Despite tough economic times the Black Swamp Arts Festival, scheduled for Sept. 11 through 13, is still
going to be a party
Kelly Wicks, who chairs the festival’s performance committee, has all but one Main Stage slot, 11 a.m. on
Saturday, filled.
“The theme for this year is just a fun time,” Wicks said.
He said the festival, which costs about $150,000 to stage, has felt the sting of the recession, but is
adjusting with all the committees doing some tightening and adjustments.
That doesn’t mean the festival is stinting on the quality of acts it’s bringing to the stage.
Saturday night bands, Wicks said, have always been considered the headliners. This year, though, the
committee is just as excited about what’s on tap for Friday night.
After the opening rock act Shaggus, featuring local favorite Tony Papa, The Kinsey Report from Gary,
Ind., will leadoff a trio of blues acts, including singers Ruthie Foster and John Nemeth.
Although all three fall under the broad umbrella of blues “each band has a unique sound,” Wicks said.
The Kinsey Report, which recently played a well-received show at Grounds for Thought, has strong ties to
the roots of the blues, but mixes in soul and the reggae grooves that Donald Kinsey picked up playing
with Bob Marley.
Ruthie Foster has her roots in folk and gospel. “She’s one of those artists we’ve grabbed at the right
time,” Wicks said. Her star is rising, and she may well be out of the festival’s price range next year.
Friday closer singer John Nemeth is another up-and-coming act. He delivers the blues with a definite
rhythm and blues flavor.
Saturday will also feature its share of stars, including Lee Rocker, bass player with the Stray Cats,
playing with his own five-piece swing band.
He’ll perform the penultimate set, right before Cowboy Mouth, a hard-driving rock band from New Orleans.
Leading up to those nighttime sets will be groups that cover the musical gamut including a noontime
bluegrass set by The Goldmine Pickers, a folk set by the Yellow Room Gang, a writers collective from Ann
Arbor, soul singer Curtis Salgado, who’s back on stage after battling liver cancer, Wayne “The Train”
Hancock, who bills himself as “the world’s finest purveyor of juke joint swing,” and Parno Graszt, a
Hungarian band Wicks described as “hard core Gypsy.”
The band is the festival’s latest Eastern European import, and was an important influence on Little Cow,
a band that entranced local listeners last year during multiple festival sets.
Parno Graszt, though, doesn’t doctor their music with pop and rock sounds, favoring instead an unfiltered
acoustic approach.
Sunday opens with a late morning show by Greg Ginn, one of the founders of Black Flag and ranked in
Rolling Stones list of the top 100 greatest guitarist, playing with his band the Taylor Texas
Corrugators. No longer a punk rocker, Ginn plays avant garde art rock. He’ll headline the electronica
show on Saturday with another project Jambang.
“He’s a very quirky artist that some people will be fascinated by,” Wicks said.
The Chicago jam band Doko Benjo, with sounds that range from jazz rock to rap, will follow.
Texas bluesman Long John Hunter, who was the festival headliner in 1999, returns during one of his rare
Midwest swings.
The festival closes with Gypsy jazz guitarist John Jorgensen and his quintet. Wicks said he was a
“phenomenal player,” and is clearly one of his favorites, given he played a show late year at Wicks’
Grounds for the Thought and will return a couple months before the festival for another coffeeshop show.
