The Whispering Beard Folk Festival, which was founded in 2008 and continues to grow in popularity and draw based mostly on word of mouth, returns this week to the small town of Friendship, Ind. (at the intersection of First Street and Friendship Road, about 50 miles west of Cincinnati). The four-day-festival books top-shelf headliners each year, and it is also a great place to check out some of the finest Roots/Americana/Folk acts from Greater Cincinnati’s music scene. Loads of superb regional acts round out the lineup.
This year’s Whispering Beard kicks off with a Thursday-evening square dance at 7:15 p.m. featuring music from several of the event’s performers. After Thursday sets by Whiskey Bent Valley Boys, Chicago Farmer and California’s Willy Tea Taylor, Cincy Folk crew Willow Tree Carolers will take over for a late-night performance.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, music begins at 11 a.m. Local artists performing at Whispering Beard on Friday include The Tillers, Arlo McKinley and the Lonesome Sound, Andrew Hibbard and Easy Tom Eby. Friday’s lineup also features performances by Hackensaw Boys, Blair Crimmins & the Hookers, Tyler Childers and many others. Cincinnati’s Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle handle late-night duties Friday.
Locals on Saturday’s bill include Hu-Town Holler, Honey & Houston, My Brother the Bear and Frontier Folk Nebraska. Modern Roots Rock faves The Bottle Rockets headline Saturday. Possessed by Paul James, Daniel Romano, Mandolin Orange and Woody Pines also perform. Portland, Ore.’s The Harmed Brothers play Saturday’s late-night set.
The fest winds down Sunday afternoon with The Part-Time Gentlemen, Mamadrones and Mt. Pleasant String Band, plus a “pickin’ party”/jam session.
Four-day passes are $75 at cincyticket.com or $80 at the gate. Single-day tickets and campsite rentals are also available at cincyticket.com. For complete information about the festival, visit whisperingbeard.com.
More Local Notes
• You can catch some great local music at Saturday’s free Taste of OTR festival at Washington Park (1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, washingtonpark.org). The event runs 11 a.m.-11 p.m. and features local food booths and trucks, tastings, beer and more. Local artists scheduled to appear include Mamadrones, Dawg Yawp, Jane Decker (see interview on page 33), Comet Bluegrass All-Stars and Multimagic. There are also a couple of veterans of Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival on the bill; dynamic Nashville rockers Kansas Bible Company perform at 5:45 p.m. and Austin, Texas’ Indie/Electronic band Sphynx plays at 8:45 p.m. Find more info at tasteofotr.com.
• Cincinnati Power Pop great Roger Klug is collaborating with members of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra for a pair of shows this week that are part of the CCO’s Summermusik series. The “Fab Five” shows feature Klug and a string quartet from the CCO (violinist Amy Kiradjieff, violist Heidi Yenney and cellists Patrick Binford and Tom Guth) playing arrangements of several Beatles tunes, including everything from “Yesterday” to “Helter Skelter.” A master of Pop Rock song craft in his own right, Klug is also something of a Beatles expert, giving lectures on the band at the University of Cincinnati. Klug will include some anecdotes from the lectures between songs during this week’s performances.
Friday’s show at the DownTowne Listening Room is sold out, but tickets for Thursday’s 8 p.m. performance at Below Zero (1122 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, belowzerolounge.com) are still available for $25. Visit rogerklug.com or ccocincinnati.org for ticket links.
• The free MidPoint Indie Summer concert series on Fountain Square (Fifth and Vine streets, Over-the-Rhine, myfountainsquare.com) is nearing its end, but there are still a couple of solid shows left. The penultimate Indie Summer event this Friday features Cincy’s Wussy, which is working on the follow-up to last year’s breakthrough album, Attica! The digital version of Wussy’s Public Domain, Volume 1 EP, which was released by Shake It Records for Record Store Day this year and features the band’s reworking of some traditional Folk songs, is now available digitally at wussy.bandcamp.com. Rounding out Friday’s Indie Summer bill are fellow local bands Pike 27, The Perfect Children and JetLab. Showtime is 7 p.m.
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2015.
