Published: August 22, 2008 12:30 pm            

Music mania | JAHA puts finishing touches on 15th annual FolkFest

BY RUTH RICE

RRICE@TRIBDEM.COM

Johnstown FolkFest 2008 will bring a symphony of sound to the downtown.

The festival, celebrating its 15th year of being solely produced by Johnstown Area Heritage Association, will be held from 5 p.m. to midnight Friday, noon to 12:30 a.m. Saturday and noon to midnight Aug. 31 at Festival Park, 90 Johns St. in downtown Johnstown.

Shelley Johansson, JAHA’s marketing director, has been involved with FolkFest since 2003.

“I’m from Nashville, and there’s not anything like this there,” Johansson said.

“I was blown away by the lineup,” she said of her first Johnstown FolkFest she attended in 2002.

Johansson is a member of the group that selects the musical acts.

“We look at a broad range of genres and bring back favorites,” Johansson said. “For a balanced and diverse program, we have acts from other parts of the country and Johnstown-based acts.”

When choosing a group from across the country, the committee finds what kind of fan base that genre has in the region and what will create a draw.

“The agents get to know the event and tell us what acts would be good for it,” Johansson said. “The ideal is to get to see them perform live.”

Performers love to come back to FolkFest, and Johansson credits the warm and appreciative audiences and helpful volunteers.

“Every year we get comments from the performers about how everyone is so nice and helpful,” Johansson said.

Last year, Johansson said that FolkFest attendees came from 28 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada.

“It’s a busy, crazy, exciting time,” Johansson said. “It takes on a life of its own.”

A new facet of FolkFest is an online newsletter to help spread the word about the annual event.

“Because of costs, we only do a physical mailing to JAHA members, so this will enable us to have more regular contact,” Johansson said. “There also will be news about the children’s museum and other events. Sometimes there’s something we didn’t know about in advance, so now we can e-mail.”

Those interested in receiving the e-mail can sign up at www.jaha.org.

“You can indicate your preference of what you’re interested in hearing,” Johansson added.

This year’s FolkFest showcases Americana music at its best from blues to zydeco and everything between.

“There’s every kind of music you could want,” Johansson said. “I like to describe it as roots music. It’s a better description than folk, which means a lot of things to a lot of people.”

A highlight of this year’s FolkFest will be the reuniting of a legendary group.

Jason and the Scorchers essentially invented alternative country in the early 1980s, fusing country with punk.

“Other bands owe them a debt,” Johansson said. “They’re the original deal. They haven’t been active. This will be their first show together outside Nashville in five years.”

The band will be awarded the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in September.

Jason Ringenberg, the Scorchers front man, will do double duty as Farmer Jason, wowing the younger FolkFest audience members with witty songs from folk to zydeco.

“We don’t usually have a children’s performer,” Johansson said. “He’s highly entertaining, no matter what age you are.”

This year’s zydeco act – a FolkFest essential – will be a repeat of last year’s.

Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers will once again burn up the stage with feel-good tunes.

“We virtually never book national performers in back-to-back years, but they were that good,” Johansson said. “There aren’t that many Louisiana bands who are willing to travel this far.”

Dopsie is the son of the late Rockin Dopsie, who played FolkFest in 1993.

Latin music returns to FolkFest with Del Castillo from Austin, Texas, a band known for its live performances.

Brothers Rick and Mark Del Castillo play nylon-stringed classical guitars in dual leads reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen fronting early Santana.

“They play flamenco guitar,” Johansson said. “I’ve seen taped performances, and the audience goes berserk. Virtuoso is not too strong a word. Their showmanship is amazing.”

Deke Dickerson and the Ecco-Fonics played their rollicking rockabilly with a West Coast style to FolkFest audiences in 2003, and blues legend Barrence Whitfield, known as the premier rock/rhythm and blues screamer this side of Little Richard, played FolkFest in 2001 and 2004.

Dickerson and Whitfield will team up for two 75-minute sets.

Dickerson’s band will play a set, then back Whitfield on another.

Johansson thinks the music committee might be pushing the envelope with Red Collar, a punk band out of Durham, N.C.

The band was chosen because it is fronted by the husband-wife team of Jason and Beth Kutchma, both graduates of Pitt-Johnstown.

Johansson received requests for Jason Ricci and New Blood, a band that mixes blues, rock, funk, eastern and jazz, with virtuoso harmonica player Ricci leading the way.

“He will be entertaining and popular with the crowd,” Johansson said.

Every year, there is always a group with an outrageous name, and this year the honor goes to Born Again Floozies, whose rhythm section is two tap dancers and a tuba player.

The singer plays guitar the way most people play the piano.

Other national acts will feature Shannon Whitworth, North Carolina bluegrass; New Orleans music with Big Sam’s Funky Nation; Stacie Collins, southern rock; Texas singer-songwriter Tom Russell; Amy LaVere, barroom country; Dallas Wayne, honky-tonk; Arty Hill and the Long Gone Daddys, classic country and western; Jordan Valentine and the Sunday Saints, 1960s R&B and southern soul; and Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks, who have been described as part Elvis Costello.

At FolkFest, there will always be slots for performers based closer to home.

Local favorite Tim Dabbs of Johnstown returns to FolkFest after an eight-year absence with his storytelling tradition of folk music, which includes many songs about the region.

Making its FolkFest debut is the Johnstown-based band Dubmissive, which has been seamlessly blending reggae, punk and hip-hop for the past seven years.

This year, the traditional Irish music of Aran will return to the stage after a long absence.

Clearfield-based Rusty Gun Revival has been entertaining multigenerational audiences with its honky-tonk and juke-joint music since 2004. The band performed at FolkFest in 2006.

The Marauders from Altoona are known for punk-influenced rockabilly with a modern flavor.

Pittsburgh-based Beagle Brothers has opened for a variety of acts with its two-stepping country-Eastern sound.

The 17-member Johnstown band Jazz in Your Face, a FolkFest perennial, specializes in big band music.

“They’re a staple,” Johansson said. “Their music is something you can’t get elsewhere.”

With the wide mix of musical genres, there is always an effort made to have different musical styles on different stages at different times so the same types of acts aren’t competing against each other.



Labor Day bash

What: 15th annual Johnstown FolkFest.

Where: Festival Park, 90 Johns St. in downtown Johnstown.

When: Friday through Aug. 31.

Hours: 5 p.m. to midnight Friday, noon to 12:30 a.m. Saturday and noon to midnight Aug. 31.

Admission: Free.



Click here for the Festival Park Performance Schedule Or here for Cambria City Ethnic Festival

        

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