It's not a "Celtic" music festival, per se, but is a very popular, highly anticipated annual event: The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, which takes place this coming weekend in New York's Hudson Valley. While the festival tends to focus on singer-songwriter acts (like Dar Williams, Chris Smither, The Nields and Janis Ian, to name a few), it does have a pretty healthy representation of music with traditional (and New England) roots.
In addition to Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul -- a fascinating combination of Irish, American, African and Latino styles -- and Boston-based ICONS 2008 performer Crooked Still (whose new CD, by the way, is phenomenal) Falcon Ridge this year will once again have a roster of top-flight bands for its contra dances, including: Vermont's Nightingale, the trio of Becky Tracy, Keith Murphy and Jeremiah McLane that appeared at ICONS last year; The Sevens, including Flynn Cohen and Stuart Kenney of Annalivia, another New England-based act appearing at ICONS this year; and the legendary Western Massachusetts ensemble Wild Asparagus.
Another Boston act of note at Falcon Ridge this year is Blue Moose & the Unbuttoned Zippers, who are appearing at the festival's Emerging Artist Showcase. "BMUZ" plays an extremely creative and often mesmerizing blend of Appalachian, Scandinavian and Celtic music fused with hip-hop and funk, using instruments such as the Hardanger fiddle, nyckelharpa, octave fiddle, accordion, mandolin and guitar. What's more, the individual band members (all current or former Berklee College of Music students) have cool names: Mariel Vandersteel, Bronwyn Bird, Stash Wyslouch and Andy Reiner.
(Yes, I'm sure there's an interesting story behind their name -- I just haven't gotten around to asking them yet.)
--Sean Smith
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