The FreshGrass Festival has made it to the half-decade mark in Bentonville, Arkansas. Initially conceived as an extension of the original FreshGrass | North Adams, the Northwest Arkansas event has taken on its own features at The Momentary.
This year's event featured a number of familiar faces: Béla Fleck, Alison Brown, Sister Sadie, and Shakey Graves all performed at FreshGrass | North Adams last fall. However, a number of new and local musicians also performed. Ozark, Arkansas-born Jesse Welles, known for his viral videos of singing the news, was treated like a hometown hero on the Main Stage. And up-and-coming bluegrass-punk group Front Porch played the Band Contest and the completely solar-powered pop-up stage near the entrance to The Momentary. (Louis Michot of Lost Bayou Ramblers, who headlined the No Depression Stage on Friday night, built that green stage by hand and towed it up from Lafayette, Louisiana himself!) Luckily, the weather held out all weekend and the sun generated energy not only for that stage, but also for every person in attendance.
Staff from No Depression and the FreshGrass Foundation were on hand to cover the festival and contributed their highlights below.
FRIDAY
Willi Carlisle - Travel delays got me bad, but I managed to arrive to the Tulip Barn about 13 minutes before Carlisle's FreshGrass Commission began. He turned his almost-hour-long set into a folk art circus bonanza, which told a version of the battle between good and evil through larger-than-life-sized puppets — Mama Possum (a metaphor for Mother Earth, nature, goodness, and truth) and The King (the symbol of power and greed) — all through the lens of a queer liberation, anti-capitalism, and self-compassion. It was a brave and joyous set that had people talking the rest of the festival. — Hilary Saunders
Béla Fleck, Edmar Castañeda, Antonio Sánchez Trio (aka BEATrio) - This set was a masterclass in musical virtuosity and genre fusion. Fleck's banjo defies expectations, weaving seamlessly with Castañeda's lightning-fast harp runs and the rhythmic complexity of Sánchez’s drumming. Together, they create a sound that’s both grounded in the tradition and experimental. I picked up some jazz, classical, and Latin influences colliding in real time. It’s not just a concert; it’s an experience of three master musicians speaking a shared language of improvisation and boundary-pushing brilliance. — Adam Kirr
SATURDAY
Band Contest - I'm usually running around the festival grounds trying to photograph as many sets as possible, but this year, I was asked to help judge the FreshGrass Band Contest. Although a regular feature at the North Adams event, this was the first year it took place in Bentonville, as well. All four finalists — Crying Uncle, Front Porch, Downriver Collective, and Fog Holler — performed an original song and an old-time tune for the audience and judges, trying to win a cash prize and studio time to record at Compass Records. Nashville's own Downriver Collective won the competition with their stage presence, ease of performing with each other, and lead singer Ali Vance's show-stopping vocals. — Hilary Saunders
Jesse Welles - It's rare that a performance on the Main Stage is allowed an encore (due to the festival's tight performance schedule), but that's exactly what the audience demanded. Internet viral sensation and perhaps the eminent folk troubadour of our times, Jesse Welles' set was a powerful demonstration of what one person armed with a guitar and great songs can do. His tunes like “United Health” and "War Isn't Murder" brilliantly interplay the reality of the horrors with the modest wit of John Prine. I sort of felt like I was witnessing a modern Bob Dylan early in his career. — Adam Kirr
Rosanne Cash with John Leventhal - Cash spent an hour on Friday in conversation with Kevin Kresse, a Little Rock-based sculptor who created the Johnny Cash statue that is now installed at the US Capitol building in Washington DC. But on Saturday, she and her husband performed an intimate, acoustic set on the Main Stage, which featured songs from beloved albums like The Wheel (1993), The List (2009), and more. I could have listened to them play and tell stories all day. — Hilary Saunders
Cha Wa - For the Summer 2021 "Voices" issue of No Depression, writer Erica Campbell wrote about the fascinating story of Mardi Gras Indians (also known as Black Masking Indians). New Orleans-based Cha Wa is one of the groups that participates in these annual, historical, celebratory traditions, so it was a huge honor to see them perform live so many years after the feature ran in print. Stay tuned, too, as the band has new music due out later this year. — Hilary Saunders
Below is a gallery of photos from FreshGrass | Bentonville 2025. Click any image to enlarge and view as a slideshow.
Comments ()