The roots music festival Back Porch Festival, which takes place in downtown Northampton, will return for its 11th year from Friday, March 7, through Sunday, March 9, with more than 60 performers.

This year, the festival will be in 10 venues (as was the case last year), but two of them – the Iron Horse and The Workroom at 33 Hawley – will be new. The central venue, however, will remain the Academy of Music, which will host a different headline act nightly.

Friday’s headline act (from 8 to 10 p.m.) will be a tribute to Neil Young, featuring a lineup of Sandy Bailey, Chatham Rabbits, Cloudbelly, Evelyn Harris, Billy Keane, Robin Lane, Suitcase Junket, Thrasher Wheat, Winterpills, and Deep River Ramblers, plus TBA special guests. Festival director Jim Olsen, president of the Northampton label Signature Sounds, said that the show will explore “both sides” of Young’s music, including the more “punk rock” side and the quieter country side. (In the past, the festival has also had tribute acts to other well-known songwriters, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, and John Prine, but the reason Young was chosen this year, Olsen said, was, “We’ve been checking off a list of all the great songwriters. It was just Neil’s turn.”)

Matt Lorenz, who performs as the one-man act Suitcase Junket, said that he appreciates the “both sides” element of Young’s work, which he aspires to bring into his songwriting and overall musical aesthetic. Young’s “kick-over-the-trash-can punk side,” he said, makes the point that “Hey, listen, stuff is messed up here, and sometimes, telling a quiet story doesn’t cut it.”

Lorenz, a Hampshire College alum who grew up in and still lives in the Pioneer Valley, has played Back Porch Festival before; in 2015, he opened for Los Lobos’ headline show at the Academy of Music.

“Coming up as a younger musician, Northampton was the place to play music, and still, it feels like a hometown show when I play there, for sure.” Back Porch Festival, he said, is “a great event. We’re all really lucky to have it in our community.”

Saturday’s headline act (from 7 to 10 p.m.) will be a multi-band show called “Bluegrass Spectacular,” featuring The Travelin’ McCourys, The Sam Grisman Project, and East Nash Grass.

Singer-songwriter Caitlin Canty, a Vermont native, will be performing on Saturday at the Unitarian Society at 3:30 and 4:45 p.m. Her sets will feature songs from her latest album, “Quiet Flame,” plus a preview of songs from a forthcoming record, “Night Owl Envies the Mourning Dove,” which is set to be released in the fall. (The album, as it happens, also features Lorenz, whom Canty also played with on her album “Reckless Skyline.”)

“These songs – to me, they feel desperate and necessary and fiery, and I’m so excited to be singing them again live,” she said.

Canty said that Northampton feels kind of like “a second hometown”; the local venues she’s played include the Parlor Room, the Academy of Music, and the Calvin. This will be her first time performing at Back Porch, and she’s looking forward to the experience.

“Anything with Signature Sounds, I’m so happy to be a part of,” Canty said. “I feel like they’ve been a true music-bolstering and community-centering enterprise for years, the entire time I’ve been making live music, so anytime they call, I come running.”

Sunday’s headliner (from 7 to 9 p.m.) will be legendary singer-songwriter and three-time Grammy Award-winner, Lucinda Williams. Fantastic Cat will open.

As the festival continues in the future, Olsen hopes that it will expand even further, perhaps into more venues.

“We really want this to be a town-wide celebration,” Olsen said. “It happens at a time of year where there’s not much going on, everybody’s sick of winter. It’s a time where the downtown shops and restaurants struggle a little bit because there isn’t a catalyst to get people to come down and spend time.” The festival, by contrast, provides people with an incentive to “get out and have some fun in downtown Northampton.”

Admission to Back Porch Fest is $65 for a Ramble Pass (via backporchfest.com), which works similarly to the buttons at First Night: for one price, guests can come and go as they please throughout the downtown venues (not including the Academy of Music headliners). Kids under 10 are free. Tickets to the headline shows, not including fees, are $32.99 to $69.99, depending on the show, via aomtheatre.com.

To see a full lineup and schedule of shows, and for more information, visit backporchfest.com.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.