The Folk Fest is back, and here are the acts you just can’t miss

How many Johns does it take to put on the Philadelphia Folk Festival?

Not Porta Potties — we mean artists named John. Several will take the stage at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, returning for its 62nd year this weekend at Old Pool Farm in Salford, near Schwenksville. Longtime attendees simply call it Fest.

The music begins with the traditional campers-only concert on Thursday, with Hezekiah Jones, Chris Kasper, and Mason Porter. And it’s again in full flower for the second year running after being canceled in 2023 due to a financial crisis — with over 70 acts playing from Friday morning through Sunday night.

The Main Stage action will be hosted by John Flynn, the Philly songwriter playing his 15th Fest. He performs twice on Saturday, and again on Sunday night.

It’s Flynn’s second time as a solo host, filling the shoes of every Philly folk fan’s friend Gene Shay, the genial DJ, Fest co-founder, and Dad joke teller who hosted for nearly six decades before his death in 2020.

Other Johns on the Old Pool Farm will include John Gorka, author of the immortal lyric: “I’m from New Jersey, I don’t expect much.” And John Moreland, the top-shelf Oklahoma songwriter who’s sure to be one of the weekend’s highlights.

Cabaret artist and musical comedian John Forster is also on the bill, as is the John Byrne Band, led by Philly songwriter and Irish music maker, and hammered dulcimer specialist John McCutcheon.

All that, plus Brother John, the acoustic blues duo of Johnny Never and John Colgan-Davis.

Only one John is included in the curated list below of 10 not-to-miss artists, which of course is too limited to include all worthy Fest performers. Among those also recommended are hip-hop harp duo Kuf Knotz & Christine Elise, bluegrass pickers Gibson Brothers, Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers, and American Patchwork Quartet, a foursome that stitches together Appalachian folk with Indian classical music and gospel.

A complete schedule and tickets information is at folkfest.org.

In 1991, virtuoso banjo player Alison Brown became the first woman to win an instrumentalist of the year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. She’s been a trailblazer as the label owner of Compass Records and as a consistent stretcher of bluegrass boundaries as she mixes in country, jazz, and Brazilian music.

Cedric Watson grew up in San Felipe, Texas, not far from the Louisiana border, and the Lafayette-based fiddle and accordion player makes traditional French-speaking dance music with his dance band Bijou Creole. His latest album, Le Soleil Est Levé — that means “the sun is up” — mixes Cajun waltzes, zydeco, and R&B with Caribbean and West African influences.

Ben de la Cour is an East Nashville songwriter who calls his music “Americanoir.” He comes hotly tipped by Lucinda Williams, who says that when she went to see him in a hole-in-the-wall bar, she quickly realized she “was in the presence of greatness.” His compelling new album is New Roses.

Chris Kasper is an underappreciated Philly songwriter whose quietly inviting nuanced tunes, which draw from country and blues, cozy up to the listener on his new album, Sunlight in an Empty Room. He’s at Fest in two forms, playing solo at the Thursday night campers-only show and then with Foxhound, his collaboration with singer-guitarist Kiley Ryan, on Saturday.

Elijah Wald writes about music, and also makes it. The Philadelphia historian and guitarist has authored several provocative books, including his newest Jelly Roll Morton: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories. He also wrote Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the Sixties, which the Timothee Chalamet biopic was based on. Dylan himself called it “a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led to the fiasco at Newport.”

This spring, Alejandro Escovedo played a stunning solo show at City Winery that was a workshop for a theater piece about his life in music. And what a life it’s been, going back to his punk band, the Nuns, that opened for the Sex Pistols in 1978, to his years with country-punk forerunners Rank & File and guitar army True Believers, to a decades-long solo career that’s earned him a place on the Mount Rushmore of Austin, Tex. music.

Daniela Cotton has been making music that mixes rock, blues, and gospel for two decades. In the wake of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter focusing attention on the long tradition of Black country music, Cotton — whose hometown of Hopewell, NJ was the inspiration for her 2005 debut Small White Town — has released Charley’s Prude: A Tribute to Black Country Music.

John Moreland got more media attention this year for feuding with Zach Bryan than he has over a seven-album career that began with Endless Oklahoma Sky in 2008. His 2024 album Visitor is up to his standards of songwriting, that fans of Bruce Springsteen, Jason Isbell, and Steve Earle would do well to check out.

The Lee Boys is a Miami family band featuring brothers Alvin, Derrick, and Keith Lee, nephews Alvin Cordy Jr. and Earl Walker, and family friend Chris Johnson. They’re leading practitioners in the Sacred Steel gospel tradition popularized in recent years by Robert Randolph, in which the Lord is praised via heaven-sent vocals and fiery fretwork.

Seamus Egan, the founder of Solas, was born in Hatboro but moved to Ireland when he was three, and has been immersed in Celtic music all his life. The multi-instrumentalist, who plays flute, banjo, guitar, mandolin, and various whistles, leads the band that is back together after an eight-year hiatus.