Newsletters
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January 22 to February 1, 2026 ★ |
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In This Issue |
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★ ATTENTION! Performer applications open on October 1. Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website. |
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Introducing Our Final 2026 Guest Artists 
Please join us welcoming our second weekend guest band, the Faux Paws—Chris Miller, Andrew VanNorstrand, and Noah VanNorstrand!
Is it bluegrass? Not usually. Old-time? Occasionally. Is it Celtic? Can’t quite say that. Is it Folk? Americana? Jazz? Singer-songwriter? None of the above, but members of the Paws have deep ties to all of these traditions and blend their elements effortlessly to serve whatever musical idea is being presented.
The Faux Paws will be playing Friday and Sunday evening concert sets on the second weekend, judging the Banjo Contest, and teaching workshops, but in addition they are making a special exception for us and will be playing our Thursday Barn Dance during Folk Week. It will be a night with something for everyone, called dances and partner dances, and opportunities to just listen if you wish. You won’t want to miss any of the Faux Paws’ performances in Anchorage! |
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The Anchorage Folk Festival Presents Another Double-Feature Picture Show!  
Yes, we are doing it again, bringing to the Wendy Williamson Auditorium two wonderful music documentaries—AND we get to eat popcorn and other snacks in the theatre! Tickets for the Sunday, October 26, event will go on sale October 1, 2025. Watch your inbox for the ticket link! Our first featured documentary is Fiddlin’.
This sweet and joyous documentary, filmed on location in 2015 during the convention’s eightieth anniversary, and winner of over 20 festival awards, including nine Audience Choice awards, revels in the young and old who play this music as a birthright and are keeping it alive for generations yet to come. Youthful players from Gen Y and Z make up many of the featured performances.
Instruments are also featured besides fiddles and fiddlers: mandolins, banjos, basses, autoharps, the handmade guitars of Wayne Henderson, and the mountain dulcimer developed in that region are also featured, along with the musicians who play them.
Don’t miss this award-winning, warmhearted documentary film that will keep a smile on your face and your toes tapping! Showing Sunday, October 26, at 5:00pm at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium on the UAA Campus. Our second featured documentary is The Tao of Bluegrass.
But did you know that he is also a Buddhist?
Lucy Peckham, a member of the festival’s Board of Directors, recalls that “in 2001 I was honored to very briefly have Peter Rowan play and sing through my microphones. I was touring with the Alaska bluegrass band Bearfoot. It was a year of terrible fires burning all over the Southwest and particularly in Colorado. “We were at the RockyGrass Festival in Lyons, Colorado, for the band’s performance on the main stage. The word came around that a sound person with sound gear was needed to set up and mix/amplify volunteer performers to play for the firefighters camping in a sports field nearby. By chance, I seemed to be the only person with gear available. “It was very hot and dry as I set up gear. There were no sound checks. Maybe 20 or so firefighters sat in the bleachers to hear the music, but applause and cheers came from the tents in the field just beyond as the performers played. “Peter was one of those who volunteered. I have no memory of what he performed, but I do remember his gentle quality behind the mic…and his personal thank-you after the performance.” The Anchorage Folk Festival is proud to present the documentary The Tao of Bluegrass on Sunday, October 26, at 7:15pm in the Wendy Williamson Auditorium on the UAA Campus. |
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Welcome Our Newest Board Member!
How about you? Do you look forward to the festival every January? Do you eagerly wait for the announcement of guest bands? Do you love the locally-commissioned visual art and buy a T-shirt, sweatshirt, or other branded merchandise every year? If so, do you also have ideas and energy to contribute? The Anchorage Folk Festival Board needs YOU. According to the Foraker Group, a nonprofit advisory organization, the volunteer-run Anchorage Folk Festival should not be able to do what we do every year: eleven days, and over 170 acts booked, including Folk Week performances, plus dances and workshops, and all for free and open to the public. We do it with the strength of our commitment to and love of the festival, and the help of people who feel like we do who run for a Board position or step up as “Super Volunteers.” Please, consider the festival’s future, and make the decision to run for the Board in January. There will be 3–4 vacant seats in January; now is a great time to ask questions. Information can be found HERE on the website. And for a personal response, email folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org. We’ll get back to you! |
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Silent Auction and Raffle Items Needed
Though often our Raffle items come from commercial contributors, like Alaska Airlines tickets or a stay at an Alaskan destination, if you have concert tickets you’re unable to use or some item you think you’d like to donate to the live-drawings Raffle, we would be honored and grateful for your support. If you have an item to donate, email folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org. |
