Video playlist: Rockin’ with zombies, Bowie and more, at the 2016 Falcon Ridge Folk Fest:
By Kevin Coughlin
One of the great things about summer is outdoor music.
We heard lots of incredible music on a road trip to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in the Berkshires; here are videos of some favorite discoveries.
Don’t let that “folk music” title fool you. This is a very big tent, with elements of rock, roots, country, Cajun– you name it.
Vance Gilbert, ever attentive to pop culture trends, invents a new genre, Zombie Folk. Acts like the Slambovian Circus of Dreams defy categorization of any kind. There’s even a loud tribute to David Bowie.
VIDEO PLAYLIST:
Toggle through our video playlist (above) to find…
1. Vance Gilbert, who discovers that zombies wear their funny bones on their sleeves.
2. Along those lines, Jersey City’s Scott Wolfson & Other Heroes cheerfully insist We Will All Die Together! Gina Forsyth and 18-year-old Annika Bennett add to the musical merriment. All three acts were invited back to Falcon Ridge this year by popular demand.
3. The Mike + Ruthy Band. Mike + Ruthy wanted to write a song about their daughter Opal, but nothing rhymed. So they took some poetic license and hit a home run with Rock On Little Jane.
4. Mike + Ruthy keep rockin’ with Legends Only Appear in Black and White. (Footnote: Ruthy Ungar’s dad, Grammy-winning fiddler Jay Ungar, created the haunting Ashokan Farewell theme for the Ken Burns Civil War series.)
5. The Slambovian Circus of Dreams unleashes the psychedelic madness of Alice in Space on a starry pasture and a steamy dance tent.
6. Lost and Found: Gina Forsyth of New Orleans invokes the patron saint of lost souls in one of the weekend’s catchiest numbers. Saint Anthony has “pop hit” written all over it.
7. Hunterdon County native Susan Cattaneo quit a cushy New York advertising career to study music at Berklee. Now she teaches there, records in Nashville, and hooks audiences with country-flavored tunes like Worth the Whiskey. She’s backed by the Boxcar Lilies.
8. Siblings Phil and Hannah Grajko of Grayak set the stage on fire with Get Burned, a first-rate foot-stomper.
9. A drummer’s-eye view of the Slambovians’ tribute to David Bowie, who was a friend of the band.
MORE FROM FALCON RIDGE:
She Smiles: Meet Annika Bennett, the fresh face of folk
Falcon Ridge 2016: Slideshow photos by Kevin Coughlin
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