Jake Blount 9/1/24 CT River and Roots Festival, Windsor

 Maiden voyage for this fest held on the Windsor town green. Nice mix of craft and food vendors with the local Dudleytown Brewery providing libations. Jake has been positively reviewed in this blog before. He is an ethnomusicologist, multi-instrumentalist master of string band music, deftly providing an educational tour of historical music from the American south. Playing fiddle and banjo, he is joined onstage by Nashville cat acoustic picker Ethan Hawkins. The pair roll through a nice selection of reels and jigs on the small stage. Ethan takes lead on the 50s novelty Plastic Jesus and Jake gives a history lesson for the traditional John Henry ( popularized as Spike Driver Blues by Mississippi John Hurt). I will never forget a previous viewing where Jake explained that the advent of the Sears Catalog supercharged the spread of the banjo diaspora. The focus was folk and roots music from the black and indigenous community, so it was no surprise that Jake got political in his tone. At this point, some elderly right wing crank stood up and gave the thumbs down while hastily bagging his chair to leave. Jake reiterated the thrust of this festival and the music he was playing as if to tell the guy “ what did you expect?” I guess if he launched into the classic “Talking Hillary Pizzagate Blues” the guy might have stuck around. Maybe he was late for the Ted Nugent / Kid Rock double bill down the street. Inexplicably ( which I later learn to be explicable), Jake and Ethan take a set break and yield the stage to local indigenous skronker Mixashawn Rozie and local poet and storyteller Robert Peters. Poems focused on racial justice and climate action were backed by Rozie’s sax, wooden flute, and the unusual berimbau. I’ve seen a lot of music over the years, but this was the first time viewing When Doves Cry and Johnny B. Goode delivered on the berimbau. Jake and Ethan did reappear for their final lap. Folk music has always championed civil rights, climate justice, and gender equality and it is refreshing to see young artists rally to the cause. The weather mostly held for a nice afternoon on a town green that was new to me. As for the cause? The answers my friend were blowing in the wind.