Archie Smith of North Carolina explains the Bowed Psaltery, an instrument he has been producing for 40 years.
Smith was one of many craftsmen and women who had tents at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
Coverage of the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival on the weekend of August 18-21 at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford, Pa. Stories, videos and photos from The Reporter (Lansdale), The Mercury (Pottstown) and The Times-Herald (Norristown).
Sunday, August 21, 2011
PHOTO: John Francis singin' in the rain
Scattered thunderstorms and a flood watch wasn't slowing down anybody at the Folk Festival on Sunday as folk fans donned ponchos and performers tried their best to keep their instruments dry.
Mid-way through his performance, Pennsylvania folk musician John Francis told the crowd he was going to join them on the grass for his favorite protest song, "Born in the U.S.A."
In the photo above, the audience sings along while others hold umbrellas over the artist.
Photo by Andy Stettler
Mid-way through his performance, Pennsylvania folk musician John Francis told the crowd he was going to join them on the grass for his favorite protest song, "Born in the U.S.A."
In the photo above, the audience sings along while others hold umbrellas over the artist.
Fun for the kids at Philly Folk Festival
UPPER SALFORD — No matter your age, Dulcimer Grove at the Philadelphia Folk Festival allows everyone to act like a kid.
Hidden away in a canopy of trees on Old Pool Farm, hours of entertainment are provided in this shady hideaway, making the Folk Festival a family-friendly experience.
“When I first came to this festival I thought to myself ‘Why would anyone bring kids to this?’” said crafts volunteer Caitlin Ryan, 21, of Blue Bell. “But I quickly learned many of these parents are exposing their children to other kids, good culture and things they would not typically learn in school.”
Read full story: Fun for kids..
Hidden away in a canopy of trees on Old Pool Farm, hours of entertainment are provided in this shady hideaway, making the Folk Festival a family-friendly experience.
“When I first came to this festival I thought to myself ‘Why would anyone bring kids to this?’” said crafts volunteer Caitlin Ryan, 21, of Blue Bell. “But I quickly learned many of these parents are exposing their children to other kids, good culture and things they would not typically learn in school.”
Read full story: Fun for kids..
Friday, August 19, 2011
Sunny, warm first day for Folk Fest
By BRIAN BINGAMAN
bbingaman@thereporteronline.com
UPPER SALFORD — When it comes to the Philadelphia Folk Festival, it is a small world after all.
Maura Kennedy of The Kennedys knew that someone had traveled from the Virgin Islands to make it to the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival. While performing a workshop concert set with her husband, Pete, on Friday, she asked the growing hillside crowd if anyone had come from farther away than that. Somebody piped up that they had come from Bahrain.
Although hail fell in parts of the township Thursday night, most of those camping for the weekend reported that it was just heavy rain that fell over the Old Pool Farm. Philadelphia Folksong Society board member Edward Stevens reported that the special campground concert Thursday night had to be halted because of the weather.
Although there were patches of mud here and there Friday, sunshine and temperatures in the 80s dried things up for a concert lineup that included Justin Townes Earle, Tempest, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, and a slew of regional acts, including Harleysville’s Burning Bridget Cleary.
“I’m having a good time so far,” said Philadelphia resident Alex Satta, editor of a new magazine called Headspace.
Satta thought the festival’s on-site ticketing process could have been more streamlined, however, and said he would keep it mind when he organizes a new, Pennsylvania-oriented folk music festival of his own in the future.
For some, the festival of music, crafts, dancing, family entertainment and food provides a sense of homecoming.
“It’s great to be here for the 50th. It was great to be here for the 40th,” said Philadelphia resident Miki Young.
She was willing to bet that some who haven’t attended the festival in decades made it a point to be here for the festival’s golden anniversary.
“If you were 16 then (in 1961), you’d be 66. You can still make it up the hill,” she said, laughing.
Downingtown resident Jack Marylees’ first Philadelphia Folk Festival was 1971, when he was 14. He estimated that this was probably his 35th time there and he wore his Folk Fest 30th anniversary T-shirt.
While the festival looks and feels the same to him as it always has, he noted the changes.
“The stages are bigger. The sound systems are incredibly wonderful now. They were pretty primitive back then (in the early 1970s). They’ve added a venue or two since then. The variety of the music is the same. The festival gets younger somehow. I don’t know how that works,” he said.
