Brooklyn Folk Festival Was A Hoot!

“My only obligation when I perform like this is to play songs that I love.” This was a quote from the beautiful and immensely talented accordion player, Eva Selena who performed Balkan folk songs at The Bell House on Saturday afternoon. These are great words to live by, and I believe most of the artists who performed at this weekend’s 5th Annual Brooklyn Folk Festival would share the same philosophy.

 Organized by Red Hook’s own Jalopy Theatre, the folk festival inhabited The Bell House in Brooklyn from Friday through Sunday. It was a celebration of folk and bluegrass culture featuring artists from both near and far. I reckon it was a solid hoedown, and good ol’ folks were GETTIN’ DOWN.

I attended Saturday afternoon’s sold out performances, and was thrilled with the caliber and variety of talent presented, as well as the overall fluidity of the event. I’m originally from Kentucky so I felt right at home amidst the easygoing crowd and familiar string instruments. Host Eli Smith did a fantastic job introducing the acts and keeping the day on track. His friendly rapport with the audience and extensive knowledge of each act showed his true passion for the festival. Well done my friend! The festivities kicked off at 1:30 PM with sea shanties and English folk songs from Heather Wood (joined by Ken Schatz and Frank Woerner).

Stephanie Coleman and Cleek Schrev (AWESOME NAME ALERT!), two fiddle players from Illinois and Tennessee took the stage next. These musicians had great stage chemistry together. Their energy was focused, and their playing was intricate. They followed each other like pros and you could sense a strong connection between them as they switched quickly between slow interludes and rollicking melodies. They were communicating without saying a word – something truly fascinating to watch.

 My personal favorites of the day were Melody Walker and Jacob Groopman, two badass musicians from Richmond, CA. Their showmanship was on point and they engaged their audience immediately. Walker rocked the guitar and Groopman was a god on the Mandolin. Both vocals were competent and their music was hella fun. They were clearly having a great time on stage and that is something I always seek in a live performance. Their interactions with each other and the crowd were effortless – third walls never existed.

They had the audience sing along on multiple tracks including an upbeat ballad called “Family Band”. 

They later offered a free CD to the first person who could interpret the meaning of a popular folk song called, “Greasy Coat.”  “I don’t drink, and I don’t smoke, and I don’t wear no greasy coat. That means not wearing a condom, right?” That was my friend’s best guess. No one in the crowd actually seemed to know the meaning. I did some research and apparently it is a reference to a 19th Century Vaudevillian poem called Soap Ditty No. 1, about a man with bad hygiene, who hence harbored a “greasy coat”. So I guess that means the writer of this song always practiced safe sex, and there was a gross dude back in the day who never learned how to bathe. There. You learned something today.

Keeping the energy up next was The Great Smoky Mountain Bluegrass Band from East Tennessee. They referred to their Music as Busthead Style Bluegrass. This quartet was stacked with talent and they even had an old timey microphone on stage to boot. Love it!

Most of their songs were original. “There aren’t a whole lot of happy love songs in bluegrass and we’re not quite sure why that is,” Richard Hood (Banjo/Vocals) explained. And they followed it up with a sweet love song called “That’s How I Can Count on You.” Mandolin player Kris Truelsen took the lead on vocals here, and his voice was a clear tenor with a crisp and pleasant timbre. In other words, this boy could sing.

They covered Earl Scruggs’ Dear Old Dixie which took down the house. Hood was what we down in Kentucky call “A Real Hoot”. He was hilarious and ragged on New Jersey throughout the entire set. “The only bad thing about New York is that it butts up against New Jersey,” he said. “Tomorrow I’m teaching a lesson. On how to drive from Tennessee to New York by avoiding all of the tolls in New Jersey. $13 to drive over the Verrazano Bridge? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?” I didn’t know I was getting a comedy set too. These guys rocked.

And those were just a few artists out of the more than 30 acts that performed over the weekend. Special workshops were taught in the smaller stage in the front of the venue. Things like old time banjo lessons, recording demonstrations, film screenings and more, were also included in the ticket price. Not too shabby.

Overall, the Brooklyn Folk Festival was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon. This event was family friendly and open to all ages despite the bar being open, and there was BBQ catered on site. For a relatively new festival (it’s only been around for five years) I was more than pleased with the accommodations. I would recommend having more seats next year as this seemed to be the one thing that was lacking. One older man brought his own chair and fell asleep for several hours under a sign that read “Brooklyn Folk Festival”. I do not think that image appropriately summed up the day, as this was far from a snooze fest. Next year, be sure to take a gander if you’re fixin’ to get cultured, ya hear?