At the edge of Edgerton Park on Saturday, peeking from beneath the reddened cliffside of East Rock, a small stage on a winding path lined with pines held the final song of Moonrise Cartel’s set. Next to them, a field opened up to a man in a brown wizard hat, a circle of pastel yoga mats where children embodied woodland animals through yogic poses, people juggling, and long ribbon silk fans that got carried and lifted by the day’s wind. As Moonrise Cartel finished their last song, the sound of a bell was heard from somewhere off in the field as the voices of Goodnight Moonshine rose up from over the hill. The CT Folk Festival and Green Expo was back, after a two-year hiatus.
The break due to Covid-19 was acknowledged in various sentiments throughout the day’s music. Before Max García Conover played that afternoon, for instance, Dan McGurk, CT Folk board member, had an announcement. “I want to thank you all for shaking off the cobwebs and being here with us,” he said.
While the Folk Fest was on hiatus, staff and board sculpted and envisioned a larger festival that would reach more people and be more accessible overall. In the process, CT Folk expanded from a one-day to a weekend-long, two-day festival, and added a second stage. This feeling of thankfulness for returning to Edgerton Park — coupled with some of the shakiness that often accompanies a return after time away — was felt in the nooks of the festival and echoed in the stories and voices of performers and organizers alike. Perhaps we were all adjusting, in a time after momentous change.
As Goodnight Moonshine played on the main stage up the hill of Edgerton Park, which was lined with vendors and workshops, a couple and their white cockatoo wandered, barely making it a foot without being approached by other folks in the audience.
“He breeds positivity,” one of the bird’s owners told me. He also said that a cockatoo can scream at a level two decibels below a freight train. The owner had lost some of his hearing due to the bird’s volume. Through the strolling of people, Goodnight Moonshine sang a striking cover of “When I’m Dead and Gone.” Their harmonies layered and complimented one another’s, blending into the movement of groups of people walking together, a man biking around with a straw umbrella, and kids climbing thick-branched trees.
After Goodnight Moonshine, folk stalwart Vance Gilbert stepped on stage, opening with a quote from Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” that functioned as a declaration: “just like that river, I’ve been running,” he said. Gilbert’s voice was soulful and earnest as he sang about fear of death and its unknowns. In between singing, all while still plucking his guitar, Gilbert opened dialogue with the audience. He asked questions, creating a circle around himself and those watching. He opened up the next song with a question: “People always ask me, why is it that when you’re on stage you always bring up color?” As an answer, he transitioned in to his next song, singing, “stand tall enough in my own black skin.” Mirroring the conversation happening among CT Folk’s organizers and across the folk scene generally, he called attention to folk music’s tendency to draw a majority White crowd, both in its showcased performers and its audience — even as folk music’s roots grew from African-American culture and tradition.
Max García Conover played at the festival’s new second stage at the bottom of the hill. “It’ll be fun to see how these songs exist outside my little room,” he said. He opened with “Mary Died a Lover” in such an intricate fingerpicking style that it sounded as if it were a conversation between several people talking and telling stories. Conover was a great and honest storyteller himself. Before he played “Crow Song,” he told the story of how he wrote it in Spain in a 500-year-old tower. A crow got stuck in the tower with him; it passed away after flying into walls, and finally a door, in a hectic attempt to find its way out. At that moment in his life, Conover related to the crow.
“I’ll be home where I go / I’ll be home wherever I go / I’ll be home where I go, someday,” Conover sang. (The song lives nestled in an EP called Among Horses III, a collaboration with folk musician Hayley Heynderickx.) As the first afternoon of the weekend-long festival came to a close, the day transitioned into nighttime. The Alpaca Gnomes and Valerie June were set to grace the main stage. An osprey circled overhead above a blue sky, the blended sounds from across the park formed their own kind of soundscape, and the music continued on into the dark.
