The 2024 Brooklyn Folk Festival drew large crowds to St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church Friday evening through Sunday evening. It also created its share of excitement, as shown by the audience members up and dancing in the photo above, to the sound of Shiva Lakhan (at center on stage) and friends doing classical Indian songs and Chutney, an amalgam of traditional Indian music with West Indian Calypso and Soca that originated with diaspora Indians in Trinidad.
Beareather Reddy, described as “Champion of the Blues,” gave a soul stirring set that concluded with a nail-you-to-the-wall rendition of B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby.”
La Banda Chuska, said to be “a fireball of post-punk energy and subversive playfulness, a sort of tropical funk meets The B-52s,” lived up to that description and had people of all ages up and dancing.
Nora Guthrie, daughter of Woody Guthrie, gave a two hour presentation that proved to be worth every minute, “My Name Is New York, Ramblin’ Around Woody Guthrie’s Town.” She described every place he lived, from his arrival in February of 1940 at the invitation of an actor friend in whose Manhattan penthouse he spent a few days, through his many Manhattan residences and on Mermaid Avenue, Coney Island, until his death in 1967 at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens Village. She also mentioned the many interesting characters, some of whom, like Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, went on to become folk music legends, he got to know and influence during his time in New York.
The youngest solo performer at this year’s Festival, was Riyae Park. She did a splendid set of folk songs, displaying both her mature voice and skill on guitar.
David Amram, a composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and musicologist, described by the Boston Globe as “the Renaissance Man of American Music,” accompanied by a crew of superb musicians that included his son Adam on conga drums, presented a set as delightful as it was eclectic. He opened with his arrangement of Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas,” followed that with a waltz, then did his splendid take on Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty.” After several more numbers, he closed with “Pull My Daisy,” the song he wrote with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac for the 1959 short film with the same title. On this, Adam’s drumming was augmented by his young son with a bongo.
On Sunday afternoon Hopalong Andrew and friends put on a lively show for kids (and adults).
The Down Hill Strugglers are usually a trio, but on Sunday evening Walker Shepard, son of playwright Sam Shepard and actress (and former Lion’s Head waitress) Jessica Lange, was away on other business, so the Strugglers were a duo of Eli Smith, who has served as Festival Director for sixteen years, on banjo, and Jackson Lynch on fiddle. The two of them put on a sparkling show, beginning with an original song, “I’m Getting Ready To Go.” This was followed by traditional songs, including, to this train buff’s delight, “Casey Jones.” They ended their set with a rousing rendition of the old favorite. “Going Down the Lee Highway.”
Zarah Alzubaidi, a native of Iraq, accompanied by some first rate instrumentalists, gave stirring renditions of Iraqui songs, along with songs from the Gulf States.
The Festival concluded with a performance on piano, by composer and pianist Thomas Feng, of music by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, an Ethiopian nun who died last year at the age of 100. It can only be described as celestial.
These are but a few of the many performances that made this year’s Brooklyn Folk Festival wonderful.
Nabe Chatter