Published Sept. 20, 2006 | Download PDF tearsheet
The UMass-Boston campus was abuzz this past weekend with the twang of acoustic guitars and savory vocals for the ninth annual Boston Folk Festival.
Some 6,000 people attended the event over its two days.
Highlighting the main stage performances on Saturday were an ensemble performing songs influenced by Phil Ochs, Irish supergroup Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul, and the always-passionate folk legend Richie Havens.
Phil Ochs, a seminal ’60s folk musician, cut his teeth in Greenwich Village and was known for his anti-war songs. Suffering from bipolar disorder, Ochs took his own life at 35. The festival tribute, with narration and stories by Ochs’ sister, Sonny, was led by Kim and Reggie Harris, Greg Greenway and Pat Humphries and Sandy O, who sang Ochs’ classic “I Ain’t Marchin Anymore.”
Joining fiddler Eileen Ivers and her multicultural group Immigrant Soul were dancers from The Harney Academy Dancers of Walpole, who thrilled the crowd with fast-paced Irish step-dancing.
Richie Havens, wearing a flowing navy-blue tunic, joked with the audience about how “our government spends trillions and billions of our tax dollars to get into outer space - where we already are.” Havens’ playing, in which he chords the guitar neck with his thumb while strumming madly, was marked by classic songs, from “All Along the Watchtower,” the anti-war ballad “Blood on the Wire,” to Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” and ultimately, to “Freedom,” the rousing song that brought Havens fame at Woodstock in 1969.
Highlights on Sunday included Canadian folk-rocker Bruce Cockburn, soft-spoken singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester and a power-packed performance from the husband-wife duo of Pete and Maura Kennedy.
The Kennedys conjured sounds of the Everly Brothers with their tight duet harmonies and jangly acoustic guitars. They got the crowd to their feet in their pensive song “Stand,” performed in memory of Woody Guthrie’s celebration of all religions. They exploded into a medley of ’50s and ’60s pop interspersed with classical music, with Pete Kennedy switching between fiery guitar and ukulele leads and eventually using the ukulele neck as a guitar slide.
The soft-spoken style of Jesse Winchester quieted the throngs of festival-goers, as he picked his nylon-stringed acoustic guitar and offered tender tenor vocals to original tunes of love (“If You Love Somebody”) to his southern roots in “Talk Memphis” to kicking back and taking it easy in “Gentleman of Leisure.”
Juno-award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) winner Cockburn, joined by a drummer and keyboardist, got the crowd singing with his classic from the late ’70s, “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” to the title track of his newest CD, “Life Short Call Now.”
The festival offered four stages, including one that featured performers from WUMB’s Summer Acoustic Music Week, another from regional coffeehouses and still another along the water that provided a workshop experience.
STEPHEN A. IDE
The Patriot Ledger