Root Down in the Shadow

It's Folk Festival Time for everyone in the Philadelphia area.  Have you checked out the newly updated Philadelphia Folk Festival website?   The site is so easy you can personalize your own schedule for the festival.    Other fests say you can do it, but they still end up being super cumbersome. You can sort this by stage or date, or just select a bunch of favorites from any page and have them show up as highlights to the schedule with the "Show My Schedule" button. But even if you a super easy site isn't for you, here's Root Down In The Shadow 's "Five to See Live" at the 55th Philadelphia Folk Festival presented by Philadelphia Folksong Society.  Hurricane Hoss  Friday 3:30 Martin  Guitar Main Stage:   Hurricane Hoss is everything country & folk music needs. None of this bro, country-pop with bimbos in the videos. Hoss brings back swagger and sass and has the chops to back it up. The backing band this year is a veritable ...

Philadelphia Folk Festival is an enigma. It's actually far away from Philadelphia at Old Poole's Farm in remote Schwenksville, PA. Once you arrive and park, and either walk or shuttle in you pass a sea of cars and a tent city. There are stages off in the woods, there's a whole other world off in the distance in this magical tent city. What is going on? For this blogger who has experienced only about 8 or so sets total at the fest in the last few years, it is a nut that must be cracked. What exactly goes on at this fest? All the local musicians seem to be buzzing about it every summer year. It was suggested that the only way to get to understand the fest is to ask those who experience it every year. And by every year, we don't mean in the last few years since an adult moved to town. We mean, from people who in some cases, have been going ALL of their life. With the help of Philadelphia Folksong Society , Root Down In The Shadow invited some "life...

It can be fairly said, that what we consider today to be the Bluegrass style of music spent its formative years in Baltimore, MD. Still, somehow, Bluegrass isn't the first thing to come to mind when people are asked about Baltimore; the home of America’s national anthem, where Edgar Allen Poe sloughed of the mortal coil, and where Babe Ruth first swung a bat. Many of the components of Bluegrass are at home in Baltimore. In fact, the form is firmly rooted and for many years revolved around the Charm City. Meaning, one of Baltimore’s best secrets is its deep bluegrass roots. Even the name “Banjo” was coined there. It was used the first time in an advertisement for the plucky off-shoot of the original African instrument produced in downtown Baltimore. It's fitting that in its third year, The Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival, being held in Druid Hill Park on April 25th, is reclaiming some of that history. Though this year's lineup is a mighty one; besides th...