CHAOS WASHING MACHINES

The Richmond Folk Festival is coming up this weekend and it is a hell of a line-up, I am excited to go.

This is the first year of the festival as a stand-alone festival. For the past three years the city has been the temporary home of the National Folk Festival, a traveling event which is meant in part to seed the ground for future endeavors when it moves on. The bands at the festival this year promise to make this an incredible experience. I especially excited to see Dale Watson, whom I haven't seen play in about 10 years, Lee Sexton, one of my favorite banjo players, and also the Inuit throat singing. There are a great many excellent musicians coming in a variety of styles:

More than 30 Performing Groups on Seven Stages Scheduled to Perform

September 19, 2008 (Richmond, Va.) -- The Richmond Folk Festival organizers are excited to announce the final line-up for the 2008 inaugural event, taking place October 10-12, 2008 on downtown Richmond’s riverfront. More than 30 performing groups are scheduled to perform on seven different stages throughout the festival. Groups most recently added to the line-up feature everything from go-go to gospel; polka to salsa. The 2008 festival will also feature a reggae band – a first for the festival in the three years it’s been in Richmond.

The final line-up for the Richmond Folk Festival will feature E.U., one of the best go-go groups on the East Coast. Out of Washington D.C., this legendary group epitomizes the go-go sound invented in our nation’s capital with its call-and-response vocals, heavy percussion and serious dose of funk that creates an unrelenting groove. The Richmond Folk Festival is also excited to announce that one of its own will be featured at the even. African-American gospel group, Larry Bland and the Volunteer Choir will take to the stage for a much-anticipated Richmond reunion choir in celebration of the group’s 40th anniversary.

From Webster, Texas, Mark Halata and Texavia, will introduce festival-goers to Texas-Czech polka. This uniquely Texas take on the polka tradition blends Tex-Mex, Czech and western honky-tonk into a highly danceable and joyous music. Rooted in Afro-Puerto Rican musical tradition, Plena Libre, a powerhouse group that has emerged as one of Puerto Rico’s hottest dance bands, brings the irresistible Latin dance music of Puerto Rican salsa and bomba y plena.

Organizers of the Richmond Folk Festival are thrilled to welcome their first reggae band, The Itals, from Kingston, Jamaica. The Itals is made up of roots reggae legends, who combine soaring three-part harmonies with socially conscious lyrics and danceable grooves. And From the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky comes the Lee Sexton Band, one of last great Appalachian banjo players and singers of his generation.

The 2008 festival will showcase a young sensation, Sharde Thomas & The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band, from Sardis, Mississippi. The 18-year old Sharde Thomas breathes new life into the venerable and nearly lost African American pre-blues tradition of fife and drum that she learned from her famous grandfather, Othar Turner. James Cheechoo of Moose Factory, Ontario will be performing Cree fiddling. This unique fiddling style of the Hudson Bay area blends Native Cree elements and the music of the Scottish & French settlers in Northern Ontario.

From Bamako, Mali, West Africa, comes Vieux Farka Touré, to play Malian blues. Following in the footsteps of his legendary father, Ali Farka Toure, this master of Malian guitar and desert blues shows the music of his heritage is a living and growing sound. The festival will also feature another Richmonder, finger-picked guitar player, Todd Hallawell, who will team-up with West Virginia flat-picked guitar master, Robin Kessinger.

Grupo Cimarrón comes to the festival from Colombia bringing what’s called joropo music. The cowboys of the Colombian plains created this driving, rhythmic harp-led music, combining centuries-old Spanish, African and New World musical traditions. Rounding out the festival, The Cellicion Zuni Traditional Dancers will bring the amazing dancing, drumming, singing and flute playing of the native Zuni peoples who have lived in and around Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, for thousands of years.

Featured on the Genworth Foundation Family Stage will be two groups, one with musicians from the Festival’s back yard, and one with musicians from afar. Tamara & The Shadow Theatre of Java will perform the art of Javanese shadow puppetry as practiced on the Island of Java, complete with a gamelan orchestra and traditional dance. Richmond’s own, Drums No Guns, will feature drumming and dance performances on the Genworth Foundation Family Stage, as well as running hands-on percussion workshops with children.

Previously announced performing groups for the 2008 Richmond Folk Festival include The Dan Tyminski Band, one of the top bluegrass bands in America, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, one of America’s premier Cajun bands and the leading ambassador of Cajun music, Líadan, six young music masters from across the pond in Galway, Limerick and Dublin, Ireland, performing traditional Irish music, Ledward Kaapana & Mike Kaawa, two of Hawaii’s most respected players of the slack-key and 12-string guitar, Howard Tate, performing Soul and R&B, Dale Watson playing original honky-tonk country, Traditional Arabic music performed by the esteemed Nadeem Dlaikan & Friends, Eddie & Alonzo Pennington, from Princeton, Kentucky, performing thumb-picked guitar, Inuit throat singing performed by Nukariik, a sister duo from Ontario, Canada, Eastern European musical group, Harmonia, San Jose Taiko, performing Japanese drum and dance, and the highly anticipated Tezcatlipoca Voladores, performing the “Sundance” which involves jumping from the top of a 90-foot pole and swinging slowly to the ground in circles from the ropes tied to the flyers’ ankles.