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The N.C. Folk Festival will return to downtown Greensboro September 12-14 with an eclectic roster of Grammy award-winning headliners, up-and-coming stars, home-grown talents, and world music legends. This year’s theme: “Find Common Sound.”
Jodee Ruppel is the festival’s executive director and ethnomusicologist Savannah Thorne its programming chair. We caught up with them to talk about what that means and how the festival, held in Greensboro since 2015, continues to evolve.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
You recently announced this year’s festival lineup, and I thought the headliners made a real statement—Sammy Rae and the Friends on Friday night, Arrested Development on Saturday, and Steep Canyon Rangers on Sunday. That’s a pretty brilliant spread appealing to different generations and tastes—a young, jazzy indie pop group, alternative hip hop legends, North Carolina bluegrass luminaries. How did it all come together?
Thorne: We really worked backwards, to be honest with you. Steep Canyon Rangers worked with us on an incredible benefit show for Hurricane Helene in October of last year. We put together this show literally in 10 days at the [Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts]. Steep Canyon Rangers donated their time to us, and we raised $40,000 for artists in Western North Carolina. And as we were doing that, we were chatting with them, and they were like, “You know, we’ve always wanted to play the festival. And I was like, “That’s crazy, because I’ve always wanted to program you this year at the festival!”
We’ve never been able to make that align before because they also work on their own homegrown festival that has always overlapped with ours in Western North Carolina. So this year, we knew they were going to be our anchors on Sunday. We knew that we were going to have the back porch feeling. We’re going to party all weekend long, and then we were going to have this beautiful homecoming of Steep Canyon Rangers. It just feels like all of the best parts of traditional North Carolina values. And when I say that, I mean just kindness, hospitality, love, sentimentality, and excitement for all things bluegrass—which I love, too.
So knowing that that was coming on Sunday, I think we wanted to really see how hard we could go on Saturday night. Arrested Development really fell into our lap in a way that I wasn’t expecting. You know, this was a get that I really have to credit [NC Folk Festival “Music Maestro” John Felds] and Jodee with. When we started talking about them and talking about getting them, it was like, that’s never going to happen. You know, that’s a great dream. I love that dream. John was like, “I don’t know. I’m just gonna chase it. See what happens. You know, let’s really bat for the home run here and see what happens.” And it worked. And sometimes dreams do come true.
I’m 42 years old, and for my generation, I think Arrested Development was huge. They were one of a handful of hip-hop groups that no one could ever really put into just one box. Which is core hip-hop, really. But like with country, bluegrass, blues, soul, samba — there’s this instinct to define things, put them in a box, make sure they stay there. So like other headlining acts we’ve seen at the festival over the years—Parliament/Funkadelic, Grand Master Flash, even Mavis Staples—they’re a great illustration of how different kinds of music influence each other, which maybe we’re more open to now than we were when they released their first album.
Thorne: Exactly. And I think knowing that we had that juxtaposition [between Steep Canyon Rangers and Arrested Development], we were like, “What do we do to kick off on Friday?” Because now we have a hell of a lineup, how do we outdo ourselves? And I think that the criteria we were looking for was, we still want a little bit more diversity. Because Steve Canyon obviously is all men. Arrested Development has women in it, but is primarily men. And so we knew we wanted a little bit more diversity in gender, a little bit more diversity in sexuality. And we wanted somebody who’s a little bit younger to sort of get our crowd out there. And we wanted somebody who was going to absolutely tear down the house. I wanted the kind of energy that would have you compulsively dancing, even if you didn’t mean to be. And Sammy Rae checked every single box for us. So it was kind of a no-brainer.
Ruppel: I want to brag on Savannah a bit because she was so intentional with this lineup. We want everyone who comes to this festival to be able to see themselves on stage at some point. So it doesn’t matter what you look like or what you believe in. We want you to at least have one act, maybe more, that you see yourself in and that you’re like, “I could do that. I could be an artist. I could be a musician.” And so we’re very intentional—and you see it very plainly with our headliners, how we did that. But all throughout the festival, we want to make sure, no matter what neighborhood you’re coming from, how old you are or young you are, you’re gonna see yourself somewhere.
Thorne: We literally pulled out census data of North Carolina demographics, and were looking at that, and were like, “How does our lineup represent that census data of North Carolina?” And really worked hard to make sure that we were in some way representing everybody.
Every year, I feel like I discover some act at the festival I’d never heard of who I’m listening to for the rest of the year. Who are the folks on this year’s lineup that people might not know but after seeing them, they’re going to be fans?
Thorne: I think I have a few. And it kind of depends on the lens that you’re coming from. Because I think everybody that we’ve programmed has, to some degree, a cult following, and we’re really lucky in that. But there are some I’m really excited about people seeing who may not know them.
Peter One is an absolute legend in the music industry for nerds like me and I think nerds like you, respectfully. He is a native of Côte d’Ivoire, the Ivory Coast, and was a huge instrumental player in the production of this Afro pop sound in the 70s and 80s. He immigrated to the United States due to a lot of turmoil, landed in Nashville, and now, 30 years later, he’s picking back up music in this beautiful storytelling way.
Gaby Moreno is a Guatemalan singer/songwriter, and she’s really a genre bender in that she really is fusing this Spanish/Latin singer songwriter style that’s very emotive with this nostalgic Americana style. She fuses the two in such a beautiful way.
