fig® - Downtown Lancaster

With only a few brief moments of threatening weather that passed quickly, it turned out to be a fabulous day to be outside enjoying the peaceful rural setting of the twenty-second Arts & Music Festival at Appel Farm in Elmer, New Jersey. From the “children’s village,” bustling with activities and entertainment for keeping the little ones happy, to the dozens of crafters and artists with tempting wares for sale and an eclectic line-up of both highly accomplished veteran musicians as well as fledgling young artists representing a wide variety of styles, there was truly something for everyone in attendance.

New Jersey’s own Nicole Atkins, along with her band, The Black Sea, mesmerized the crowd with their gypsy-rock style, sharing songs from their latest album, Mondo Amore, including the bluesy “Vultures,” the updated 50’s pop-rock number, “You Were the Devil,” the jaunty country-blues song, “My Baby Don’t Lie” and the 60’s psychedelic vibe of “You Come to Me.”  David Wax Museum joined the band on stage and contributed their donkey jawbone rattling and other percussion sounds to the number, “Cry, Cry, Cry.” And Nicole didn’t neglect the piano-bar ballads and girl-band pop numbers from her first full-length album, an ode to her hometown called, “Neptune City,” treating the crowd to rousing renditions of  “Brooklyn’s on Fire” complete with classic fist pumping, “since y’all are from New Jersey,” she yelled out to her enthusiastic fans,  as well as “Maybe Tonight,” and a solo performance of “Monterey Honey” that really showcased the vocal range and depth of this petite firecracker with the super-sized voice.

In a folk-lover’s dream line-up, icons Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka, and Lucy Kaplansky performed together as Red Horse, serenading the audience with lyrical melodies from their collaborative album, published last year, that goes by the same name.  Each artist soloed on classic hits originally done by the other two and shared a few new numbers as well as covers, resulting in a very mellow, spiritual interlude during what was mostly a high-energy entertainment day. True to the genre’s tradition, the session involved a sing-along led by Eliza on “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” a once again timely song about apocalypse and “the second coming,” based on a W.B. Yeats poem by the same name, and finished with John doing one of those ubiquitous tunes that’s so classic no one can be sure quite sure from where or when it came, “Wayfarer’s Song.”

In her introduction of this next artist, festival hostess Michaela Majoun, of XPN radio, gave Ani DiFranco her due as a trail-blazing female artist who started her own label before it was all the rage (not to mention having accomplished such a task in a very much male-dominated field).

Throngs of girl fans who knew the words to every song clutched the barrier that separated them from their idol with such intensity that it looked at times like they might pull the whole thing down in their fervor. With the firm grip of her guitar and hard strokes that are uniquely Ani, she played her instrument in a “tough love“ style that involves tensing her whole body leaving her guitar vibrating with aftershocks on numbers like “Manhole” ….

It was easy to spot Josh Ritter walking around the grounds before his show –- he was the only tall, thin, extraordinarily happy-looking guy in a dark business suit chatting with his peers and fans alike. Poster child for a performer who oozes passion for what he does (and seemingly, life in general), this Americana-folk singer-songwriter came out strong with “Right Moves” from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, and delighted the crowd with over a dozen more songs from that album, his fifth release, as well as his five others. Whether he was waltzing across the stage, as he did during “The Curse” or dropping to his knees as he segued from “Rattling Locks” into “Harrisburg,” the crowd just ate it up and the good energy he began the show with built to a crescendo. At one point, he took on the persona of a “minister” and beckoned his audience (the “dearly beloved”) to “celebrate the matrimony of blue skies and green grass in whatever form,” and then suddenly he was doing a version of Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime,” not diminished by the fact that, in contrast to David Byrne’s stye, Josh couldn’t keep the serious façade going very long, and he finished the number with a big grin on his face that matched the expressions of his supremely satisfied fans.