Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy

blues
Houston, Texas

While following in the footsteps of many Texas blues greats, Houston’s Diunna Greenleaf has her own distinctive style, an intense yet playful combination of gospel, jazz, R&B, and soul. Equal parts tremendous power and passion, her voice is also capable of subtlety and nuanced inflections. As she puts it, “If you are a Texas singer, you need to be able to sing strong and clear—people need to understand what you are saying when you’re up there. But you also need to be able to sing soft and pretty.”

Meta & the Cornerstones

reggae
New York, New York

Ever since reggae burst out of West Kingston’s shantytowns in the late 1960s, this uniquely Jamaican sound has looked to Africa for lyrical and spiritual inspiration—and it didn’t take long for it to take Africa by storm. The music’s Black consciousness messages resonated in countries that shared Jamaica’s post-colonial malaise, and Africans embraced reggae in a transatlantic conversation that echoes to this day. Bob Marley’s legendary 1980 Independence Day Celebration in Harare, Zimbabwe, capped a decade that saw reggae’s creative peak, setting the stage for ’80s African reggae stars like South Africa’s Lucky Dube, Cote d’Ivoire’s Alpha Blondy, and Nigeria’s Mashek Fashek. Today Senegalese-born singer Meta Dia, leader of New York City’s Meta & the Cornerstones, adds his voice to that diasporic Afro-Jamaican dialogue.

Raiatea Helm

Raiatea Helm

Hawaiian falsetto singing
Honolulu, Hawai’i

Raiatea Helm is one of the preeminent female vocalists carrying Hawaiian music into the future while keeping the flame for its distinctive falsetto singing tradition. Helm grew up on Moloka‘i, a primarily agricultural island in the middle of the Hawaiian archipelago. Her family was deeply musical, and she loved to listen to her maternal grandmother play ukelele and to watch the musicians at the local hula school—but as she describes it, her generation, growing up in the 1990s, had little exposure to the full breadth of traditional Hawaiian music. However, 14-year-old Raiatea knew she had found her calling when her dad came back from a trip to Honolulu, a 30-minute plane ride away, with a CD of the legendary Lena Machado, the matriarch of Hawaiian falsetto singing. She asked her dad for a ukelele of her own and began to teach herself to sing and strum Hawaiian mele (songs) by listening to recordings from the golden era of Hawaiian music in the mid-century, “the kind of music my grandparents would have listened to.”

Richard Hagopian Ensemble

Richard Hagopian Ensemble

Armenian
Fresno, California

Richard Hagopian is America’s foremost player of the oud, a round-bodied and short-necked lute, and principal instrument in Armenian music. Widely acclaimed as a virtuosic musician, he is esteemed in diasporic Armenian communities and beyond for his dedication to preserving Armenian culture and passing it on to further generations. He has conducted decades of research on Armenian music and dance, recorded several albums, and taught master classes around the country. Among his many honors, Richard received a 1989 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor for folk and traditional artists.

Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys

Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys

zydeco
Duson, Louisiana

Terry Domingue is a native of Duson, a small community located 10 miles west of Lafayette in the heart of French Louisiana. Coming of age in this hotbed of Cajun and Creole culture, he developed a passion for zydeco. Since emerging on the scene over two decades ago with his own band, Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys, Terry has been hailed as a rising star who is carrying deeply traditional zydeco into the 21st century.

The Amanda Cook Band

The Amanda Cook Band

bluegrass
Fancy Gap, Virginia

 For a musician celebrated as one of the top female singers and bandleaders in bluegrass music, it’s surprising that Amanda Cook kept her vocal talent hidden from everyone but her grandmother well into her twenties. Even her husband, a childhood friend-turned-high-school-sweetheart, had not heard her sing. Now fans around the country recognize her crystal-clear voice and passionate delivery of some of the most compelling songs in bluegrass today.

Yamini Kalluri & the Kritya Music Ensemble

Yamini Kalluri & the Kritya Music Ensemble

Kuchipudi dance
Lansing, Michigan

 As cultural traditions take root in diaspora communities, new connections between generations and cultures are both necessary and revitalizing. Right after the pandemic, acclaimed young dancer Yamini Kalluri, a master of the Kuchipudi dance of her Telugu forbearers, began a collaboration with some of the finest Carnatic musicians in the country, adding a new depth to her captivating movements. Their appearance at the Richmond Folk Festival braids together these two strands of South Indian tradition into a spellbinding presentation of their shared heritage.