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It has been more than 50 years since Speedy Tolliver thrilled crowds of dancers in Glen Echo Park's Spanish Ballroom, but the legendary fiddle player remembers them well.
"That was back when street cars ran up to Glen Echo," he recalls. "And the audience from D.C. would go out there every Saturday night and enjoy the scenes of the park."
"I think it's very important to pass it on," Tolliver says. "That's what I've been doing for the past 20 years."
The Arlington resident's sentiment reflects a running theme for the festival. Co-chair Carol Moran says that if you attend a Folklore Society of Greater Washington concert, "you'd see a lot of gray hair."
Moran is big on ethnic diversity, too. For the programming committee that ropes in talent, folk is an open-ended term that refers to any organically-created music or art a culture has passed down. Romanian dance, Brazilian bossa nova, American blues and a hula demonstration all find a spot within the festival's two days and seven stages. There will be crafts and visual arts as well. But Moran, with her eye on the future, is quick to point out multigenerational groups like Irish fiddlers Peter Hayes and his 7-year-old daughter Molly.
Maureen Andary and Jonny Grave are among the performers leading the charge for the next generation. Andary, with swirls of red hair and a charming ukulele clutched at her side, has made a mark on the local scene by combining 1930s cabaret arrangements with quirky modern lyrics. Last year, she received a Young Emerging Artist grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities to produce "Nostalgia," her debut album. The 26-year-old is by far the youngest member of the volunteer board that puts the festival together.
"Folk is really hot right now," Andary says. "There's a real appreciation for it, but we need to get it out to the [young] audience."
Clubs like DC9 and Rock & Roll Hotel rarely book folk and throwback acts, so open mic nights at metro area coffee houses have grown in popularity. Andary hosts aspiring songsmiths at SOVA Espresso and Wine in the Atlas District every first Wednesday. Sometimes, close to 70 people join in. Andary's contribution to the Washington Folk Festival, the Songwriter's Cabaret, is a close cousin to the open mic. Participants must play acoustic instruments without the benefit of an accompanist.
"Folk isn't a tradition that always stays the same. It's evolving," Andary points out. "The songwriter's cabaret is one of the few places where you really get to see what some younger people are doing with their creative expression. It's a unique opportunity to hear some artists that are doing something a little different, moving away from the folk tradition, but using it as a creative springboard."
Andary's music is sweet and catchy, a complete contrast to the down and dirty Delta blues of Silver Spring native Jonny Grave. The 21-year-old has been strumming guitars since early childhood, but attributes his passion for the blues to a compilation CD his father Ruben Grave handed down six years ago.
"I love the stuff from the Hill Country. It's the closest thing you can get to the African grandfather of that music," Grave says. "That music is pure at heart. It's very raw, it's very powerful, it's very emotional. It's not ‘Mustang Sally' on a cruise ship."
Both his parents have volunteered at the festival for years, so Grave says it was "only a matter of time" before he found himself on the bill. He's a firm believer that the blues grow inside someone who studies R.L. Burnside and Blind Willie Johnson. At Montgomery College, he dives into history and anthropology because music education "steals your soul."
For Grave, the folk festival is a chance to play the music he loves for an appreciative audience instead of competing with televisions and bartenders. Listeners should expect a combination of classics and new tunes, both with a heavy dose of hurtin'.
"The great part about the blues is that if you do [mix it up], it's hard to tell which is traditional and which is original. You just try and play from the heart, and whatever comes out comes out," he says.
The youth movement is in full swing, but festival co-founder Mia Gardiner's method of discovering talent remains refreshingly old-fashioned. In defiance of MySpace and iTunes, Gardiner conducts "field research," a tradition that began when she started the festival with Jonathan Eberhart and Debbie Hutton.
"There are a lot of little places that have fantastic music that you wouldn't think of," she says.
To find these little places, Gardiner and the rest of the programming committee talk to taxicab drivers, visit ethnic restaurants and contact foreign embassies.
"We like to challenge ourselves," says Gardiner. "When we started, the philosophy was to showcase all the music and culture we have at our fingertips in the Washington area."
Andary's introduction to legends like Billie Holiday didn't happen in a smoky jazz club. Instead, it began with downloading songs from her New York University dorm room. However the post-MTV generation begins their musical journey doesn't matter as long as they keep playing. If they continue, they might just live as long as Speedy Tolliver.
"Music has served me good," he says. "It's why I'm still above ground. I'm 91, you know. I have a good audience who enjoy it when we play."
The Washington Folk Festival is set for noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine, in Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. Speedy Tolliver and the New Old-Time String Band will perform at noon on Sunday, and Jonny Grave's show is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The Songwriter's Cabaret will take place at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. Call 703-892-4154 or visit www.fsgw.org.
