There would be no American folk music without the contribution of African-American artists, some celebrated, others unsung heroes, whose passion for preserving—and reimagining—musical traditions indelibly shapes America’s musical heritage. Rhythms, instruments and vocal styles born of the African diaspora echo in every American roots music genre, while a new generation of artists are bringing the rich and diverse treasures of Black Americana  to the forefront of contemporary sounds. 

Over the years, Sugar Maple Festival fans have had the great fortune to welcome veteran and emerging Black artists to the stage, a tradition that continues this year with the powerful sound of punk-folk artist @Sunny War:

“…her right thumb plunks the bass part while her forefinger upstrokes notes and chords, leaving the other three fingers unused. A banjo technique, it’s also used by acoustic blues guitarists. Her fingers are long and strong – Robert Johnson hands – in jarring contrast to the waif they’re attached to. The walking bass line sounds like a hammer striking piano keys in perfect meter, while the fills are dynamic flurries – like cluster bombs. I haven’t heard a young guitarist this dexterous and ass-kicking in eons.” – Michael Simmons, L.A Weekly

Milwaukee-born musical duo (and Sugar Maple Festival alums) SistaStrings took to the stage this year at the Grammy’s with legend Joni Mitchell during Mitchell’s first-ever Grammy performance at 80 years old.

Sisters Chauntee and Monique Ross, who performed at Sugar Maple in 2021, are now working on a studio album which will be produced by Brandi Carlile. The two will also be featured in an exhibit showcasing current artists at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum in Nashville.

The Piedmont Bluz acoustic duo (Sugar Maple Festival 2016)  is dedicated to the preservation of Piedmont-style country blues and  keeping this rural, east coast tradition alive by educating audiences about the unique aspects of African American culture through musical entertainment.  Husband and wife Valerie and Ben Turner believe “there are stories to tell, people to remember, and things that must be said” and their music weaves a bit of history into the presentation of each song. The duo are bringing those traditions to The Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival (FWAAMFest) next month, where they will join a lineup of award-winning artists from across North America.  FWAAMFest is the only major city festival of its kind in the United States, Black-led and centered on Black artists reclaiming their place in roots music through preservation and innovation.

In addition to preserving history and cultural traditions, Black music has also inspired and accompanied the freedom struggles and social movements we commemorate this month–from the civil rights struggle to Black Lives Matter. Artist Buffalo Nichols carries this tradition on with songs like  “Another Man,” singing: “When my grandpa was young / He had to hold his tongue / Cause they’d hang you from a bridge downtown / Now they call it stand your ground / Another man is dead.” He was inspired by “Another Man Done Gone,” a traditional song about prison work farms, and wanted to draw a direct line between that history and contemporary police violence. 

Nichols journey led him from Milwaukee’s punk scene to West African Griot music and back to the American Blues tradition he has embraced and introduced to a new generation.

If you can’t make it to FWAAMFest  next month, check out this Playlist featuring up-and-coming voices of Black Folk here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/14/arts/music/amplifier-newsletter-black-folk-singers.html and look forward to an amazing show when Sunny War takes the stage at Sugar Maple Festival next summer!

(The Wildmans perform from 2:45-3:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5 at the 20^th annual Sugar Maple Music Festival at Lake Farm Park in Madison. They’ll also participate in a session on the intimate Roots & Reasons Stage at 4:20 p.m. And then they’ll conclude with an old-time jam in the Jam Tent at 5 p.m.)

Launched by instrumental competitions and access to vintage old-time music, brother-and-sister Eli and Aila Wildman embraced the genre. Growing up in a tiny town tucked in the Appalachian Mountains, they had the fortune of living in Floyd, Virginia, home to FloydFest (a major festival where they had some of their first performances) and a cradle to talented, like-minded performers.

At Sugar Maple, the Wildmans will be joined by a drummer, and they’ll mix a set with favorite cuts from their first two albums as well as tunes from a completed new one, which is expected out later this year. It will launch them as a full-time band with sky’s-the-limit aspirations.

