New Bedford Folk Festival Day #1 ~ 2022 July 9 ~ New Bedford, MA
Scroll past the video for comments on the festival.
Video
"The Five Notes" (Rev. Robert B. Jones, Sr.)
Review
The New Bedford Folk Festival took place for the first time since 2019. To their credit, they required everyone who attended to provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test. I wish they had also required masks for all indoor venues. They didn't require this, but a lot of responsible festival goers wore them anyway. Concert Going Partner and I attended mostly outdoor tent shows, inherently safer than an indoor venue. We only stopped by the Zeiterion briefly twice over the course of the two days for a couple of workshops featuring The Kennedys, but we didn't stay more than a few songs either time.
After pulling into a free parking spot on S. Water St., we beelined to the wristband exchange at the Zeiterion theater. This took longer than expected, but once equipped with the bands we headed north to the Purchase Street Stage, where it turned out the first performer was cancelled, so we quickly improvised and headed down the hill to the Garden Stage. There we caught most of the set by Sparky and Rhonda Rucker, a traditional folk duo who played several instruments and told some interesting and fun stories about the music. Rhonda played harmonica, banjo, guitar, and bones; Sparky played banjo, spoons, and guitar. They were an excellent start to the festival.
After their set we stayed put at the Garden Stage for the Vox Hunters, a very engaging, energetic, and good looking duo of young men from Providence, R.I., playing traditional folk. Armand Aromin played baritone ukulele, fiddle, some sort of recorder-like wind instrument, and step danced; Benedict Gagliardi played guitar, concertina, and harmonica. They harmonized beautifully.
Then we went and got a very nice sandwich for lunch from one of the food vendors on Purchase Street. Then dropped briefly into the Zeiterion for the Guitar Masters workshop, but we only stayed for one song by each of five performers since we were headed back to the Garden Stage for the 3:00 set.
We were lucky to resume our front row seats at the Garden Stage; this day seemed a lot less crowded than previous years at the Festival. We were there for Rev. Robert B. Jones, Sr., who, despite how fantastic the earlier two performers were, was definitely the standout performer of this first day. He played acoustic guitar, harmonica, fiddle, and resonator guitar, and sang old style blues and gospel with a deep, gravelly voice. But he also writes songs. The absolute standout number of the entire day was his 12 minute ode to the history of American music, called "The Five Notes." I was extremely lucky to get a video of this (link above). In this number, part music, part spoken word, the Reverend explains how the basic five notes and three chords have travelled through the years, from Delta blues, to Chicago blues, to bluegrass, to Elvis, to Motown, even to the rap music of today.
Next up at the Garden Stage were Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan, playing guitar and performing a variety of original folk tunes and covers of traditional numbers. Claudia's dad, Gilbert Russell, was a singer back in the 1930s and is known for originating the well-known kids' song, "Teddy Bear's Picnic," the performance of which by Claudia and Bruce delighted the crowd.
Next stop was the Meet the Performer Stage at the Seaman's Bethel, the historic church that makes an appearance in the classic novel Moby Dick. First performer we saw there was E.T.E., a trio from French Canada, two women and a man. Their instruments included fiddle, cello, cittern, and guitar. Some songs were instrumentals and some included vocals in French. There was also step dancing. They were lively and fun and sang beautiful harmonies.
The Seaman's Bethel, as much as it is a historic site and features some moving testimonials along the walls, really doesn't work as a venue for this festival. There is a large pulpit in the front of the church shaped like the bow of a whaling ship, where the preacher stands at least 10 feet off the floor. This pulpit extends completely to the front of the area that's used as the stage. The three performers of E.T.E. divided themselves, two on the left side of the pulpit (the two women) and one on the right side (the young man), and they simply couldn't see one another while performing.
Then on came the Vox Hunters, who sing together into one microphone, so it simply wouldn't have worked for Armand to have stood on one side of the pulpit and Benedict on the other, so instead of being lopsided and staying together on one side of the pulpit, they decided to go up on top of the pulpit and perform together from up there. They sounded good (great, actually) but it was basically impossible to see what they were playing. They were fun to end the day with anyway.
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