This weekend, June 19-21, marks the 40th anniversary of the Green River Festival held at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, and June Millington — one of our most revered local musicians — is playing the festival for the first time.
Millington is the co-founder of the pioneering all-female rock group Fanny and of the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA), the music training program for young women in Goshen.
“I could never play there because our camps were always going on,” said Millington in a recent phone conversation, referring to the summer music camps for girls that she and her partner Ann Hackler hold every summer at IMA.
Now that the festival takes place in June and the IMA camps are starting a bit later than usual this year, Millington is free. And as if to make up for lost time, she is playing the festival twice.
On Friday, she will appear on the Dean’s Beans stage at 5:45 p.m., playing guitar for Ruby Ibarra, a spoken-word rapper who, like Millington, is from the Philippines. Ibarra, known for her sharp lyrics and rhythmic flow, raps in English, Tagalog and Bisaya as she shares stories about her Philippine heritage and immigrant experience.
Then, on Saturday, she will be performing her own set on the Roundhouse stage at 4 p.m., joined by an all-star band of past and present IMA students. The day I spoke with her, Millington was busy rehearsing with the band, which includes IMA teacher Janelle Burrell on drums and IMA alums Mia Higgs on bass and Lilah Asbornsen on keyboards. A group of current campers will provide backing vocals.
Millington said the entire group is amazing and promised a killer set. “We are to start out playing ‘Charity Ball’ (the title track from Fanny’s second album from 1971) because Lilah can play it and Mia already knows it because she did a tour with Fanny a few years ago,” said Millington about their festival set. From there the set will be a mix of classic Fanny tunes and Millington’s solo work.
“My new album, ‘Home to My Soul,’ came out last month, and my first solo album, ‘Heartsong,’ was just rereleased, and I will have them there for sale,” Millington continued. “You know, at 78, these bookends start to really mean a lot.”
Proceeds from the sales of Millington’s albums will go to benefit IMA.
Millington first heard of Ibarra through Bobbi Jo Hart, the director of the 2021 Fanny documentary “Fanny: The Right to Rock,” which is now airing on PBS during Pride Month — check local listings. But Millington didn’t meet Ibarra, who lives in San Francisco, until she came to a benefit show that Millington was playing in the area in support of her sister Jean, who suffered a stroke in 2018.
Soon after they met, Ibarra asked Millington to sing backup on her song “Bakunawa,” which is named after a dragon-like creature that swallowed the moon in Filipino mythology. Millington agreed to sing but asked if she could also play guitar.
“The tune was wide open for guitar, so I went to town on it and they took what they needed,” she said.
They filmed a video for “Bakunawa”; then, at the end, Ibarra asked her to come along to Berkeley for another shoot.
“I had no idea what we were doing. I slept while they were setting up,” explained Millington. “I thought we were doing a promo video for her band.”
But it wasn’t a promo video. It was a video Ibarra made for submission to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. Millington didn’t know that until last year when she received a call saying that out of 7,500 submissions, Ibarra’s video for “Bakunawa” won! Next up, NPR wanted a tour, so they hit the road.
“NPR was amazing. Their organization is top-notch, and they treated us all so well,” Millington said, adding that the entire tour was a wonderful experience, especially one incident that has really stayed with her.
“When we were on the road for the second or third gig, I started to see these two huge clouds in the sky coming toward me,” recalled Millington. “They were big and filled up the sky, and I figured out that the right one is my destiny coming toward me finally. Because I’ve always been running toward my destiny, through Fanny and all that, and now I realize it’s coming toward me. I find that comforting. I am not sure what the left one was yet.”
The other bonus of working with Ibarra was a connection with the Philippines and Filipino audiences. “Just having them understand the references that we all make,” she said. “Like in New York, I just got this yen to say to the audience, ‘When was the last time you saw a Lola shredding?’”
“Do you know what a Lola is?” she asked. I did not.
“It means ‘grandmother,’ and the audience just erupted with laughter because no 78-year-old is going to shred in front of an audience, but I got to do it with Ruby,” Millington said with a laugh. “I do it with my band too, but not as much. This aging thing is rather intense, but I’m still writing songs and putting out albums, so I feel great.”
Chrys Matthews to perform at the 1794 Meetinghouse
The Green River Festival isn’t your only choice to hear music this weekend. Singer- songwriter Chrys Matthews from Nashville will be at the 1794 Meetinghouse in New Salem on Saturday, June 20 at 7:30 p.m., playing a set of her distinctive blend of folk, Americana and socially conscious lyrics.
Matthews, named 2025 Artist of the Year at the International Folk Music Awards, writes songs that often explore her experiences as a Black, gay person who grew up as a preacher’s kid in the South. But there’s nothing heavy-handed about her music — Matthews tells great stories and brings plenty of humor, empathy and hope to her shows.
Tickets are available at 1794meetinghouse.com.
Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at Soundslocal@yahoo.com.