The 64th National Folk Festival celebrates the rich traditional folk, ethnic and tribal cultures of the people of Maine and the United States. The nation’s earliest immigrants and settlers brought the music, arts and customs of their countries of origin with them to their new homeland, where they encountered the land’s First Nations.

These peoples worked to maintain their unique traditions while at the same time adapting to new conditions and a rich confluence of cultures. Those musical traditions that we think of as quintessentially “American” – jazz, blues, gospel, bluegrass, old-time, Tex-Mex, Cajun, zydeco, cowboy and others – spring from the interaction and intertwining of these varied cultural roots.

Today, renewed immigration from an even wider range of nations brings new sounds, dances, foods and customs to enrich our American cultural landscape. The National Folk Festival celebrates this diversity through performances by our nation’s finest traditional artists.

Gilles Roy and the Steppin’ Ambassadors

Franco-Canadian step dance and music

Gilles Roy, the pre-eminent Ottawa valley-style step dancer of his generation, was born in Cumberland, Ontario, in 1946. He and his Steppin’ Ambassadors, a multigenerational troupe of dancers and musicians, perform the rhythmically intricate dance steps native to their region of Canada. These exuberant steps blend patterns and techniques brought to the Ottawa Valley by Irish, French and English settlers, and they’re most often performed to the accompaniment of fiddle and piano.

Roy’s French-Canadian family danced to the popular fiddle players of the day, and at an early age he was emulating the style of his father and uncle. At age 5, with no formal training, Gilles was entered into a competition at the Ottawa Exhibition and came away with second place. He was soon in great demand for Christmas parties, fairs, festivals and local social events.

After his win at the exhibition, he began taking lessons from the legendary Donnie Gilchrist, and after two years of instruction they became touring partners. At 15, Gilles won his first international competitive championship in Pembroke, Ontario, an accomplishment he repeated in 1962 and 1963. He credits his technique to elements borrowed from dancers George McKenny, Fred St. Cyr and Gilchrist, which he blended into his own unique style.

An “ambassador of dance,” Roy toured 27 countries during 1967, the Canadian Centennial year, and topped off with a week of appearances at Montreal’s Expo ’67. He also danced in a five-week tour of the United States during the bicentennial celebrations.

Other highlights of Roy’s career include 10 visits to the Don Messer TV show, three appearances on “Hee Haw,” and a performance on Canada’s “Good Morning.” He has been a featured entertainer at festivals in Birmingham, Ala., the Mariposa Folk Festival, the Manitoba Fiddling Championship and the World Accordion Championships in Montmagny, Quebec. He also was featured in a show at the National Arts Centre with Wilf Carter, and he has toured with Canadian entertainers Tommy Hunter, Gordie Tapp and John Allen Cameron. He once danced for Queen Elizabeth on Parliament Hill.

At this point in his 50-year career, Roy is a respected teacher and judge at major international competitions. He teaches in Ottawa Valley communities, passing on his dance skills to a new generation.

Hula Halau ‘O Lilinoe

Hula kahiko

Sissy Kaio and her family from Carson, Calif., present the most traditional of the hula kahiko ? ancient hula dance and music of Hawaii. The art of hula is a means of preserving Hawaiian history, values, folkways and mores ? a means of passing down traditions from one generation to another.

Sissy Kaio is devoted to sharing her knowledge of hula with others ? she has been teaching in California for more than 20 years and is working with more 100 students in her halau (school).

Kaio, who says she was always interested in hula, began to dance at the age of 16. She learned from her mother and great aunt, Mary K. Pukui, a noted Hawaiian historian who translated many of the old chants and wrote the first Hawaiian-English dictionary. She carried on her studies with two highly respected kuma hula (hula masters): Uncle George Na’ope, founder of the Merry Monarch Festival, and her Aunt Pat Bacon, daughter of Mary Pukui.

The oldest chants of the hula kahiko repertoire are dedicated to the four Polynesian gods, while later chants pay tribute to Hawaiian demigods such as Pele, the volcano goddess, as well as the deeds and accomplishments of various chiefs. Historic and sacred places of the islands are the subjects of other chant poetry.

The movements that accompany the chants are precisely prescribed, and performed with serious concentration on the interpretation of the poetry. In standing dances, a chanter recites the chant while beating an accompaniment on either the pahu (sharkskin-covered drum) or ipu heke (double gourd drum.) In seated dances, the dancers recite the chant and also play indigenous percussion instruments such as ‘uli’uli (gourd rattles), kala’au (pearlike sticks) and pu’ili (slit bamboo rattles).

The Holmes Brothers

Rhythm and blues, blues and gospel

The Holmes Brothers, a New York-based trio of talented musicians, have earned accolades from fans and critics alike during their nearly 40 years on the road. They’ve been described as “God’s own bar band” and their blend of funk, blues, gospel and soul still raises the roof whenever and wherever they play.

Sherman and Wendell Holmes were born and raised in Christchurch, Va. Their schoolteacher parents fostered the boys’ early interest in music, as they listened to traditional Baptist hymns, anthems and spirituals as well as blues music by Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker and B.B. King. They both sang in the church choir. Sherman studied clarinet and piano before taking up the bass, while Wendell learned trumpet, organ and guitar.

Sherman studied composition and music theory at Virginia State University, but in 1959 he dropped out and headed to New York for a promising job with singer Jimmy Jones. His younger brother Wendell joined him after completing high school. The two brothers played in a few bands before forming The Sevilles in 1963.

The group lasted only three years, but they often backed up touring artists such as The Impressions, John Lee Hooker and Jerry Butler, gaining a wealth of experience. After The Sevilles disbanded, Sherman, Wendell and a fellow Virginian, drummer Popsy Dixon, continued to play in a variety of Top 40 bar bands until 1980, when The Holmes Brothers band was formed.

