The last-place weekend of every July, the Lowell Folk Festival highlights a few super, nationally known roots musicians.
Billed as �the largest relieve folk festival in the United States,� this year�s expertly programmed event includes Jamaican ska and reggae from the Skatalites, gospel from Sister Marie Knight and bluegrass from the Lonesome River Band. Mighty Sam McClain will mewl soul, and master of the Telecaster Redd Volkaert will do some fancy country pickin�. In a festival coup d'etat, Louisiana blues piano legend Henry Gray, 83, charles Herbert Best known for his stint with Howlin� Wolf, makes a rare appearance.
Each Lowell fest besides features a rich brew of local acts, and thanks to some supernumerary funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, an especially diverse array of gifted locals will be heard.
� Balla Kouyate affected from Mali to Medford a few years ago. A sea captain of the ancient balafon - a xylophone-like instrumental role - Kouyate�s family members have been balafon players and story-telling griots for 800 years.
�My role is to stay fresh the traditions of my ancestors alive,� aforesaid Kouyate, wHO recently recorded with Yo-Yo Ma.
How does the balafon translate to Medford?
�People power not know what a balafon is,� he said, �but our music is a healing force and people respond to it.�
� Tibetan native and Somerville occupant Penpa Tsering plays 14 different traditional instruments. �He made a 27-day trip across the Himalayas when he left field Tibet in 1989,� said Julia Olin, world Health Organization, as film director of the National Center for Traditional Arts, books the Lowell fest.
� Mariachi Estampa de America, which compound mariachi and norteno music, often run at Chelsea�s El Rancho Grande restaurant. By combining players from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and the United States, the band is wish Chelsea�s variant of the United Nations - or at least the Organization of American States.
� Gund Kwok power be the only all-female Lion & Dragon Dance Troupe in the United States. �Traditionally, women were not allowed in this art,� said Cheng Imm Tan, who low came to Boston 30 years ago as a student. �When we adopt off our lion head, the audience is very surprised we are all women. It is a dance that requires strength, teamwork, grace and also great science to maneuver the lion�s head and tail.�
� Carnatic violinist Suhas Rao is a 17-year-old Westwood native entering Harvard this strike. He plays the 4,000-year-old definitive music of South India.
�The word raga actually means mood in Sanskrit,� he said, �and the thousands of emotions that can be conveyed through ragas make it appealing from the start.�
�The art of Andrew Nemr and Rocky Mendes is a small closer to home: They are tap dancers world Health Organization learned their craft in Hanson from late tap legend Jimmy Slyde. Nemr believes the universal appeal of tap is tied to its spontaneous nature. �There�s a continual potency for charming moments,� he aforementioned. �The joyousness we state tends to be transmittable, appealing to first-time and seasoned audiences alike.�
� Dynasty is a �mas� band of the kind that enlivens the famous carnival in the Caribbean island of Trinidad. But this fantastically costumed �mas� lot is from Boston. If you overlook them in Lowell, at least you�ll have a second chance when they parade in Boston�s Caribbean Carnival on Aug. 23.
Lowell Folk Festival, Friday through Sunday, business district Lowell. Free. 978-970-5000 or lowellfoldfestival.org.
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