Fort Worth (TX) African American Roots Music Festival, 19 Mar. 2022

Thanks to Hearth Music PR for news of an epochal event in old-time and related music. The Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival (FWAAMFest) will be held in the Southside Preservation Hall, Fort Worth, TX, from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday 19 Mar. Organised by Brandi Waller-Pace, founder and executive director of the non-profit Decolonizing the Music Room organisation, FWAAMFest (also on Facebook) is the only major US city festival focused on old-time, jug band, string band, early blues, and jazz music that is black-led and showcases black performers. There are hopes that it will become a landmark event for the traditional music community.

More details are on the Hearth Music press release. An online FWAAMFest, held in March 2021, can be seen in a two-hour YouTube video; it was welcomed by fiddle-and-banjo-player Jake Blount on Oldtime Central (OTC). See also two earlier OTC articles, 'Creating a safer space in traditional music' by A'yen Tran (7 Nov. 2019) and 'Decolonizing the music (room)', an interview with Brandi Pace (31 Dec. 2019); and the Facebook group 'Traditional Music Today'.

© Richard Hawkins