Northwest Folklife Indie Roots stage moves with the times

Move over, Pete Seeger.

There's a new "Indie Roots" stage at the Northwest Folklife Festival and the music that will be played on it ain't your mama's folk.

As the festival celebrates its 40th birthday, organizers hope the 50 or so acts playing on the new stage will lure young concertgoers who might not normally stop by the free, four-day festival, which opens Friday.

"There's a huge surge in the music scene in the Northwest right now of indie music combining with folk," said festival Programs Coordinator Kelli Faryar, "and it just seemed like a perfect opportunity for us to widen our festival arms and say, 'Come join Folklife, let this be your festival.' "

About 1,400 artists applied for around 900 spots at Folklife. At least 200 of those could fit the Indie Roots bill, said Faryar. That includes well-known local bands Ravenna Woods, Pickwick, Weinland, the Corespondents, the Mighty Ghosts and Yuni in Taxco. The lineup also features up-and-comers who regularly play for pay at clubs such as the Tractor and the Sunset but will play for free at Folklife.

Many are poised to follow in the footsteps of Northwest artists such as Fleet Foxes, M. Ward or The Head and the Heart, who use a stripped-down aesthetic that takes its cues from traditional folk music. Though they share a loose connection to roots music, the bands playing the festival vary widely in styles and influences.

Many were chosen by volunteer community coordinators, such as Levi Fuller, who issues a compilation CD called "Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly"; KEXP deejay Greg Vandy who does a show called "The Roadhouse" and the blog American Standard Time; Calvin Johnson, founder of the eclectic Olympia label K Records; and ex-Folklife programmer Devon Leger of Hearth Music, which presents the for-profit Seattle Folk Festival.

Ravenna Woods lead singer Chris Cunningham said his band is the "poster child" for the Indie Roots stage.

"Ravenna has more of a punk-rock approach and is way more energetic and punky than your typical folk outfit would be," he said. "But I play an acoustic bass and our drummer (plays a) very stripped-down kit. We use a toy piano and all these acoustic instruments."

Cunningham, 27, said when he was growing up punk in Seattle he always thought of Folklife as "more of a hippie kid thing." But the music scene has changed.

"I feel like high-school kids nowadays are getting into different kinds, more eclectic kinds, of music earlier. Maybe when I was in high school, there was way more segregation and cliques with music. But now with indie hitting the mainstream more and KEXP being huge, that reaches younger audiences way more."

Of course, some folk-music fans, who can be notoriously hidebound about the stewardship of tradition, are not enthusiastic about the changes at Folklife. When The Seattle Times previewed a concert last month featuring the new, indie-folk bands, one reader emailed to say this was why he no longer attended the festival.

Folklife Executive Director Rob Townsend acknowledges some resistance, but points out correctly that the Indie Roots stage is just one of many.

"The folks who were here in the beginning, who remember Folklife from its origins, those folks still have a place here," he said. "Things change, but I don't want folks to think we've forgotten the roots."

But for the festival to stay relevant, says Townsend, it must move with the times.

"Our definition of Folklife is 'what folks do,' " he said. "Well, this is what they're doing in the music scene. It's absolutely perfect for us to make a showcase for this new stuff that's going to be on the forefront for the next 40 years — or the next three or five, or whatever. It's going to always evolve. And what we do in these four days, in these almost 1,000 scheduled events, is to present what's happening right now."

Faryar hopes the Indie Roots stage will be a gateway for younger fans to more traditional music

"They're going to show up to see something they're interested in seeing," Faryar said, "but on their walk there they're going to hit like 15 stages of something that maybe they're like, 'Wow, check that guy out, he's just killing that banjo right now.' "

Joanna Horowitz: jbhorowitz@gmail.com

Seattle Times staffer Paul de Barros contributed to this story.