♪ - Folk music is the foundation of so much of what we hear today.

Music passed down from generation to generation, learned by ear, carried by heart, and shared through bronze strings, fiddles, and front porch gatherings.

It's a living tradition that continues to inspire musicians from around the world.

That spirit comes alive at the National Folk Festival, a free traveling festival that has showcased folk artistry and cultural traditions for more than 80 years.

Having visited communities from Maine to Tennessee and North Carolina to Ohio, this festival now calls Jackson, Mississippi home from 2025 to 2027.

The National Folk Festival is a celebration of heritage and community, bringing together hundreds of artists, cultural traditions, storytelling, crafts, food, dance, and music on stages throughout downtown Jackson.

More than 30,000 people attended last year, and even more are expected this year.

To begin our celebration, we're featuring a group that honors the traditions of cowboy dance music and classic country western style while making it distinctively their own.

Here's Wiley and the Wild West with "All Along the Water Tank," a song written by Jimmie Rogers.

♪ ♪All along the water tank♪ ♪Waiting for a train♪ ♪A thousand miles away from home♪ ♪Just a-sleepin' in the rain.♪ ♪Well, I walked up to the brake man,♪ ♪Well, to give him a line of talk.♪ ♪He says, "If you got money,♪ ♪I'll be sure that you don't walk,♪ ♪But I haven't got a nickel,♪ ♪Not a penny can I show,♪ ♪he said get off, get off♪ ♪your railroad bum and he slammed that boxcar door.♪ ♪(yodeling)♪ Take one now.

♪ ♪Aw now, they put me off up near Cut Bank, Montana♪ ♪The land I dearly love♪ ♪You got your wide open spaces all around me.♪ ♪The moon and stars above.♪ ♪Nobody seems to want me.♪ ♪Or lend me a helping hand.♪ ♪I'm on my way from Frisco Bay back to Dixieland, Mississippi.♪ ♪My pocketbook is empty, yeah, my heart is filled with pain♪ ♪'Cause I'm a thousand miles away from home♪ ♪Just waiting for a train.

Let's take it home, brothers.♪ ♪(yodeling)♪ ♪Hey!♪ [audience cheering] - Oh, we appreciate that.

Thank you.

If you're learning how to yodel, sometimes it's good if people aren't around you.

So when I was out horseback, I'd imitate my dad, try to yodel like him.

He was a great yodeler.

And there's different styles of yodeling, but we're gonna do kind of an upbeat style of yodeling that I love to do.

♪ ♪(yodeling)♪ 1, 2, 1, 2 ♪♪ (yodeling) ♪Hang on now♪ ♪♪ ♪(yodeling)♪ ♪(yodeling)♪ ♪Boogie!♪ ♪♪ ♪(yodeling)♪ ♪Hey, go!♪ ♪(yodeling)♪ ♪ ♪Boogie!♪ [audience applauding] - I thank you.

Ah, we're having a great time in Jackson.

Yeah, so much great music came from this area, and we're just happy to be here.

♪ Oh yeah, we're gonna see if we can find that Mississippi groove.

[drumming] ♪Well I'm a rogue, I'm a relic Sprouted from the head of Zeus♪ ♪Just give me a banged up old guitar♪ ♪And brother turn me loose♪ ♪I sing my song for the working folks♪ ♪out on the northern plains.♪ ♪Two thousand miles from Nashville,♪ ♪that's where I'll remain.♪ ♪Nashville never wanted me.♪ ♪Nashville never wanted me.♪ ♪I never wanted Nashville, Nashville never wanted me.♪ ♪Well, the golden days of Nashville♪ ♪are all but dead and gone.♪ ♪Back in 1957, them boys could write a song.♪ ♪But the well had done got poisoned by the♪ ♪suits on Music Row.♪ ♪They sold their soul to the devil,♪ ♪trying to turn them records gold.♪ ♪Nashville never wanted me.♪ ♪Nashville never wanted me.♪ ♪I never wanted Nashville, Nashville never wanted me.♪ Take one, Clay, now.

♪ Clayton Parsons on the electric guitar.

♪♪ I never had my face on the cover of a Billboard Magazine I never had ten thousand screaming fans I never lived that rock and roll dream I never owned a big ol' bus Never toured the world in style.