Rooted in blues and gospel, The Holmes Brothers developed a sound unto themselves. The rhythmic foundation laid down by Sherman Holmes’ bass playing and Dixon’s drumming perfectly complement Wendell’s hard-driving guitar solos. Their resonant three-part harmony vocals, mixing Wendell’s gruff and gravelly vocals with Dixon’s soaring falsetto and Sherman’s rich baritone, create a multilayered and textured sound. In describing their music, The Washington Post reflects that “the Holmes Brothers combine the best qualities of a gospel-soul vocal group with those of a self-contained blues-funk band.”

Trio Chalchihuecan

Son jarocho

Among the liveliest blends of music performed on earth is that of southern Veracruz, where centuries of rich Spanish musical forms have been touched by African influences along the Gulf of Mexico. This is jarocho music, much of it syncopated with tremendous drive, combining instrumental music with improvised and fixed oral poetry. The instruments are a large diatonic harp and two small guitars ? one for rhythm and one for percussive leads. The soaring harmonies of the call-and-response singing are delivered with drill team precision at tongue-twisting speeds.

Throughout the colonial era, the port of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico was the country’s main gateway to Spain. Perhaps nowhere in Mexico have the centuries of contact with Spain remained so evident as in the folk culture of its southern coastal plain. From the region’s Spanish heritage and a strong presence of African slaves and their descendants came the lively and witty character of the jarochos, the name given to the southern veracruzanos.

The main musical form is the son jarocho, encompassing traditions of instrumental music, fixed and improvised poetry, and dance. The jarocho instrumentation is unique: a large, diatonic harp (arpa) with 32 to 36 strings, playing bass, melody and occasional chords; a small, eight-stringed guitar (jarana) providing rhythmic and chordal accompaniment; and a four-stringed guitar (requinto) plucked with a 3- to 4-inch pick made of cowhorn or of a plastic comb, playing improvised melodies.

Trio Chalchihuecan takes its name from the favorite coastal beach area called Chalchihuecan, near the port city of Veracruz. Two brothers, Marcos and Felipe Ochoa Reyes, are the mainstays of the group. Marcos Ochoa plays the jarana, and Felipe, the harp. The Ochoa brothers were raised on a ranch near the town of Tierra Blanca, located on the inland plains of Veracruz. The area is famed for the extraordinary harpists it has produced.

The Ochoas are joined by renowned jarocho musician Jos? Guti?rrez, playing requinto and taking the part of pregonero, or lead singer. Jos? is a master performer and maker of all three instruments. Born and raised in southern Veracruz on a ranch called “La Costa de la Palma,” Jos? learned music from his family. He became a professional musician when he was a teen-ager and went to Mexico City to play with Conjunto Medellin de Lino Chavez, for decades Mexico’s most famous jarocho ensemble. He resettled to Los Angeles in the early 1970s and performed and taught throughout the United States and beyond. In 1989, he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Viento de Agua

Puerto Rican salsa, bomba y plena

Viento de Agua is a phrase used in Puerto Rico to describe the water-laden wind that precedes a rainstorm. For Nyoricans (Puerto Rican New Yorkers), it is also the name of one of their most popular and respected Puerto Rican dance bands, an 11-piece group that performs cutting-edge salsa and traditional bomba y plena with equal finesse.

Under the guidance of Hector “Tito” Matos, Alberto Toro and Ricardo Pons, Viento de Agua unites four generations of percussionists from the Puerto Rican tradition with a brass section to bring a rhythmic mix of hot Caribbean sounds to Bangor.

The musical forms performed by Viento de Agua are major icons of distinctly Puerto Rican identity and are important touchstones for Puerto Ricans around the world.

Bomba is a melodic and rhythmic music and dance form which emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries among West African slaves on the sugar plantations of the Puerto Rican colony. The large drums which drive this ensemble music (which were once made of pickle, codfish or rum barrels) are called buleador and the subidor. The buleador, the lower pitched of the two drums, plays a constant rhythmic pattern while the subidor improvises above it.

Plena developed in the 19th century in the city of Ponce as a fusion of bomba with other forms ? elements of indigenous Taino Indian music; jibaro (literally “mountain farmer”), the Spanish-Arab-influenced music of the rural Puerto Rican highlands; and European and Anglophone Caribbean traditional and popular music. Plena is also called “el periodico cantado” (“the sung newspaper”) because it reports both history and day-to-day news of the people and community. Backed by small panderetas (hand-held tambourinelike drums), guiro (gourd scraper) and string instruments, plena focuses on the story sung, often through improvisation, by a singer and chorus.

Salsa ? the most popular music in Puerto Rico ? is dominated by Cuban forms: son, son montuna, guaracha, guajira, etc. Deep within the current salsa blend, however, are Puerto Rican roots, too. From time to time, there are resurgences of the bomba and plena in salsa, most notably in the 1950s, when Cortijo Y su Combo and Ismael Rivera produced some of the most powerful and enduring classics of Puerto Rican music.

Upland South and Heartland Fiddlers

American fiddle traditions

The Upland South and Heartland Fiddlers performances offer a glimpse into the musical traditions represented by three master fiddlers from Tennessee, Virginia and Missouri. Each is committed to a distinctive regional American style that has been passed along through the generations in families and communities.

Chattanooga, Tenn., resident Fletcher Bright’s fascination with fiddling dates to the late ’40s and early ’50s when he was in his teens. He lived in Chattanooga, a first stop for many touring Grand Ole Opry shows, and recalls that a variety program by Opry songster Zeke Clements was an early inspiration. But what really caught his ear was the rich tones that Shenandoah Valley fiddler Tommy Magness brought to Roy Acuff’s string band which stopped often in this Appalachian city in the bend of the Tennessee River.

Southeastern Tennessee and North Georgia have always been rich in fine fiddlers, and Bright began seeking them out and soliciting performance tips and tunes. A beloved early friend and source of instruction was Bob Douglas. A Sequachie Valley fiddler, showman, and son and grandson of fiddlers, Douglas performed daily on Chattanooga radio for 30 years and at dances and shows for 88 years. (He died in 2001 at age 101.) Bright also had a front-row seat for performances by legendary fiddlers Arthur Smith, Howard Forrester and Gordon Terry.

