Philadelphia Folk Festival

He looks as studly, dewy-fresh and baby-faced as the day he modeled his sparking-white briefs in 1983's Risky Business. It's hard to believe that Tom Cruise, who turns 50 in July, has never had a nip, tuck, lift or lipo in his life. "I haven't, and I never would," Tom tells Playboy on the set of his next sci-fi blockbuster, Oblivion. Of wifey Katie Holmes, he says: "Everything she does, she does with this beautiful creativity," says Tom. "She's funny and charming, and when she walks into the room, I just feel better.

Not rain, not heat, not the bugs of summer - nothing has halted the Philadelphia Folk Festival, now in its 38th year. Each August, longtime festival-goers greet one another as old friends. They have watched each other's children grow up, watched each other grow gray at the temples. The kids now have kids of their own, who form another generation of fans. Altogether, as many as 20,000 people annually descend on the Old Poole Farm in Schwenksville, Montgomery County, for the festival.

Folkies young and old will gather at the Old Pool Farm in Schwenksville next weekend for the 29th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival. The three-day event, the oldest festival of its kind in the country, is expected to attract nearly 20,000 devotees of the musical form. Besides daily concerts by some of the top names in folk music, the festival will feature music workshops, crafts, juggling, special children's events and dancing. Headliners include Livingston Taylor, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Rush, Christine Lavin, U. Utah Phillips, Peter Bellamy, Michael Cooney and Priscilla Herdman.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival is back in rejuvenated form this year, also boasting the star power of Saturday afternoon headliner Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco fame) and Saturday night specials like Chris Smither (in a rare appearance with a band), Erin McKeown and Taj Mahal. At the same time, the fest has deliberately sought stimulating crossover talents who can appeal to a younger, "folk? say wha?" audience. We're talking the likes of piano popster Vienna Tang and quirky Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Will Oldham)

FOR SURE, there'll be some very familiar faces at the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival, returning to the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township in two weeks. Seasoned perennials such as Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton and David Bromberg are among the guests coming back for the big birthday party, along with some of their rarely here contemporaries (Levon Helm, Jorma Kaukonen) and young turks of note like the Wood Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, Hoots & Hellmouth, Dan Bern and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

Jim Weiss and Chris Griffith hoisted the 3-foot-tall, steel contraption onto a hump in the clover at the Old Pool Farm. A row of wooden stakes cut an otherwise green field. "This is the slammer," Weiss said, showing off a hollow steel sleeve with thick, 2-foot-long arms on either side. "We're the nitty-gritty stake slamming committee. " With cheers and hoots from a dozen friends, Griffith and Weiss, face to face, grabbed the steel arms and fit the slammer over the top of a 7-foot-tall wooden post.

The thing that Jack Williams likes about playing to 20,000 people in a hayfield is the closeness of it all. "The festival provides more intimacy for a greater number of people than any venue I know of," he says. "I think the people are focused very closely on the artist and the music rather than the event or the scene. " Williams, who will play Saturday afternoon at the 37th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival at the Old Pool Farm near Schwenksville, spent 30 years laboring in various unsigned rock bands before becoming a folk artist 10 years ago. He is celebrating his 40th year without a real job. "Back in my rock days," he recalls, "I played for 20 or 30 thousand people in a stadium and I never could see the . . . faces.

"What's the difference between a rock musician and a folk musician?" asks a wag in-residence at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. "A rock musician comes out, plugs in and plays. Boom, just like that. Before folk musicians get around to playing, they have to tell you who they are, who they used to be, why they play the version of a song they play, where they first heard it, and why they don't play another version. And all the while, they're tuning. Rock guitars never go out of tune.

"We came to escape the hurricane," Dave Lind, an Ocean City carpenter, joked as he walked near his tent on the Philadelphia Folk Festival campgrounds yesterday. A festival camper since 1986, Lind might well escape the winds of Hurricane Bonnie this weekend, but he didn't escape traffic jams. On the back roads of Upper Salford Township, some waited as long as six hours to get to the camp when it opened Thursday morning. Yesterday was when the music began, the opening of the 37th annual event on a farm near Schwenksville in northern Montgomery County.

Kelly Mulhollan recently reached his life's goal. "For a folk musician," he says, "it's not fame and fortune. It's to quit your day job. That's the highest level of attainment. " After too many years pounding nails and milling flour, the 40-year-old Fayetteville, Ark., dweller finally found his calling. Two of them, actually. He writes, sings and plays anything with strings in the neo-traditional bluegrass quartet Still on the Hill. And, along with Hillmate Donna Henschell, sings, strums, dances and sometimes plays with puppets in the children's duo Toucan Jam. Both groups will perform in the 38th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival this weekend at the Old Pool Farm near Schwenksville, Montgomery County.

