It’s Sunday morning, the coffee’s brewing, and the radio is turned to 93.9 FM. Jim Olsen is on the back porch playing some of the finest roots music around. Of course, I’m talking about the Back Porch radio show, which broadcasts every Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon on WRSI 93.9 the River.
Listening to this radio show is a weekend ritual that many of us have enjoyed for years.
Olsen, who is also the president of the record label Signature Sounds of Northampton and a concert promoter, has hosted the show for 27 years.
When he started in 1991, WRSI was still located in Greenfield, and the Back Porch was a country music show. But as music, particularly what was considered country music, changed over the years, so did the Back Porch, as the show expanded to include artists like Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss, Richard Thompson, Buckwheat Zydeco — and the list goes on and on.
This past Sunday, the show played everyone from Johnny Cash to Margo Price.
Bluegrass, classic country, zydeco, Cajun, Americana, blues and folk. You will hear it all on the Back Porch.
And if you enjoy the music that you hear on Back Porch radio, then you will want to get tickets now for the fourth annual Back Porch Festival, which will be held March 1-4 at both the Academy of Music and the Parlor Room in Northampton. The festival will feature performances by Anais Mitchell, Deer Tick, Del & Dawg (David Grisman and Del McCoury) and many others. There will be special performances for kids and families and a free live broadcast of the Back Porch radio show at the Parlor Room that will include live performances.
The festival is being presented by Signature Sounds, which also presents the Green River Festival and hundreds of other shows in the area each year. In 2014, they decided to add another festival to their already impressive roster of events — the Back Porch Festival.
“At that time, we had taken over the Green River Festival and thought it would be fun to do something in the winter,” said Olsen in a recent phone interview. “We knew we wanted it to be some kind of roots-music event.”
Being that the focus was on roots music, it made sense to link it to the radio show — hence the Back Porch Festival.
The first Back Porch Festival was in 2014 and was a one-night affair at the Academy of Music featuring Dom Flemons, Mark Erelli and Dustbowl Revival. And, as they have done with the Green River festival, the Back Porch Festival has grown bit by bit each year. This year, it is a four-night event with more than 10 acts.
“We really want it to feel like a festival, an indoor festival,” said Olsen. “If we only have one or two acts it’s just a concert. We have added some things to the Parlor Room this year which we think is going to be really fun.”
The festival kicks off Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the Parlor Room with a Patsy Cline tribute show performed by Say Darling, led by vocalist Celia Woodsmith of the band Della Mae. On Friday night, also at the Parlor Room at 7 p.m., it will be the Brother Brothers, twins who share sibling harmonies in the tradition of the Everly Brothers. The band recently opened a show for Rachel Price and Vilray at the Parlor Room and were such a hit with the crowd that the festival organizers knew they had to have them at this event.
“For the first time ever, we are doing a couple of kids’ shows on Saturday,” Olsen said. “We are doing a show with the band Little Roots (10:30 a.m., for infants and up), and then we are doing a family square dance at 2 p.m., both at the Parlor Room. It’s a little extra to engage folks and to do something fun for the families.”
The headlining shows at the Academy of Music will kick off Friday night at 8 p.m., with Deer Tick, a roots-rock band based out of Nashville, Tenn. The band started out as a country-punk band but over the years have settled in with more of a roots sound. In 2017, Deer Tick released two albums — “Vol. I,” which is a collection of the roots-driven sound fans have come to expect from them, and “Vol. II,” which sees the band going electric and embracing more of a garage-rock sound.
Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Academy of Music, it’s a triple bill that includes acclaimed singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault of Shelburne Falls. He’ll be joined by Birds of Chicago, which is the husband-and-wife duo of JT Nero and Allison Russell, playing a brand of up-tempo roots rock that has elements of gospel, soul, country and rock. Rounding out the lineup is Anais Mitchell, a singer-songwriter from Vermont who has been called “the queen of modern folk music.” She has released five albums, including 2010’s “Hadestown,” a retelling of the Orpheus myth in music.
“It’s an especially exciting time for Anais Mitchell because her opera ‘Hadestown’ is scheduled to open on Broadway later this year,” said Olsen. “We are excited to have her.”
The off-Broadway production of “Hadestown” (Mitchell does not appear in the Broadway production) won rave reviews from the likes of Lin Manuel Miranda (creator of “Hamilton”) and is much anticipated on Broadway.
The festival wraps on Sunday as the music will begin with the aforementioned live radio show at the Parlor Room. Then there will be a special afternoon show at 2 p.m. at the Academy of Music that promises to be a bluegrass extravaganza. Headlining the show will be bluegrass legends Del McCourey and David Grisman performing as Del & Dawg.
“It’s just the two of them, and it’s almost like a history of bluegrass show, because between them they have played with everybody in the bluegrass world, like the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs — all of their heroes,” Olsen said. “They talk about and play songs by them. It’s very cool.”
Also performing will be Honeysuckle, a modern-folk trio from Boston, followed by Molly Tuttle, a fast-rising star on the bluegrass scene. Last year, Tuttle became the first woman in the 27-year history of the International Bluegrass Association (IBMA) to win guitar player of the year.
The final show of the festival will be on Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Parlor Room when Courtney Hartman and Robert Ellis play a John Hartford tribute.
As with the Back Porch radio show, you find plenty of variety at the Back Porch Festival, so get your tickets for what promises to be a special weekend of music. (And note that tickets are sold separately to each show).
“All of the festivals are in the summer, but this is a chance to get a festival experience in the middle of the winter,” said Olsen. “If you look at the lineup, I feel there is something for everyone here.”
For more information, including an online festival playlist and to purchase tickets, visit bit.ly/2EWWz7g.
Sheryl Hunter is a music writer who lives in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national magazines. You can contact her at: soundslocal@yahoo.com.