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Philly Folk Festival Featured Philly Fame
by Mike DelVecchia
The spirit of the late Philadelphian, folklorist Ken Goldstein was doubtless as proud as any of his city's founding fathers, when the forty-second annual Philadelphia Folk Festival played in Schwenksville August 22nd through 24th. The Philadelphia-based acts of this celebration made for a great deal of the heart of the oldest continuously running folk festival in the country.
Philadelphia musician-storyteller Tom Gala, who performed during the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday, remarked about the late Mr. Goldstein whom many folk artists believe founded the folk movement of Philadelphia when he joined the music department of the University of Pennsylvania and became a magnet for national talent during the sixties. "Ken, who dedicated himself and his music library to helping up-and-coming talent, gets to see the fruits of his efforts whenever this festival happens, wherever he is."
There was indecisiveness over whether or not Philadelphia talent belonged in the festival when it first formed. Festival Chairperson David Baskin, who parked cars during the festival's first year said, "Ken Goldstein felt that the Philadelphia talent was seldom up to par and disagreed that the festival ought to have been a vehicle for local talent to gain recognition in their home town." Mr. Goldstein, unlike Gene Shay, David Hadler, Bob Segal and others, was not a founder of the festival.
Fred Kaiser Festival Program Director, who has been with the festival since 1976, said, "The Philadelphia music scene is extremely strong and I have no problem coming up with at least six Philly groups that belong on a bill whenever I want."
Lisette Bralow, Festival Spokesperson, said, "What better way to listen to the best music on earth than in a beautiful setting in the country out here in Schwenksville, relaxing beneath shady trees or in a grassy meadow? It just doesn't get any better than this."
Ms. Bralow has worked on the festival since 1976.
The show has been a treasure of the alpha and omega for many acts over the years. "Ani DeFranco," who performed Sunday night, "played one of the first shows of her first tour here," Ms. Bralow said. "And this is one of the last times that audiences saw Ralph Stanley." The seventy-six year-old Mr. Stanley and his band The Clinch Mountain Boys performed their bluegrass Friday evening to a delighted crowd, most of whose members probably didn't realize that his energetic performance was all part of the Virginian's swan song.
"Because the eastern seaboard has a powerful folk circuit, Philadelphia's music scene is particularly strong because our city is a popular, midpoint stopover," Mr. Kaiser said.
Mr. Baskin continued, "There is an old saying that a folk musician is never a professional until he is fifty miles away from his home town. However, you have to respect the music no matter where it comes from."
Mr. Kaiser rejoined, "There is no quota on the amount of Philadelphia acts that we hire, because our choices are based on talent. That Philadelphia, which is filled with clubs, song circles, open mikes, and venues featuring acoustic music, is a major part of our worldwide talent pool, there is no question."
The Philadelphia-based talent was not in shortage this year. Roger Dietz of Bethlehem brought his songs and humorous stories. Fiddlekicks had everybody clogging around the Camp Stage at noontime on Friday and Saturday and gave a dance workshop in one of the tents. Fingerpyx led a contra dance where some of the children fought to keep the right mileage yelled by the caller. Hanny Budnick called out some English country dancing. Tom Gala and the Terraplanes mixed up some blues, jazz, folk and country and Mr. Gala's "Philly's Own" story-telling. Run of the Mill String Band cooked up hot fiddle tunes and rags. Spirt Wing's Native American sounds livened up the campfire. Other Philly-area talent included the festival's resident piper, Dennis Hangey, International Folk Sounds, John Matulis and Friends, Robin Moore, Stretch Pyott, Steve and Jenn Schonwald, the Give and Take Jugglers and Two of a Kind. Mr. Shay of WXPN, who helped to found the festival forty-two years ago, was the festival's host.
Said Mr. Shay, "It was a one-of-a-kind show and the Philadelphia talent continued to define the folk culture."
"We had always been spectators of the festival but now we are delighted that we are playing here," said Greg Loux guitarist of Run of the Mill String Band, a ten year-old ensemble from Chester County playing its first Philly folk festival. "Our area is becoming a hot bed of interest in fiddle tunes, southern rags, folk waltzes, and country tunes from the early days of recording."
Mr. Loux described the weekly occurrence of a "secret" Friday night folk jam session that has taken place at a private home in Bryn Mawr for the last twenty years. His description of it sounded reminiscent of how jazz performers would congregate in an apartment under the L in Chicago during the 1920's. Well known musicians sit on couches and stand in the stairwell. "The fame and talent which show up at the Bryn Mawr house is often amazing," hinted Mr. Loux.
"There is indeed a thriving folk culture in Philadelphia, whether your thing is Appalachian string music or improvisations or ballads. Look no further. Everything a folk fan needs is right here."
The husband of International Folk Sounds' leader Susan Anderson tried to take some of his wife's credit. "You should interview me," Don Anderson cracked, "because I have to listen to bagpipes going day and night in our living room." The music-weary spouse was busily packing for the couple's folk culture-excursion to "Balkan Camp," in the Berkshires, when he jibed about how Ms. Anderson pipes in the hotel rooms during their "folk trips."
"She's been teaching folk dancing accompanied by bagpipes for twenty years in Philadelphia and all over the country," Mr. Anderson joked, "so I guess I'm lucky I get to tag along and relax outside of our room!"
