Annual music festival delivers

The XPoNential Festival, now in its 21st year, revels in breadth and diversity.

Ranging from Triple-A mainstays to zydeco torch-bearers, from child fiddlers to septuagenarian blues icons, from sensitive singer-songwriters to rowdy rock-and-rollers, it's a place for discoveries.

The festival, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania's WXPN, features more than 30 acts from Friday through Sunday on Camden's waterfront at Wiggins Park and the adjacent Susquehanna Bank Center.

"Every year I think the common experience at the festival is people go and they're really excited about seeing this band or that band, and they always come away talking about some band that they hadn't ever seen before," says Roger LaMay, WXPN's general manager.

For deep roots music in its purest form, there's blues legend James Cotton and zydeco party starter C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band. Purity is less important than cross-pollination for Mexican guitar virtuosos Rodrigo y Gabriela and the genre-hopping Hurray for the Riff Raff, whose Small Town Heroes is one of this year's standout releases. Trigger Hippy, featuring singer Joan Osborne, works changes on soulful blues rock, and Lake Street Dive add a jazzy swing to their lively pop songs.

While the XPoNential Festival draws an impressive roster of national acts, it also features a strong array of area talent, including Doylestown's lively indie-rockers Commonwealth Choir; South Jersey singer-songwriter Ginger Coyle; and from Philly, the sparse, hip-hop-inflected electronic duo Marian Hill and the folk-poppers the Lawsuits.

"We see this as a great opportunity for bands," LaMay says. "It's particularly gratifying to see bands who start out in an early slot here and eventually become a featured band at the festival, as we've seen over the years with Dr. Dog and we see this year with the Districts."

Last year, the Districts, from Lancaster County, played an early slot on the Marina Stage; this year, the young band opens for Band of Horses and Beck at the Susquehanna Bank Center on Sunday night. The Districts recently announced that their lead guitarist, Mark Larson, will leave the band after the festival show: He will begin college in the fall.

It's not all about the newcomers, though. Strand of Oaks, the project of Philly's Tim Showalter, recently released HEAL, his fourth and best album of churning, dark confessionals. Several incarnations of Marah played past festivals, and this year Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith bring their new project, Marah Presents Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania. They've adapted 19th-century folk songs and drafted players from central Pennsylvania, including an amazingly talented boy-fiddler Gus Tritsch (don't miss him!). And those artful, fun noisemakers Man Man will headline the Marina Stage on Sunday.

Starting with the 2012 festival, XPN partnered with Live Nation to present acts at the Susquehanna Bank Center, and some festival ticket packages include lawn seats for shows at the Susquehanna. This year, several of the headliners are on the cusp of releasing new albums.

Jenny Lewis, from the seminal indie-rock band Rilo Kiley, releases The Voyager, her third solo album, on Tuesday. It's full of smart, multifaceted, seemingly autobiographical lyrics that Lewis sings with characteristic wit and emotion.

Fellow Saturday headliner Ryan Adams played on and helped produce most of the tracks. Adams has a new album due in September, his first since 2011's Ashes & Fire, which is an unusually long gap for the often excessively prolific artist. Friday night's Susquehanna bill also includes festival regulars Dawes, whose drummer Griffin Goldsmith played on several Voyager tracks.

One of The Voyager's best songs, the bouncy but barbed "Just One of the Boys," was produced by Lewis' Los Angeles compatriot Beck, who headlines Sunday's main stage on a bill with Band of Horses and the Districts. Beck released the understated and melancholy Morning Phase this year; however, this tour has him in full showman mood, dancing happily and occasionally covering Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." His Song Reader, an album he published as sheet music in 2013, gets an official audio release on Tuesday, too, although Beck sings only one of the 20 songs (the others are covered by artists such as Norah Jones, Jack White, fun. and Laura Marling).

The few degrees of separation among the Susquehanna headliners belies the diversity of the XPoNential Festival as a whole. It's a scheduling coincidence, but that's what the festival can provide: coincidental discoveries.

Friday

Wiggins Park-River Stage

Lucius (6:45-7:25 p.m.)

The Hold Steady (8:10-9 p.m.)

Rodrigo y Garbriela (9:55-11:25 p.m.)

Wiggins Park-Marina Stage

Viv and the Revival

(5:30-6 p.m.)

Marian Hill (6:10-6:40 p.m.)

Houndmouth (7:30-8:05 p.m.)

James Cotton (9:05-9:50 p.m.)

Wiggins Park gates open at 5 p.m.

Saturday

Wiggins Park-River Stage

Commonwealth Choir

(12:30-1 p.m.)

Hurray for the Riff Raff (1:40-2:20 p.m.)

Strand of Oaks

(3:05-3:45 p.m.)

Ingrid Michaelson

(4:35-5:35 p.m.)

C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band

(6:30-7:15 p.m.)

Wiggins Park-Marina Stage

Our Griffins (Noon-12:30 p.m.)

Caitlin Rose (1:05-1:35 p.m.)

Marah (2:25-3 p.m.)

Jeremy Messersmith (3:50-4:30 p.m.)

Dave Hause (5:40-6:25 p.m.)

The Kids Corner area in the Children's Garden at Wiggins Park will be open from 11:30 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

Wiggins Park gates open at

11:30 a.m.

Main Stage 

Dawes (7:30-8 p.m.)

Jenny Lewis (8:30-9:15 p.m.)

Ryan Adams (9:45-11:15 p.m.)

Susquehanna Bank Center gates open at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday

Wiggins Park-River Stage 

The Lawsuits (12:30-1 p.m.)

J. Roddy Walston & the Business (1:40-2:15 p.m.)

Old 97's (3-3:40 p.m.)

Lake Street Dive

(4:30-5:15 p.m.)

Trigger Hippy (6:05-7 p.m.)

Wiggins Park-Marina Stage

Ginger Coyle (Noon-12:30 p.m.)

Bear's Den (1:05-1:35 p.m.)

Nicole Atkins (2:20-2:55 p.m.)

Diego Garcia (3:45-4:25 p.m.)

Man Man (5:20-6 p.m.)

The Kids Corner area in the Children's Garden at Wiggins Park will be open from 11:30 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

Wiggins Park gates open at

11:30 a.m.

Main Stage 

The Districts (7:15-7:45 p.m.)

Band of Horses

(8:15-9:30 p.m.)

Beck (10-11:30 p.m.)

Susquehanna Bank Center gates open at 6:30 p.m.

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