Photo Courtesy of Artist
Richmond, Virginia
Featuring:
Devil's Coattails
The Come Up
The Hot Seats
Andrew Alli and Josh Small
The Crooked Creek Misfits
Eliza Mose and Ryan Stephens
Join us for a very special set on Sunday afternoon as members of Richmond’s musical community come together in support of and love for one of the city’s favorite sons.
Justin Golden's origins are deeply vested in the blues, with roots in the Mississippi Delta, Chicago, and the Piedmont of Virginia. Picking up the guitar as a teenager, Justin did what came naturally and let the music flow through him. Fascinatingly, the Piedmont Blues style first came to him in a dream, which he later shared with the late harmonica great Phil Wiggins, who told him that he’d been unconsciously playing this deeply rooted style all along. In fact he had written several songs in the Piedmont style before he had ever heard of the style. While perhaps not as well-known as the Mississippi Delta style, the Piedmont Blues has a deep history in Virginia, which is home to some of its greatest practitioners, including John Jackson and John Cephas. By far, the most distinctive feature of the Piedmont guitar style is its finger-picking method, in which the thumb lays down a rhythmic baseline against which one or two fingers pluck out the melody of the tune. Using this technique, the Piedmont guitarist makes a single instrument sound like several, setting up a complex dialogue of bass and treble parts.
Golden has carefully studied country blues, with influences ranging from Blind Boy Fuller to Taj Mahal to indie guitar. And as a traditional roots music stalwart, he’s passing the inspiration to youth by teaching them to play as well. His training as an archaeologist has taught him to view music through a historical lens. Studying historic cemetery sites throughout Virginia, he noted that old burial grounds could be lost within a generation, which made him realize that the historic memory of music should also be preserved. Since 2016, Justin has been an instructor of Piedmont Blues Guitar at Augusta Heritage Center's Blues and Swing Week at Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia and the world renown Ethno USA international music program. While he is keenly versed in traditional styles, he has an extremely diverse musical palette and brings new ideas to traditional blues forms.
Justin has recently been waging a courageous battle against health issues, which has incurred significant medical expenses. The Richmond musical community has rallied behind Justin with numerous “Goldenfests” throughout the city, and the Richmond Folk Festival provides the perfect opportunity to further express our support and love, as well as offer the opportunity for our Folk Festival audiences to contribute as well.
Do not miss the opportunity to join this very special “Jam for Justin” on our stage at the Allianz Amphitheater, which will feature a host of Justin’s musical friends including members of his bands The Come Up and Devil’s Coattails, and special guests The Crooked Creek Misfits, The Hot Seats, Andrew Alli and Josh Small, and Eliza Mose and Ryan Stephens.