Hemp the Artist is a sonic architect and spiritual messenger whose music heals, uplifts, and activates. Blending hip hop, soul, funk, and sacred intention, his soundscapes move bodies and awaken spirits. Founder of Backends Global State Foundation, Hemp uses his platform to teach divine principles and build sustainable futures. Through songs like “Mustard Seed”, he champions Afrofuturism, self-mastery, and the healing symbolism of hemp. Every performance is a soul transmission — planting seeds of hope, one lyric, one beat, one community at a time.
Presented by The Flourish Alabama
Allen Tolbert has toured professionally in the southeast for nearly 20 years and has been teaching guitar/mandolin for 15+ years! He played the mainstage at The Birmingham Folk Festival in 2023 and this year will be leading the BLUEGRASS JAM in the Rose Garden. He has inspired a whole new generation of Alabama flat pickers and is beloved by all of his students past and current. If you have not seen him play, don't miss this opportunity to witness the community this man brings to his music and to all he meets.
The jam is open to stringed acoustic instruments only, but of any skill level!
A prodigious student of Chess and Sun Records emulating Johnnie Johnson and Jerry Lee Lewis since the age of ten, Jack Fishback plays with rare fidelity to the wild country blues and churning Chicago style while weaving his own interpretations and improvisations into his real time original compositions and covers. Only 18 years of age, he has played every venue and street corner in his hometown of Columbia, Kentucky. He's taking his keyboard on the road to meet new people and share his style of playing with audiences that can still remember the Sun Record Label and those who will just encounter this musical heritage for the first time through the channeling prowess of this extraordinary young player. Or in Jack's words "God gave me a talent and I’m here to use it!"
Although a more recent collaboration, Erroll “Donkor” Woodward and Neal Duke have played blues in Birmingham for decades. A harp and keys duo, they sound like a full band moving effortlessly through standards and improvisation. Somehow able to sound both raw, visceral, and composed, they offer attendees of BFF insight into the kind of music that’s being made beneath the surface of social media. With little to no online presence, they are rooted where they are, making music on porches, front yards, and on May 16th in Avondale Park!
