Review – 26th Annual Rhythm & Roots Festival in Charleston, RI

Review – 26th Annual Rhythm & Roots Festival in Charleston, RI

By Jim Hynes

It’s easy to see why legions of fans attend the annual Rhythm & Roots Festival held on Labor Day weekend in Ninigret Park in Charleston, RI. This year’s festival was held August 30th through September 1st. Headline performers appear on the massive Rhythm Stage while the tented Roots Stage hosts blues, country, gospel, and folk performers and the Dance Stage features top shelf artists in Cajun, Zydeco, and old timey music. Both of those tents were consistently packed. We focused on select acts from the Rhythm Stage on Saturday and Sunday.

This year featured Emmylou Harris, Larkin Poe, Shemekia Copeland, Drive-By Truckers, Quinn Sullivan, and more.

Saturday – Larkin Poe fans were out in force as evidenced by numerous t-shirts bearing the duo’s name. The Atlanta-bred, Nashville-based sister act of Rebecca and Megan Lovell hit hard and loud but in a raw, expressive way. Their contagious energy is apparent from the opening notes with guitarist Rebecca prancing and jumping around the stage while Megan takes blistering runs on her lap steel. Toward the end of their opener, they quoted the familiar Allman Brothers “Jessica.” Most of the set featured songs from their 2022 Grammy-winning Blood Harmony such as “Bad Spell,” “Summertime Sunset,” and more. For the close, Rebecca shredded on guitar and took the vocal lead, accompanied only by Megan’s lap steel and for a harmonious take on Robert Johnson’s ‘Come on in My Kitchen”

Headliner Emmylou Harris returned after appearing at the festival 25 years ago. The 77 year-old brilliant song interpreter was in surprisingly strong voice, backed by her highly skilled Red Dirt Boys, featuring multi-instrumentalist Phil Madeira, fiddler/mandolinist Eamon McLoughlin, bassist Chris Donahue, and drummer Bryan Owings. Fans will note the absence of bandleader Will Kimbrough. As such, the set which ran nearly two hours, was primarily acoustic, touching on Emmylou’s signature mix of country, folk, and bluegrass. Her exquisitely sublime set included “Goin’ Back to Harlan,” “Making Believe, “Together Again,” “The Boxer,” ”My Name Is Emmett Till,” “Gulf Coast Highway,” “All the Road Running,” “Boulder to Birmingham,” “Born to Run” and many more in a beautiful performance that somehow felt like a spiritual experience.

Sunday – Shemekia Copeland, fresh off her latest album, Blame It on Eve,  brought her customary energy and passion. She played three songs from the album, opening with the raucous “Broken High Heels” and proceeded to deliver “Tough Mother,” and the female anthem title track, along with “Ain’t Got Time for Hate,” “Clotilda’s on Fire,” and “Great Rain.” A clear highlight was her belting out the soul ballad “I Feel a Sin Coming On,” relating how she first heard the song as a 16-year-old attending a Solomon Burke concert at NYC’s long defunct Tramps. Naturally, she concluded with her signature closers – “Ghetto Child” and “It’s 2 AM.” I’ve seen Shemekia perform countless times since she was just 16 years old. Her ability to connect with the audience and deliver witty banter between songs has grown by leaps and bounds. As she proved again here, she can always be counted on to deliver a dynamic performance.

The Drive-By Truckers – As hardened DBT fans know, the band has spent most of the summer touring Southern Rock Opera (SRO). Given the 90-minute time slot here, the band opted to play a mixed set instead, realizing they couldn’t do justice to SRO. Relative to past performances that I’ve witnessed, they were more restrained, acting like the polite, unexpected guest. Consider that they were they only true hard rock band in the lineup. Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley did little bantering between songs, which in itself is rare. However, their trademark irreverence emerged with the introduction to the closer “Angels and Fuselage” as Hood addressed the downside of fear, prompting a brief crowd chant of “Fuck fear.” Beyond that, and a graceful exit where each band member departed individually to the elegiac strains of Jay Gonzalez on piano, they delivered a loud, and energetic performance alternating between Hood’s and Cooley’s songs. These included such favorites as “Tornadoes,” “Ghost of the Most,” “Goodefield Road,” “Marry Me,” “The Driver” and others. Along with “Angels and Fuselage,” we heard “72 (Mean Highway)” “Shut Up and Get on the Plane,” and “Let There Be Rock” from SRO.

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Quinn Sullivan, who spent years apprenticing with Buddy Guy, has come into his own. As Shemekia stated, “We all grow up.” Sullivan released his fifth album, Salvation, this past June and devoted most of his set to those tunes including “Dark Love,” the title track, “Rise Up Children,” and “Don’t Want to Die Today” and the cover “Eyesight to the Blind.” His recent involvement with the new ensemble Trouble No More, sanctioned by the Allman Brothers, has given him even more credibility and his cover of The Derek & The Dominoes’ “Got to Get Better in a Little While” was a true crowd-pleaser among other gospel-fueled fare that featured soaring, spiraling guitar solos.

We should also mention the bedrock performers who grace the Dance Stage almost every year. They include Rose & The Bros, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas, Steve Riley, and The Pine Leaf Boys. Old Crow Medicine Show was the main draw while the Roots Stage included Christine Ohlman and GA-20, all” Keeping thee Vibe Alive.”

For more information on the Rhythm & Roots Festival visit here