Regardless of your political stripe, there is one thing all music lovers should thank former Virginia governor and senate hopeful Mark Warner for doing for the capital city; he brought the National Folk Festival to our fair humble southern abode. I remember thanking him personally before the first festival in 2005 and he responded, “I can’t wait to see Ralph Stanley.” Though he is a politician, I could tell he was genuinely excited. I told him he needed to check out the Paschalls (an a cappella jubilee gospel quartet from Chesapeake. that I had previously booked at Millie’s Diner) and he said that he and his family would be there. I doubted that I’d see him, but, sure enough, there he was on that rainy Friday opening night with family in tow looking on in amazement as the Paschalls dazzled the audience with their vocal prowess. After the performance, he came over to me and said. “Man, they were awesome. Thanks for the tip.”

He’s had my vote ever since.

This weekend, The Richmond Folk Festival carries on the tradition of the last three nationally sponsored years with a lineup that includes a vast array of musical talents from around the world. This year, I had the supreme honor of sitting on the programming committee with a collection of equally obsessed and opinionated music colleagues who determined the line-up for upcoming festival. I was thrilled to put in my precious two cents at those programming meetings, as I believe that this yearly event is the punkest thing the city has ever done. Acts were not chosen for their marketability; they were chosen and fought for because somebody made a persuasive argument for their inclusion. Decisions were made by a simple show of hands. The goal of these meetings was to bring artists and groups to the city that otherwise might go unheard, let alone witnessed firsthand for free amongst a dizzying array of other audio stimulations. To me, it doesn’t get any more punk than that.

One thing I want to point out to people is the definition of Folk Music. Folk music is, “Music originating among the common people of a nation or region and spread about or passed down orally, often with considerable variation.” I bring this up because over the years when I’ve mentioned the festival to people they look at me with abject horror thinking the event is a festival of nothing but middle-aged Caucasians strumming acoustic guitars and singing, “kubaya” over the course of three days. Let me assure you that it is not. The folk you’ll hear is the literal interpretation of the word.

Here are some the performers that I can’t wait to see. The Arabic sounds of Nadeem Dlaikan & Friends, Dale Watson and his straight up, no frills country honky tonk, the Indonesian shadow puppetry of Tamara and the Shadow Puppet Theatre of Java, Hawaiian guitar masters Ledward Kaapana & Mike Kaawa and the Mali blues of late, great African guitar master Ali Farka Toure’s son, Vieux Farka Touré. And that, my friends, is just the tip of the musical iceberg. The Richmond Folk Festival is something you don’t want to miss.

Also of the must see variety, after the folk festival weekend, is the Wednesday, October 15 show by Israeli group Monotonix at Gallery Five. The three-man group put on the best live rock performance I have seen in many a moon when they played in town a couple of months ago, and if groups like the Jesus Lizard or Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion mean anything to you, you would be doing yourself a supreme disservice if you don’t witness this group in the flesh. Take my word on it, Monotonix will blow your fragile, eggshell mind into little, biddy bits. Also on the bill are local sound generators Hot Lava, Snack Truck and the Amoeba Men.

See you there.

Trust me, khughes, I don’t read it. It’s mostly pop-up pictures anyway.
I read Bopst online, which is where I saw your original ‘hating’ on Style (“The last time it rained during First Fridays, those thirsty Style pages made a great umbrella.“) Good one.

News flash: Style doesn’t even consider you competition b/c your rag is so weak.

Most journalists have a thick skin and believe in what they do ... so your whining for approval (“Thank you for proving to me that what we do every week for this publication matters”) sounds really pathetic.
Yet I can totally understand why you’d question what you do every morning when you look in the mirror. Especially if you paid a lot for your education. Way to put it to good use with that entertaining “tubing” spread. Or video game reviews ... just what the world needs.

Funny how calling people “a hater” is always the first refuge of someone with no argument to make.
I’ll stop hating now. Its too easy in Brick’s case.
Best of luck!

Clay-That is funny. You can find supporters of both candidates that are throughly amusing…

Hi Tom,

What some people seem to forget when they’re surfing our website for hard-hitting serious content about our fair city is that Brick is an entertainment magazine, so most of our content is about having fun and finding a diversion or two to get us through the work week.

Surprise!  Oh wait, the word “entertainment” is in our masthead. 

Our magazine isn’t about exposing the underbelly of society, although Bopst and a few of our other writers are quite skilled at doing that when they decide to, and I agree that kind of commentary does add an air of sophistication to our weekly publication when it does appear.

It’s interesting to me, however, that you despise what we do so much, yet you took the time to read an article, respond and write me a love letter.  Thank you for proving to me that what we do every week for this publication matters because if it reached a hater like you, I’m sure it reached somebody else who sees value in it.

And for the record, I’ve got both undergraduate and master’s degrees so take heed in the knowledge that I have definitely taken Journalism 101.  I’ve got transcripts, diplomas and a massively huge student loan bill balance to prove it.  Cheers!

http://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3

haha, this has nothing to do with the convo. but i thought it was to good to pass up

Hey Korey,
I wouldn’t get your panties in a twist over Style. Indeed, you should feel lucky there is a real weekly in town that actually does investigative reporting—instead of pictures of kids partying, preening and primping for themselves, and restaurant reviews written by the restaurant itself (try ever living that one down).
Bopst is the only reason to even consider wiping your ass with the Brick.
The rest of your “product” (an ill-fated attempt to steal ad revenue from Style) is just poorly scribbled stuffing for the conservative buttplug known as the RTD.
Get over yourself. And maybe take a journalism 101 course before you attempt to comment on local media.

Oh, and if the past few months is what you call “a lot of work” and “improvement”—you should probably think about another line of work.

In the words of Will Rogers, the only thing worse than people talking about you is people not talking about you.

Bopst, don’t get me wrong.  I think you’re a very intelligent guy, I enjoy reading your column every week and I respect your point about people having multiple options for information, but with all the hard work we’ve put in to improve Brick over the past months, I just don’t think we should give our readers any reason to click over to that…other publication. 

I know Style Weekly would never do that for us unless they were slamming us in another one of their editorials.  But I’m not trying to start another debate with a fellow Brick writer on an unrelated topic, so I’ll just live and let live on the Brick vs Style issue.

And I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t picked up a copy of Style Weekly in the past few months.  The last time it rained during First Fridays, those thirsty Style pages made a great umbrella.

very scary indeed…

The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation. At the head is a small group of banking houses… This little coterie…run our government for their own selfish ends. It operates under cover of a self-created screen… seizes… our executive officers… legislative bodies…schools… courts… newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.”
—N.Y. Mayor, John Hylan

Monsanto is a prime example of what happens without government oversite. Do some research. It’s scary.
http://www.fdrs.org/anti_monsanto.html

Faith is good, but blind faith… that’s dangerous.

I don’t care who the messenger is if the message is one that needs to be heard. And I don’t consider it blasphemy to post a link to a story in Style. Style & Brick are two entirely different beasts. We should consider ourselves lucky in the city to have two weekly publications to debate the merit of too. More options are always better than less. Besides, the points made in this commentary apply succulently to the dullard party line Liberty likes to boast as well so I think it is more than appropriate to post it here.