Eli, 22, and Aila, 20, spoke by phone recently.  

Sugar Maple: Your hometown – Floyd, Virginia – is listed as population: 450. How rural is that?

Eli: “It’s about as rural as you can get.”

Aila: “There’s one stoplight in this town. We travel only about seven miles to get to the grocery store, so it’s not bad.

It’s isolated, but it’s an important place for old-time and Appalachian music.

Eli: “It’s a place that exposes you to music of this tradition: Appalachian and string music. We might not have been exposed in the same way if we grew up in a small town that was not a cultural center. There are not too many places like Floyd.”

Were you encouraged at a young age?

Aila: “There’s a lot of encouragement for young kids to play music in Floyd. Eli and I were both part of teaching in the JAM program. It stands for Junior Appalachian Musicians. It’s an afterschool program for Floyd elementary school children.”

Did you get a lot of students?

Eli: “There were a bunch of kids! It’s been done in a few counties. The accessibility of adults to teach this music is here in Floyd. And we were able to get those lessons, too.”

How old were you when you started?

Aila: “We saw and heard so much throughout the town that when I was 5 and Eli was 7, we told our parents that we wanted to play music, and they got us private lessons.”

Was there a time when you changed to play the music that’s popular with your generation?

Aila: “We listen to so many different types of music. But there never was a draw to play a type of music just for the sake of it being popular.”

You’re both students at the prestigious Berklee School Music in Boston?

Eli: “Aila is working on her last semester, and I just graduated. … Berklee is another place we got to experience a lot of different genres. I played electric guitar up there and did country stuff and jam band stuff. Aila, you did that neo-soul band ensemble …”

Aila: “I got a chance to do a really fun R&B band with some experienced players.”

Are Berklee students open to what music you play, or do they snicker at tiny Floyd, Virginia?

Eli: “It’s cool. There is every genre you can imagine there.”  

Aila: “You think of (old-time) music and its tradition, and it has an older generation that’s kept it alive. At Berklee, when I expose my friends to this type of music, I find that it’s received very well.”

Were you always singers?

Aila: “I’ve been singing as long as I can remember in my room with no one listening. It came very natural to me.”

Eli: “I’ve definitely taken to singing in recent years.”

What crowd do you draw?

Eli: “It depends on the venue and what setting. At a festival, you get people of all ages.”

Aila: “In general, our audience is a broad age group. That’s what I like to play for.”

Have you been to Madison before?

Aila: “We haven’t been to Wisconsin.”

It seems so idyllic to travel the country playing old-time music. Is it that fun?

Alia: “It is.”

Eli: “It’s so much fun.”

What’s the best part of it?

Eli: “It’s cool to be on a stage and have new faces in front of you and everyone having a good time over and over.”

Alia: “It’s awesome to go to places you wouldn’t normally visit and connect with people you normally wouldn’t connect with. You get to see the cool pockets of America.”

You guys are so young. Is the momentum there to keep going and to push a new album?

Eli: “We’re ready to go full-time with a band. We’re getting ready to go for it next year.”

Alia: “Absolutely!”

Big Richard performs from 9:00-10:25 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4 at the 20th Sugar Maple Music Festival, Lake Farm County Park, Madison. Before that, they’ll play with Madison Youth Arts at 7:15 p.m. on the intimate Roots & Reason Stage. They’re also at Union Terrace on Thursday, Aug. 3.

Multi-genre band Big Richard – featuring all women – wants to shatter glass ceilings. The first night closer at the Sugar Maple Music Festival also wants to educate, to entertain and to enlighten.
Big Richard cellist Joy Adams explained how the quartet has emerged from the music scene with old-time flavored tunes and a kick to their sound.

Sugar Maple: You played solo on two Emmy and one Grammy-winning soundtracks: Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” and “Godless.” That’s amazing.

Adams: I worked with the composer Carlos Rivera when I lived in Miami. He got the trophies. I have certificates.”

SM: And you have a doctorate.

Adams: “Yes, I’m a certified nerd.”

