An amazing lineup of musical artists and performers descend on Butte, Montana every July. Stay tuned for updates on the Montana Folk Festival performers right here.
Admission is free to all performances during the three days of the festival. More than 20 groups representing a broad diversity of musical and cultural traditions will perform on the festival’s six stages in Uptown Butte. Get the latest festival info on Facebook.
Quebecois | Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada The award-winning and highly acclaimed band Le Vent du Nord are a leading force in Québec’s exciting and progressive Francophone folk movement. The group’s vast repertoire draws from both traditional sources and original compositions, while their highly rhythmic and soulful music, rooted in the Celtic …
Gospel | Toledo, OH Fran “Lady Strings” Grace is among a small sisterhood of women trailblazers playing sacred steel guitar in African American Holiness-Pentecostal worship services. A masterful lap-steel guitarist, she leads a powerhouse family band specializing in the ecstatic, steel-guitar-driven gospel music she grew up with in church. Sacred …
R&B/Funk | New York, NY Fred Thomas occupies a very special niche in the history R&B. As James Brown’s principal bassist since 1971, he participated in one the most prolific periods in the Godfather of Soul’s incredible career as a member of Brown’s band, the J.B.’s. He can be heard …
Pungmul and Samulnori | Chicago, Illinois Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago (KPAC) is a cultural and educational 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. KPAC is the leading Korean cultural arts group in metropolitan Chicago, reaching an ethnically diverse, multi-generational audience of 50,000 annually. KPAC has seven professional musicians from Korea to secure …
Armenian | Boston, Massachusetts Mal Barsamian’s musical career began when he was four years old playing the dumbeg (hand drum) with his father, Leo Barsamian, at an Armenian picnic. Barsamian comes from a family of oud (lute) players across multiple generations. He has gone on to become a sought-after oud player and clarinetist as well as …
Old-Time | Mouth of Wilson, Virginia The Blue Ridge Girls, comprised of Jamie Collins, Martha Spencer, and Brett Morris, is a trio firmly rooted in Appalachian folk music with deep roots in Appalachian music that they are bringing into the 21st century kicking and clogging. Showcasing skillful musicianship and honey-sweet vocal …
Jazz, Blues, and Swing | New York, New York Vocalist Catherine Russell is a native New Yorker, born into musical royalty. Her father, the late Luis Russell, was a legendary pianist/composer/bandleader, and Louis Armstrong’s long-time musical director. Her mother, the late Carline Ray, was a pioneering vocalist/guitarist/bassist who performed with …
Native American Drumming | Harlem, Montana The Fort Belknap Singers are a family-based traditional drum group from the Fort Belknap Reservation, home to the Assiniboine (Nakoda) and Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) (meaning the White Clay People). Other Native peoples referred to them as the ” Water Falls People”. The sign for …
Congolese/Angolan | Los Angeles, California Ricardo Lemvo has established himself as a pioneer with his innovative music. Lemvo’s blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms with pan-African styles (soukous, Angolan semba, and kizomba) has been described by the Los Angeles Times as “seamless and infectious.” Lemvo hails from São Salvador Do Congo (M’Banza-Kongo), Zaire in Northern Angola. He …
Puerto Rican Cuatro | Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Edwin Colón Zayas grew up in Orocovis, Puerto Rico, surrounded by music. At an early age, he fell in love with the cuatro, which has been called the national instrument of the U.S. territory. The small, guitar-shaped cuatro, with five double-coursed strings, is the …
Chicago Blues | Chicago, Illinois This year the blues genre will be well represented by Melody Angel, a gifted guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, vocalist, arranger, and producer from Southside Chicago who is navigating a forward-looking musical path while integrating the legacy of classic blues. Her music encompasses many American genres, including …
