs the “go-go resource” website www.tmottgogo.com. One of the country’s most overlooked vernacular musical styles, the Washington D.C. area’s unique, homegrown music called go-go, is in the midst of a revival. Appearing at this year’s festival is Trouble Funk, one of the leading bands during the golden era of go-go in the 1980s, one that helped spread go-go music from all-night dance parties in inner-city Washington to audiences worldwide. Trouble Funk’s intensified percussion and innovative use of electro-funk and early rap lyrics produced a brand of go-go that fit more squarely within African American urban musical expression up and down the East Coast, and earned them a loyal and passionate following that not only continues today, but is once again growing.
A highly syncopated, percussive regional offshoot of funk pioneered in the early ‘70s by Chuck Brown and subsequently groups like Rare Essence and Trouble Funk, go-go bridged the musical gap between disco and rap. Go-go is a funk blend of Latin beats, call-and-response chants, rhythm and blues, gospel, and jazz layered over a signature pattern of syncopated quarter and eighth note rhythms laid down on snare, kick drum and high hat cymbals. It has, over the years, developed its own distinctive sound, dance moves, and traditions. Rejecting slickness and placing a premium on crowd interaction and the creation of a continuous party grooved where one song often blends into another to keep people dancing, go-go is first and foremost a live experience. It has continued to thrive regionally around marathon performances, bootlegged recordings of live sets, and the fanatical loyalty of its local fans.
Heavily influenced by the electro-funk bands of the era, Trouble Funk formed in 1978 with childhood friends Robert “Syke Dyke” Reed and bassist/ lead talker Tony “Big Tony” Fisher at its center. The group quickly built a reputation around their party-friendly hooks and call-and-response vocals. In 1982, Trouble Funk’s recording Drop the Bomb appeared on pioneering hip-hop imprint Sugar Hill, making them the first go-go group to have a release outside of D.C. The group’s more progressive go-go sound, equal parts Chuck Brown, Kurtis Blow, P-Funk and Zapp brought it to the attention of DJs in nightclubs up and down the East Coast.
The band has continued to tour and perform on and off and, although Robert “Dyke” Reed sadly passed away in 2008, Trouble Funk continues to preside over legendary parties up and down the East Coast.
Wylie & the Wild West
Western music
Conrad, MT
Five-thirty in the morning is not an hour generally claimed by musicians. While most singers and strummers are dozing on the bus or at the local Motel 6, there is one musician who is rising to face the day: world-class yodeler and Montana native Wylie Gustafson. Of course, there is a reason for his early waking: his cattle aren’t going to feed themselves. Despite his successful career as one of America’s most popular western entertainers, Wylie still gets up everyday and tends to the livestock.
Ropin’, wranglin’, writin’, recordin’. They go hand-in-hand for Gustafson, leader of the
acclaimed Wylie & the Wild West. Billboard declared "When Wylie & the Wild West play, folks get up and dance!" From nightclubs to state fairs, bars to barns, it rings true. Wylie’s infectious western music gets the crowd moving every time.
Wylie was born and raised in Conrad, Montana where his dad was a rural veterinarian and rancher. That shiny buckle he wears wasn’t won on Ebay. Wylie is an accomplished cutting horse enthusiast who was the 2005 NCHA Western National Finals Champion.
Keeping his home base in Montana, Wylie has traveled the world over with his top-notch band, which now includes Ray Doyle on guitar and backing vocals, Scotty Wilburn on steel guitar and fiddle, and Dave Reynolds on drums. Wylie & The Wild West has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry over 50 times, and performed at prestigious venues from the Lincoln Center to the Houston Rodeo & Livestock Show, from the Kennedy Center to the Calgary Stampede. Wylie has earned an international reputation not only through his recordings, but also from his appearances at Japan’s Country Gold Festival, three Australian tours, and a seven-week residency at Euro Disney. It is Wylie’s “Ya-hoo-ooo!” that is heard in the famous Yahoo advertising campaign. Wylie and the group have been honored repeatedly by the Academy of Western Artists and the Western Music Association, receiving awards for the 2005 Group of the Year, 2004 and 2005 Yodeler of the Year, and 2006 Best Western Swing Album. Their music is in regular rotation on the world’s most-listened-to satellite radio station, Willie’s Place–XM Radio Channel 13. Wylie has a new instructional book and CD, How to Yodel: Lessons to Tickle Your Tonsils, and will conduct a family-friendly course entitled “Yodeling 101” at this year’s Richmond Folk Festival.
The secret of Wylie’s honest, soulful western music isn’t in any musical formulas or flashy gimmicks. By being his earnest, hardworking, down-to-earth self, Gustafson has become one of the most exciting and endearing performers in contemporary music - country, western, or otherwise. All of Wylie’s music is dashed off with a hardy dose of trail dust. For him, the ranch and the recording studio are inseparable. "The connection between ranching and my music is extremely close," he says. "Most of my songs are born out of the environment where I live and punch cattle. When I write an upbeat song, I make sure it’s a song that a cowboy can dance to. When I write a more lyrical song, I make sure that a real cowboy will be able to relate to it somehow."