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Photos by Arnie Goodman

The Fourth Annual Lancaster Roots & Blues Festival has quickly become one of my favorite festivals, and I have attended festivals all over the world. Lancaster presented 70 Artists—most of them world-class performers in the blues—on 11 different stages, with many of the artists performing twice. All the venues were within walking distance of each other; I stayed at the very interesting Lancaster Arts Hotel, right in town, and with lots of great restaurants and food trucks dotting Lancaster, it took only a short time to figure out the terrain.

All the performances I saw (Jimmy Thackery, Matt’s Blues, Matthew Curry, Clarence Spady, Roomful of Blues, Greg Piccolo, Davy Knowles, Curtis Salgado, the Peterson Brothers, Joe Robinson, Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington, John Nemeth, Grady Champion, Popa Chubby, Savoy Brown and David Bromberg) were well-attended, and the people working the excellent venues were more than helpful. Most importantly, all the artists I got see put on great shows and where very accessible.

Although I never stopped moving and saw many performers, I wish I could have seen even more of the artists at Lancaster. Rich Ruoff and his staff put on an excellent, diverse roots and blues festival. The Lancaster Roots & Blues did their job in Saving American Music.

Sign me up for next year.

—Arnie Goodman