In 1948, he joined four classmates to form one of the first bands to perform the music of Bill Monroe some 10 years before the term “bluegrass” was invented. It was also perhaps the first bluegrass band with a self-deprecating name (The Dismembered Tennesseans); more than a half-century later, the band is still going strong.

Bright is beloved by friends of the fiddle because of the zest, sense of humor and performance energy he brings to the instrument and to fiddle gatherings. Over the years, he has developed a rich tone that can skip happily in dance tunes, or weep in the rendering of an old ballad.

A native of Hallsville, in central Missouri’s “Little Dixie” region, Charlie Walden had a musical epiphany at age 13 when he happened to walk past the grand opening of a gasoline service station. Performing from a truck-bed stage was Taylor McBain, a senior fiddler skilled in a central Missouri style, who played with a great authority and masterful tone.

McBain befriended the youngster and introduced him to other great local players such as Pete McMahan. Walden often visited Cyril Stinnett, a reclusive farmer and legendary player and composer of fine melodies. He frequented Missouri’s many contests and gatherings for fiddlers, honing his version of central Missouri style. The older fiddlers returned his regard by electing him president of the Missouri Fiddler’s Association.

The senior fiddlers who taught him are now deceased, and, now in his 40s, Walden has become the great master that younger Missouri fiddlers emulate. This would not surprise Taylor McBain. A year before his passing in 1984, the master fiddler commented on a performance by the kid he inspired: “You know, he’s nearly perfect.”

A resident of Austinville, Va., Eddie Bond plays in the forceful rhythmic dance style from the Galax, Va., – Mount Airy, N.C., area that captivated the nation in the 1960s. Bond is a native of the region who learned directly from legendary masters such as Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham and Kyle Creed, as well as other great players who did not record.

He is like many of the older master fiddlers in that he is also a fine performer in the older “dropthumb” banjo style of the region, as well as a talented singer. He plays at many dances in the region, and he is a frequent winner in the many traditional fiddle and banjo competitions.

A forceful performer, he brings flair and a sense of humor to the music that engages audiences and delights musicians.

Treme Brass Band

New Orleans parade band

Nowhere in the United States is music more a part of the fabric of the community than in New Orleans. Since the days of slave gatherings in Congo Square, music has been an integral part of everyday life in the black community. It’s a neighborhood activity, a part of every social occasion, and musicians are respected members of the community.

For several generations, brass bands, or parade bands, have been the focus of this neighborhood music scene. Their origins are linked to military bands in the 19th century, but they took the instruments and created a new, looser, less regimented music, combining African rhythms and polyphony with European forms to produce the earliest jazz. It’s a continuing tradition that most musicians receive their training in one of these community brass bands.

The Treme Brass Band is very much a community band, taking its name from the downtown or “back of town neighborhood know as Treme.” The band was organized more than 15 years ago by Benny Jones Sr., son of noted trombonist Chester Jones. Jones was one of the leaders of the noted Dirty Dozen and Chosen Few Brass Bands, but decided to form Treme because he no longer wished to travel extensively. Several members of the Chosen Few followed his lead in forming Treme, which has quickly become one of the most respected community bands.

The Treme Brass Band plays regularly at traditional funerals, club parades, and street parades in the downtown area. This is what is called the “day scene” in New Orleans parlance. They’ve been adopted by several downtown Mardi Gras Indian Tribes, who follow the band in parades, providing percussive accompaniment.

Treme is also active in the local night scene, playing at local clubs several nights a week. Its members are respected community musicians and touring performers often sit in on these sessions or jams, as do the younger generation of up and coming performers, such as the Rebirth, New Birth and Little Rascals bands.

As with many of the New Orleans brass bands, there is a floating membership of 20 to 30 people, of whom a dozen or so may be available to play at a given time. Eight of the best of Treme are at this year’s festival.

Chaksam Pa

Tibetan opera, folk song and dance

The arts of Tibet enjoy a rich heritage, which is now seriously threatened. The Chinese government systematically suppresses traditional forms of artistic expression as part of a policy of denying Tibetans a separate cultural identity. These arts survive, tenuously, in the Tibetan refugee settlements in India, and in the knowledge of a handful of experienced performers who came together to found

Chaksam Pa.

About 120,000 Tibetans are living in exile since fleeing their homeland after 1960 when Chinese troops annexed Tibet. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled leader, fled in 1959 to Dharamsala, India, and set up a government in exile.

Chaksam Pa’s ensemble members grew up in exile in India. Through their association with the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala, they came to study the folk traditions of Tibet, learning songs and dances from the masters who had escaped post-1959. Growing up in refugee communities, they became immersed in their culture as a conscious effort to maintain cultural integrity in the wake of actions in their homeland.

The repertoire of Chaksam Pa reflects the diversity of artistic expression in their homeland. Pentatonic traveling songs from Kham, the eastern district of Tibet, are traditionally sung on horseback while traversing the mountains. Sung in a powerful high nasal voice, the lyric carries across the valleys. Foot-stomping dance songs, from the central Lhasa district, are accompanied by lutes and may even feature highly poetic lyrics by a previous Dalai Lama.

A classical music style, nangma, was also known in Lhasa as an entertainment for courtier picnics and festivals. Folk dramas (lhamo), influenced by Buddhist morality plays, feature songs and dance and once were performed throughout Tibet. Traditionally, Chaksam Pa concludes its performances with a ritual for peace (lhagyal), in which barley flour is tossed in the air three times and incense is burned as an offering to the deities of earth, sky and the arts.

Ana Vinagre

Portuguese fado

Ana Vinagre, a master of the demanding fado song style, comes from New Bedford, Mass., one of the largest Portuguese settlements in the United States. Fado has been Portugal’s best-known song form for the past century or so. It is thought to have gotten its name from the word for “fate.” The emotional core of the fado is saudade, an undefinable yearning or nostalgia for love, times past, or a lost home. The singing approach to fado is one of barely repressed raw emotion.