SM: Was that needed to teach at a university level?

Adams: “It’s a very competitive field to teach at the university level. A doctorate puts you at the highest pay level. When I got my master’s at the University of Miami, I wanted to stay there, and I did a pile of research on the cello and American fiddle music. It made sense.”

SM: It’s difficult to figure out how the four of you got together.

Adams: “We had known each other. I played in a band with Emma a little bit and played gigs with Eve. I knew about Bonnie. Emma said, ‘You know, what would be a killer band: You, Eve, Bonnie and myself.’ Then Eve got a call from a bluegrass festival in southern Colorado, and they wanted an all women.”

SM: Why did they want all women?

Adams: “They looked at their entire lineup and realized they only had men. So, Eve remembered Emma’s idea for this lineup, and we got together. We weren’t taking it seriously.”

SM: If this was a movie, it would seem corny. You came together and, snap, it sounds great.

Adams: “You’re right. A lot of times when you have a band you spend years dialing in your sound, and you have discussions about arrangements and whose role it is to play what part. Somehow, when we rehearsed for the first time, we had the same wavelength. It happened naturally. We saved 2,000 hours of practicing together. That never happens. And I’ve played in a lot of bands.”

SM: Then in May 2021 you played what you expected to be the band’s one and only appearance.

Adams: “It was a one-off show, but it rained during our set, and we only played a half hour. We had all these songs, so we played a second show. We played on a truck bed and lots of people showed up. We just kept going. It’s too much fun.”

SM: Were all four of you ready to launch a band?

Adams: “That was one of the weird silver lines of the pandemic. Each of us had big projects going on and then the pandemic put a halt to that. I was supposed to be on tour with Nathaniel Rateliff’s band. Everything cleared out. It was a hard time to be in the arts.”

SM: It’s difficult to call Big Richard a bluegrass band with nostalgic harmonies to a rock-tinged tunes.

Adams: “It is hard to pin down. It leans toward the ‘old-time’ side. We draw a lot from the south Appalachian old-time music, which is a little grittier and even more ‘punk rock’ than bluegrass. Emma’s voice is like indie pop, a sultry kind of thing going on, and then Bonnie’s voice is very dark country and rock ‘n’ roll. And Eve and I come from classical backgrounds. Every song is a 180 degree turn from the last song. It’s not bluegrass even if we play bluegrass festivals. We have old-time songs, but we also cover Radiohead (‘Creep’), Britney Spears (‘Toxic’) and Billie Eilish. Then we have a ton of original tunes that are topical like climate change and women’s issues. We touch on a lot of things with a lot of humor. We’ll ruffle feathers. Expect to have fun.”

SM: Who’s Richard?

Adams: “We get asked that all the time. Bonnie started saying on stage that all our middle names are Richard. But it’s a dick joke.”

SM: You’ve played cello for Bruce Hornsby, Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea, Nathaniel Rateliff, Gloria Estefan, and Barry Manilow. What’s a good backstage story?

Adams: “Gloria Estefan is tiny. She’s a force of nature. She’s such a massive presence on stage. Super friendly – and not everyone at that level is. I lived in Miami and played in an ensemble that played with all these people.”

SM: You toured with Nathanial Rateliff.

Adams: “He booked a full international tour, and he basically took out his horn section and put in a string quartet. We played 10 shows and the pandemic hit.”

SM: Nathanial’s opening for Willie Nelson and headlining a sold-out Madison show (August 7 at the Sylvee).

Adams: “I don’t know how anyone Willie’s age (90) gets on a tour bus. Touring is hard even with the poshest arrangements. Willie – and Del McCoury – still play whole shows. It’s insane. I’m 34, and I’m just tired.”

SM: How does Big Richard tour?

Adams: “We own a van. We do 10- or 14-day runs. We’re also doing a workshop for youth in Madison. It’s good to see representation out there. If you’re a little girl, seeing a band of all women on stage having a lot of fun and pushing things with a great deal of energy, it’s inspiring. If we can push these kick-ass little girls to be the next generation of music, that would be our goal. And it’s good for boys to see women crushing it onstage, too.”

