By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Black Swamp Arts Festival is set to return Sept. 10-12 with a genre-blending cast of musical characters. As is usual at the festival, the grooves shift from act to act, but the fun quotient remains high and constant.
Looking to bounce back from 2020 pandemic induced cancellation, the festival will shine the spotlight on up and coming stars and veterans on its Main Stage, including a few friends returning from previous festivals.
The headliners will be:
- Ward Davis, a singer songwriter who casts himself in the mold of classic outlaw country, will close Friday’s show. Getting his song “Unfair Weather Friend” recorded by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard boosted his outlaw credentials. His 2020 album “Black Cats and Crows” was named Album of the Year by the alt country publication Saving Country Music.
- Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, who released “Dance Songs for Hard Times” in April, leads into Davis’ set. On its new album the trio of washboard, rock guitar and drums reflects the hopes, fears, and frustrations of the pandemic over a relentless groove.
- Cedric Burnside, the grandson and musical heir to blues legend, RL Burnside, will close Saturday’s show. He grafts his deep roots in Mississippi Hill country blues with a grounding in funk, rock, soul, and hip-hop, to create a once and future vision of the blues.
- The Commonheart, a Pittsburgh-bred soul band fronted by the gruff voiced Cedric Clegg, will play before Burnside on Saturday night. Formed to play the local Pittsburgh scene, the nine-piece band has stretched out its touring and has just released its second album, “Pressure.” The Commonheart delivers a big sound with three-back-up singers and two horns.
- Big Sandy & His Flyrite Boys will bring the festival to a close Sunday with a heady dose of rockabilly. Robert “Big Sandy” Williams worked the Southern California rockabilly scene through the 1980s, before launching the Fly-Rite Trio in 1988. The four-piece Flyrite Boys played the Black Swamp Arts Festival in 2001 and 2013.
Big Sandy’s not the only returnee. La Revancha last played the festival in 2004 when it was still a local band. The Latin rock ensemble opens Saturday’s show.
Also Eilen Jewell, who American Songwriter called “one of America’s most intriguing, creative and idiosyncratic voices,” returns for a third time to play a Friday evening set.
Radio Free Honduras, featuring the songs and vocals of ex-patriate Honduran musical star Charlie Baran, will perform a set on Saturday afternoon. The Chicago-based band was scheduled for the storm-disrupted 2018 show.
Bowling Green’s own Inside Voices will open Sunday’s Main Stage show followed by local favorites Nikki D & the Sisters of Thunder.
The full Main Stage schedule is:
Friday Sept. 10
5 p.m.: Americana songwriter and West Virginia native Charles Wesley Goodwin.
6:30 p.m.: Eilen Jewell
8:10 p.m.: Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
10:10 p.m.: Ward Davis
Saturday Sept. 11
11:30 a.m.: La Revancha
1 p.m.: New York-based vocalist, songwriter, actress Angela C. Howell & the Happening
2:30 p.m.: Radio Free Honduras
4:10 p.m.: Americana singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Suzanne Santo.
5:50 p.m.: Arlo McKinley, an Americana songwriter from Cincinnati, performing music from his album “Die Midwestern”
7:50 p.m.: The Commonheart
10:00 p.m.: Cedric Burnside
Sunday Sept. 12
11:00 a.m.: Inside Voices A Cappella
12:30 p.m.: Tim Tegge and the Black Swamp Boys*
2 p.m.: Nikki D & the Sisters of Thunder*
3:40 p.m.: Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys.
*Schedule change because of cancellation by Foghorn Stringband.