Vinagre grew up in the village of Buarcou, near the larger city of Figuera da Foz in Portugal. She was introduced to fado music as a young girl when she joined her village dance group. Her grandmother, mother and one sister all had been in this group, which performed the folk dances of Portugal’s various provinces, often representing Portugal at festivals and competitions throughout Europe.

Like many fado singers, Vinagre learned by listening to records and making trips to Lisbon where many of the most renowned fado singers performed. When she came to New Bedford in 1972, she stopped singing and dancing. Then in 1977 her group from Buarcou was invited to perform in the United States and she was asked to join them. Since then she has been performing regularly. Her friend Joao Texeira de Medeiros, a poet living in Fall River, Mass., writes especially moving lyrics. By collaborating with him, Vinagre continues to develop her own repertoire and style of singing fado.

Bluegrass Tradition

Bluegrass

Bluegrass Tradition lives up to its name. This band of family and friends from the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains has been a part of the Virginia-North Carolina scene for more than 20 years. The core of the band is made up of members of the Boyd and Jones families. Last August, the band won the Bluegrass Band competition at the 2001 Galax Old Time Fiddler’s Convention, one of the most prestigious and competitive events in the nation.

Danny Boyd (banjo and vocals) is an original member of the Bluegrass Tradition Band. He has won many awards competing in guitar, banjo and vocal competitions in the Virginia-North Carolina area, among them first place on two separate occasions (as both a guitar and banjo player) in the band competition at the Galax Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention. Boyd works as a consultant in the area of behavioral health as well as owning his own business.

Jonathan Boyd, Danny’s son, is the bassist and bass vocalist for the band. His interest in music began early. He currently plays the bass with his high school jazz band. Jonathan is a member of the National Honor Society and has been accepted to Governor’s School. His acoustic bass is a 1957 Kay M1B that was formerly owned by Oscar of the famous comedy team Lonzo & Oscar, and spent many of its 40-plus years on such stages as the Grand Ole Opry.

Phillip Jones (vocals and guitar) was raised in Cana, Va., and says it was impossible for him to escape the bluegrass influence. He has played the music for most of his life, winning friends as well as awards. He finds The Bluegrass Tradition Band the perfect outlet: “traditional sounds with purpose, harmonies and meaning.” Jones integrates his professional and musical interests, as a lawyer who represents major bluegrass artists, and the father of five talented musicians including his son Will. Jones’ wife, Patricia, is also an award-winning vocalist.

Will Jones, Phillip’s son, is a gifted young player. “Ten years old with 20 years’ experience” is how many have described him. When not performing with his own band, The Cana Ramblers, Will Jones sits in with his dad and The Bluegrass Tradition. He’ll be accompanying his dad to this year’s festival.

Greg Jones (mandolin and vocals) began playing mandolin at the age of 15, and was influenced by such greats as Bill Monroe, Sam Bush, Doyle Lawson and David Grisman. He played with a number of bluegrass bands, including Borderline, Acoustic Blend, Crosswind, Piedmont Grass and the gospel group Cornerstone, before joining The Bluegrass Tradition in 2000.

John Hofmann, fiddle player for the group, is a native of Thomasville, N.C. Hofmann has performed with groups across the United States, most notably Mickey Gilley’s Urban Cowboy Band. During this time, he was featured performing “Orange Blossom Special” on the Grammy Awards from Radio City Music Hall and appeared on numerous television specials and programs including “Fantasy Island,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “Austin City Limits,” “Hee Haw” and the movie “Off The Wall.” Most recently Hofmann appeared in the Barn Dinner Theater’s 2001 production of “The Lost Highway ? The Music and Legend of Hank Williams” and the 2002 production of “Smoke on the Mountain.”

The Papantla Flyers

Flying Indian pole dance

The “Flying Man” Sundance is surely the most spectacular dance created in the Western Hemisphere. And like many other native American dances, it is a religious ritual and prayer as well as an intricate dance. The earliest description of it comes from Christopher Columbus. The Great Navigator reached the North American continent on his fourth voyage in 1502 and wrote of an amazing dance that he saw at an Indian village in what is now southern Mexico.

Columbus reported back to Ferdinand II and Isabella of men cutting the limbs off a tall tree, wrapping vines at the top, dancing on a platform, then jumping off and twirling down headfirst to the ground. This ancient ritual, whose influence is deeply rooted in the Aztec civilization, has continued in small villages in the Veracruz, Mexico, area in the more than 500 years since Columbus saw it.

The Papantla Flyers, from Papantla, Veracruz, Mexico, under the direction of Javier Alarcon, will perform the Sundance ritual on the festival grounds. Four fliers and the priest will ascend a pole, which towers from the earth a full 80 feet, topped by an 8-inch-diameter drum and a rotating platform. After the priest makes an offering in song on the flute and dances on the drumhead, the four fliers will drop backward into the air and descend, making 13 revolutions before they reach the earth.

Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas

Zydeco

Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas are on a roll. With recent cover stories in Offbeat, the New Orleans Times Picayune and New Orleans Magazine, Nathan Williams has become one of the most recognizable musicians in his home state of Louisiana and an international star on the dance hall circuit. Born in St. Martinville, La., Williams was raised in a community in which everyday conversation was conducted in Creole French. There, he started his musical career at El Sid O’s, the convenience store-butcher shop-dance hall run by his older brother, Sid Williams.

Springing from the rich cultural mix of South Louisiana and East Texas, zydeco combines traditional black French Creole music (closely related to the local Cajun tradition) with blues and R&B to create irresistible dance music. Zydeco is said to take its name from the idiomatic title of a popular song “Les Haricots (zydeco) Sont Pas Sal?.”

