Allison Hadley Photo
Amythyst Kiah.
The CT Folk Festival and Green Expo hit all the marks of a good festival on Saturday: great music, lots of things to do beyond the music, and a celebration of space and community built not just around the music, but the people and nature that make a special day possible.
The day was gorgeous, and the crowds turned out, ranging from smiling children chalking up the sidewalks of Edgerton Park to new transplant grad students lounging in the sun on towels to local friends instituting military-like tactical installation of camp chairs and picnic blankets resplendent with koozies and snacks. True old campaigners sported shirts for other festivals like Merlefest, the CT Folk Festival’s own well-designed shirt, and many a band shirt, including that of headliner Donna the Buffalo — a band whose members are curators of three different folk festivals and mainstays in the folk festival circuit. It made for a community-affirming tableau of shirts. Rounding the corner from the park’s entrance on Whitney avenue, I could feel the happy vibes of people enjoying being outside and under the sun, celebrating a gorgeous day full of exciting music.
The festival was well underway when I showed up in the afternoon, towel, reusable water bottle (per their recommendation), and appetite for tasty street food in hand (so to speak). I arrived just in time for Amythyst Kiah and her band from Johnson City, Tenn., whose soundcheck of “Natural Blues” I could hear from across the park; her deep, mellifluous, commanding vocals got my attention even from afar. After I found my six or seven square feet of towel space among the camp chairs from within the fenced-in concert area (there was a wildly popular beer tent inside the fence as well), I settled in to enjoy the show, under dappled sunshine. I can’t stress enough how perfect the weather was.
Kiah, despite mentioning some vocal hoarseness, was commanding on stage, playing acoustic guitar and leading her band of drums and keys in a mixture of original songs from her upcoming album and powerful covers, including “Jolene” and “Trouble So Hard,” a song whose original recording Moby had sampled decades ago. Also significant, especially given the rest of the festival’s lineup, was her rendition of “Black Myself,” a song released by another group she’s in — Songs of Our Native Daughters, a black banjo singer-songwriter supergroup comprised of Kiah, Rhiannon Giddens (formerly of Carolina Chocolate Drops), Leyla McCalla (also of the Carolina Chocolate Drops), and later act, Birds of Chicago’s Allison Russell.
In many ways the mission and sounds of Songs of Our Native Daughters were an undercurrent to the later acts of the festival, showcasing a relationship with traditional music and a reclamation project underway that affirms that folk, as a genre, is a far cry from the academic and studious vision of ‘folk’ seen in popular culture.
Following Kiah, I took a brief break from music to rustle up some tasty food, eventually landing on Lalibela’s food truck despite stiff competition from Oak Haven, Street N Savory, Moon Rocks, Ben & Jerry’s and others. The selection was as lengthy as the lines. While I wolfed down my food close to the children’s zone, which was busily occupied by hula hoops and chalked sidewalks, I heard the lovely harmonies of Ghost of Paul Revere from afar wafting over the park. The scene of food, happy people, and wafting IV-V‑I chords made me a very happy festival attendee.
After enjoying a sufficient rest amongst the trees and quiet, I wandered back to the stage and caught Birds of Chicago (Allison Russel and JT Nero with backing guitar) taking us deep into a journey into the body of emotions known as “wistful,” with soulful harmonies and expertly applied clarinet and banjo across the stage. As dusk settled on the crowd and the majority of the activity focused on the calming purple lights of the stage, the atmosphere shifted from a true outdoor celebration to the concentrated energy of a concert. It was the perfect late summer day, and the perfect celebration of the lively folk community of New Haven and Connecticut writ large — an excellent day to hear music among the trees.