First Eight Performers Announced for Richmond Folk Festival

Swamp Dogg brings his brand of rhythm & blues to RFF this year.

The Richmond Folk Festival has quickly become an annual tradition for many. Three days of great music, international food and lots of good will and fun. RFF has just announced the first eight entertainers that will be performing October 9-12, 2009.

June 25, 2009 (Richmond, VA) – The Richmond Folk Festival is pleased to announce the first eight performers for the second annual festival that will take place October 9-11, 2009 in downtown Richmond along its historic riverfront. More than 25 groups will be scheduled to perform on the festival’s six stages. Presented free to the public, the 2009 Richmond Folk Festival continues its successful tradition of presenting diverse and engaging performances like those that have dazzled audiences for the past four years.

“The festival will be an even greater gift in these challenging economic times,” said Festival Programming Committee Chairman, Jim Wark. “It’s an amazing event and it’s as free as air. The artistry of our 2009 line-up will match, if not exceed, that of the last four years, and just watch what happens when Swamp Dogg takes the stage!”

Tidewater native and rhythm & blues legend Swamp Dogg returns to the Old Dominion from Los Angeles to serve up a musical “Total Destruction to Your Mind.”

Nashville-based Jerry Douglas is an innovator and a traditionalist and perhaps the finest player of the Dobro who has ever lived. Along with his group, The Jerry Douglas Band, the music of this resophonic guitar wizard transcends categorization.

One of Washington, DC’s most influential go-go bands, Trouble Funk will rock the Festival dance stage with the percussion-heavy funk groove that has been driving crowds crazy for three decades.

Heir to a family musical legacy, zydeco accordionist Jeffrey Broussard leads Jeffery Broussard & The Creole Cowboys, one of Southwest Louisiana’s hottest new dance bands.

Samba Mapangala & Orchestre Virunga brings African dance rhythms to this year’s line-up. Now making his home in the U.S., this dynamic singer’s unique blend of Congolese rumba infused with the flavors of Kenya has made him an undisputed star of East African music.

From New York City, led by the brilliant, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellow, Sue Yeon Park, Sounds of Korea is recognized as the foremost traditional Korean dance group in the United States.

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill have created one of the most memorable musical partnerships of our era. Based in West Hartford, Connecticut and Chicago, Illinois, this spellbinding Irish fiddle and guitar duo weaves music that slowly smolders before exploding with exhilarating energy.

Rounding out this first group of performers for the 2009 Richmond Folk Festival is a real working cowboy from Dusty, Washington. Yodeler extraordinaire Wylie Gustafson and his group Wylie & The Wild West will delight festival-goers with their classic country, western swing and cowboy songs.