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We Greatly Appreciate Our 2025 Sponsors! We couldn’t do this without the support of our sponsors. Their support comes in lots of forms—every bit of it valuable to us. Patronize them and thank them when you have a chance! 2 Friends Art Gallery • Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp • Alaska Airlines • Alaska Huts Association • Alaska Music and Sound / Horn Doctor • Alaska Neurology Center • Alaska Railroad • Alaska Solar • Alyeska Canine Trainers • Anchorage Mandolin Orchestra • Anchorage Oral & Implant Surgery • Architects Alaska • Baxter Senior Living • Bell’s Nursery & Gifts • Both Ears Live Sound • ConocoPhillips Alaska • Cynosure Brewing • Dancing Bears • Denali Brewing • Denali Overlook Inn • Irish Club of Alaska • Jim Kerr & Denise Martin • Kachemak Cooperage • Kaladi Brothers Coffee • Katmai Eye and Vision Center • Lethin and Backs Family Dentistry • Marvin Woodworks • Nordstrom Chiropractic • Paramount Cycles • Petr’s Violin Shop • Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska (PRA) • Salmonfest • Santos • Seward Sockeye House (Vrbo) • Skeetawk • Society of Strings • Talkeetna Air Taxi • Touchstone Executive Coaching • Zen Zone Alaska And please consider supporting the public media that broadcasts and supports our local music and musicians! |
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Anchorage Folk Festival PO Box 243034 Anchorage AK 99524-3034 folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org EIN 92-0142926 2024–25 Board of Directors Pamela Pope, President • Tim Samuelson, Vice President • Laura Grossman, Treasurer • Natalie Tucker, Secretary • Cameron Cartland • Jennifer Anderson • Lucy Peckham • Marianne See • Peter Johnson Newsletter by Lucy Peckham and Mark Ellis Walker  |
These guys have had returning to Alaska on their wish list for a long time. We are so glad to bring them back to their Alaska friends and fans, and to introduce them to soon-to-be new fans, in their wild genre-busting iteration, 
But spending too many words talking about this stuff detracts from the fact that it’s the original songs—and heart—that keep folks coming back for more. In the band’s 12th year they returned to the studio and emerged with an EP showcasing a huge amount of music in a five-track sampler. The live energy is on full display, with very little added. The Backburner EP was released in April 2023 and reached Billboard’s Top 10 Bluegrass Albums Chart.
Without stopping to catch their breath, the band returned to the studio in 2024, and their second full-length record, No Bad Ideas, was released in May 2025. It is described by 
Old-time music, frequently featured here at the Anchorage Folk Festival and at the 
It’s the communal aspect of old-time music that draws people to it and keeps them playing, singing, laughing, and dancing. Families attend, play, sing, and dance together. There are many players that our audience will recognize and faces of players who are well-known now but were kids at the time of filming. 
Sisters Julie Simon and Vicki Vlasic cowrote and respectively directed and produced the film. They grew up right there in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and that connection meant the sponsoring 
Peter Rowan is by all accounts a Bluegrass music legend. He is a Grammy winner as well as a six-time Grammy nominee. He received the Bluegrass Star Award® from the 
Peter’s roots run deep in Bluegrass tradition but don’t stop there. Though he got his foot in the door by joining Bill Monroe’s band in 1964, Peter went on to collaborate with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman in the band Old & In the Way and in another band with Grisman called Earth Opera, frequently opening for the Doors. Peter’s original songs have been covered by too many artists to list here, across all American music genres. You may not think you know any of his songs, but you would be wrong. Midnight Moonlight is on the playlist rotation of every oldies station.
This wonderful documentary takes us behind the stage to meet the man, to hear his music, and to hear about him from a who’s who of musicians who have worked with Peter, recorded with him, or just admire him deeply.
Cameron Cartland has been playing and teaching drum set and percussion professionally since 2001. He studied music in high school and college and has performed with a variety of different groups in Alaska and currently plays with the 
Do you have something that you would like to donate to the Silent Auction held in the Lobby of the Wendy during the Festival? We are soliciting donations now. Items in the past have included artwork, quilts, musical instruments and equipment, pet supplies, clothing, jewelry, bicycles, painted skateboards, a fancy dinner, gift baskets…. Use your imagination, declutter your house or garage or closet, and benefit the Anchorage Folk Festival at the same time.
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January 22 to February 1, 2026 ★ | ||
In This Issue
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 Our second-weekend guest band will be revealed in the next issue of this newsletter.
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★ ATTENTION! Performer applications open on October 1. Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website. | ||
Introducing our 2026 Visual Artist
Emily has served on the board of the Anchorage Folk Festival (2014–2015) and currently serves on the board of The Music Machine. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UAA. Emily likes to ride her bike with her family and tap dance. She can’t whistle. Emily’s Artwork will be revealed in the October issue of this newsletter | ||
You, our membership, asked us to feature more of Anchorage’s professional performers, and we heard you loud and clear. Meet our new local Guest Artists!
