Rhythm and Roots Festival Sends Summer Out on a High Note

The 28th Rhythm & Roots Festival sent summer out on a high note, bringing three days of music, dancing, food, and plenty of familiar and new faces to Ninigret Park in Charlestown over Labor Day weekend. Once again, the festival showed why it remains one of Rhode Island’s most distinctive and enduring musical traditions.

 Fans enjoyed three stages throughout the weekend, with a lineup spanning the roots-music spectrum, from Cajun and zydeco to country, blues, bluegrass, soul, funk, and rock and roll. Crowded dance floors, colorful performers, and audiences spanning several generations added to the sense of community that has long defined the Rhythm & Roots experience.

There were highlights at nearly every turn. Saturday, in particular, offered one of the weekend’s strongest stretches of music. Margo Price brought her rebellious streak and deep respect for country tradition to the stage, while Tower of Power delivered the muscular horns and airtight grooves that have defined the band’s “Oakland soul” sound for more than five decades. Donna the Buffalo, longtime friends of the festival, supplied their familiar mix of folk, country, and danceable roots music.

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives provided a master class in traditional country musicianship, balancing reverence for the music’s past with the skill and energy of a band very much alive in the present. Preservation Hall Jazz Band brought the spirit of New Orleans to Rhode Island, while St. Paul & The Broken Bones delivered the kind of emotionally charged soul performance that has made the Alabama group a festival favorite nationwide.

With some scattered rain showers around, weekend attendance was down somewhat from last year’s sellout, but that didn’t affect the moods of festival-goers. Couples danced the two-step on the dance stage, kids romped around the playground, and devoted fans pushed forward to the rails at the main stage. 

R&R’s formula for success is simple – focus on the main ingredients and stir in a little spice. Add something new to keep the festival fresh and relevant, like live painting, which was on display this weekend, with artists drawing inspiration from the music on stage.

“Every year we try one or two new things,” says Steve Perlah, Director of Operations and Development at GoodWorks Entertainment, producers of the festival founded by Chuck Wentworth. “I think this festival has two different goals: one, just don’t screw it up, and the other is to help tweak it to make it a little bit better, to build something amazing and be stewards of the (Wentworth) name and brand – to try to keep having the same vibe that it's always had, that is incredibly important to us.”

“Part of the vision of our cofounder, Dave Rosenfeld, is to tie other mediums into the festival. Focus a little bit more on the visual arts to ground things in an analog world,” says Perlah, who also points out another strength of the festival – its intergenerational appeal. “You have people now who are bringing their grandchildren to the festival. I just met one of our volunteers’ great-grandchildren, so to be able to be part of a festival that is pretty amazing.”

 “It’s really part of trying to connect a little deeper with the community,” he adds. “The town of Charlestown has just been an amazing partner; we’re really looking forward to another 28 years.” Indeed, planning is already underway for next year’s events – September 3-5, 2027. Learn more at RhythmAndRoots.com.