Milk Carton Kids Preview the First L.A. Folk Music Festival: It’s Not Just About Guys With Acoustic Guitars Harmonizing (Except Their Part)
06.10.2023 - 00:57
/ variety.com
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Los Angeles music scene has long had “folk music,” in its many permutations and offshoots, as a key part of the famous sounds the city has been most often associated with. But a festival with that as part of the moniker and definition? Not so often, though some locals with long memories will remember a Troubadours of Folk Festival at UCLA in 1993 that included everyone from Joni Mitchell to the Folksmen.
Since then, it’s been mostly crickets, in terms of many people trying to pull something together that would include recognizable names and a lineup as diverse as, say, what goes down in Newport each year. The Milk Carton Kids are doing their part to give L.A.
establish a foothold in the festival circuit by organizing and curating the first Los Angeles Folk Festival, happening this Saturday and Sunday at the city’s arguably most gorgeous venue, the Ford. Along with performing themselves on the second night, the Kids will be playing host to Sierra Ferrell, Valerie June, David Garza & Freaklórico, Tré Burt and comedian Mae Martin on Saturday, followed by Waxahatchee, Haley Heynderickx, Willie Watson and comedian Nick Thune, with other guests doing shorter sets.
Tickets for the LA Phil-coproduced evenings can be found here. Some drollery will probably be in order in the hosting, since the Milk Carton Kids are known for a drollery that lands them gigs like sometimes hosting the Americana Music Honors & Awards, in-between their day jobs writing deeply haunting songs and delivering the most luscious male harmonies this side of S&G and the Everlys.
But they weren’t joking around about this lineup when Variety caught up with them to discuss the gathering. Well, maybe a
.