Over the past five years, the band has been performing across Alaska, steadily honing their craft and carving out a unique sound. Their music blends raw energy with heartfelt songwriting, all grounded in the spirit of collaboration that Alaska’s music community is known for. In 2024, Wiley Post released their debut seven-song EP Skittish, now streaming on all major platforms. They’ve since wrapped recording on their new single, “Can I Call You?,” set for release in the coming months. Along the way, they’ve earned steady support from KNBA 90.3, who regularly features the band on air.
Wiley Post is Rooted in Alaska’s vibrant scene and driven by a passion for honest songwriting; the band continues to grow, create, and share their sound with anyone willing to listen. See you at a show! Wiley Post will be opening with a full 45-minute set before our guest band Henhouse Prowlers at Odd Man Rush in Eagle River on January 24, 2026. Sadie Arneson – Lead Vocals
The Roland Roberts Band will be featured in a one-hour set on the Main Stage of the Anchorage Folk Festival on January 31, 2026.
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Mark Your Calendars: October 26! On Sunday, October 26, the Wendy is welcoming you back for another double-feature film festival! We are in the final steps of getting two awesome, award-winning films, and on top of that, we get to break the rules again! You’ll be able to eat your popcorn in the auditorium of the Wendy! Definitely don’t miss this. The movies will be revealed in the next issue. WATCH THIS SPACE! ★ October 1st, expect to see the form open to submit your applications for three critical components of the AFF: Folk Week, Main Stage Performances, and Workshops. AFF 2026 is scheduled for January 22 to February 1. Are you working on your tunes, building out your workshop ideas yet? We cannot wait to hear what you’ve got! ★ | ||
Silent Auction and Raffle Items Needed
Though often our Raffle items come from commercial contributors, like Alaska Airlines tickets or a stay at an Alaskan destination, if you have concert tickets you’re unable to use or some item you think you’d like to donate to the live-drawings Raffle, we would be honored and grateful for your support. If you have an item to donate, email folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org. | ||
This Weekend: Two Family-Friendly Local Events in Anchorage!
Trouble Tales TBA Theatre Studio Amphitheatre Tent 635 West 54th Avenue 7:00 pm Experience the enduring power of storytelling with the latest offering from TBA’s acclaimed Folk’s Tales. Trouble Tales delves into the heart of what it means to face adversity, using humor, music, and dynamic storytelling to highlight the lessons learned when things go awry. Join us for an evening where imagination meets reflection, and where every tale—no matter how troublesome—offers wisdom, hope, and a sense of community. Discover why TBA Theatre’s Folk’s Tales series continues to inspire and delight. Trouble Tales: a celebration of resilience, creativity, and the enduring spirit of storytelling.
Saturday, September 13: An Evening With Mark & Maggie O’Connor The Wendy Williamson Auditorium 3211 Providence Drive 7:00 pm
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Be a Part of Making It All Happen: Join the Board Do you look forward to the festival every January? Do you eagerly wait for the announcement of guest bands? Do you love the locally-commissioned visual art and buy a T-shirt, sweatshirt, or other branded merchandise every year? If so, do you also have ideas and energy to contribute? The Anchorage Folk Festival Board needs YOU. According to the Foraker Group, a nonprofit advisory organization, the volunteer-run Anchorage Folk Festival should not be able to do what we do every year: eleven days, and over 170 acts booked, including Folk Week performances, plus dances and workshops, and all for free and open to the public. We do it with the strength of our commitment to and love of the festival, and the help of people who feel like we do who run for a Board position or step up as “Super Volunteers.” Please, consider the festival’s future, and make the decision to run for the Board in January. There will be 3–4 vacant seats in January; now is a great time to ask questions. Information can be found HERE on the website. And for a personal response, email folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org. We’ll get back to you! | ||
We Greatly Appreciate Our 2025 Sponsors! We couldn’t do this without the support of our sponsors. Their support comes in lots of forms—every bit of it valuable to us. Patronize them and thank them when you have a chance! 2 Friends Art Gallery • And please consider supporting the public media that broadcasts and supports our local music and musicians! | ||
Anchorage Folk Festival PO Box 243034 Anchorage AK 99524-3034 folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org EIN 92-0142926
2024–25 Board of Directors Pamela Pope, President • Tim Samuelson, Vice President • Laura Grossman, Treasurer • Natalie Tucker, Secretary • Jennifer Anderson • Lucy Peckham • Marianne See • Peter Johnson
Newsletter by Lucy Peckham and Mark Ellis Walker |
Live performance is where Wiley Post shines. Recent highlights include sets at 
Founded around a bonfire in Palmer, Alaska, in 2019, Roland Roberts and his band have gained a following with their mix of storytelling, electric improvisation, and high-energy live shows. Their albums All About the Timing and So It Goes earned high regards around the world and landed them on several grassroots national tours stretching from the snowy roads of Alaska to dusty highways of the Southwest. With haunting harmonies, in-your-face guitar licks, and sometimes lengthy experimental jams, 
Roland Roberts – guitar
September 12–14:
Experience a night of country, bluegrass, and virtuosic fiddle mastery with Grammy-winning duo
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January 22 to February 1, 2026 ★ | ||
In This Issue | ||
We are so excited about our first signed guest band for the 2026 festival that we can’t keep it a secret any longer!