Guy Davis performs from 5:40 to 6:50 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5 at the 20th annual Sugar Maple Music Festival at Lake Farm County Park in Madison. He’ll also perform with Piedmont Bluz on the intimate Roots & Reasons Stage at 3:20 p.m.

Sugar Maple Music Festival performer Guy Davis’ parents are acting icons Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, and Guy dabbled in screen roles, including starring in 1984’s hip-hop flick “Beat Street.”

But his heart is planted in performing traditional blues music as firmly as paint on the wall.

For decades, Davis, 71, has entertained audiences as a solo artist, earning two Grammy nominations in the old-time blues category. (His most recent album, “Be Ready When I Call You,” lost in 2022, and another recording was topped for a Grammy by the Rolling Stones in 2018.)

Sugar Maple: How did you become a bluesman?

Davis: “I went to a summer camp run by Pete Seeger’s brother (Mike Seeger) and I learned a lot of old songs, including blues, back then. I was about 8 (in 1961). The music captured me at a young age.”

SM: Can you explain what it is about traditional blues that stirs your soul?

Davis: “Music is my religion. Blues is just a door of the church that I go into. It unlocks other doors.”

SM: You want to keep legendary blues music vital?

Davis: “An artist’s job is to say the same thing in a different way. By keeping the old music alive, it inspires new music. But you always pay homage to predecessors not just by doing their music, but music that is inspired by them.”

SM: Your current tour schedule is packed with so many American dates, and you’ll go across Canada then to the United Kingdom. You must love the road?

Davis: “The only thing I enjoy is walking out onstage and playing music. Running through airports, going through security, missing flights, and having to get travel in places where I don’t know the language is hell.”

SM: You’ve performed in 48 of 50 states. What’s left?

Davis: “Hawaii and Wyoming.”

SM: You played spontaneously in Red Square in Moscow, but you were chased out for singing there. What happened?

Davis: “It’s true. My manager suggested I bust out into ‘Walkin’ Blues’ in Red Square, so he could put it on a video. He already had video of me singing it in front of an iceberg in Greenland and a few other unusual places. It didn’t last long in Red Square. Police asked me to stop. But we still got a nugget of footage.”

SM: How tough is it to play as you get older?

Davis: “Playing’s easy. I enjoy it more than ever. The travelling – that’s hard.”

SM: At the Sugar Maple Festival, you’ll play on the main stage, then join Piedmont Bluz on a side stage to perform the music of Mississippi John Hurt. What is it about Mississippi John that you like?

Davis: “His music sound was masterful. He was such an icon of a certain sound that deals with finger picking. That, combined with his voice, made it so no one sounded like him. There were other finger pickers like Elizabeth Cotton, but no one sounded like Mississippi John Hurt.”

SM: What will you play during your solo set?

Davis: “Expect excitement. It’s an eclectic set of music. There might even be a song I haven’t written yet. I keep writing and writing still. If I play an old song, I find new ways to play it.”

In addition to the exceptional, diverse musical acts, engaging Roots & Reasons Stage offerings and jamming opportunities, the 20^th annual Sugar Maple Music Festival on Aug. 4 and 5, will offer more activities than ever for kids.

For the 20^th consecutive year, Dave Landau will perform and entertain kids on the Roots & Reasons stage. In addition, the Wild Rumpus Circus returns with tumbling activities for younger kids on Saturday afternoon, and Boulder’s Climbing Gym will be on-site with a climbing wall. Arts and crafts for kids will be offered both Friday and Saturday, led by Casa de Corazon (Friday night) and the Madison Children’s Museum (Saturday). The festival site, beautiful WG Lunney Lake Farm County Park, has playground equipment and open space.

Admission for kids 17 and under is free when accompanied by a ticketed adult.

You are encouraged to support the local food carts and beverage providers at the festival, but it’s also ok to bring your own food. For more information about festival logistics, please see our FAQ list.   

We look forward to seeing you and your kids in early August!