Lizzie No. Photo: Cole Nielsen
The fourth annual Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival (FWAAMFest, for short) gets underway at noon Saturday inside the Southside Preservation Hall.
Touted as the only festival of its kind in the country with this specific focus — old-time, jug band, early blues and jazz music, predominantly, led by and showcasing Black artists — the day-long event is a chance for listeners to be exposed to the foundational sounds of long-adored genres.
The festival is produced by Decolonizing the Music Room, the Fort Worth nonprofit founded in 2019 by Brandi Waller-Pace which, per press materials, “works to center Black, Brown, Indigenous and Asian voices in music education and related fields.”
Here’s a glimpse at last year’s event.
Headliners for this year’s festival include New York singer-songwriter Lizzie No, singer-songwriter Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton and blues guitarist Jontavious Willis.
Additional performers and presenters who will take to the stage on Fort Worth’s Near Southside include Waller-Pace, the Piedmont Bluz Acoustic Duo, Crys Matthews, Joy Clark, EJ Mathews, Corey Harris, Lilli Lewis, and Spice Cake Blues.
“Black musicians have been there since the beginning of this music, yet there is little to no representation in the large music festivals that cater to this genre,” said Waller-Pace in a statement. “We aim to change that.”
Given that intention, the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival is a much-needed re-contextualizing of beloved genres. And particularly so in Fort Worth, where the artistic contributions of Brown and Black artists can be somewhat elided in the public discourse.
Should you find yourself inside the Southside Preservation Hall this weekend, consider how there are no significant tributes to the incredibly rich, profoundly influential jazz artists like Ornette Coleman, Ronald Shannon Jackson or Dewey Redman, to name just three of the city’s incandescently talented native sons.
The fourth annual Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival at Southside Preservation Hall, Fort Worth. Noon Saturday. Tickets, which include access to all scheduled performances, are $50 per person for adults, $30 for students and educators with ID, and $15 for children ages 3-13.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on X (@prestonjones). Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