He looks as studly, dewy-fresh and baby-faced as the day he modeled his sparking-white briefs in 1983's Risky Business. It's hard to believe that Tom Cruise, who turns 50 in July, has never had a nip, tuck, lift or lipo in his life. "I haven't, and I never would," Tom tells Playboy on the set of his next sci-fi blockbuster, Oblivion. Of wifey Katie Holmes, he says: "Everything she does, she does with this beautiful creativity," says Tom. "She's funny and charming, and when she walks into the room, I just feel better.

WITH FOUR stages and a wooded glen for kids' activities, plus a diversified food/beverage court and much enlarged arts/crafts retail zone, there'll be almost too many good choices for a visitor to this year's Philadelphia Folk Festival. Adding insult to injury - when you're sitting at, say, the Tank Stage, and can hear an enormous roar of crowd approval emanating from the Camp Stage, you might well fear you've "picked" the wrong songathon. But the truth is, you're sure to hear fine performers and solid material wherever you're sitting on the lawn.

At the Earthship booth, people will be able to pound tires that could soon become the foundation of a home. The Hemp Hut area will push a plant with myriad uses: oil, clothing, food, and paper. (No, it won't get you high.) And a small stage is powered by solar panels - the better for the Sustainable Living Roadshow to get its eco-message across. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Philadelphia Folk Festival is veering green. Note to young patrons: Even some of the music is recycled.

Don't be misled by its name: The Philadelphia Folk Festival offers more than just folksy music. The festival is a small city of people, music, food, and fun that appears once a year in a Pennsylvania hay field at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township. We're fortunate that it's in our neck of the woods. So grab a blanket, chair and walking shoes and go out to the country, at least for a day, or two or three. Take the kids, too. The weekend's festival, offered rain or shine, is a very family-friendly spot.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival celebrates its golden anniversary this year, with many acts that have played the fest innumerable times through the years coming back to the Old Pool Farm. Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Tom Rush, and Jorma Kaukonen are in category. Old hands who've appeared slightly less often include the 11-piece David Bromberg Big Band, which shares a bill with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue on Saturday afternoon, and Levon Helm, who headlines on Sunday. Local talent includes Birdie Busch, Hoots & Hellmouth, Suzie Brown, and Jim Boggia.

A FUNNY THING happened on my way to Schwenksville, chatting it up with some of the powers behind this weekend's Philadelphia Folk Festival. Given how the event is celebrating big - marking the 50th annual music fest (and gathering of the tribes) - I expected organizers to be waxing nostalgic about all that's been and gone. You know, "the good old days. " But then I got on the horn with Levi Landis, executive director of the festival's parent organization, the Philadelphia Folksong Society, and discovered he's a relatively young folknik of 29. Not much "history" to share there.

FOR SURE, there'll be some very familiar faces at the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival, returning to the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township in two weeks. Seasoned perennials such as Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton and David Bromberg are among the guests coming back for the big birthday party, along with some of their rarely here contemporaries (Levon Helm, Jorma Kaukonen) and young turks of note like the Wood Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, Hoots & Hellmouth, Dan Bern and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival turns 50, Aug. 19-21 at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford! Longtime festival mainstays, including Arlo Guthrie , the David Bromberg Big Band , Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen , Tom Rush, and Tom Paxton will be there. So will younger acts, including sacred steel masters the Campbell Brothers , superb roots songwriting scion Justin Townes Earle , and rising star Caitlin Rose . Cajun dance band Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys ( Ouais!

A plan to remove a condemned piece of infrastructure in Upper Salford Township won't cost taxpayers a dime and could help fund construction of an eventual replacement. And if you believe that bit of creative financing in this age of budget-busting government spending, officials there also have a nice bridge they'd like to sell you. No, really, they want you to buy their bridge. Earlier this month, township supervisors put a 35-year-old, wooden span crossing what was once the Reading Railroad's Perkiomen Branch Line up for Internet auction on the site MuniciBid.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival is back in rejuvenated form this year, also boasting the star power of Saturday afternoon headliner Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco fame) and Saturday night specials like Chris Smither (in a rare appearance with a band), Erin McKeown and Taj Mahal. At the same time, the fest has deliberately sought stimulating crossover talents who can appeal to a younger, "folk? say wha?" audience. We're talking the likes of piano popster Vienna Tang and quirky Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Will Oldham)