Author: Chester Simpson

Snapshots: Appaloosa Festival @ Skyline Ranch Resort — 8/30-9/1/19

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5th Annual Appaloosa Roots Music Festival

Jessica Willis Fisher performs at Appaloosa Festival over Labor Day weekend. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

“There are no strangers here, only friends who have not yet met.” — William Butler Yeats.

That quote from Yeats opened the program for the 2019 Appaloosa Festival, which invited friends of all stripes to Skyline Ranch Resort in Front Royal, Virginia, over Labor Day weekend for a gathering of bluegrass, folk, Americana, Celtic rock, and more! Parklife DC’s Chester Simpson captured the action on film.

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Snapshots: Red Wing VII Roots Music Festival @ Natural Chimneys Park (Mt. Solon, VA) — 7/12-7/14/19

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Red Wing Roots Festival VIIRed Wing Roots Festival VIIThe Steel Wheels pose for a picture at the seventh annual Red Wing Roots Music Festival. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

The Steel Wheels presented the 7th annual Red Wing Roots Music Festival at Natural Chimneys Park and campground in Mt. Solon, Virginia, last weekend. It was three days across five stages with 40 bands performing along the North River, under the Natural Chimneys, known as the Cyclopean Towers.

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RIP, Jeff Austin

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6th Annual Sleepy Creek SpringDig6th Annual Sleepy Creek SpringDig
Jeff Austin poses at Sleepy Creek SpringDig in May 2019. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

Bluegrass musician Jeff Austin passed away in Seattle on Monday, according to reports. Jeff, 45, was a well-known performer in the DC metro area, where he frequently joined bluegrass and folk festivals like the Sleepy Creek SpringDig. Indeed, the Jeff Austin Band headlined the Sleepy Creek SpringDig at Sleepy Creek on the Potomac in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, in May.

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Live Review: Filthy Friends @ U Street Music Hall — 5/20/19

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Filthy Friends and Dressy BessyFilthy Friends and Dressy Bessy Corin Tucker fronts Filthy Friends at U Street Music Hall on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

Concerned with climate change, Corin Tucker took to side project Filthy Friends to say things that she couldn’t say in Sleater-Kinney. Playing songs from the resulting album Emerald Valley lately, Corin and REM guitarist Peter Buck drew a sizable crowd of the devout and the curious at U Street Music Hall recently.

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Live Review: DC 101 Kerfuffle w/ Greta Van Fleet • Young The Giant • The Revivalists @ Merriweather Post Pavilion — 5/19/19

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DC101 KERFUFFLE - Greta Van FleetGreta Van Fleet kills it at Merriweather Post Pavilion on May 19, 2019. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

A friend’s college-aged son, Patch, asked me a year ago if I had heard of this new band, Greta Van Fleet?

No, I hadn’t, and who where they? He pulled up their video on his phone and showed me. I proceeded to watch in amazement as these young kids performed their music. I was equally as amazed when I saw them headline the DC101 Kerfuffle at Merriweather Post Pavilion recently.

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Live Review: Sleepy Creek SpringDig @ Sleepy Creek on the Potomac (Berkeley Springs, WV) — 5/3-5/5/19

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6th Annual Sleepy Creek SpringDig6th Annual Sleepy Creek SpringDig
The Jeff Austin Band headlines SpringDig on May 4, 2019. (Photos by Chester Simpson; Words by Michael Tucker)

SpringDig is always a special event for me because it’s the first festival of the year that I attend; on top of that, my lovely partner Tara and I have the great honor of working hospitality for the bands and crew of the event which means we provide them with food, cold drinks, and a comfortable area to chill, recharge, or practice. And so, we were happy to be at Sleepy Creek SpringDig 2019 on May 3-5 in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

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Around Town: National Cannabis Festival @ RFK Stadium Festival Grounds — 4/20/19

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National Cannabis Festival at RFK

Participants press for federal legalization of marijuana at the National Cannabis Festival on April 20, 2019. (Photo by Chester Simpson)

“To me, pot is just fun. And I’m glad to see the rest of the country is coming around to my way of seeing things,” Keith Richards said in interview in Rolling Stone magazine Sept. 3, 2015. Keith would have enjoyed the National Cannabis Festival at RFK Stadium on April 20.

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