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Photographs by Laura Carbone

After a summer of too hot or too wet, Rhythm & Roots, in Charlestown, RI, dawned sunny and gorgeous, and stayed that way for the duration. The only thing sparkling brighter than the daylight, of course, was the music.

Keeping the tradition of mixing old and new, traditional and purely nutty, music made for thinking and music made for dancing, the four big stages kept attendees of all ages busy from noon until very, very late.

Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams made an all-too brief appearance Friday with a rare one-hour set, but their songs, razor-sharp harmonies and Larry Campbell’s musical breadth left the audience fulfilled.

Steve Earle and the Dukes, a highlight of the night and the Festival itself, played a solid two hours, brilliantly. Gravel-voiced Earle, remarkably aided and abetted by Chris Masterson on guitar, ran the gamut from blues (“My Old Friend The Blues”) to hard rock (“Hey Joe”) to N’Orleans funk (“Johnny Come Lately”) and classic outlaw country (“Fixin’ To Die (Reckon I’m Going to Hell”)), and answered his own call to “So You Wannabe An Outlaw.” Sometimes the guys who go outside the rules are the ones who make the new rules for the rest of us, and Steve Earle’s one of those dudes, er, Dukes.

Asleep at the Wheel, classic Texas swing and another often-time group at Rhythm & Roots, treated us to tunes from their new album and a walk-on by Johnny Nicholas, who happily lives nearby. The band bid adieu with a soft song by the lately-departed master songwriter Guy Clark.

I love Shinyribs enough to see them twice in two days, first on the Roots Stage and again on Sunday night, on the main Rhythm Stage. What songs leader Kevin Russell doesn’t write himself, he makes his own. Funky New Orleans smut, soul and rock and roll in its truest form take center stage, amply backed by horns, ukulele and the usual suspects in a funk band. The Tom Jones of Texas, Kevin Russell dances, prances and swings whatever he’s got through every performance and somehow makes being bald, potbellied and eligible for Senior Discounts very, very, sexy. Never mind that they do “Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls” at about triple time and their own song titles are “Red Quasar” and “I Don’t Give A Shit.” You have to see these guys to believe. By the same token, the rich harmony and slow, heartfelt delivery of Gregory Porter’s “Take Me To the Alley” showed the depth of this group, and Russell’s soulful voice, reminiscent of Marvin Gaye, brought the crowd back down to earth…then back up again for more fun and games, leaving us breathless.

Beehive Queen Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez took us to Sunday School at noon, on the Roots stage. Longtime Saturday Night Live band vocalist Ohlman was full of energy and righteousness. Backed by the Sin Sisters, the woman showed us what Sunday morning should be about, and it’s neither bowed heads nor Bloody Mary—it’s raising the voice to elevate soul music. Tough and true, Ohlman’s formidable vocals and punchy band were exactly what we needed to start the day.

And the Taj Mahal Trio was the perfect way to end the day. Taj doesn’t bound onto stage these days, but he hasn’t slowed a bit in his music or stage presence. With full vocals and thumping guitar, the rhythm section throbbed its way through “Betty and Dupree” and “Fishin’ Blues.” Master of the double-entendre, Taj slyly made even the most simple lines sound questionable. Constantly joking with the crowd, Taj made us all an integral part of his performance, as he always does. Surrounded by a circle of guitars, resonators and a banjo, the man kept the jokes and innuendo coming with lines like “Look! He has a banjo, and he knows how to use it.” A consummate performer, it seems like Taj knows how to use it all, and we departed Rhythm and Roots happy, and glad someone had sung to us  lines like “Come here, baby, down on my knee..I love to have my fun.” You better believe it!

See you all next Labor Day weekend, for more Rhythm & Roots, and more fun.

—Suzanne Cadgène