by Stephen Policoff
Photo by Valery Lyman
This weekend, the 7th annual Brooklyn Folk Festival takes place at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn Heights, with more than 30 bands playing a mix of old-time music, folk, blues, jug band, bluegrass, traditional Irish and Balkan music. There will also be vocal and instrumental workshops, a family-friendly square dance, jam sessions, film screenings, and the (in)famous Banjo Toss contest.
Among those scheduled to perform are The Four o’clock Flowers, who create an enticing and intoxicating sound—folk, gospel, country, blues, jazz—from the multicolored blossoms of traditional American music. Together, Ernie Vega and Samoa Wilson make music that feels eerily old yet provocatively new: the primal wail of Mattie Mae Thomas’s “Dangerous Blues,” the dark humor of Lead Belly’s “Poor Howard,” the limpid melancholy of the Prisonaire’s “Just Walking in the Rain.” Ernie’s spectral slide guitar is featured on “I Shall Not Be Moved,” while Samoa’s postmodern twist on an ancient Celtic lament can be heard in her own, “Irish Bar.”
Tickets and info on the Brooklyn Folk Festival here. A brief interview with Vega and Wilson after the jump.
Ernie Vega: "I took up the guitar at 17. When I was 23, I saw a movie about bluesman Robert Johnson and his legacy, and I knew what I wanted to do with my life. It was late January, snow covered the ground, and as I left the theater and stepped out onto Varick St., I had never been as sure of anything as I was at that moment.The clincher was my discovery of Harry Smith's celebrated Anthology of American Folk Music, some of the finest blues, old-time, gospel and Cajun music recorded between 1927 and 1935. After that holy grail of a document, this music had a permanent place in my heart and soul. A few months later, I saw Ramblin' Jack Elliott perform in the Village. That night I not only met and played a song for Jack, I also made a friend who put me in touch with Dave Van Ronk. I began studying finger style blues guitar with Dave which lasted until he passed away 8 months later. He really opened my eyes to playing in the style of my heroes."
Samoa Wilson: "I had a musical family and we all sang together constantly, with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing in a group of children everywhere we went is still my biggest influence. We sang Woody Guthrie, Carter Family songs, train wreck songs, cowboy songs. Jim Kweskin had a choir with the big kids and he invited me to join when I was 6. The first time I performed publicly was singing "You Are My Sunshine" with Jimmy and his band–I was 12 and we were busking on the street. When I was 19, I saw Etta James open for Ray Charles at the Hollywood Bowl. "I'd Rather Go Blind" is probably one of my favorite songs of all time. She did that song on stage that day, a hugely fat lady rolling her hips against this tall stool, and it changed my life."