What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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AUGUST 12-18, 2018 WHAT'S UP! 9 FYI Roots Fest Performers Aug. 22 Mavis Staples Booker T. Jones Aug. 23 Charlie Hunter Trio featur- ing Lucy Woodward Harlem River Noise Flaco Jimenez Del McCoury Band John Calvin Abney John Moreland Aug. 24 Charley Crockett Birds of Chicago Earl & Them Mary Gauthier Harlem River Noise Charlie Hunter Trio Flaco Jimenez Josh Ritter Cutty Rye Lost John Arkansauce Kalyn Fay Kaia Kater J Wagner Shook Twins Joe Purdy Smokey & The Mirror The Honey Dewdrops Aug. 25 Kaia Kater Shook Twins Joe Purdy Smokey & The Mirror War & Treaty Lost John Gregory Alan Isakov Gillian Welch Charley Crockett Jamie Lou & The Hullabaloo Paul Benjamin Band American Aquarium Rebecca Loebe Raina Rose Mary Gauthier Birds of Chicago John Fulbright Aug. 26 Dana Louise & The Glorious Birds Still on the Hill The Honey Dewdrops War & Treaty John Fulbright Turnpike Troubadours WHERE — Fayetteville Town Center is the festival home; events happen around NWA COST — Free; $5; $20; $199 pass INFO — therootsfest.org File Photo Donna and Kelly Mulhollan, local favorites as duo Still on the Hill, return to the Roots Festival in a different role, joining in interviews and a nature walk with naturalist Kent Bonar. He can, however, point to successes. "We had this notion that food would be a big part of the event, and that's proven true," he says. "We wanted to keep it as wide open as possible in terms of music, and we have. And we wanted it to feel like a local festival — and it does, except people come back to it from as far away as New Zealand. It's like friends from 25 states show up for your favorite local party." Ask McCoury what makes music "bluegrass," and he'll give you some things to consider. "For the most part, in the really hardcore bluegrass bands — some have integrated steel guitars and pianos and drums, and that's fine with me; Bill Monroe always had a drum — the main difference is the singing," he muses. "There are a lot of duets and trios in bluegrass. And when they're recorded, they're all at the same volume, so you can hear the harmony. In country, you've got your front man, and he's the main guy. "Bluegrass is pitched higher, and it's faster," he adds. "You don't have that sustain like you do with a steel guitar. The fiddle is the only one in a bluegrass band that can hold its notes. "Really, I think it's a matter of taste. … It's really hard to identify what bluegrass really is." Ask Hembree about "roots" music, and the answer isn't any more concrete. Beyond that, it's a question he's a little tired of hearing. "It's American music, in my terms," he says. "Folk to country to blues to red dirt to subsets of all of those. It's rooted in American traditions but forging a new path." So what isn't it? British Photo by michaelwoodsphotography.com Local favorite Arkansauce will be back at this year's Roots Festival. See Roots Page 39