Rooted in tradition yet unafraid to venture into new musical territory, the Henhouse Prowlers occupy a space that defies easy categorization—one that is consistently fresh, relevant, and captivating. To date, this Chicago-rooted band has toured 30 countries across five continents, collaborating with the U.S. State Department and through their own nonprofit, Bluegrass Ambassadors. These global experiences have not only shaped their worldview but also reinforced their mission: to build bridges between cultures through music. For the Henhouse Prowlers, the work extends far beyond the stage: they are deeply committed to using their art in the service of a more connected and compassionate world.
One of the most exciting things about this band is their enthusiasm for teaching workshops. As Bluegrass Ambassadors, the band has found profound commonality with people from different cultures through music. From performing Qawwali music in Pakistan and West African hip-hop in Nigeria, to traditional Tatar songs in Siberia, and Bluegrass in America, every culture has “music of the folk” that courses through the minds of its people. Through these interactions with musicians and music fans across the globe, an understanding that people have a whole lot more in common than music (despite our differences) becomes evident quickly. The Bluegrass Ambassador Workshop is supplemented by videos and photos of their adventures, and performances of international tunes, alongside discussion of translations, cultural and musical variances and more!
Each member of the band also gives workshops on their respective instruments. For more information, visit their website: https://www.henhouseprowlers.com. ANC FF MEMBERS, help us plan ahead! Please let us know what workshops you are interested in attending. Send an email to folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org. Please put “HP Workshop Requests” in the Subject line. | ||
Exciting News from Our Neighbors to the North and to the Northeast! If you haven’t had time for music this summer, it’s not too late. Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp instructors’ concert—August 27, Anchorage Yukon Women in Music’s Jamfest 2025—August 29 to September 1, Braeburn Lake Summer Camp Far North Fiddle Fest and concert—September 3–7, Fairbanks
The two festivals are just a beautiful scenic drive away from Anchorage—check out the Fiddle Fest’s workshops schedule! Remember your passport to visit Jamfest 2025, in Yukon Territory, and be sure to get tickets to the Fiddle Fest concert (a separate event from the workshops) in Fairbanks.
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Board of Directors News
Did you know your volunteer Board of Directors meets through the summer to keep the wheels in motion for the next Anchorage Folk Festival? Tim Samuelson and Laura Grossman joined the board this year as two of the three seats whose terms expire 3/31/2028. They have both stepped into officer positions, Tim in the Vice President role and Laura filling the challenging Treasurer position. Pam Pope and Natalie Tucker have stepped up to the posts of President and Secretary, respectively. The third seat expiring 3/31/2028 remains empty, as does one expiring 3/31/2027, and as we approach the fall it becomes ever more critical that those be filled. If you you know of a candidate, or are interested yourself, please click here: https://anchoragefolkfestival.org/serve-on-the-board-of-directors/ NOTE: Only AFF Members are eligible to be members of the Board. Are you a member, yourself? Find out: Our Membership Committee became aware we had holes in our membership process and has been caulking and filling those holes for the last 12 months. There remained a process gap between enrolling in person at the festival, and ensuring enough information was collected to acknowledge the members in the next program and ensuring the member had voting rights at the next festival. The 107 white envelopes (thank you!) were manually entered into our membership database recently. Some of you may have received acknowledgment emails. Our volunteer tech geek built a form so you can check your membership status. Access that here: https://anchoragefolkfestival.org/check-membership-status/ Also, some great news: Earlier this year, our Board of Directors Vice President Tim Samuelson applied on AFF’s part for a piece of the annual Anchorage Mayor’s Art Grants. And we received a grant! That’s very welcome financial news in a time where such grants are shrinking with increasing competition. We are so grateful. October 1st, expect to see the form open to submit your applications for three critical components of the AFF: Folk Week, Main Stage Performances, and Workshops. AFF 2026 is scheduled for January 22 to February 1. Are you working on your tunes, building out your workshop ideas yet? We cannot wait to hear what you’ve got! | ||
Some Fun for the Kids!
How many of these songs about sunshine do you know? Can you think of others?