Ms. Anderson has played several of the Schwenksville festivals already, causing severe toe-tapping to occur on Saturday afternoon, performing swinging bagpipe numbers from the Balkans. She proudly said, "I have four sets of single-droned bagpipes which are all made of goatskin," she explained. "I have two Thracians, one from the Rhodope Mountains and another from Macedonia."
If you are on Ben Franklin Parkway on Tuesday nights, your ear might catch notes by International Folk Sounds. "We provide musical ambience under the stars," she said about their performances at 8pm on the great landing of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art."
This President of the Folk Dance Council of Delaware Valley, currently also teaches a folk dance class in Fort Washington. If you want a get suited up in the best of Philly's ethnic folk roots, stop by the Open Orchestra Night at the Or Hadash temple on 190 Camp Hill Road, Ft. Washington, PA, on November 5th, where Ms. Anderson will be leading the jams and teaching some steps.
On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Gala broke into a sensitive snapshot of his boyhood in, "Shackamaxon Street," about the sleepy waterfront warehouse row near Richmond. The number mentions an old sugar refinery that stood on Shackamaxon Street by the Delaware River near the pier at Nobel Street. Mr. Gala's music is stripped of pretension and gives the impression that the composer is proud of his Philadelphia heritage. His improvisational Philadelphia reminiscences are sometimes done a cappella.
"I began playing the festival late in life. The Philadelphia experience provides an artist with imagery and soul-lessons that stay with the creative mind a lifetime. This festival, which is not just a local thing, is part of the soul-lessons."
On the first and third Thursday of each month, Mr. Gala hosts a music jam at the Mermaid Inn. Mr. Gala met his wife Janet in 1990, at the Open Circle at the Mermaid Inn in Chestnut Hill. The couple lives in Mount Airy.
Mr. Gala and his band, The Terraplanes (Mike Blair -bass, Anne Johnson, vocals, Ray Duffy, guitar, and John Catterall, banjo and mandolin), performed on the Craft Stage of the Festival at 3pm on Saturday in the Song Writers Special, hosted by Steve Gillette.
"There is no clear line between performers and the people who want to hear music. At the open mike on Tuesday, the patrons are the entertainers." A couple of weeks before the festival, Mr. Gala said, he had been setting up at the Mermaid Inn when renowned harpist Ellen Tepper came by to join the jam.
Tom talked about the dedication of folk performers in Philadelphia. "Their commitment shows how we keep the folk world alive in our town. When legendary Ken Goldstein taught at the University of Pennsylvania, clubs finally started to open in the city. We now honor Ken's example by living our music."
Jennifer Schonwald, also known by her Full Frontal Folk name, "Lolita Frontal," grew up in the Philadelphia folk community. She plays the six and twelve string guitar and mandolin. She performed last year with her band Full Frontal Folk. This year, she appeared with her father Steven, singing sea shanties and traditional tunes.
"Whenever there is a folk event happening in the Philadelphia area, it is always like a family reunion, Ms. Schonwald said.
Her aunts and uncles are musicians. Her stepfather bought her first guitar. Her mother is a coloratura soprano. A familiar face at the Open Circle at the Mermaid, Ms. Schonwald is part of the musical cultural treasury inhabiting Mount Airy.
"When I hear a song that I have forgotten that I know, it is a moving experience especially hearing it while I am around my 'folk family' in Philly." She mentioned that she had this feeling just after Thanksgiving when she was at the house of Philadelphia Folk Song Society Chairperson Dr. Bob and his wife Diane Cohen, listening to Robin Greenstein perform, "The Wagoner's Lad." Ms. Greenstein, singing this song bewailing the "hard … fortune of all womankind," last year released a CD known as "Images of Women," consisting of traditional folk songs about women. The thirty-two year-old Ms. Schonwald said that she hadn't heard this number since she was a teenager.
"Getting together at least fifteen or twenty times a year, at one another's houses," she said, "is a prevalent thing, especially in Mount Airy where I live."
For instance, on Thursday nights, Ms. Schonwald has dinner at the home of her Full Frontal band member Courtney Malley (alias Delilah Frontal, whose father also performed at the festival). These get together's usually turn into jam sessions.
"Suddenly, we are joined by jazz/folk fiddler Billy Dominic and his wife Britt who live across the street and other musicians who live in the neighborhood," said Ms. Schonwald, "and by the end of the night half of the party will move over to the Dominic house."
Mr. Gala philosophized about a biography he was reading. "Johann Sebastian Bach was known for having lived like a slave," said Mr. Gala, who is also a tree surgeon and the head of a private arboretum.
He concluded with a passage of Krishna, "You will find me by doing the thing that you love."
Before opening the mike at the Mermaid, Mr. Gala admitted that every year, most of the Philadelphia acts gather at a nearby hotel where they turn a floor into a private nightclub. He considered the get-togethers to be part of a tradition-which, like the Bryn Mawr Friday night sessions, is a covert jamboree. One performer who asked to remain anonymous said the musicians like to think of the secret sessions to be cocoons that help to give the Philadelphia folk sound its wings.
"There is no proof that life, which sometimes can get upsetting, is actually serious," Mr. Gala chimed. "
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