Folk with a Beat

These were folk songs – but folk songs presented like most folks have never heard before. 

It was billed as “A Night of American Folk Songs and Hymns.” The concert on Sunday night by Matt Papa, artist in residence at Marco Presbyterian Church, leading a five-piece band, delivered the “heavy metal” version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” and other classics of Americana to an audience of over 300 at Veterans’ Community Park.  

Papa, leading the ensemble from his electronic piano, and occasionally rhythm guitar, invoked another folk classic, Bob Dylan’s “The Times They are A ’Changin’” and its inclusion in the current hit movie “A Complete Unknown.” That film documents the moment in 1965 when Dylan scandalized the Newport Folk Festival audience with his transition to electrified rock and roll, and apart from the absence of electric lead guitar, his rendition of that song on Sunday would have fit right into Dylan’s electric set.  

There were more acoustic and traditional moments to the show, to be sure. The evening’s music was led off by the married duo of Zach & Maggie (White), a couple from Nashville who performed original songs such as “Robin” and Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line,” allowing Zach to show off his impressive vocal range. He played some impressive six-string guitar licks as well, also doubling on banjo, while Maggie sang and fiddled. The duo has appeared regularly – “two to three times a year,” said Marco Presbyterian lead pastor Scott Kerens – at the church, where Papa is a regular fixture.  

The trio of headlining artists was supported on drums and keyboard bass by Travis Motley and Will Carlisle. Folk selections, which made up the first half of the program, also included “Oh Susanna” by Stephen Foster, “Shady Grove,” and “A Man of Constant Sorrow,” which was featured in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” And for that matter, “I Walk the Line” had a major part in “Walk the Line,” the Johnny Cash (and June Carter Cash) biopic. 

Papa made a point of noting the state where the composers of the songs they sang hailed from, highlighting the “all-American” nature of the program, which also went along with the American flag T-shirt he wore under his silver brocade jacket. Interestingly, John Denver, who wrote the paean to West Virginia “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” with which the band closed their first set, and also “Rocky Mountain High” for Colorado, was born in Roswell, New Mexico.  

Papa also brought the crowd right back to the present moment in our history when he asked the crowd to “give a warm Gulf of America welcome” to the performers visiting from elsewhere.  

As the musicians finished up their first set, a few raindrops fell from the sky, but the crowd showed faith, and the classic Marco Island force field held, with the skies clearing up nicely. After an intermission, the group returned for the “hymns” portion of the evening.  

But the first number was Papa’s daughter Stella on violin, performing the classic “Ashokan Farewell,” accompanied by her father on keyboard. They continued with Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light” and songs extolling the “power in the blood of Jesus” before doing “maybe the most famous American hymn,” as Papa announced it, “Jesus Loves Me.”  

Papa, a hymn-writer who tours nationally from his base on Marco Island, finished with a medley of his own compositions, including “Almost Home,” which he described as a “pirate/church song,” which despite the nautical motif, leans more into the Christian aspect.  

This is the third year Marco Presbyterian has held the folk-themed concert, originated by Matt Papa, but the first year they took it out of their sanctuary to the public venue of Veterans’ Park. Pastor Kerens, in attendance with his family, said he was pleased with the performance and the turnout.  

“It was a great night. Really good music, like a paradise island, can lead you to worship,” he said.