Hālau ‘O Lilinoe
Hailing from Carson, California, Hālau 'O Lilinoe is one of the foremost halau (hula schools) in the mainland United States, dedicated to presenting hula kahiko (“ancient hula”), the traditional dance and chant of the Hawai’ian Islands. Beloved for its graceful and powerful performances, the school also celebrates hula as a means of preserving Hawai’ian history, values, and folkways through the...
Los Texmaniacs feat. La Marisoul
Among the most exciting groups in conjunto tejano today, Los Texmaniacs meld lively traditional Mexican American music with rock, blues, and R&B, creating “hip music that everybody in the world can relate to,” according to bandleader Max Baca. Joining them at the 81st National Folk Festival is Grammy award-winning vocalist Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernández, whose playful verve and singular, soulful...
Thomas Maupin & Friends with Daniel Rothwell & Overall Creek
Eighty-three-year-old Thomas Maupin is the most renowned Tennessee buck dancer of his generation, with a distinctive style that dancers and musicians alike emulate. With numerous titles to his name, Maupin is also a recipient of a 2011 Tennessee Folklife Heritage Award and a 2017 National Heritage Fellowship—the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts—and is the subject of...
The Campbell Brothers
The Campbell Brothers are among the finest ambassadors of the sacred steel tradition, the ecstatic sounds of which fuel the spirit and joy found in African American Holiness-Pentecostal worship services in House of God churches. A family-based band comprised of brothers Chuck and Phil Campbell, Phil’s son Carlton Campbell, their cousin Denise Brown, and family friend Daric Bennett, the Campbell...
Rogelio Ortiz with Eduardo Betancourt
Known in Venezuela as el caballero del canto nacional (“the gentleman of the national song”), Rogelio Ortiz is a leading practitioner of música llanera, the distinctive style of the inland plains of western Venezuela and eastern Colombia. Living in the United States since 2016, Ortiz’s music sustains a Venezuelan American community rapidly expanding in the wake of their homeland’s recent...
Wylie & the Wild West
While many musicians sleep in after late-night shows, world-class yodeler and cowboy singer Wylie Gustafson rises before dawn most mornings. Despite his success as one of America’s most popular western entertainers, Wylie and his hard-working family still get up every day at 5:30 to tend their livestock. Balancing the lives of a working rancher and a working musician feels “like...
Walter “Wolfman” Washington & the Roadmasters
Walter “Wolfman” Washington is New Orleans’s preeminent funk master. He first appeared on the city’s music scene six decades ago as a budding guitarist, learning licks from his elders. Today he is regarded as another in the long line of singular characters and musical personalities to come out of the Crescent City, known for his unique vocal delivery, idiosyncratic guitar...
Himalayan Heritage Band
The Greater Boston area is home to a large and growing Nepalese community, and the Himalayan Heritage Band provides a vital link bridging their new lives in New England with their homeland high in the Himalayas. This group of virtuoso musicians and teachers, led by Shyam Nepali, is dedicated to ensuring the continuation of their beloved traditional music through performance,...
E.U. featuring Sugar Bear
For over half a century, Experience Unlimited—commonly known as E.U.—has been synonymous with the funky, quintessentially Washington, D.C., dance music known as go-go. Founded and led by front man and bassist Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliot, E.U. expanded on a style developed by go-go pioneer Chuck Brown, creating a signature sound and helping build go-go into a local institution. Ambassadors of...
Dale Ann Bradley
A six-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Female Vocalist of the Year award, Dale Ann Bradley is one of bluegrass music’s greatest contemporary singers, with a pure, shimmering soprano that brings alive the stories she sings. Though she has established a successful Nashville music career, she stays true to her Appalachian roots, with deft guitar picking, gospel-inspired...