Williams and his Cha Chas are simply one of the best zydeco groups working today, matching superb musicianship and clever songs with a knack for keeping dancers on the floor. If zydeco is sometimes criticized for the sound-alike nature of many songs (and bands), his compositions offer a rich experience for listeners as well as dancers, often incorporating adventurous touches of reggae, R&B and rock. With his mastery of both hands of the large piano accordion, Williams is also the foremost contemporary interpreter of the music of the late zydeco king, Clifton Chenier.

As zydeco music has grown in popularity, Nathan Williams and his Zydeco Cha Chas have only gotten better. For anyone who’s ever caught him at the famed Rock ‘n’ Bowl (New Orleans’ one-of-a-kind bowling alley and dance hall), his National Folk Festival performances in Bangor will be the next best thing to being there, and those who haven’t might just be convinced to make the trip! As Williams is fond of saying, “It ain’t nothing but a party!”

Mary Jane Lamond and Friends

Gaelic song and music

Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond has emerged not only as a conservator of Cape Breton Island’s Scottish heritage, but also as a talented singer who can combine the innovative and the traditional with incomparable flair. Lamond is well-known across Canada and the United States as the leader of a contemporary-traditional ensemble that marries the time-honored vocal and instrumental music from Cape Breton with modern sounds and sensibilities.

At this year’s National Folk Festival, Lamond pays homage to the keepers of Cape Breton’s vocal and musical traditions. She has invited four of the Island’s “elder statesmen,” Gaelic singers Peter MacLain, Maxie MacNeil, Rod C. MacNeil and Jamie MacNeil, to join her in this celebration.

Also sharing the stage with Lamond as part of this special gathering will be: Dave MacIsaac, a noted fiddler and guitarist and a former member of Natalie MacMaster’s band; Wendy MacIsaac who fiddles, stepdances and plays the piano with the group Beolach; and Mary Ann Jewell, a popular choice as a piano accompanist at concerts and dances.

Growing up in Quebec and Ontario, Lamond found her ancestral and emotional roots in the Gaelic heritage of her Cape Breton and Nova Scotia grandparents. Visiting them one summer, she heard her first Gaelic songs at a milling frolic, where neighbors used songs as a tool to keep time during the laborious process of turning raw wool into usable textiles. Of that experience, Lamond said, “I was so taken by it, I became determined to learn and sing Gaelic myself.”

Enrolling in the Celtic studies department at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, she immersed herself in Gaelic language and history, as well as the university’s extensive collection of old field recordings of Scots-Gaelic songs. In an effort to learn as much of the repertoire as possible, she has crisscrossed Cape Breton Island learning from and singing with older Gaelic speakers at kitchen tables, festivals and milling frolics. During these college years she was asked to record an album, although she had no intention of launching a music career at the time.

Lamond’s first album, “Bho Thir Nan Craobh (From the Land of the Trees)” was entirely traditional, and earned her a nomination for female artist of the year in 1995 from the East Coast Music Awards. Later, her collaboration with Ashley MacIsaac on the Canadian hit “Sleepy Maggie” secured her an enthusiastic popular audience.

Subsequently, she has received ECMA nominations and a nomination for a Juno award, the Canadian music industry’s Grammy equivalent. Her most recent CD is “?rain Ghaidhlig, Gaelic Songs of Cape Breton,” released in 2001.

Brian Marshall and his Tex-Slavik Playboys

Texas-Polish polka

Brian Marshall and his Tex-Slavik Playboys play Polish polka with a distinctive Texas twist. Combining southern Polish fiddle tunes with Texas western swing, the group brings the rollicking polkas and waltzes of their home state to National Folk Festival audiences in Maine.

Growing up in Bremond, Texas, bandleader Marshall began playing fiddle at 7 years old. This wasn’t surprising, because in a large Polish-Texas family where everyone from his uncles to his grandmother was a musician, Marshall says, “When the family got together, you had to play or you were left out!”

Marshall (whose family name was originally Marszalek) and his Tex-Slavik Playboys play for dances, weddings and community celebrations in the Polish community. They are versatile musicians, also adept at playing western swing music. Their repertoire is broad and diverse, catering to the needs of Texas’ many dancers.

Polish, German, Slovak and Hungarian immigrants to East Texas during the late-19th century brought their native languages, music and dance traditions, and musical instruments with them. The fiddle, already familiar to Texans, met the single-row melodeon and diatonic accordion, newly invented German instruments brought to America by the immigrants, and new hybrid musical forms were generated. Likewise, Eastern European polka, waltz and oberek dance steps came with the new settlers and blended with older reels and quadrilles already popular with Texans.

Thanks to Brian Marshall and his Tex-Slavik Playboys, East Texas dance halls still ring with the sound of polkas and obereks.

La Bottine Souriante

Quebecois

La Bottine Souriante first appeared on the Quebec music scene in 1976 and are living legends of French North American roots music. One of La Bottine’s trademarks is their blending of traditional chanson a respondre (call and response) songs with virtuosic dance music, sneaking traditional tunes in between the verses.

“As a traditional music band,” writes Steve Winick in Dirty Linen Magazine, “La Bottine Souriante were lucky to come from Quebec’s Lanaudiere region, around the town of Joliette. The region has some of the most extensive and rich traditions of song, dance and music in Quebec. This is partly explained by the area’s relative isolation from the homogenizing effects of Anglophone and American culture, but it is also based in part upon Lanaudiere’s unusual history as a meeting place of different strands of Franco-Canadian tradition. When La Bottine hit the scene in 1976, they carried these vigorous traditions with them, a fact that helped them stand out from other folk music acts.”

La Bottine Souriante is no longer simply a Quebecois-Canadian musical phenomenon, though. The group and its explosive sound have crossed borders the world over. The group has developed a distinctive sound all its own that successfully allies its homage to tradition with a dash of jazz, salsa and pure folk, while at the same time representing the vitality and pride of its native culture.