“In the ’70s, the way you found people is there was a huge bulletin board with scraps of paper. Now (with cell phones), you say: ‘Where are you? Three tents down,’” Marylees, said, miming holding a phone to his ear.
While Marylees enjoys discovering artists he’s never heard before, Chris Nyce of Upper Hanover Township said he was looking forward to hearing Celtic music groups and seeing heritage folk artists such as Arlo Guthrie, David Bromberg, Tom Paxton and Tom Rush.
Nyce, who was camping with his 14-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, reported that although the storm had blown some tents about Thursday, the campers were none the worse for wear.
Mike Ruddy of Ridley Township, who has four children performing on the main stage Sunday as part of The Great Groove Band, said he was looking forward to seeing Arlo Guthrie, Trombone Shorty and the several Philly acts that were going to be featured on the main stage, such as Hoots and Hellmouth and Birdie Busch.
Ruddy’s children and the son and daughter of his neighbor Maureen Martin sat under a shade canopy on the hillside overlooking the main stage, while the children beat out bongo drum rhythms and played recorder tunes, hoping for a tip to be tossed into a hat.
Saturday’s Folk Fest headliners include David Bromberg, Trombone Shorty, Arlo Guthrie, Jorma Kaukonen, Battlefield Band, John Hartford, Angel Band, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble and The Campbell Brothers.
Visit www.pfs.org or call (800) 556-FOLK.
Follow Brian Bingaman on Twitter @brianbingaman
bbingaman@thereporteronline.com
UPPER SALFORD — When it comes to the Philadelphia Folk Festival, it is a small world after all.
Maura Kennedy of The Kennedys knew that someone had traveled from the Virgin Islands to make it to the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival. While performing a workshop concert set with her husband, Pete, on Friday, she asked the growing hillside crowd if anyone had come from farther away than that. Somebody piped up that they had come from Bahrain.
Although hail fell in parts of the township Thursday night, most of those camping for the weekend reported that it was just heavy rain that fell over the Old Pool Farm. Philadelphia Folksong Society board member Edward Stevens reported that the special campground concert Thursday night had to be halted because of the weather.
Although there were patches of mud here and there Friday, sunshine and temperatures in the 80s dried things up for a concert lineup that included Justin Townes Earle, Tempest, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, and a slew of regional acts, including Harleysville’s Burning Bridget Cleary.
“I’m having a good time so far,” said Philadelphia resident Alex Satta, editor of a new magazine called Headspace.
Satta thought the festival’s on-site ticketing process could have been more streamlined, however, and said he would keep it mind when he organizes a new, Pennsylvania-oriented folk music festival of his own in the future.
For some, the festival of music, crafts, dancing, family entertainment and food provides a sense of homecoming.
“It’s great to be here for the 50th. It was great to be here for the 40th,” said Philadelphia resident Miki Young.
She was willing to bet that some who haven’t attended the festival in decades made it a point to be here for the festival’s golden anniversary.
“If you were 16 then (in 1961), you’d be 66. You can still make it up the hill,” she said, laughing.
Downingtown resident Jack Marylees’ first Philadelphia Folk Festival was 1971, when he was 14. He estimated that this was probably his 35th time there and he wore his Folk Fest 30th anniversary T-shirt.
While the festival looks and feels the same to him as it always has, he noted the changes.
“The stages are bigger. The sound systems are incredibly wonderful now. They were pretty primitive back then (in the early 1970s). They’ve added a venue or two since then. The variety of the music is the same. The festival gets younger somehow. I don’t know how that works,” he said.
“In the ’70s, the way you found people is there was a huge bulletin board with scraps of paper. Now (with cell phones), you say: ‘Where are you? Three tents down,’” Marylees, said, miming holding a phone to his ear.
While Marylees enjoys discovering artists he’s never heard before, Chris Nyce of Upper Hanover Township said he was looking forward to hearing Celtic music groups and seeing heritage folk artists such as Arlo Guthrie, David Bromberg, Tom Paxton and Tom Rush.
Nyce, who was camping with his 14-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, reported that although the storm had blown some tents about Thursday, the campers were none the worse for wear.
Mike Ruddy of Ridley Township, who has four children performing on the main stage Sunday as part of The Great Groove Band, said he was looking forward to seeing Arlo Guthrie, Trombone Shorty and the several Philly acts that were going to be featured on the main stage, such as Hoots and Hellmouth and Birdie Busch.
