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The Fayetteville Roots Festival starts today! This is the sixth year of the highly anticipated “intimate, urban music & food festival” that celebrates roots music in its many forms and offers delicious all-natural cuisine from local vendors and farms. This festival, orchestrated by local musicians Bryan and Bernice Hembree, draws people from all over the state, region, and country. It will be my first trip to Fayetteville, and my friend Tiffany from Washington, D.C., even decided the festival would be a good excuse to visit.
Roots music refers to early styles of American music—folk, bluegrass, R&B, and then Americana, country, rock, and rockabilly. Fayetteville’s festival celebrates the styles that hark back to our heritage and help define our culture, especially in the Ozarks. I love folk and bluegrass for the simplicity of sound yet complexity of harmony, with beautiful instruments such as the banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. I like R&B, or rhythm and blues, for its beat and the sensitive mood and lyrics. Rock, of course, is fun for the mix of sounds, especially guitars and drums, and it is often energetic.
Some of the best roots music artists in the nation will be performing August 27-30 in Fayetteville, and groups of our outstanding local talent will be rubbing elbows with them to create an enjoyable and thorough lineup. The headliner group Punch Brothers, led by mandolin-player Chris Thile, formerly of the Grammy-award winning group Nickel Creek, will wow festival-goers with their unique sound of alternative progressive bluegrass. Listen to “Julep” for a beautiful indie folk sound; “Boll Weevil” and “Rye Whiskey” for classic bluegrass; and “I Blew It Off” for progressive flavor.
Watkins Family Hour will be no less impressive; featuring Sara and Sean Watkins, also formerly of Nickel Creek, and Fiona Apple, Don Hefington, and Sebastian Steinberg, the group of seasoned musicians cover the songs of other artists, lending their voices and talent for creative renditions in a powerhouse production. They typically perform at Club Largo in Los Angeles, but Fayetteville Roots is bringing them to us.
Elsewhere, JD McPherson will perform with a retro rock sound, John Fullbright might remind you of Elton John, quirky sister group Shook Twins will snag you with their catchy folk pop sound, and Sara Watkins will give listeners goosebumps when she sings with Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan. The Steel Wheels, Martha Scanlan, Pokey Lafarge, Ben Miller Band, and more will entertain with music that incites a sense of community and heritage.
Local groups from Fayetteville include Smokey & the Mirror, Dana Louise & the Glorious Birds, Cutty Rye, The Sisters Sweet, The Silvershakers, and Handmade Moments. These groups will make us proud as they perform alongside the big names and showcase their talent and creativity—not to mention, laud Arkansas. The Sisters Sweet have a song called “Ozark Hills,” while Smokey & the Mirror’s song “Short Leaf Pine” depicts a familiar landscape, “the shade of a black oak tree/ the bluff and the river run below it.”
The festival supports Feed Fayetteville, an organization that attempts to address local hunger and nutrition in partnership with farmers and producers in the area. Restaurants and vendors will use the produce of over fifteen organic Arkansas farms to serve at the festival food court, following the theme “locally sourced gourmet festival food.” I can’t wait to dig in to some treats while I’m tapping my toes (or, as is the case with bluegrass, stomping an entire leg).
Limited tickets are still available, so if you’re interested and have not yet purchased yours, do so soon. In addition to the Fayetteville Roots website, the Fayetteville Flyer has you covered for updates on the festival.
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