What is your favorite? Sing it right now! | ||
We Greatly Appreciate Our 2025 Sponsors! We couldn’t do this without the support of our sponsors. Their support comes in lots of forms—every bit of it valuable to us. Patronize them and thank them when you have a chance! 2 Friends Art Gallery • And please consider supporting the public media that broadcasts and supports our local music and musicians! | ||
Anchorage Folk Festival PO Box 243034 Anchorage AK 99524-3034 folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org EIN 92-0142926
2024–25 Board of Directors Pamela Pope, President • Tim Samuelson, Vice President • Laura Grossman, Treasurer • Natalie Tucker, Secretary • Cameron Cartland • Jennifer Anderson • Lucy Peckham • Marianne See • Peter Johnson
Newsletter by Lucy Peckham and Mark Ellis Walker |
With two decades proudly under their belts, the Prowlers’ sight remains fixed on the future. Ever constant in the group’s electric performances is their ability to showcase their passion for music and people. All four members possess a knack for storytelling, compelling songwriting, and intricate instrumentation; each offers the utmost artistic prowess, building on one another’s magic night after night. The lineup is Jon Goldfine on bass, Jake Howard on mandolin, Ben Wright on banjo, and Chris Dollar on guitar.
They also offer a “Music Business Workshop: How to build a band and make a living playing music!” The Henhouse Prowlers have been a fully functioning and touring band for more than 15 years. While the industry continues to change on both a macro and micro level, getting started on the right foot has never been more important. This workshop covers everything from promotion and finances to tips on how to book, promote, and get along on two-month international tours. Being a lifelong musician has its challenges, but it’s more possible than ever if you’re well prepared for the realities of life on the road (and at home).
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January 23 to February 2, 2025 ★ | ||
ATTENTION! Time is running out: Mainstage performance applications close on November 1. Apply now! More information is available on the AFF website. | ||
In This Issue
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Introducing the 2025 Festival’s Official Art!
Lee Post , aka Post Marks, and the Board of the Anchorage Folk Festival present Sea Jam—this year’s artwork! Inspired by the natural world and music, this is the world in which we live, create, play, and share. We hope you enjoy this art—and please, share it widely with your friends and family!
“My family and I have spent a lot of time around Alaska’s cold, rocky seashores. We’ve spent weekends beachcombing in Homer, walking around Point Woronzof while couples have windblown picnics and kids climb on rocks, watching otters frolicking near the docks of Seward, warming up at a midnight beach bonfire with new friends on Douglas Island, and enjoying old friends having a summer jam session in Hope. This year’s poster captures a little of the magic that can happen when a group of friends has time to relax by the sea and lose themselves in their music.” AFF Board President Johnse Ostman explains how Lee was approached as a candidate for producing this year’s festival art: “I reached out to Lee several years ago to gauge interest. He and his daughter had attended a few Folk Week coffee shop gigs we played. I had been at workshops Lee did at the museum and generally thought he and his art are fun, and he was local and recognized in the Anchorage community. Lee was interested, and we agreed that 2025 would be the year.” Board member Lucy Peckham adds: “Lee made us feel, as a board, like our suggestions during the process of creative development inspired him! He was so receptive…and, in the end, his art inspires us. It is hopeful and visionary.” | ||
A Double Feature—Two Movies for the Price of One!—on November 17 at the Wendy! Anchorage Folk Festival presents a Double-Feature Fall Film Festival in our home venue, the Wendy Williamson Auditorium at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. This event will support the main event, our two-week festival in January! The films are both documentaries about music, culture, and history. It begins with Roots of Fire at 6pm and continues (after a 20-minute intermission) at 7:45pm with The 78 Project Movie Admission is $15 for the double feature and $7.50 (half price!) with any valid student ID (UAA or ASD). Tickets are available for purchase at MyAlaskaTix.com. Read on for more film details and links to trailers and websites. We are deeply grateful to the producers of these two films for allowing us to show them!
When Abby Berendt Lavoi and husband Jeremey Lavoi started their Roots of Fire project, and more specifically what would become this feature-length documentary, they say, “we were incredibly interested in ethnicity in the world of Louisiana French music, particularly the areas where Cajun and Zydeco music blend, diverge, and how racial history in Louisiana influenced that. We also had a lot of interest in how Native Americans influenced Louisiana French music.”
Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Learn more about the film at its official website: www.rootsoffire.com/aboutthedoc 
Inspired by the field recordings of Alan Lomax, director/producer Alex Steyermark and producer/recordist Lavinia Jones Wright created The 78 Project, an ongoing documentary journey to record today’s musicians with yesterday’s technology. Using just one microphone, an authentic 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder, and a blank lacquer disc, the musicians are invited to cut a record anywhere they choose. The result is an artifact—a 78rpm record—and a new connection to our cultural legacy. 78 Project participant Rosanne Cash called the experience “time-travel.” Along the way, a kaleidoscope of technologists, historians and craftsmen from every facet of field recording—Grammy-winning producers, 78 collectors, curators from the Library of Congress and Smithsonian—provide insights and history. In Tennessee, Mississippi, California, and Louisiana, the folk singers, punk rockers, and Gospel and Cajun singers share their lives through intimate performances, and find in that adventure a new connection to our cultural legacy. The 78 Project Movie is a documentary of the project’s travels and recordings between August 2012 and September 2013 and has been called “part road movie, part concert film, and part journey through the past.”
