Festival names more artists Solas, Jerry Douglas included in lineup

BANGOR – Organizers on Tuesday announced the second round of performers for the 66th National Folk Festival, which will take place Aug. 27-29.

The group of nine acts includes: Solas, Jerry Douglas, Bobby McMillon, Los Fantasmas del Valle, Kotchegna Dance Company, Dexter Ardoin and his band, Phong Nguyen, David Doucet and Cape Breton Kitchen Party. They will join previously announced performers Blinky and the Roadmasters, Vishten, Henry Butler and the Game Band, The Birmingham Sunlights, Harmonia and Sheila Kay Adams. More than 20 acts are expected to take the stages along the Bangor waterfront.

Led by Seamus Egan, Solas is a five-member Irish-American band “that applies Celtic-style virtuosity to material well outside typical jigs and reels,” according to The New York Times. A case in point is the group’s latest album, “The Edge of Silence,” which explores the Celtic roots of American music by reworking the music of such contemporary artists as Tom Waits and Bob Dylan.

Solas will appear with championship Irish step dancers Donny Golden, a National Heritage Fellow, and Cara Butler, one of the featured dancers in “Riverdance.” In a break from routine, the group will be teaching audience members how to step dance.

Five-time Grammy Award-winner Jerry Douglas is arguably the best Dobro player in the world. Though he got his start in bluegrass, he has made an impact in fields ranging from rock ‘n’ roll to jazz, blues and Celtic – from mainstream country to the contemporary classical roots of American music.

North Carolina native Bobby McMillon was born into the tradition of ballad singing in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. He learned old-time Baptist traditions, songs, stories

and customs from his father’s family in Tennessee, as well as the tales and ballads of his mother’s North Carolina relatives. At the age of 17, he began recording the oral and musical histories of his neighbors and soon became known for his interpretations of their folk music and stories.

Los Fantasmas del Valle, or “The Ghosts of the Valley,” play la musica tejana, also called Tex-Mex or conjunto. The lively style originated in the late 19th century when German, Czech and Polish immigrants introduced the button accordion into the Mexican working-class communities in southern Texas. The group formed in 1968 in Mercedes, Texas, a city in the lower Rio Grande valley, which is a hotbed of conjunto music.

The Kotchegna Dance Company is one of America’s premier African dance and percussion ensembles, carrying on traditions from the Ivory Coast. Vado Diomande, a master dancer and choreographer famous for his ritual stilt-dance from his native village, leads the company.

Dexter Ardoin was “born into a family with a musical tradition that is one of the most influential in the recorded history of music,” according to Shamus Fuller of Louisiana Radio Records. He has been playing Creole and zydeco music since he was a boy, and he “has remained true to his roots while simultaneously maintaining the ability to be a modern innovator.”

The Phong Nguyen Ensemble is led by Nguyen, a 1997 National Heritage Fellow and one of the world’s leading guardians of traditional Vietnamese music. Members of his ensemble perform a wide range of the gentle yet jazzy traditional and folk music and dance from Northern, Central, Highlands, and Southern regions, which each have distinctive melodies and rhythms.

Cajun balladeer and guitarist David Doucet will surely be a festival favorite. He’s best known for his affiliation with innovative Louisiana band Beausoleil, a huge draw at the 2002 National Folk Festival.

A tourism Web site for Nova Scotia states, “There’s no place in the world that loves a house party more, especially if a fiddler or two should happen to turn up.” The Cape Breton Kitchen Party will bring the tradition to Bangor – and they’ll show up with three fiddlers, including one who plays the piano, a guitarist, a step dancer and a man who plays the spoons.

For more information about the festival, visit www.nationalfolkfestival.com or contact the National Folk Festival at 30 Main St., Suite 220, Bangor 04401, 207-992-2630.