Back from the Philly Folk Fest

I'm back with a few highlights from the 45th Annual Philadephia Folk Festival.
Hoots and Hellmouth showed us that folkies can understand tradition and still be as raucous as punk rockers.
We may be seeing a trend towards the muscular in folk music. The Avett Brothers offered songs about lost love with distinctive harmonies, launching into breaks and shredding their instruments (breaking a few strings in the process).
Folk Fest offers listeners and musicians a vista of musical styles. The members of Hoots and Hellmouth stuck around to catch Tuvan throat singers Huun Huur Tu, who followed them on the camp stage Saturday afternoon. Tuva is a small component of the Russian Federation found between Siberia and Mongolia. Hun Huur Tu (which means "sun propeller") offer naturalistic songs about life in central Asia in otherworldly voices.
They sweltered in their traditional costumes in the lush Pennsylvania countryside. Their afternooon concert allowed listeners to catch them up close before their appearance on the main stage Saturday night.
The Horse Flies take traditional folk motifs, deconstruct them, and reassemble the pieces into propulsive grooves that bring to mind techno and trance. Think bluegrass meets Phillip Glass. They kept folkies on the feet in four appearances in the dance tent and in their knockout performance on the main stage Saturday night.