When I hit the road it's a Chevy van and I pay for every mile.

Nashville never wanted me.

Nashville never wanted me.

I never wanted Nashville.

Nashville never wanted me.

♪ ♪ The Book says the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first.

You see a curse can be a blessing, but a blessing can be a curse.

Yeah, life is full of these mysteries that make no sense to me.

I never wanted Nashville Nashville never wanted me.

Nashville never wanted me.

Nashville never wanted me.

I never wanted Nashville Nashville never wanted me.

Nashville never wanted me.

Nashville never wanted me.

I never wanted Nashville.

Nashville never wanted me.

♪ [audience cheering] [drumming] - Now, let's brace for brass.

Frank London's Klezmer Brass All Stars is a preservation of traditional klezmer music, an instrumental sound with its roots It's deep in Ashkenazi Jewish cultures, which are both of Middle Eastern and Eastern European heritage.

A sound that has made its way over to Long Island, New York, with Jewish immigration in the early 19th century.

Klezmer is a European folk with a lively mix of brass and percussion with festive vibes.

Now here's a medley of traditional Klezmer classics, starting with "Wedding in Crown Heights" by Frank London's Brass All Stars.

♪♪ [trumpet solo] ♪♪ [trombone solo] [trombone & clarinet play in bright rhythm] ♪ [audience cheers] - A lot of songs in Yiddish.

Beautiful language, love it so much.

We're going to do a song about another lovely city, maybe it's like Jackson's sister city, Odessa, in the Ukraine.

Jackson, Mississippi, Odessa, they're both the most exciting towns in their respective countries.

and the song about how amazing Odessa is.

[audience laughing] One, two, three.

♪♪ [singing in yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish ] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [Singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] ♪ [crowd cheers] Thank you.

[new song starts] - This is a rhythm that we call a hora.

Sarah is a master of teaching the hora.

If anyone wants to come up and stay warmer by dancing in a beautiful hora circle, it's It's a glorious dance.

[singing in Yiddish] ♪ [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] ♪ [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] ♪ [singing in Yiddish] [singing in Yiddish] [audience cheering] - Now, let's spice things up with Salsa Dura, a rhythmic, energetic brass sound with horns and percussions that emerged in the 1960s and '70s in the Spanish-speaking barrios of New York City.

This lively sound is rooted in Latin American storytelling and mixes themes of social commentary with the body of life.

Edwin Perez Y Su Orchestra brings back that Latino beat with Señor Sereno, originally by Isabel Miranda.

♪ [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in Spanish] [singing in Spanish [singing in Spanish [singing in Spanish] [singing in Spanish] [singing in Spanish] [singing in Spanish] [singing in foreign language] ♪ [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] ♪ - Maya!

My name is Edwin Perez.

This is my band.

We come from New York to bring you a little bit of salsa heat.

♪ [singing in Spanish] [singing in foreign language] ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ [singing in foreign language] ♪ [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [audience cheering] Thank you, gracias, gracias.

[audience cheering] ♪ [singing in Spanish] [singing in foreign language] [singing in Spanish] [singing in foreign language] [singing in Spanish] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in Spanish] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] ♪ [singing in Spanish] [singing in foreign language] [audience cheering] [singing in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] [speaking in foreign language] ♪ - Eileen Ivers brings us more than just traditional Irish folk.

She and the band bring fast-paced instrumental solos, one-on-one showdowns between the band members, and an energy that's nothing short of a rock concert.

She treats that fiddle like an electric guitar, and she's been declared by the New York Times to be the Jimi Hendrix of the violin.

She transforms traditional Irish sounds with Western inspirations like blues, country, and rock, and makes this delivery with vocal duets, traditional step dancing, and audience participation.

Now, here's Eileen Ivers with a medley of classic Irish dance tunes.

♪♪ [shouts] ♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dee dop a♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dum♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dee dop a♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dum♪ ♪ ♪Dum ba dee ba dee dop a dee dop a♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dum♪ ♪Dum ba dee ba dee dop a dee dop a♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dum♪ ♪ ♪Dum ba dee (laughing) ba dee dop a dee dop a♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dum♪ ♪Dum ba dee ba dee dop a dee dop a♪ ♪Bum ba dee ba dee dop a dum♪ [continuing] ♪♪ [scatting] ♪ ♪Hey, hey, hey!♪ ♪ [applause] The song is called "She's Like the Swallow" and it actually goes way back in Ireland, oh about 100 years or more and was kind of found in Newfoundland, up in Canada, and kind of notated and it has a beautiful metaphor analogy of a woman who's like a swallow and it's really a story of unrequited love and lost love and you'll hear a little bit of mouth music like many traditions have when you kind of diddle diddle diddle out your, you know, the phrasing and the melodies.