Nine musicians make up La Bottine Souriante, including traditional musicians Michel Bordeleau (foot-tapping, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals); Yves Lambert (button accordion, harmonica); Andr? Brunet (fiddle, guitar); R?gent Archambault (bass) and Pierre Belisle (piano). Their four-piece horn section features Jean Fr?chette (saxophone); Bob Ellis (bass trombone); Andr? Verrault (trombone); and Jocelyn Lapointe (trumpet).

Over the past 25 years, this remarkable group has released 10 albums and sold more than half a million recordings. Three albums have achieved “gold” status (50,000 copies sold) in their native Canada, and one has reached “platinum” (100,000 sold).

By the way, La Bottine Souriante means “smiling little shoe” in English. It’s a humorous reference to well-worn work boots and an apt descriptor of the motor-driven foot percussion tradition that epitomizes the Quebecois sound.

Liz Carroll and John Doyle

Irish

Liz Carroll (fiddle) and John Doyle (guitar) stand among the most influential and celebrated of traditional Irish musicians in America. Noted for their virtuosity and creativity, they breathe new life into old traditions through their compositions and collaborations.

Chicago-born fiddler and composer Carroll is one of America’s most significant Irish traditional musicians. Because of her contributions to Irish music, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded her a National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor our nation bestows upon folk and traditional artists.

Carroll’s father, a County Offally native, started her on the accordion and tin whistle at age 5 and she had the opportunity to hear her grandfather play the fiddle during her childhood visits to Ireland. “I started the fiddle when I was 9,” she explained. “There was a school that had a nun who taught violin and piano. She taught both instruments, which was pretty rare for South Side Catholic schools. I was going to be playing the piano but we couldn’t get it in the house.”

Chicago was home to countless Irish musicians during Carroll’s childhood. She absorbed the music of Jimmy and Eleanor Neary, Kevin Keegan, Johnny McGreevy, Joe Shannon and Joe Cooley at sessions, house parties and in concerts. She also remembers concerts by touring Irish fiddlers Sean McGuire, Sean Ryan, Seamus Connolly and Paddy Glackin as important moments in the development of her musical sensibility.

“When Sean McGuire came through town, his piano player at that time was Josephine Keegan,” Carroll remembered in a Fiddler Magazine interview. “She [Keegan] was a fiddle player, too, and she played one set of tunes on her own. And wow! She was a beautiful player, and she was a girl. So I thought, ‘That’s really terrific!'”

In 1975, after a series of victories in the junior All-Ireland competition, Carroll, then only 18, astounded the Irish music world by winning the senior division All Ireland Championship.

Doyle is a versatile acoustic guitarist who can drive the rhythm of Irish dance tunes like no other. He is also expert at playing with remarkable sensitivity and delicacy behind airs and songs. A Dublin native now living in Asheville, N.C., Doyle is among the most influential Irish guitarists of his generation. For many in the Irish music realm, he is the guitarist to emulate. He’s also a devoted collector and singer of Irish ballads and his first solo album “Evening Comes Early” (Shanachie, 2001) showcases his vocal and instrumental talents.

Doyle came to America as part of Chanting House, a duo with Susan McKeown that for a time expanded into a quartet featuring Seamus Egan and Eileen Ivers. A guitar accompanist greatly in demand, Doyle has recorded with Egan, James Keane, Karan Casey, Joanie Madden and Ivers. He was a member of the highly influential Irish-American ensemble Solas from 1994 until 2000.

Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun

Dieselbilly

Grammy-nominated guitar wizard Bill Kirchen brings his encyclopedic rock ‘n’ roll knowledge, his passion for “dieselbilly,” and his prodigious picking talents to the National Folk Festival from his home in Maryland.

As a child growing up in Ann Arbor, Mich., in the 1950s and ’60s, Kirchen started on the trombone and violin, but quickly found a musical home as a guitarist and banjo player in the folk music scene.

“I’ve always considered myself a folk musician, though I tend to be one that plays too loud and too fast,” he said.

That speed was evident in the song that made his style famous: It’s his fretwork that powers the classic “Hot Rod Lincoln” recorded by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen. Kirchen played with the Commander from 1968 to 1976, helping to bring country and rockabilly sounds to rock ‘n’ roll fans across the nation.

Kirchen’s band, Too Much Fun, featuring Johnny Castle on bass and Jack O’Dell on drums, plays American roots music. He explains their music this way: It is “country-flavored music ? as well as western swing, rockabilly, bluegrass, country tear-jerker and truck-driving music.” They put it all together into a unique, tradition-based sound they call “dieselbilly.” The band has gotten rave reviews around the country, and has won multiple Washington Area Music Awards in Washington, D.C., where the band now resides.

Kirchen lives up to his billing as “a one-man living history museum of the coolest rock guitar licks ever performed” in a number of ways. Recently he shared his expertise on the history of electric roots music at the Smithsonian and on TNN. And in performance, he shares this encyclopedic knowledge of guitar riffs with a rousing version of “Hot Rod Lincoln,” in which he evokes the playing of dozens of the instrument’s greatest stylists.

BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet

Cajun

BeauSoleil translates as “beautiful sunshine.” It’s also the name of an 18th century Acadian rebel leader, Beausoleil Broussard, after whom Michael Doucet, founder, fiddler and passionate vocalist for the band, named the group.

Louisiana’s Cajuns descend from the French-speaking Acadians who settled in Nova Scotia in 1604, only to be uprooted in 1755 when English soldiers seized their community, splitting up families and forcing the French colonists onto ships sailing south. Half died on the voyage.

Although the survivors were scattered, many made their way to the protective isolation of the bayous and prairies of southwest Louisiana. Cajun music, primarily fiddle-based in the early days and now accordion-centered, developed in these southwest Louisiana communities. It blends older French and Acadian lyrics, themes and tunes with country, western, rhythm and blues, and Caribbean influences.

