Shade fell upon Max Baca and his nephew Josh Baca outside the Mississippi Museum of Art, verdant trees their backdrop, on Tuesday, May 21, as they gifted their Jackson audience with the sounds of Tex-Mex music. The San Antonio natives shouldered their instruments—Max with his bajo sexto and Josh with his accordion—and crooned about a man marrying a pretty woman and losing her because he didn’t have enough money.
Tex-Mex music as a genre arose around the turn of the 20th Century when Germans, the Czechs and Europeans settled in Texas, bringing the accordion with them. A few guys overheard the music and, adding their own style, incorporated a bajo sexto to replace the left-hand side of the accompaniment on the accordion. A bajo sexto is a 12-string guitar with bass strings.
“Back in the days when the migrant farm workers were working the fields, this was their means of entertainment,” Max Baca explained. “So after a long week of picking cotton and vegetables, we’d have these barn dances, and we’re under a tree around a campfire.”
The duo are members of Los Texmaniacs, a Mexican-American band that has been a part of the National Council for the Traditional Arts since 1999. They have performed at the festival and other NCTA events, which has done wonders for the trajectory of their music, as they have reached wider audiences and have been able to tour more easily. Eventually, the band won a Grammy in 2010 for Best Tejano Album.
“Thank you so much for the privilege of being a part of the NCTA,” Josh Baca said at last week’s press conference. “It’s a great honor to express our culture, the Mexican-American community, throughout the nation. Thank you guys so much for everything you do.”
The National Council for the Traditional Arts, one of the oldest and largest multicultural-arts-presenting organizations in the United States, produces the National Folk Festival, which celebrates the richness and diversity of American culture. The festival has presented in nearly 30 different cities every three years. Jackson will have the honor of being the host city for the National Folk Festival for the years between 2025 and 2027, Mayor Chokwe Lumumba announced at the May 21 press conference. These years mark the first time the festival has visited the state.
“We know that we are often referred to as ‘the birthplace of music,’” Lumumba began. “As we were aiming to be the selected city for the National Folk Festival, part of our effort to entice the selection of Jackson was to make it clear that where we have roots in the creation of blues and jazz and gospel music, that this is the opportunity for America’s music to come home to Mississippi.”
The three-day event is estimated to bring 60,000 people to the city in its first year and an estimated 100,000 people each subsequent year. The mayor sees this as an opportunity to not only share in the glory and beauty of the festival, but to also make way for more sustainable events in Jackson or even the return of events like Jubilee Jam.
“This is economic development for our city,” Lumumba said. “This will be an opportunity for our restaurants, all of those that work in our hospitality industry, to take advantage of the people who will be joining us and enjoying our beautiful sun, our beautiful city, and the beautiful history of music that we will be putting on display here in the city of Jackson.”
‘A Life-Changing Experience’
The National Council for the Traditional Arts will produce the festival in collaboration with the City of Jackson and in partnership with Visit Jackson, Downtown Jackson Partners, and other organizations. First Lady of Jackson Ebony Lumumba and First Lady of Mississippi Elee Reeves will co-chair the festival committee.
The free-of-charge festival will take place the second weekend in November 2025, beginning Friday and continuing through the rest of the weekend. The city could expect to see more than 330,000 visitors to the downtown area and more than $60 million in long-term economic yield, Ebony Lumumba estimated.
“(We should see) record-breaking weekends for the region’s tourism and hospitality industries, as well as, local businesses and restaurants; a signature art destination event with a national reputation that increases awareness for our region’s artistic and cultural heritage; (and) new and lasting investments in the capacity for arts programming, event production, infrastructure and downtown development,” she said, listing the benefits.
National Council for the Traditional Arts Executive Director Blaine Wade visited Jackson last November with Chairman George Holt, and they came away from the trip excited and energized about the city. The city’s key stakeholders came to several meetings with Wade and Holt, which showed the duo the commitment and buy-in the community members had in the festival.
“As George and I got on the plane to fly home, we both knew there was an opportunity here to do something special, and we knew leaving that we had found our next host city,” Wade told the audience. “I think Mississippi has an arts and cultural legacy that is really unrivaled throughout the state and has made contributions to the history of American music that stand with any state.”
The press conference also included performances by legendary blues artist Bobby Rush, who played his harmonica and sang about losing his woman to the garbage man. Coldwater, Miss., Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band opened and closed the press conference with Chris Mallory on Timpano drum and Sharde Thomas playing an African drum, singing, and playing the flute.
Thomas’ late grandfather, Otha Turner, taught her the pipe and drum tradition, which extends more than 100 years. Turner kept the tradition alive for 80 of those years, mentoring his granddaughter, who now keeps the tradition alive as well.
National Endowment of the Arts Director of Folk and Traditional Arts Barry Bergey grew up in Missouri, the state home to the first National Folk Festival in St. Louis in 1934. In 1976, a 10-year-old Bergey attended the National Folk Festival at Wolf Trap Farm Park in Vienna, Va. He told the crowd on May 21, 2024, that he cannot wait to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that moment in Jackson at the 83rd festival in 2026.
“What’s important about these artists is to give them a voice, to give them a platform to perform, and to talk and to cook and to make their craft, whatever it may be,” Bergey expressed. “I think you’ll find that this is going to be a life-changing experience. I can say that first festival for me certainly was a life-changing experience.”