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Seeking New AFF Members! a note from AFF Board Secretary Jennifer Anderson Hey, folk festival friends! ’Tis the season to apply for a set at the folk festival, to think about attending or teaching workshops, to look forward to Folk Week, events, dances…and it might be time to renew your membership in the AFF. (And, if you haven’t joined, how about now?) Also, our IRS status as a nonprofit and our general philosophy rely on individual monetary gifts to keep this festival rolling, year after year, we could sure use some new members. Could you help us by putting forth a special and deliberate effort to bring in new members between now and the end of the year? Send them to anchoragefolkfestival.org, and ask them to mention your name when they sign up. We’ll track our progress on a special page on our website this winter. I’m looking forward to seeing a fabulous boost in member numbers soon! | ||
★ REMEMBER: Performer applications on the AFF website close on November 1. ★ | ||
We Greatly Appreciate Our 2024 Sponsors! We couldn’t do this without the support of our sponsors. Their support comes in lots of forms—every bit of it valuable to us. Patronize them and thank them when you have a chance! 90.3 KNBA • | ||
Halloween Music-Making Fun!
What makes creepy music? Find out for yourself, and make your own scary tune! | ||
Anchorage Folk Festival PO Box 243034 Anchorage AK 99524-3034 folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org EIN 92-0142926 2024–25 Board of Directors Johnse Ostman, President • Pamela Pope, Vice President • Jill Phelps, Treasurer • Jennifer Anderson, Secretary • Peter Johnson • Lucy Peckham • Marianne See • Marty Severin • Natalie Tucker Newsletter by Lucy Peckham and Mark Ellis Walker | ||
Our second feature, 
 | The Countdown: 115 days to the 36th Annual Festival! An Anchorage Folk Festival Newsletter October 2024 | |
January 23 to February 2, 2025 ★ ATTENTION! Performer Applications Open Today, October 1, through November 1, 2024. Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website. | ||
In This Issue
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Introducing the 2025 Festival’s Guest Artists
AJ Lee & Blue Summit are an award-winning energetic, charming, and technically jaw-dropping band quickly rising on the national roots-music scene. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the group met as teenagers, picking and jamming together as kids at local music festivals and jams until, one day, they decided they would be a band. “Our roots go really deep,” explains de facto band leader AJ Lee. “We met when we were young kids… We definitely decided to choose each other as a chosen family band later on in life, but in a lot of ways it was naturally just like that in the beginning.” “It was like one of those late-at-night things,” she continued. “We were sitting on a trailer at Grass Valley” at the annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival held in the Sierra Nevada foothills—“Someone said, ‘All of us right here, we’re a band now.’ We kind of didn’t take it seriously, but we were like, okay, we’ll be a band!”
Currently made up of Lee on mandolin, fiddler Jan Purat, and guitarists Scott Gates and Sullivan Tuttle, the band carries that youthful, festival-parking-lot energy with them still today, but at the same time there’s a genuine ease and confidence to their music-making. This is not the bluegrass of ambitious musicians intent on industry success; this is music made firstly for the joy of making it and primarily made for each other. Lee & Blue Summit seem unconcerned with mimicking hugely successful jamgrass bands, or making competitive and performatively intellectual new acoustic music, or wishing to establish themselves as the superlative string band in their bluegrass, old-time, and Americana communities. Instead, they’re most interested in discovering themselves, their own music, and sonics and textures truly their own. The group is proud to be Californian, proud to represent the neo-traditionalist bluegrass and folk from the state and the mighty communities surrounding them. Their music shines with this “think global, act local” sort of approach. Perhaps this is why it feels like, whether on stage or in the studio, Blue Summit pours all of themselves into every song, every lyric, and every note. | ||
Grammy-nominated Zydeco innovator Corey Ledet Zydeco is a world traveler, having performed in 15 countries. He’s done numerous tours across North America, including countless festivals, private parties, major company corporate events, and weddings. In 2012, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for his Nothin’ But the Best album, then again in 2021 he was nominated for his self-titled album on Nouveau Electric Records; both albums are available on all digital distribution sites.
