Annual treat for me to visit my community garden space and listen to top tier folk talent on the beautiful grounds of this park. As usual for September, the weather was sketchy with neighboring towns being drenched while this event was dry. This year featured two stages which begged for lazy strolling.
The Bargain: Local folk impresario Frank Critelli sang accompanied by guitar and mandolin players. Seasoned presence and quirky songwriting were on display. Frank is wiry with a long white beard and looks like a punk Santa. Later in the day, some dude was handing out flyers for a Frank-oriented folk happening in a church in Meriden, sounds right.
Dom Flemons: Where to start, this multiple Grammy winning self-named American Songster is music and education rolled into a jolly African American modern day Burl Ives-alike. Solo onstage, he plays and expounds on a variety of traditional instruments. He started with rhythm bones, sticks he held between his fingers that clacked as a percussive background. Next was quills, a pan flute style tooter that must have been easy to assemble with Appalachian detritus. Banjo, guitar, and harmonica were also prominently employed. Flemons is an expert on Harry Smiths Anthology of American Music, the Bible on early folk and roots tunes curated by the Smithsonian. He described the Carolina “Piedmont” style and launched into a medley that included an Etta Baker song and Elizabeth Cotten’s Freight Train, a tune that is played out as much as the Free Bird request. A couple of tunes from his Black Cowboy release and his most recent offering of originals were excellent.
Beppe Gambetta: That’s right, nice Irish fella on the second stage. Just kidding, expert folk picker from Italy. Like a Father Bob Dylan Guido Sarducci, Beppe’s accent was hard to hide. It’s hard to discard the sociopolitical tenets of the folk idiom when coupled with an Italian accent. The tune he sang in his native tongue rang truer, even if I had no idea what he was singing.
The Barefoot Movement: Modern roots purveyors from the Carolinas fronted by powerhouse vocalist and fiddler Noah Wall. She was joined by acoustic guitar, mandolin, and standup bass. A decade of touring has yielded a confident stage presence and delivery. She spoke of this novel “subscription service” whereby fans pledge a dollar a month and are rewarded with an exclusive cover song. On this afternoon, she belted out Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly and a smash of some traditional tune mashed with Led Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker.
Maria Muldaur and Her Red Hot Bluesiana Band: 80 year old Muldaur is still going strong. Having sung backup for countless recordings in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Muldaur brought her brand of bawdy gumbo to the fest. A perfect reading of the Allen Toussaint Nawlins classic Yes We Can had the best swampy funk bounce. Muldaur’s pandemic homage I’m Vaccinated and Ready For Love was on point.
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