Sometimes, I wonder if it’s just me, or has the world gone deaf and dumb? We live in perilous times where one of the leading candidates for the American Presidency promises a dystopian future with mass deportations and an erosion of human rights for those who oppose his regime. Even worse, he has most recently been spouting pure nonsense that even his supporters cannot explain or decipher. Many critics have questioned whether Donald Trump should be treated as a serious contender with coherent political views that should be discussed or should the press just report that the guy is a dangerous nutcase.
That is the social context from which a new folk festival has emerged. The inaugural Evanston Folk Festival was held on 7-9 September. The weather was lovely, with temperatures in the 70s, and the setting was beautiful Dawes Park along Lake Michigan. The fest featured a host of primarily acoustic musicians from a variety of genres, including country, pop, rock, singer-songwriter, bluegrass, and the blues, not to mention a mix of these styles. The headliners were West Virginia’s vagabond Sierra Ferrell and Texas roots rocker Patty Griffin, along with a slew of other acts, including the duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, multiple Grammy Award-winning songstress Sarah Jarosz, indie rockers Deer Tick, solo sets by country folkie Steve Earle, composer/performer Rufus Wainwright, Appalachian Adeem the Artist and many, many more talented musicians.
What was conspicuous by its absence was the artists’ lack of political activism. In light of the upcoming presidential election, not to mention the climate crisis, school shootings, gender and race issues, and war in the Middle East, one would expect the performers would be leading the way forward to a more enlightened world. Many of the artists have recorded songs on these topics, some of which were performed but with little or no explanation or fanfare. It’s unclear why.
Historically, music folk festivals were considered subversive countercultural expressions with political overtones. The original National Folk Festival in 1934 was considered revolutionary because it was inclusive and mixed together people of different races and ethnic backgrounds on equal terms during segregation. The fest made headlines in the 1930s by presenting the great WC Handy performing with a band that included white and black performers, and conversely, by denying singer Marian Anderson the stage, which resulted in First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt publicly relinquishing her membership in the host organization (Daughters of the American Revolution).
The Newport Folk Festival began during the 1950s and was considered an alternative voice to the Cold War politics of the era. By the 1960s, it had become famous for launching the careers of such artists as Bob Dylan (who famously went electric during one of his performances) and Joan Baez, who spoke openly about political issues like race and war. The Newport Folk Festival continues to this day, after some hiccups, and has launched hundreds of festivals in its wake. The tradition of folk music as the matrix of social and political activism has been well established. But not in Evanston at this moment in time.
There were some notable exceptions. Arkansas’ Willi Carlisle sarcastically declared, “Folk music is what rich people call the music of poor people,” to an audience of mostly white, middle-aged, upper-middle-class citizens of Evanston. Poet Gwendolyn Brooks famously labeled the Windy City suburb as “Beverly Hills, Chicago” because of its affluence. Carlisle continued to engage in talking blues rants about the state of the country and the world and the irony of performing his music in front of the privileged. He challenged those who disagreed with him to speak with him later off-stage because it is only through face-to-face dialogue that things could be resolved. No one took him up on his offer; only fans came to speak with him after the show.
Bluesman Jontavious Willis hails from Georgia and sang the “Georgia Blues”, but he did not mention anything about political controversies in his home state. The person who introduced him mentioned the state’s pivotal role in the upcoming election, but Willis only discussed the history of the music he played between songs. One sensed that, as someone from the Deep South, he did not want to alienate anyone in his audience, where race can serve as a third rail to a musician’s career.
Louisiana’s Joy Clark was the lone performer who made the political aspects of race and gender issues central to her set. Her discussions gave her singer-songwriter material a greater warmth and tenderness. Other artists tended to dismiss what seemed like golden opportunities for solidarity. Canadian American Steve Poltz delivered a vibrant version of his self-penned anti-violence ballad “Thoughts and Prayers” without a mention of the recent school shootings. This is despite the fact that the song’s lyrics specifically address the topic.
More surprisingly, Steve Earle who is well known for his political activism, didn’t proffer any opinions other than we all need to be kind to each other. He made a point about being nonpartisan in his comments and didn’t mention any specific issues until his last song, “Christmas in Washington”, from 1997, which had no particular references to current events.
“I am a folk singer,” Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy announced to a packed audience at the Conversation Tent. The fest also featured a series of talks on music as well as live performances. Tweedy inclusively declared that all music could be broadly defined as folk music, not because of its topics but because of how music conveys human feelings. Indeed, the mix of styles from self-proclaimed “American Songster” Don Flemons to recent African transplant Jon Muq to Spanish language singer Guatemalan Gaby Moreno all shared an emotional centerpiece. What made their music folk was the music’s intimacy. Incidentally, Tweedy noted he was there to talk, not sing, so he did not proffer any evidence of his folk singing abilities.
That said, several of the performances were BIG! Country’s Sierra Ferrell drew the biggest audience of any act over the three days and performed in a giant pink sparkly royal costume with a headdress and hoop skirt. Her exaggerated regalia theatrically accented the lower-class characteristics of her songs’ protagonists. Rufus Wainwright stylishly challenged her with his bright outfit and stage projections. Both of them gave superb sets to packed appreciative audiences. There was something anti-folk about these shows that made them folk by presenting the opposite side of the coin.
Other outstanding sets relied on what Tweedy labeled the emotional component of folk despite the music’s original genre. Madi Diaz’s set incorporated R&B by including lines from Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes’ “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”, whose allusion to the past made it seem more old-fashioned. Sarah Jarosz and her banjo took on rock’s Tom Petty‘s introspective “Time to Move On”, which proclaims a need for change at a fest rooted in the traditional. There were many such examples of genre mixing.
Musically, the Evanston Folk Festival was a triumph. While it was physically impossible to attend every show because of the overlapping times and the fact that they took place on three different stages, there were many magic moments from beginning to end. Highlights included Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who opened the fest and presented wonderful new material from their unreleased as yet new album to Steve Earle closing the fest at an after-show party where he proclaimed a few of his songs were close to 50 years old. They still sounded vibrant and new. In between, everyone from the familiar, such as Robbie Fulks, whose roots are in Chicago, to the exotic, like Liberia’s Mon Rovia, offered fabulous music to approving crowds. Organizers report between 4,000 and 4,500 people attended the first Evanston Folk Festival.
The Democratic mayor of Evanston, Daniel Biss, spoke to the crowd. He made no mention of politics. He just welcomed the crowd and said this was just the beginning. He hoped the event would continue. He is up for reelection in 2025.