The name BeauSoleil is symbolic of the music that the group has created ? deeply rooted in Cajun tradition, while pushing back the frontiers of the genre. In the process, BeauSoleil has become America’s premier Cajun band and the leading ambassador of Cajun music around the world. As Rolling Stone put it, “the best damn dance band you’ll ever hear.”

For more than 20 years, the group has been following the same winning recipe: Start with traditional ingredients ? waltzes and two-steps, soulful Cajun French lyrics, hot fiddle licks, and irresistible accordion ? and then spice them up with blues, ballads, medieval French dance tunes, New Orleans R&B and earlier Cajun forms.

The group’s unique music reflects the vision of Doucet, who has spent much of his life delving into the origins of Cajun music. He studied with grand old masters such as Denis McGee and Canray Fontenot, and searched out early 78 rpm recordings and unaccompanied ballad singers. At the same time, he was constantly aware of the other musical forms around him ? jazz, country, rhythm and blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. As Doucet once explained early in his career, “If I was going to play Cajun music, I wanted to play it right. And if I was going to change Cajun music, I had to be sure of the direction.”

While Doucet takes the lead, the other members of BeauSoleil are integral to the group’s special sound. David Doucet, Michael’s brother, is a soulful, dynamic singer and a guitarist of exceptional ability, taste and creativity. Breaux Bridge, La., native Jimmy Breaux plays pungent accordion while Billy Ware’s percussion and Tommy Alessi’s drums drive the band. Al Tharp on bass and second fiddle rounds out the group.

BeauSoleil has 21 recording projects to its credit, including award-winning movie soundtracks. They garnered six Grammy nominations before winning Grammy gold in 1997 for Best Traditional Folk Album. Garrison Keillor of “A Prairie Home Companion” calls BeauSoleil “the best Cajun band in the world.”

Aziz Herawi

Afghan music and dance

Aziz Herawi (Aziz of Herat), or “Aghasab” as he is reverentially addressed due to his direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed, carries the melodies of his native Herat, Afghanistan, once a prominent stop on the famed “Silk Road.” The son of a Sunni cleric, a former mujahedin commander and a musician in exile for more 15 years, Herawi is a master of the Afghan lute. He was a prominent performer in pre-Soviet Afghanistan and regularly heard throughout that nation on Radio Afghanistan broadcasts.

He’ll perform traditional lute music on the long-necked 14-stringed d?tar and Afghanistan’s national instrument, the Pashtun rebab, a short-necked double-chambered plucked lute. Both instruments have sympathetic metal strings. His music, like his home city, is a crossroads blend, incorporating Persian and Hindu influences. But at the heart of Herawi’s music beat the exuberance and ecstasy of Herati folk music (mahali) and the compositional genius of regional Persian poets. Herawi translates local song forms, and the poetic imagery associated with them, into purely instrumental music. At the festival, Herawi will be joined by virtuoso tabla player Saleiman Azizi and dancers Niloufar Talebi and Shar-lyn Sawyer.

Being born into a family of noted Sunni clerics was not an ideal situation for a budding musician. Herawi was forced to practice clandestinely to avoid the displeasure of his father, but his passion for music saved his life in the end. In 1979, when the Soviet-backed troops of Babrak Karmal came to round up the local leadership in Herat after an insurrection and ensuing government bombardment that leveled the city, Herawi was away with musician friends and so escaped with his life. With many in his family killed or missing, he eventually joined up with the mujahedin and spent years in the mountains where he led 1,500 freedom fighters.

With the situation worsening, Herawi finally left Afghanistan in 1983, whisking his family to safety across the border to Peshawar, Pakistan, and then on to California in 1985.

These days Herawi, now 56, lives with his family in the Bay area, where a sizable Afghan community has put down roots. He’s part of an emerging class of expatriate Afghani artists devoted to the survival and promotion of a new Afghani national musical culture in a changing world. His music is a link to pre-Taliban Afghan culture. While he performs primarily for Afghan expatriate communities, Herawi welcomes his Bangor performances as a chance to connect a wider audience with the vibrant culture he remembers, one far removed from today’s television images.

“Any culture connects with music,” he said. “It is universal; even animals understand or resonate with harmony. Americans or other cultures that are not too familiar with traditional Afghan music can instantly feel its force, because it transcends all borders and all cultures.”

N.B.S. (Nothing But Skill)

Hip-hop dancers and musicians

Contained within the large cultural category of hip-hop are graffiti art, rap music and break dancing, the creative expressions of urban youth. Nothing But Skill (N.B.S.), a young group from the Bronx that is as likely to be found performing in a Chicago Bulls half-time show or feature film as out on New York’s 5th Avenue, brings the exciting and acrobatic art of hip-hop dancing to the streets of Bangor.

The roots of “break dancing,” or “breakin’, ” reach deep into our country’s history, and its ancestors include forms of African-American percussive dance developed here over centuries. However, many artists specifically point to the Good Foot dance, first performed by James Brown in 1969, as the direct inspiration for the breakin’ style.

On the streets of New York City, particularly in the Bronx, Good Foot, later called B-boy (possibly referring to Bronx boy or Break boy), took off and became popular in the form of informal dance competitions between gangs. Dancing groups, or “crews,” began to form and practice complicated routines together, incorporating elements of Brazilian Capoeira and kung fu. Famed DJ and so-called “Grandfather of Hip-Hop” Afrika Bambaata formed one of the first well-known crews, called the Shaka Zulu Kings, in 1974. In 1984, with a featured spot during Lionel Richie’s performance at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, break dancing went global.

Breakin’ is characterized by its highly stylized, acrobatic moves, including headspins, windmills, backspins and handglides. N.B.S.’ fast-paced, action-filled performances are led by Tyrone “B-boy Manchild” Dawson, and includes dancers Mugsy Nutrix and B-boy LT, and percussionist Larry Wright playing the bucket drums associated with this genre.

