Brooklyn Americana Music Festival Goes Virtual

The Brooklyn Americana Music Festival (BKAMF) is alive and well! This year’s edition, however, takes to the digital stage with performances by 60 artists in Brooklyn and beyond – a series of free long-distance watch parties running on the fest’s Facebook page from Thursday, Sept. 10 through Sunday, Sept. 13.

Annie Keating / courtesy of the artist

Opening day will be hosted by the Americana Music Association UK, featuring five British Isles-based artists, each of whom has written a new song with a transatlantic theme for the occasion. The traditional Opening Night at Jalopy Theatre will include such familiar BKAMF faces as Ali Dineen, Annie Keating and Charlie Burnham, among others, as well as a special video from Bluegrass hip hop stars Gangstagrass, best known for the theme to the TV series “Justified.”

Mamie Minch /photo courtesy of BKAMF

Other host venues include Dumbo Archway, Carousel Stage, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Sunny’s Bar, Superfine and 68 Jay St. Bar in Brooklyn, and “Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Madison, Tennessee.

Among Brooklyn-based artists performing on these virtual stages, many of whom are festival returnees, are Sarah Alden, Alex Battles, 15-year-old banjo phenom Nora Brown, Tom Chapin (with his daughters, The Chapin Sisters), The Dang-It Bobbys, wife-husband duo Ginger Dolden and Pete Lanctot, Ana Egge, Miriam Elhajli, Aramis Estevez, soul Americana duo The Four O’Clock Flowers. queer country singer Paisley Fields, multi-instrumentalist Hilary Hawke (who also teaches at Jalopy), India-born Neha Jiwrajka, Norway native Tone Johansen (owner of Sunny’s Bar), Brooklyn Lutherie founder Mamie Minch, and Jalopy Records duo Fatboy Wilson & Old Viejo Bones.

Queen Esther/ photo by Quincie Hydock

Visiting artists that should be familiar to BKAMF attendees include Sasha Dobson (of Puss N Boots with Norah Jones and Catherine Popper), Black Americana sensation Queen Esther, New Orleans-based Haitian-American singer Sabine McCalla, Jolie Holland (an original member of The Be Good Tanyas), and former Brooklynites Elyas Khan and Megan Palmer (one of the true standouts at the 2019 BKAMF).

The Brooklyn Americana Music Festival was founded by Jan Bell, a musician in her own right, who ordinarily books 400 live music events per year at the festival venues supporting original artists on tour and back home in Brooklyn.