Ruddy’s children and the son and daughter of his neighbor Maureen Martin sat under a shade canopy on the hillside overlooking the main stage, while the children beat out bongo drum rhythms and played recorder tunes, hoping for a tip to be tossed into a hat.
Saturday’s Folk Fest headliners include David Bromberg, Trombone Shorty, Arlo Guthrie, Jorma Kaukonen, Battlefield Band, John Hartford, Angel Band, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble and The Campbell Brothers.
Visit www.pfs.org or call (800) 556-FOLK.
Follow Brian Bingaman on Twitter @brianbingaman
Friday scenes from the Folk Fest
Reporter Brian Bingaman spent a few hours Friday checking out the scene at the Folk Fest. Here are a few candid photos he took.
Folk Fest features fun for all ages
Zaia and her brother Jason Grunwald are shown making bubbles Thursday as campers arrived and set up their camping sites for the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Fest. (Photo by Mark C. Psoras/The Reporter)
Gene Shay — Philly Folkfest emcee for 50 years
By PHYLLIS RUBIN
For Journal Register News Service
He’s an American folk music icon. But he’s also our Main Line neighbor. A more gentle man would be hard to find.
Gene Shay is known and respected nationwide as the founder and emcee of the annual Philadelphia Folk Festival and as the unhurried, welcoming voice of Sunday night’s folk music radio program (WXPN 88.5 FM, 8 - 11 p.m. and xpn.org). As the producer or host of untold numbers of folk concerts, record albums and events; and more recently as the doyen of on-air folk music on the Internet (FolkAlley.com, Wednesdays and Saturdays, 5 - 7 p.m.) and satellite (Sirius XM: The Village, Sunday, 6 - 8 p.m.), he is truly in a class by himself.
No one else anywhere does what he has done for more than 50 years. As he put it recently, “I’m not one to boast, but it’s just a fact that no one has the experience, knowledge and network that I have.”
Shay will receive a well-deserved honor at the folk festival’s 50th anniversary on Sunday, Aug. 21. At his side will be his wife, Gloria, with whom he is also sharing a 50th anniversary, and their daughters, Rachel and Elana, and their families.
He reflects quietly, “I think I am the only person who has been on the festival stage every one of those 50 years.”
Born Ivan Shaner, he grew up in Nicetown (North Philadelphia), the eldest child in a Jewish family. Forbidden to play near busy Germantown Avenue, he spent most play-time indoors.
“I listened to a lot of radio,” he recalled. “I loved all the music: classical, jazz, traditional folk, show tunes. As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a radio announcer.”
Much to his sisters’ annoyance, “I practiced all the time,” he explained. He wrote scripts for himself, imitating announcers’ voices. He’d regale the family with recitations of food containers’ labels and play-by-play descriptions of their household activities. By the time he was 16, he had developed his distinctive sound.
As soon as he arrived at Temple University, he became a communications major and worked at WRTI radio station. After a stint in the Army between wars (he volunteered the day after graduation), he was hired immediately upon his first professional audition at WHAT. Puzzled when the station manager asked him what name he was going to use on the air, he realized that Cold War listeners might not trust a man with a Russian name. He became Gene Shay.
When the host of WHAT’s Sunday evening folk music show retired, Shay was asked to take it on. The folk genre had been purely traditional music, but now “the national folk scene was just taking off with singer-songwriters.” He has captained the show through seven different stations.
Newlyweds Gene and Gloria joined the fledgling Philadelphia Folksong Society (PFS). Soon, David Hadler, a fellow PFS board member, approached him suggesting that they organize an outdoor concert. They pitched it to the board and became the founders of the weekend-long Philadelphia Folk Festival. Proudly, Shay explains, “You know, the Festival is run entirely by the Folksong Society, entirely by volunteers. It has never been sponsored by any governmental or private entity.”
As life became more hectic for the growing family, Shay shifted his career into promotions and public relations, and had to let go of running the festival, but “stayed with what I do best: emceeing and advising on talent.”
Shay marvels at the folk festival’s enduring success.
“Many people treat it as a family vacation and reunion, with generations gathering. There’s always a sense of community, which is an essential part of folk music.”
During its 50 years, the festival has always been an evolving mix of traditional artists and acoustic singer/songwriters, balancing stalwart performers with budding talent. Through it all, there has been one constant: the soft-spoken, mild-mannered, always-ready-with-a-joke emcee Gene Shay, the “folk DJ.”
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