So... ♪♪ ♪She's like the swallow that flies on high;♪ ♪She's like the river that never runs dry;♪ ♪She's like the sunshine on the lee shore;♪ ♪I know my love and love is no more.♪ [scatting] ♪'Tis out in the meadow this fair maid did go♪ ♪For her to pluck some wild primrose.♪ ♪The more she plucked, the more she pulled♪ ♪Until she found her apron full.♪ ♪Dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dum♪ ♪She climbed yonder hill above To give a rose unto her love♪ ♪She gave him one, she gave him three.♪ ♪She gave her heart for company.♪ ♪Dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dum♪ [scatting] ♪And as they sat on yonder hill, His heart grew hard,♪ ♪his heart grew still.♪ ♪His has two hearts instead of one.♪ ♪She says, "Young man, what have you done?

"♪ ♪Dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dum♪ [scatting] ♪ ♪“How foolish, foolish you must be♪ ♪"To think I love no one but thee.♪ ♪"This world's not made for one alone,♪ ♪I take delight in everyone.”♪ ♪Dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dum♪ [scatting] ♪She's like the swallow that flies on high;♪ ♪She's like the river that never runs dry;♪ ♪She's like the sunshine on the lee shore;♪ ♪I know my love and love is no more.♪ ♪Dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dum♪ [scatting] ♪ ♪She loves her love♪ ♪Love is no more.♪ ♪She loves her love.♪ ♪And love is no more...♪ ♪Dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy dum♪ [applause] Caitlin Maloney.

- Thank you.

[applause] - Let me ask you, Jackson, do you feel like singing a song with us?

(cheers) All right, we want to hear you guys, we want to hear you guys.

We're feeling you up here.

It's a song written by a wonderful Irish singer-songwriter named Luka Bloom.

And it's a beautiful song that he wrote actually for one of Ireland's patron saints.

We've got three of them.

We probably all kind of have heard of St.

Patrick.

But St.

Brigid is what the person actually that Luka wrote this song for.

And she was a great woman of light, a great woman of peace.

She was known for many, many amazing things in her life.

So it's a beautiful, just sentiment about keeping, again, that light inside of all of us and sharing that, sharing the goodness in the world, which we certainly need a lot of, right?

(cheering) ♪ ♪Out of the cold, dark winter space,♪ ♪We come together looking for Brigid's grace.♪ ♪We dip our open hands deep into the well.♪ ♪Where our rivers run to♪ ♪Who can tell?

Who can tell?♪ ♪We warm our hearts and faces by the heat of a burning flame.♪ ♪Something about our spirit♪ ♪Never stays the same♪ ♪Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.♪ ♪Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.♪ ♪Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you,♪ ♪within you.♪ ♪So many lives in shadow with so much to give away.♪ ♪Brilliant dreams in waiting, to see the light of day.♪ ♪We step up to the well at the dawn of springtime.♪ ♪And when we go our way, we let the light shine.♪ ♪Let your light shine.

Let your light shine.♪ ♪Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.♪ - Let's hear you guys.

Let me see those lights.

♪Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.♪ See it, Jackson?

Light it up.

Yeah.

- There we go.

♪Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.♪ Sing it on your own.

Come on.

(SINGING) Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.

Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.

Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.

Don't be afraid of the light that shines within you.

Don't be afraid, no.

Don't be afraid of the light that shines.

Don't be afraid of the light that shines.

♪♪ Don't be afraid of the light that shines.

♪♪ [applause and cheers] ♪♪ - How about a round of applause for the twang of rockabilly, the festive horns of klezmer, the spicy heat of Salsa Dura and the graceful sounds of Irish folk.

Folk music is the foundation of all the music that we love.

It's a rhythm that connects us and brings us together.

These sounds may be culturally unique to one another, yet they all share the same heartbeat.

It's a beat that can be heard at the National Folk Festival.

♪♪