Having studied his Creole culture and music thoroughly, Corey Ledet’s versatile and traditional sound guarantees to please and rock any audience. Corey remains true to his roots. He keeps one foot firmly in the tradition while exploring surrounding influences in order to create the “best of both worlds.” He is able to infuse old and new styles of Zydeco and blues into his own unique sound. Whether Corey’s backed by a full band (as he is bringing to Anchorage) or playing a solo gathering, you as a listener will always be highly entertained. He finds joy in giving his audience a true dance/music experience, so come and enjoy this music tied to tradition. | ||
Helpful Hints on Applying to Play at the Anchorage Folk Festival This ran in the last issue but is worth repeating… Are you ready to apply for a set this year at the Anchorage Folk Festival? If not, get cracking! Applications will go live on the website on the first of October and will close at the end of the day on November 1, giving you 32 days to apply. Here are some tips to help you through the process. 1. Know who your band members are when you apply. The application will ask for all those names. 2. Know your available dates during the festival to the best of your knowledge, so that the scheduling committee has good information to schedule your set. Evening spots are very limited, and you are more likely to get scheduled if you indicate a lot of availability. 3. Avoid duplicate and redundant applications. We usually receive many more applications than we have sets. If you have multiple submissions under different band names, we are not likely to schedule all the submissions. We are trying to give everyone a chance to play, so multiples will be put on the wait list. 4. If you are not a member of the Anchorage Folk Festival, consider joining! A link will be provided from the application form. 5. The application requires a responsible person to give their name, phone number and email address. The scheduling committee sometimes has to call a band representative while scheduling. 6. Don’t be alarmed by the request for a link to a previous recording or performance. It’s not an audition. It helps us to schedule a variety of performances. If you don’t have one, it will not impact your chances of being scheduled. 7. Be sure to submit before midnight November 1, 2025. Late applications will not be considered. 8. The scheduling committee will maintain a waiting list of performers in case of cancellations. Make certain you give us a working email address and check it frequently if you are on the Standby waitlist. Email is the primary way we will get ahold of you. After applying, remember that your AncFF mainstage performance and lyrics must be family-friendly and in compliance with the Festival’s commitment to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our audiences, staff, clients, volunteers, subcontractors, performers, vendors, and clients. Please plan and rehearse your set accordingly. Finally, remember that the set is 15 minutes long, but that includes your setup time. Plan and rehearse a 12-minute set, including your song introductions. | ||
★ Performer applications are open TODAY through November 1. Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website. ★ | ||
We Greatly Appreciate Our 2024 Sponsors! We couldn’t do this without the support of our sponsors. Their support comes in lots of forms—every bit of it valuable to us. Patronize them and thank them when you have a chance! 90.3 KNBA • | ||
The Festival’s Goals and Mission As applications open today for 15-minute mainstage sets, and longer Folk Week sets, it seems a good time to remind everyone what the Anchorage Folk Festival strives to be. Our Mission Statement “The primary mission of the Anchorage Folk Festival is to operate and perpetuate an annual folk arts festival in Anchorage, featuring live performance by the broadest possible representation of community performers. The purpose of the Festival is to acquaint and educate the general public about the folk arts and to provide a symposium for the interchange of cultural and performance ideas regarding folk art in the community. “The Festival will maintain a tradition of free public admission and encourage live performance by non-professional artists and shall be defined as a non-profit educational and charitable corporation in accordance with Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.” The Anchorage Folk Festival does hire professional guest bands and a professional artist each year but contractually requires the guest bands to teach workshops to educate and inspire our community members. The heart of the festival is the 15-minute sets by local performers and the creative workshops—free and open to the public for all ages. Do you have music, art, poetry, story-telling or other folk arts to share? Apply for a set, AND sign up to teach a workshop! | ||
“Animal or Instrument?” Quiz
The Anchorage Folk Festival only continues through the strength and support of our youth, starting from the very young! To reinforce that idea and just for fun, each newsletter will include something for the young (or young at heart). Enjoy this fun ear test from the Carnegie Hall Kids page! | ||
Anchorage Folk Festival PO Box 243034 Anchorage AK 99524-3034 folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org EIN 92-0142926 2024–25 Board of Directors Johnse Ostman, President • Pamela Pope, Vice President • Jill Phelps, Treasurer • Jennifer Anderson, Secretary • Peter Johnson • Lucy Peckham • Marianne See • Marty Severin • Natalie Tucker Newsletter by Lucy Peckham and Mark Ellis Walker | ||
| Let the Countdown to the 36th Annual Anchorage Folk Festival Begin! An Anchorage Folk Festival Newsletter September 2024 | ||||
January 23 to February 2, 2025 ★ ATTENTION! Performer applications open on October 1. Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website. | |||||
In This Issue
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Introducing the 2025 Festival’s Visual Artist
Choosing a visual artist to represent each festival is one of the most fun tasks that the AFF Board has. Anyone can nominate an artist. It doesn’t have to come from a Board member, though the Board must make the final decision since the artwork will be on posters, programs, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hang over the stage. The Board usually reviews the options we have been given, look at their artwork online, and one of us will talk to the artist to make sure that they are interested and inspired by the idea of art for the festival. Over the years, the Anchorage Folk Festival has certainly been blessed with some iconic images from a wide variety of artists; we are confident that this year will be another! Please meet the 2025 Festival Visual Artist: Lee Post!
Lee Post, a.k.a. Post Marks, is an illustrator and community advocate in the heart of Spenard. His fun and uplifting illustrations can be seen all over our community. He offers well-loved comics classes all over the state. He also performs graphic recording to illustrate notes for meetings, conferences, and public events as they happen. In addition to his art, Lee retired from twenty-three years of work with at-risk youth but continues to work with kids in local schools and the community as well advocating for better treatment and housing options for youth. See Post Marks’s work online at Postmarks.graphics and on Instagram @Postmarks.graphics. | |||||
Guess Who’s Coming to Anchorage! 
