Upper Salford, PA — The Philadelphia Folksong Society held the 54th annual Folk Fest at the Old Pool Farm. Highlights included performances by Shakey Graves and the North Mississippi Allstars.

Shakey Graves’ set up caught your ear and your eye. An old suitcase was turned into a kick drum. Shakey played it backwards with one foot while playing a tambourine with the other. At the same time, he shredded an electric guitar while singing. “Shakey Graves, born Alejandro Rose-Garcia, is an Americana musician from Austin, Texas. His music is a cross between blues, country, and rock and roll. Shakey Graves is known his one-man band set up, and most of his debut album Roll the Bones is Rose-Garcia playing unaccompanied by other musicians. When he began working on his sophomore album, And the War Came, Rose-Garcia added musicians to his recording set and live set. Three songs from And the War Came are duets with ex-Paper Bird member Esme Patterson. Patrick O’Connor, from the LA music scene, plays guitar and bass with Shakey Graves at various live shows. Rose-Garcia is also occasionally accompanied by another ex-Paper Bird member, Macon Terry, on double bass, and Aaron Thomas Robinson on steel guitar.”

The North Mississippi also had a multi-instrumentalist that played drums, keyboards, guitar and vocals at the same time. “Having soaked up the music of their father, Memphis legend Jim Dickinson, and absorbed the North Mississippi legacy by playing in juke joints with their blues ancestors, brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson formed the North Mississippi Allstars in 1996, pioneering their own brand of blues-infused rock and roll.

The North Mississippi Allstars released their debut album, Shake Hands With Shorty, in the spring of 2000. Their debut proved to be a success and earned them a Grammy nomination for ‘Best Contemporary Blues Album’. After earning 2 more Grammy nominations in the same category for 51 Phantom (2001) and Electric Blue Watermelon (2005), the North Mississippi Allstars earned the reputation as one of the most intriguing acts to emerge from the loam of Southern blues and roots rock.

In 2008, after five studio albums and more than a decade of touring together, the Dickinsons decided to branch out and pursue other projects. In 2009 Luther teamed up with Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus to form the South Memphis String Band. The trio has toured across the country and released two albums since then. In 2012, Luther formed The Wandering, a five-piece folk band featuring Shannon McNally, Amy LaVere, Valerie June and Sharde Thomas (Otha Turner’s granddaughter). He also recorded and released a solo acoustic album, Hambone’s Meditations, which received a 2013 Grammy nomination for ‘Best Folk Album.’”