New Orleans Funk and Blues | New Orleans, Louisiana One of the four famous Neville Brothers, Cyril Neville was the youngest, born in January 1948, in New Orleans. Cyril picked up his love of music from his parents and his older brothers at an early age, but it wasn’t until …
Telecaster Guitar | Galax, Virginia Redd Volkaert, originally from Canada, is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitar players in the modern era and is “among the country’s top Telecaster guitar slingers, particularly in the genres of Western Swing and Honky Tonk. He has been the go-to picker for Merle …
Irish | Sligo, Ireland Teada, Gaelic for “strings”, is a traditional band that formed in Sligo, Ireland 21 years ago that has grown to have a worldwide reach. Teada has appeared as a frequent headliner at major music festivals throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Russia, Israel, and Australia. Highlights include …
Tibetan Opera, Folk Song, and Dance | San Francisco, California Chaksampa, the Tibetan Dance & Opera Company was founded in 1989, in San Francisco, California, and is considered the most successful professional performance group outside of Tibet. Chaksampa is led by its artistic director Tsering Wangmo. All the members are trained …
Ukrainian | New York, New York Andriy Milavsky, clarinetist and master piper, is an Eastern European folk musician par excellence. One reviewer has called him “the Charlie Parker of Ukraine.” His experience in Carpathian folk music spans 30-plus years as a performer, soloist, and orchestra leader/arranger with the top traditional …
Tejano Conjunto Fiddle | San Antonio, Texas When Texas Folklife and the Festival of Texas Fiddling honored Belen Escobedo with the 2017 Texas Master Fiddler Award, they praised her for “single-handedly keeping alive” the tradition of conjunto fiddle, “a rare and beautiful style of Mexican-American fiddling which has almost disappeared …
Dhol and Brass | Brooklyn, New York Red Baraat is a pioneering band from Brooklyn, New York. Conceived by dhol player Sunny Jain, the group has drawn worldwide praise for its singular sound, a merging of hard-driving North Indian bhangra with elements of hip-hop, jazz, and raw punk energy. Created …
Bluegrass | White’s Creek, Tennessee Many folks remember the great bluegrass records from the 1950s and ‘60s. The power and soul of that music has won the hearts of people across the globe. Few bands have come along in recent years that directly draw their influence from that classic era …
Son Cubano | Seattle, Washington Son cubano is one of the most popular musical styles in Cuba and Kiki Valera is one of its foremost exponents. Over the last century, this style of traditional Cuban music has contributed to many other genres of music including jazz, cha cha cha, mambo, salsa, …
Zydeco | Lafayette, Louisiana Growing up in a Creole-speaking home in St. Martinville, Nathan eagerly sought out the music of Zydeco originators such as HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Chenier” Clifton Chenier. Later, while recovering from a serious illness, Nathan decided to dedicate himself to learning the accordion. That dedication blossomed into an illustrious …
Afghan Music | San Francisco, California The Heart of Afghanistan project consists of Four Afghan musicians; Ahmad Fanoos on Vocals & Harmonium, and his two sons Elham on Piano and Mehran on Violin, with Hamid Akbar on tabla. Together they will tell the story of Afghanistan from its pre-islamic Buddhist …
Gospel | Charlotte, North Carolina Ken Heath was born in Petersburg, Virginia, where he was raised to the sounds of the gospel music of the Black Holiness Church. His grandfather Moses Lee Tucker sang with numerous local gospel quartets from his rural hometown of Dinwiddie, Virginia. Eventually, he formed the …
Québécois | Quebec, Canada Musique à bouches is a vocal ensemble composed of David Bélanger, Olivier Brousseau, Jérôme Fortin, Sylvain Trudel, and Michel Grandmaison who also brings his personal twist on foot-tapping (podorythmie). Humming with a cappella rhythms of traditional musical arrangements, this vocal quintet is the fruit of years of …
Blues/Soul | Los Angeles, CA A chance meeting in Memphis laid the groundwork for a unique musical partnership between soul-blues powerhouse Sugaray Rayford and producer/songwriter Eric Corne. Combining classic soul melodies with funky R & B grooves, raw blues power, and mashed up with modern sensibilities, the pair’s first collaboration, …
