Tickets for the Newport Folk Festival will be available on the festival website starting Thursday, March 31 at 10:00 a.m. The festival will be held July 30-31 in Fort Adams State Park, Newport, Rhode Island. Musicians scheduled to perform span a variety of folk music, from traditional to pop-folk to folk rock to blues and even a brass band, and a variety of experience levels from classic to newfound. I enjoyed going through the groups and finding a few new candidates for my personal music library.

Saturday’s lineup includes The Decemberists, Gillian Welch, Gogol Bordello, Earl Scruggs, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Tegan and Sara, Mavis Staples, The Felice Brothers, Delta Spirit, Freelance Whales, The Devil Makes Three, Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three, Typhoon, River City Extension, PS22 Chorus (a nationally recognized elementary school chorus), The Wailin’ Jennys, The Ebony Hillbillies and the What Cheer? Brigade (that’s the brass band). Events also include a Song Circle with Dar Williams, Ellis Paul, John Gorka and Liz Queler. (Note for Mac users: the PS22 website crashed my Safari browser twice in a row but worked fine with Firefox.)

Sunday’s performers are Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Amos Lee, M.Ward, Wanda Jackson, Middle Brother, Justin Townes Earle, Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Civil Wars, Trampled By Turtles, The Cave Singers, The Head & The Heart, Secret Sisters, David Wax Museum, Mountain Man, Brown Bird and The Seeger Clogging All-Stars, led by Tao Seeger.

Tickets are expected to go quickly, so early purchases are advised.

The Old Settler’s Music Festival will be held Thursday, April 15 through Sunday, April 18 near Austin, Texas. Among the scheduled artists are Green Mountain Grass, The Joe Ely Band, Jimmy LaFave, The Wronglers, Ruthie Foster, The Special Consensus, Mindy Smith, Elizabeth Cook and many others including Patty Griffin with Buddy Miller.

The 2009 Moab Folk Camp gets underway in a few weeks. Held in Moab, Utah November 1-6, the camp offers six days of musical instruction and interaction including classes in voice (solo and harmony), guitar, harmonica, mandolin, songwriting and even outdoor art.

The Folk Alliance Region Midwest will hold its annual gathering October 8-11 in Bolingbrook, Illinois, near Chicago. Juried “showcase” performances are open to the public. A few of the artists are Curtis & Loretta,  Gloria Attoun and maritime musician Tom Kastle.

The 42nd annual Bascom Lamar Lunsford “Minstrel of Appalachia” Festival will be held Saturday, October 3, at Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, North Carolina. If you are not familiar with the work of this song collector, musician and founder of numerous folk festivals, you might wish to take a look at the compilation put on YouTube a few years ago as part of the college’s 150th anniversary celebration.

The 1st Annual Blue Ridge Foothills Folk Festival will take place on Friday, October 9, 2009, at 6:30 pm at Glen Maury Park in Buena Vista, Virginia. This 1960s era folk concert will feature performances by Josh White, Jr., Jim Connor (former member of the New Kingston Trio, who penned John Denver’s Grandma’s Feather Bed), Ray Blouin (former member of The Wayfarers) and House Mountain Group, and Mrs. C’s Singers.

I don’t know whether she will eventually choose to settle (or be channeled) into a particular style, but right now Thailand-born Burmese singer/songwriter Mary Win is exploring a wide range of sounds from folk to rock to pop. Her lyrics are often dark but her songs are definitely worth a listen. “Snowdrifts” is an example of a song that is more in the folk music pattern. “Suddenly”  is a song she presented last year in honor of human rights efforts in her parents’ native country of Burma.

Mary makes her home in the Seattle area. Her upcoming shows include a performance on Sunday, July 19th at the Strawberry Festival on Vashon Island.

The annual Alaska Folk Festival started Monday in Juneau and continues through this weekend. This year’s “guest artists,” the only paid act in the festival, are De Temps Antan, a traditional band from Quebec. The festival mixes amateur and professional music. Public radio station KRNN is streaming the festival live.