Roots

Festival: Philadephia Folk Festival
Announced: April 22, 2010
Status: Most artists announced

Headliners: Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Taj Mahal
Notables: A.A. Bondy, Blame Sally, Bonnie "Prince" Billy & the Cairo Gang, Butch Ross, Chris Smither & the Motivators, Erin McKeown, Gandalf Murphy & The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Iain Matthews, Malinky Sonos, Mickey Clark & the Blue Norther, Mike Cross, Shannon Whitworth, subdudes, Susan Werner, The Sweetback Sisters, Vienna Teng

Comment: The 49th Philadelphia Folk Festival scores a coup with a unique East Coast booking of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy heading up a sweet lineup of folk mainstays and notable folk singer-songwriters. Unlike competitor Newport Folk that has broadened to include performers from the indie rock scene, Philly Folk stays true to the traditional scope of the Singout market.

Frequent festival-goers, start your engines.

In years past, we have always considered the fourth weekend in April as the unofficial kickoff of the Spring music festival season, considering the number of important festivals that took place on those dates. Now, with Coachella sticking to its week-earlier schedule and the growing importance of other third-weekend festivals, it seems safe to say that the season kicks off today.

True, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the traditional harbinger of Springtime music, stays on its familiar two-week schedule of the fourth weekend in April and first weekend in May. But Coachella has the music world buzzing this week and it is joined by a number of other major fests, including Wanee, Old Settler's, Country Thunder, and Houston International.

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Lilith Tour announced its final list of cities and dates (shown below), and it added R&B superstar Rihanna to its Salt Lake City stop. Each date will feature 11 of the acts on the full artist list, one of which will be Sarah McLachlan and another the winner of the local talent search competition. Visit Lilith's Tour page for the lineup for each date.

Strawberry posted its stage schedule for the Spring festival, bringing into focus perhaps the finest lineup in recent memory—one glittering with top roots music stars but also with promising newer acts with strong musical pedegrees.

Each of the weekend nights close with a pair of brand-name performers. Friday has quirky singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III followed by British folk-rock legend Richard Thompson. Saturday has two significant Americana country stars in Patty Loveless and Lyle Lovett. Sunday has progressive acoustic band Crooked Still followed by reuniting country rock outfit Desert Rose Band.

Promising newer acts, all playing Strawberry for the first time, include sideman supergroup 18 South, instrumental-prodigy-turned-singer-songwriter Sarah Jarosz, Canadian folk duo Dala, Waybacks fiddlemeister Warren Hood with his own band, Lucinda Williams soundalike Kerri Powers, Chicago blues-funk outfit Lubriphonic and Boston-based acoustic ensemble Joy Kills Sorrow.

Two final acts were added as part of the schedule release—San Francisco acoustic rowdies The Brothers Comatose and world-music big band MarchFourth Marching Band.

When I got the announcement this morning that Winnipeg Folk Festival had added reggae pioneer Jimmy Cliff to its outstanding lineup, it made me realize I'd been seeing his name a great deal in the last two weeks.

Sure enough, Cliff has been announced at no fewer than six major festivals, beginning with Bonnaroo in early June and ending with Mile HIgh in mid August. In between is the date at Winnipeg plus appearances at Osheaga, Gathering of the Vibes and Lollapalooza.

That's an busy schedule for an artist who has not be active on the festival circuit in recent years. But it hasn't been an ordinary year for the man whose soundtrack for the movie The Harder They Fall is credited with bringing reggae music to an international audience.

In January, the 62-year-old Cliff released "Existence," his first new studio album since 2003. Last month, he was one of five new inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His official website does not provide tour information, so we don't know if he is playing concert dates as well as festival gigs this summer.

High Sierra Music Festival closed out its 2010 lineup by adding a handful of notables in local favorite Jackie Greene, New Orleans retro Preservation Hall Jazz Band, African-American string band Carolina Chocolate Drops and tongue-in-cheek songwriter Dan Bern.

Another 16 new adds are Banana Slug String Band, Cahn & Yang, Eric McFadden, Heavyweight Dub Champion, Josh Clark, Kate Gaffney Band, Lebo, Loyd Family Players, Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, Poor Mans Whiskey, Rubblebucket, Scott Amendola and Wil Blades, Skerdio, Skerik, The Black Seeds, and The Heavy Guilt.  

Visit FP's High Sierra Music Festival Page and the festival website.

DelFest announced its lineup of three late-night shows for the May 27-30 festival. The shows kick off at midnight Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in a separately ticketed indoor hall after the music wraps up for the night on the main Grandstand Stage.

Jam favorites Railroad Earth and Trampled By Turtles play the Friday show. The Travelin' McCourys gig with The Lee Boys on Saturday night. Cornmeal and The Bridge are the attractions to close down the festival on Sunday.

The full stage schedule is now up at the festival website. As is customary, host band The Del McCoury Band plays at prime tiime around 8 pm for three nights, followed by one of the other headline attractions. The Avett Brothers close Friday, Yonder Mountain String Band on Saturday and Dave Rawlings Machine on Sunday.

The Thursday night festival opening show has The Travelin' McCourys, Mountain Heart and Railroad Earth.

To get a flavor of this unique festival, now in its third year, check out this promotional video.