The Takoma Park Folk Festival was started in 1978 to raise money to protect Takoma Park neighborhoods and to sustain local art institutions. Thirty years later the Folk Festival has become one of those institutions. The CD celebrates the 30th festival with 15 performances from 2007. Some of the artists are well known in the Mid-Atlantic region and have won numerous awards, while others are still early in their careers. There are several traditional folk and Appalachian songs; several original songs; three cover songs; one a jazzy rework of the Beatles’s “Blackbird” , and another a jazz swing version of “All of Me;” and a parody using a familiar Caribbean folk melody. Admittedly the varied styles do stretch the definition of folk music. We think you will enjoy it.