And then my personal hero. I’ve been a fan of this musician named Jonathan Scales for a really long time. I have loved the Jonathan Scales Fourcestra. He plays steel pan, but he arranges the steel pan within these really cool jazz arrangements that I think are so incredible.
Ruppel: We have Thunderstorm Artis, who’s on American Idol right now. He was on The Voice. And people may think, “Yeah, that’s commercial”—then you hear him sing in real life, it’s so incredibly beautiful. He comes from this musical family, they’re all so talented.
Stella Prince is another one that just stopped me in my tracks. She sounds like a young Dolly Parton. She’s got this indie folk sound. Forbes said she’s “the artist bringing folk to Gen Z,” and I think she’s about ready to pop off.
Thorne: Denitia was just named one of [Country Music Television’s] Next Women of Country. She is this beautiful country singer whose lyricism, I think, rivals that of Doc Watson. It’s just so impactful in its meaning and simple in its statements.
A really interesting thing I saw on the lineup is The Rock and Roll Playhouse doing a family-friendly set of Grateful Dead tunes. I feel like a certain kind of music lover in each generation rediscovers The Grateful Dead again. They’re just one of those acts that bring together so many different kinds of music that now you have people bringing their great-grandkids to Dead & Company shows.
Thorne: I’m a huge Deadhead. And I think a lot of people don’t know that the Grateful Dead was originally an old-time band, before they went electric. They were the Warlocks, and they were an old-time band rooted in a lot of folk tunes. “Cold Rain and Snow” is one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs—this super electric, vibey, acid rock song that is also an Appalachian ballad. I think that our definition of folk is really rooted in the idea that it’s anything that has connection to tradition, but is told with the intention of continuing, evolving alongside of its musicians and its artists. That’s something that we’re really leaning into this year. We’re always rooted in tradition in ways that you might not expect to see.
I also noted the new tagline for the festival this year, “Find Common Sound.” I think there are a lot of products and brands that are acknowledging how divided America is right now—when isn’t it divided, really? The worst version of that is the Johnsonville sausage commercial I keep seeing that suggests the solution to division and social ills is to just have a cookout and eat their sausage together. Obviously, this makes more sense in a folk festival context. America’s most trying and divided times are when rich veins of folk music reassert themselves. They actually have something to say about it, but also, it’s a rich and diverse musical tradition that’s about bringing styles and people together. Tell me about how that became “Find Common Sound.”
Ruppel: It was a long process as we’ve been doing our rebrand. We wanted to showcase, going into the next 10 years, really the energy of the festival. I think we all feel it. How do we say that? How do we express that feeling where everyone feels welcome, everyone knows that they can have a good time? I feel like just all the walls drop, right? The experience of the Folk Festival to us is community. You come in, no matter what you look like or what you believe, and you just have a good time with your neighbor. And you hopefully learn something new. There is a unifying string and vibe that pulls us together, we’re united, we’re just a community.
I think that our definition of folk is really rooted in the idea that it’s anything that has connection to tradition, but is told with the intention of continuing, evolving alongside of its musicians and its artists. That’s something that we’re really leaning into this year. We’re always rooted in tradition in ways that you might not expect to see.
Savannah Thorne, ethnomusicologist and programming chair, NC Folk Festival
That’s a very important thing right now. And the fact that we shut down huge parts of downtown Greensboro to put on this free festival each year that welcomes everyone is a powerful thing.
Thorne: This festival is free to attend, but it is not free to produce. We have to raise $1.5 million every year to put this on. That is a fundraising effort that Jodee heads and absolutely smashes it out of the park, getting all those funds together. But especially in this economy, that is a trying thing to do. We’re feeling the effects of everything that’s going on and really relying on our community to hopefully come together and agree with us that this is something that’s vital and important for us to keep having and to keep producing.
Sure. We’re seeing some long-running festivals end or take a year or two off as grants are ended, and the uncertainty in the economy is leading to a slowdown of philanthropic giving.
Thorne: We didn’t get any [National Endowment for the Arts] grants this year, but we are seeing sister festivals have their NEA grant funding pulled back away from them after already being distributed funds. And that’s happening nationwide. That’s something that we’re really cognizant of—that even if we have the money, that doesn’t mean we’re keeping the money.
Ruppel: We are so fortunate to have some really vested sponsors and donors. Especially seeing the success of last year, I think they’re reenergized to go forward. But some I thought were ready to increase, they’re now perhaps saying, “Oh, let’s stay the same a little bit.” And so I think we’ll get there. Also, I’m trying to expand outward. It’s the North Carolina Folk Festival, and we happen to be in Greensboro. I feel really fortunate that we’re here. But let’s look statewide, right? And also changing the message. Not only is this philanthropic, if you want to use your foundation or your philanthropic dollars to bring art to everyone, and you want to keep it accessible. We’re also a marketing opportunity. We have over 100,000 people who come. What an amazing opportunity to get your brand in front of those people, of all the attendees.
I’m definitely on the phone and doing emails, and meetings more. But we’ll get there. I also believe that everyone who can give will give this year, because I think people know what’s going on. You’re going to hear us ask people to reach into their pockets. Yes, it’s a free festival, but if you can donate to keep it free for everybody else, we need that.
Joe Killian is The Assembly’s Greensboro editor. He covered cops, courts, government and politics at Greensboro’s daily paper, The News & Record, for a decade. He joined us from NC Newsline in Raleigh, where he was senior investigative reporter.