Mountain Folkus
With Todd Tyson

Summer festival season has crept into the hills 'n hollers of Vermont, and '08 is looking like a great time to pack up the wee ones, air out the tent and fill the cooler for some stellar music throughout our region from now until the middle of September. First up is this weekend's Roots on the River Festival (www.rootsontheriver.com) being held today-Sunday down in Bellows Falls. In additon to perennial Canadian troubadour Fred Eaglesmith, this festival will feature appearances by Lori McKenna, Mark Erelli, Mary Gauthier, Steve Forbert, The Bottle Rockets and many others.

Just down the road a piece in Bridgewater Corners on Saturday, June 21, bluegrass fans can welcome a new event with the North Branch Bluegrass Festival featuring Gopher Broke and Big Spike in their day-long lineup. As the summer stretches out, you can find links to many more festivals by cyber-surfing to www.mtnfolk.org and clicking on Crossroads Summerfest Tour. A couple pairs of various festival tickets will be given away just about every Crossroads show (Sundays, 6-10 a.m.) for the next three months.

Quality folkies, Cindy Kallett and Grey Larsen, will be making several area appearances in mid-June, kicking it all off with a benefit show on the 13th for grassroots community radio on WGDR up in Plainfield (www.wgdr.org). Then, they will join a host of other fine musicians at Johnson State College for a week (June 15-21) of folk music instruction at the Northeast Heritage Music Camp. Other noted "camp counselors" include Jeremiah McLane and Pete Sutherland.

The Front Porch Music Series in Coburn Park down in Lebanon, N.H. kicks off on Thursday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m., with rising bluegrass stars, The Gibson Brothers. Entering its third year, this free Thursday music gathering will also feature Tammy Fletcher, John Gorka and Patti Casey later in the summer.

Finally, "transom treasure" CD's this week (highly recommended) include Crooked Still's latest "Still Crooked", "Hungrytown" from Hungrytown and Sierra Hull's, "Secrets".

Todd Tyson lives off-the-grid way up a dirt road in Tunbridge, and spends time producing concerts, co-hosting the FolkRadio program "Crossroads on the Point" and painting houses. He can be reached at folkbloke@hotmail.com.