Folking Around @ The 33rd Annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival

I went to the sold out 33rd annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival on Friday night at Hill Auditorium. The lineup was a great mix of talented musicians whose music expanded beyond the folk music genre and into other avenues and sound categories. The MC for the evening was the guitar sorceress Patty Larkin; who played her guitar in between sets, introduced the artists coming onstage and told stories as well. Friday night featured: Grant-Lee Phillips, Nervous But Excited, Jer Coons, Po’ Girl, Band of Heathens (they’ve been featured on Austin City Limits), Hoots and Hellmouth, Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo & Son Volt) & Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie), and Iron and Wine. We’d like to point out that Sam Beam of Iron and Wine is awesome! Not only does he have a beautiful and haunting voice; he’s also pretty damn funny. When he walked out onto the stage a guy in the audience yelled out; “I love you Sam!” He responded with; “Dad you should of told me you were gonna come, we could have got dinner or something.” Then after a few more songs someone yelled; “You look like the guy from “The Hangover!” Sam laughed and said; “You know… I didn’t invent the beard. But we can talk about beards if you want to.”