Richard Felt’s Orchestra

Old-time Maine dance orchestra

The dance orchestra is a well-loved and venerable part of Maine community life. One of the most popular of these groups is Richard Felt’s Orchestra, which plays every second and fourth Saturday evening at the West Paris Grange Hall, in West Paris, Maine.

Featuring Richard Felt on harmonica, whistling Dorothy Canwell on piano, Lona Bedard on piano accordion and keyboards, Bill Bedard on fiddle and bass guitar, Irving Cole on guitar, Richard Jones on drums and Lewis Newcomb on banjo, Richard Felt’s Orchestra has been together for nearly 20 years, playing waltzes, two-steps and fox trots at dances in western Maine and eastern New Hampshire.

The dance orchestra’s 20th century evolution paralleled that of Maine’s rural communities. As radio, paved roads and other “urban” influences found their way into rural and small-town Maine, its residents incorporated them into their community life in unique fashion. The waltzes, two-steps, foxtrots and polkas played by orchestras replaced some of the older square and contradance forms. These bands, and there have been hundreds of them over the years, played at Grange Halls, V.F.W. lounges, community suppers, rural clubs and for parties and gatherings of all sorts. Today, these small communities continue to evolve and the dance orchestras remain as one of Maine’s indelible contributions to social dance.

Richard Felt is a farmer, logger and woodsman, a former selectman in Bryant Pont, Maine, and a community leader through his work in the Grange. He has been active in music many years, playing the harmonica and leading his orchestra.

Dorothy “Dot” Canwell, from Oxford, Maine, plays the piano and piano accordion. She’s also an accomplished whistler and the band’s arranger. Retired from the Robinson Woolen Mill, in Oxford, Canwell and Felt were featured in a February 1985, National Geographic article about community life in Maine.

Lona Bedard has been involved in music since childhood. Her famous grandparents were legendary Maine fiddler Mellie Durham and his wife “Gram.” In the 1920s, Mellie and Gram traveled to Michigan to play for Henry Ford, bringing Maine fiddling to the attention of new audiences and admirers. As granddaughter and keeper of these family traditions, Lona is a link between Maine’s older and newer dance music traditions. Bill Bedard, Lona’s husband, opened his own barbershop after returning home from World War II. He handed over the barbershop to his grandson a few years back but still works “by spells.” In the orchestra, Bill plays everything from electric bass to fiddle to banjo.

Irving Cole of Greenwood, Maine, plays lead guitar for the group. He is retired from Penley’s Mill, in Lock Mills, Maine. Drummer Richard Jones owns and operates a buffalo and cattle ranch in North Waterford, Maine. Lewis Newcomb, of Minot, Maine, is the newest member of the band. He is retired from Pineland Hospital in Gloucester, Maine.

Maine’s Native Americans

Wabanaki music, dance and stories

The 64th National Folk Festival is proud to present a talented group of native musicians, storytellers and dancers who are deeply committed to the preservation of traditional tribal ways. This program will include a Penobscot drum circle led by Ron Bear and Tribal Chief Barry Dana, Passamaquoddy stories by Wayne Newell and John “Bear” Mitchell, Passamaquoddy dances by Blanche Sockabasin and flute playing and stories of Micmac David Sanipass as they celebrate the diverse and rich traditions of their peoples ? the Wabanaki.

Wabanaki, which means “people of the dawn” or simply “easterner,” refers to the peoples scattered throughout the eastern Maine coast and woodlands. A geographic and linguistic (rather than political) grouping, the Wabanaki, before contact with Europeans, were a loosely structured group. Occasionally several tribes would unite under a powerful sachem (tribal elder) for purposes of war or self-protection, but the Wabanaki were noteworthy for their general lack of central authority. Even at the tribal level, the authority of their sachems was limited, and important decisions, such as war and peace, usually required a meeting of all adults.

First encountering Europeans in 1497, the Wabanaki played important roles in the fur trade and in early French and English politics. Devastated by illness, war, broken treaties and political strife, Maine’s four Wabanaki tribes came precariously close to destruction before finally winning the right to self-determination in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since gaining recognition from the U.S. government in 1976, the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Maliseet peoples have coalesced around tribal schools and communities in Old Town, on Indian Island and elsewhere in eastern Maine. Their populations have rebounded and their dedication to the study and preservation of traditional ways has led to a revival of their community. In 1993, the Micmac finally received federal recognition, and they are now joining in this revival.

Penobscot Tribal Chief Barry Dana teaches workshops in drum making, hide tanning and birchbark canoe making. He also leads campouts that teach the skills of the Penobscots, including birch bark wigwam construction, plant usage, fire making, stalking, native storytelling, drumming, dancing and more. Dana travels to schools conducting lectures on Penobscot culture, past and present.

Micmac flute player-maker and storyteller David Sanipass was born near Ellsworth, on the midcoast of Maine. His family lived traditionally, following the harvest of potatoes, wood and blueberries up and down the eastern part of the state. Sanipass has been making and playing flutes for 27 years. His stories and songs not only give us insight into the history of a people, but they teach us through the voices of our ancestors how life should be lived and celebrated.

Passamaquoddy storyteller Wayne Newell is a member of the Maine-Indian Tribal State Commission and the director of bilingual and bicultural education programs at the Indian Island Elementary School. He is active throughout Maine, representing Passamaquoddy interests in educational, political, environmental and social forums.

Dancer Blanche Sockabasin is also on the staff at the Indian Island Elementary School in Indian Island, Maine. She learned the Passamaquoddy dances from tribal elders and continues to teach these dances through her work at the school and through various community outreach programs.

Penobscot storyteller John “Bear” Mitchell believes that children still need to learn through stories. “Before we had schools or education systems our native children learned through the storyteller. ? Stories in many cultures are a way in which children learned their history. ? All of us, not just children, still learn through stories,” he said. The 33-year-old Mitchell lives on Indian Island and teaches native studies at the Indian Island School. He began telling stories in 1992 and has since performed in 12 states, including all of the New England states, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. He also has presented on six radio shows and on local cable television channels throughout the country.