"The Godfather of Rap" playing at Toad's on Wed (7/2)

He may have had some problems with coke in the last few years that have landed him in jail, but legendary street poet/musician/activist Gil Scott-Heron is still someone worth checking out live, if only to catch some of his soulful '70s material like "Lady Day & John Coltrane" or "The Bottle."
He will be performing in Richmond with funky local sax player, Plunky & Oneness, at Toad's Richmond on Wed. Tickets are $25.
Check out this guy doing a funky dance to one of Scott Heron's best known songs, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (a phrase he originally coined).

Daniel Johnston visits Devil Town (Review)

Some locals were surprised that legendarily quirky singer songwriter Daniel Johnston made a stop in Richmond on June 23 during his recent tour--and at the brand spanking new National Theater no less. You can check out my interview with him at Style Weekly.

For anyone who has yet to catch a show at the National, what are you waiting for? Oh right, a band you like. I'll admit the artist selection has been a little sketchy so far--but those of us who have been there a few times know that this is a great venue and Richmond is lucky to have it. (Great sound, good views from nearly everywhere courtesy of the graded hardwood floors, kicking A.C., and very few patron lines since bars are located everywhere, plus there's no smoking indoors, thank you. Even in the valley of the shadow of Philip Morris, venues are starting to catch on and realize that smoking sections outside are the way to go).

The show itself was short and like Johnston himself, evoked bipolar reactions. People either loved it for the emotionally honest tunes and Johnston's bizarre, whacked out on medications persona (sadly, his arm was constantly shaking from some condition). Others likely thought his voice was horrible, the show was way too short, and the whole idea of placing a mentally ill singer on stage was potentially exploitive.
By the numbers, Johnston's show featured only a brief set of acoustic numbers in the beginning, followed by another short electric set with Johnston backed by a competent group of young hipster rockers, The Hymns, from New York. Sadly, there was no house piano, so Johnston was unable to display his unique piano playing style--sort of a childlike version of Thelonious Monk banging away at fractured, ghost-like chords.

My girlfriend and I got to the show early in order to meet Johnston and his brother/manager, Dick, backstage. As soon as we walked upstairs, Dick told us they were worried about Dan's voice, which had gone ragged from several consecutive shows. Over sitting on a large sofa was Dan,his usual friendly, oddly charming self. He immediately greeted us by saying "Hey look Dick, its John and Yoko" then offering us both a cup of Mountain Dew (those who saw the award winning documentary "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" from 2006 will get the joke).
But what seemed to please Dan most were the boxes of comic books he had just bought from Richmond's Velocity Comics nearby. He had an old friend from Austin, who now lives in Richmond, take him there for some serious impulse buying. There must have been four boxes. I bet the guys at Velocity were stoked.

Having seen Johnston perform before in Long Beach, CA, I can safely say that his shows usually offer the same mix of poignant, near-tear-jerking moments, and totally off key caterwauling (the electric set). The best moments tonight were when Daniel sang alone for the opening set, chugging away on a small custom built acoustic guitar. One of the most memorable songs came near the end, when he sang a near perfect rendition of "True Love Will Find You in the End" from, in my opinion, one of his best albums: "1990." It's a beautifully sad, naive, innocent song that will pull at your heart strings, if you have any.

He closed out the night with an abbreviated sing-a-long to "Devil Town" which fit this city perfectly--what with its ghosts of slavery days past. Oh, and i almost forgot, the ghost of Orson Welles, who once performed on The National stage, could be seen hovering tonight too. He was a wacky fat guy of an altogether different stripe--but I bet even he would've enjoyed the music of Dan Johnston.

Richmond Folk Festival will have international flare

This story was a class assignment for one of my graduate classes and also ran in a slightly different version in Style Weekly

Organizers of the first annual Richmond Folk Festival plan to gradually release the names of the 25 musical artists performing—just as soon as they sign their contracts. The festival, which hopes to draw on the popular success of the National Folk Festival during its recent three-year stint in Richmond, is being held along the city’s riverfront on the weekend of Oct. 10-12.

The National Folk Festival, the oldest multicultural arts celebration in the nation, changes venues every three years. The festival will be held this year in Butte, Montana.
Anxious to keep the ball rolling, Richmond organizers have already announced the first six acts which range from Cajun and Irish music to Hawaiian slack key guitar and Philadelphia soul legend, Howard Tate.
Jim Wark, chairman of the festival’s programming committee, said that the festival is committed to keeping the same format as the National Folk Festival, and the event will remain free to the public. He adds that his goal is to at least match attendance from last year, which drew 175,000 people.
“Weather conditions could not have been better last year, so it was sort of a harmonic convergence,” Wark says. “The weather will make the difference between 50,000 people coming either way.”

The festival is funded by corporate sponsors and subsidized by grants of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, which curates The National Folk Festival. The current budget for the Richmond festival is $1.39 million and major local sponsors include Philip Morris, Dominion and Ukrop’s. There will be seven event stages and no one dominant sponsor.
Wark explains that his committee, which consists of local artists and music experts, composed a wish list of diverse performers and submitted it to the NCTA, which was retained by Venture Richmond, a local umbrella group of city promoters and businesses. Wark says his committee focused on choosing exotic and diverse acts that would not usually play Richmond.
“I always look most forward to the strangest acts,” Wark says, adding that the festival is decidedly uncommercial. “People should know sponsorship dollars had zero influence on programming.”

One of the committee’s goals was to hire “purists,” or performers in a direct lineage to traditional music genres, meaning they likely come from its birthplace.
Grammy winning sound engineer and producer Christopher King of Nelson County says the event will have an international flair. King attended the programming meetings and worked to have traditional bluegrass represented.
“It’s all about compromise. If I get the old time group or person that I think fits the bill the best, I can roll over and ignore decisions made about other music,” he says.
In the future, King says he hopes the festival will add traditional hip-hop, which he feels is a legitimate folk art expression.
Programming member Zarina Fazaldin, a Kenyan who worked the last three years with the National Folk Festival, says she is working on bringing more music from Africa, such as Swahili music.
“Richmond is so international now,” she says. “We have many African-Americans who are interested in teaching and learning Swahili.”

There will also be plenty of crafts and food for the crowds to enjoy.
Chris Williams, who lives in Arlington County and has worked with the National Festival for 15 years, volunteered to coordinate crafts for the Richmond event. The theme this year will be finding common ground between communities of immigrants in Virginia and longtime Americans, he says.
“We’ve all learned to eat Indian, Thai, and Pakastani food in Virginia—we didn’t know that 20 years ago,” Williams says, adding that there should be 15 to 18 traditional craft demonstrations. “We’ll have everything from Mongolia to Mexico to Cambodia to Czechs, Slovaks, Danes … but we’re still working on it.”
The programming committee will likely have one more meeting, Wark says. The next annoucement on signed musical acts is expected within a month, according to Lisa Sims, director of events with Venture Richmond.