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Summer Music in Alaska
My outdoor musical experience started this spring with hearing Blackwater Railroad Company at Skeetawk ski area in Hatchers Pass, where I ski patrol. The third weekend in May, I headed to the Mermaid Festival in Seward for more Blackwater Railroad and many other local talents. The California Honeydrops at Creekbend in Hope was an awesome sunny outdoor concert; some band-member additions made this great band even better. Volunteer-run Arctic Valley had their Chugachfest solstice camping and music experience, and the free Girdwood Forest Fair was rich with local talent. Then it was time for Salmonfest, on the Kenai peninsula, and this year it truly was a fun three days of sun, fun, salmon, and music. I’m a volunteer medic, and even from my perspective it truly was a safe, friendly, and great music-rich event. So many great bands…some of my favorites: The Devil Makes Three, Tim Easton, and local bands such as H3, Wiley Post, Hope Social, Luna and Ursus, and Roland Roberts Band. My year ended with attending the 22nd Acoustic AlaskaGuitar Camp that includes the Instructor Concert at the Wilda Marston Theatre at the Z.J. Loussac Library. We are so lucky to have amazing Instructors coming to Alaska; this year were LJ, past lead guitarist from Wings, and other professional award-winning artists such as Keith Yoder and Steve Kaufman from Maryville, Tennessee, Jackson Emmer, Jon Shain, Megan Gregory, and Gerald Jones. I couldn’t get to them all, so remember to consider catching Chickenstock, which is held in Chicken, Alaska. In Cordova, the Copper River Salmon Jam is a family-friendly, two-day, mid-July festival of music, poetry, art, and dance held at the ski area. It benefits Cordova art programs and is just a fun ferry ride away from Whittier. I can’t list them all, and I don’t know them all, but they are a rich addition to music in Alaska in the summertime!  | |||||
Helpful Hints on Applying to Play at the Anchorage Folk Festival Are you ready to apply for a set this year at the Anchorage Folk Festival? If not, get cracking! Applications will go live on the website on the first of October and will close at the end of the day on November 1, giving you 32 days to apply. Here are some tips to help you through the process. 1. Know who your band members are when you apply. The application will ask for all those names. 2. Know your available dates during the festival to the best of your knowledge, so that the scheduling committee has good information to schedule your set. Evening spots are very limited, and you are more likely to get scheduled if you indicate a lot of availability. 3. Avoid duplicate and redundant applications. We usually receive many more applications than we have sets. If you have multiple submissions under different band names, we are not likely to schedule all the submissions. We are trying to give everyone a chance to play, so multiples will be put on the wait list. 4. If you are not a member of the Anchorage Folk Festival, consider joining! A link will be provided from the application form. 5. The application requires a responsible person to give their name, phone number and email address. The scheduling committee sometimes has to call a band representative while scheduling. 6. Don’t be alarmed by the request for a link to a previous recording or performance. It’s not an audition. It helps us to schedule a variety of performances. If you don’t have one, it will not impact your chances of being scheduled. 7. Be sure to submit before midnight November 1, 2025. Late applications will not be considered. 8. The scheduling committee will maintain a waiting list of performers in case of cancellations. Make certain you give us a working email address and check it frequently if you are on the Standby waitlist. Email is the primary way we will get ahold of you. After applying, remember that your AncFF mainstage performance and lyrics must be family-friendly and in compliance with the Festival’s commitment to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our audiences, staff, clients, volunteers, subcontractors, performers, vendors, and clients. Please plan and rehearse your set accordingly. Finally, remember that the set is 15 minutes long, but that includes your setup time. Plan and rehearse a 12-minute set, including your song introductions. | |||||
★ Performer applications open on October 1. Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website. ★ | |||||
We Greatly Appreciate Our 2024 Sponsors! We couldn’t do this without the support of our sponsors. Their support comes in lots of forms—every bit of it valuable to us. Patronize them and thank them when you have a chance! 90.3 KNBA • | |||||
Word Jumble: Folk Instruments
Find the following words in the puzzle. Words can run left-to-right, top-to-bottom, or diagonally down to the right. (A print-quality version is available too.)
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Anchorage Folk Festival PO Box 243034 Anchorage AK 99524-3034 folks@anchoragefolkfestival.org EIN 92-0142926 2024–25 Board of Directors Johnse Ostman, President • Pamela Pope, Vice President • Jill Phelps, Treasurer • Jennifer Anderson, Secretary • Peter Johnson • Lucy Peckham • Marianne See • Marty Severin • Natalie Tucker Newsletter by Lucy Peckham and Mark Ellis Walker | |||||
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November 2003 Newsletter
July 2003 Newsletter
November 1991 Newsletter