Thank you to the LEVITT FOUNDATION - THE CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL ~The East Bay Community Foundation - Donor Advised Funds - Freshgrass Foundation - The Alberta Fund - The Music Home Fund - Bay Area Community Resources - Ed & Missy Westbrook - Schwab Charitable Fund - Trip,Amy,Laurence & Kyra Allen Family Fund - Neema Hekmat - Berp & Co - Richard Mandel - Soundtown - James Nunally - Fractured Atlas Donor Fund - for your contributions!
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Thank you to the LEVITT FOUNDATION - THE CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL ~The East Bay Community Foundation - Donor Advised Funds - Freshgrass Foundation - The Alberta Fund - The Music Home Fund - Bay Area Community Resources - Ed & Missy Westbrook - Schwab Charitable Fund - Trip,Amy,Laurence & Kyra Allen Family Fund - Neema Hekmat - Berp & Co - Richard Mandel - Soundtown - James Nunally - Fractured Atlas Donor Fund - for your contributions! 〰️
What is a Collaborative Festival?
Each year Whippoorwill Arts collaborates with exciting festival organizations with shared values to present live music featuring Whippoorwill Arts Fellows and other regional and national roots musicians. Partner organizations — such as the Freshgrass Foundation and Northwest Folklife — value working musicians, equity pay and booking, and building community.
2022 SuperFolk! Festival · October 21-22 · Tacoma, WA
✶ EXPLORE PREVIOUS FESTIVALS ✶
2022 Festival Performers
Live Performances
Fabiola M. Méndez
Native to Caguas, PR, Fabiola Mendez began playing the Puerto Rican cuatro at the age of 6. She was a student at the Hogar del Cuatro Puertorriqueño, the Humacao Musical Institute, the Antonio Paoli School of Music in Caguas, the Conservatorio de Artes del Caribe, and Berklee College of Music, where in 2018 she graduated as the first student to play the Puerto Rican cuatro as principal instrument.
Kamara Thomas
Kamara Thomas is a singer, songspeller, mythology fanatic, and multi-disciplinary storyteller based in Durham, NC. In 2021 she will release a new album: Tularosa: An American Dreamtime, a song-cycle exploring the current American zeitgeist through the lens of the mythic West.Currently, Kamara is also spearheading Country Soul Songbook, a music performance and documentary project that spotlights under-represented voices in Country and Americana music. The project explores and demonstrates how these genres share roots and history within a diverse and multi-ethnic American identity.
Keith Little Band
Veteran bluegrass and country multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Keith Little grew up playing the ukulele, guitar, 5-string banjo, and later added mandolin and fiddle to his musical arsenal. By the time he was 13 years old he landed his first professional gig, playing banjo with local musicians around a campfire for a post-trail-ride party in the Sierra foothills of Northern California. “I earned $25, a mountain of cash to me at the time,” he recalls. Ten years later, after a decade of developing his skills on acoustic guitar and banjo, and as a harmony singer, Little committed to becoming a professional musician.
Miles Quale
Miles Quale is a fiddler from Alameda, CA who plays and sings with depth beyond his years. Miles is accomplished in both bluegrass fiddle and jazz violin, playing with his own bands and as a guest on stages and at music festivals throughout the country and internationally. He is the fiddler for and a founder of bands Crying Uncle Duo, Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, and Jubilee. He has been fortunate to play with many of his musical heroes, including Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Brittany Haas, and Country Music legend Marty Stuart.
Nina Gerber & Chris Webster
Music fans know Nina Gerber and Chris Webster as two of the most skilled and artful musical talents. Webster's voice is uniquely compelling while Gerber's guitar is beautiful and powerful. Together they're magic. With originals, tasteful covers, soulful ballads, jazzy tunes and sweet folk, a great show. Nina & Chris released an album of gorgeous duets, Apple Blossom Lane, featuring Chris’s bluesy, jazzy, soulful voice and Nina’s incomparable guitar accompaniment, always surprising, yet always so exactly right.
Pura Fé
Pura Fé (Tuscarora/Taino) is an Indigenous activist, singer-songwriter, and storyteller known for her distinct, soulful vocals and for breathing life into several musical genres. As the founding member of the internationally renowned Native Women’s a cappella trio Ulali, Pura Fé helped to create a movement throughout Indian Country, which not only empowered Native Women’s hand drum and harmony, but also built a bridge for Native music into the mainstream music scene.
Nell Robinson & Jim Nunally
Nell Robinson (vocals, mini flute) and Jim Nunally (vocals, guitar, banjo) feature tight harmonies and original genre-bending music.
“Those just getting acquainted with Nell Robinson and Jim Nunally ought to know they are hardly the wide-eyed and unassuming artists their quaint, eponymous band moniker of Nell & Jim Band might make them out to be.”
Pre-Recorded Performances
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
One of the last true links to the great folk traditions of this country, with over 40 albums under his belt, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is considered one of the country's legendary foundations of folk music. Long before every kid in America wanted to play guitar—before Elvis, Dylan, the Beatles or Led Zeppelin—Ramblin’ Jack had picked it up and was passing it along. From Johnny Cash to Tom Waits, Beck to Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder to Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead to The Rolling Stones, they all pay homage to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
Snap Jackson
In July of 2006, after hearing John Hartford’s Mark Twang album, singer-songwriter, Snap Jackson , walked into a music store in Stockton, California and purchased his first banjo. He has been obsessing over it ever since. Aside from playing both Scruggs Style and clawhammer banjo, Snap also plays the ukulele and mountain dulcimer. In recognition of his efforts, Snap received both the Northern California Banjo Player of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year Awards in 2018.
Brittany Haas & Paul Kowert
Brittany and Paul have pulled bow together for David Rawlings, Live From Here with Chris Thile, and Hawktail. On this unique occasion they combine as a duet to celebrate the sound of strings.