June 8th, 2009
The Decemberists, Others Added To Philly Folk Festival
Rejoice, lovers of hyper-literate chamber-pop! The Decemberists have been added to this year’s Philadelphia Folk Festival — Colin Meloy and the gang will headline the Saturday lineup on August 15th.
Also newly added to the fest: The Derek Trucks Band (closing Sunday night’s Martin Guitar Stage), Heartless Bastards, Austin Lucas, Kerri Powers, Shannon Lambert-Ryan and RUNA, the West Philadelphia Orchestra, and Burning Bridget Cleary.
Here’s more info:
Philadelphia Folk Festival
Fri., Aug. 14–Sun., Aug. 16. Single day passes: $44-$75; three-day passes: $105-$131. Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, Pa. www.pfs.org/PFF.php
One of the longest-running fests of its kind in the nation—and the world, really—the Philadelphia Folk Festival celebrates its 48th annual edition with dozens of acts, thousands of pairs of Birkenstocks and countless pounds of weed descending upon Old Pool Farm in Schwenksville for three days of music, revelry, camping and noodle-dancing. There’s typically at least a couple big names on the roster each year—this year’s lineup sports the much-loved indie-folk outfit Iron and Wine, bluegrass legends the Del McCoury Band, the quickly emerging avant-folk singer-songwriter Alela Diane, soulful Americana singer-songwriter/storyteller (and Steve’s son) Justin Townes Earle, slide-blues musician Sonny Landreth, New Orleans jazz-funk heroes Rebirth Brass Band and folk singer Tom Rush, who helped pioneer the idea of the “singer-songwriter” as we know it today. There are a couple headliners yet to be announced, which we’ve been told are going to be huge. Of course, there are tons more acts, many of them local (Slo-Mo featuring Mic Wrecka, Wissahickon Chicken Shack, etc.) to discover, provided you’re not off wandering in a field stoned out of your mind.
