Well, the hot sun proved how tragically wrong the new venue is for this festival. Fenced off from everything green and shade is not the way to build a music festival.
The bands were far less interesting than last year. The whole thing felt very second rate.
The only excitement was spotting Michael Franti on site Sunday evening.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Touching the Earth and the Sky at the Calgary Folk Festival
It's Day 4. A serious thunder storm hits mid afternoon. But by now we are very close to being back in Middle Earth, and simply shrug it off.
At the last workshop I attended on Sunday I am hearing Jaune Toujours from Belgium again. They are the obvious hit of the frenzied Bacchanalia this year - attracting all the people who want to work some serious earth magic through moving body parts in syncopation to some jiving melodies. I am standing next to one of the Festival artists and we have this delightful conversation about the joy of these festivals being the discovery of acts one has never heard of before. He asks what kind of instrument one of the band members is playing. Why he thinks I know will remain one of life's mysteries. I tell him it is a Balkan xylophone, but stringed. He nods in agreement; that description was close enough to the sound of the instrument to seem right.
Sonny Landreth opens the final show with music straight out of the bayou. Love that Louisiana jiving sound that inspires songs like Sonny's tribute to a Louisiana Trailer Park titled: "In the Promised Land." There is a sense of humour to his music which is infectious.
The tweener act is Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko, a duo billed as from Ontario and Mali. Sounds of Africa fill the air. Is this Prospero's Island? Are the natives about to take it back from the vendetta nursing Prospero? Mount Royal College's Shakespeare in the Park is doing "The Tempest" this year at the other end of the site, and this Island may be magicked.
The Sparrow Quartet is next. Two banjos, a cello and a violin. The female vocalist, who plays one of the banjos, can not be from this universe. This group must have been the court musicians for the Faerie King and have been left behind when the Faeries left Middle Earth. Serene, sensual, heart quickening, and soul restoring set. Another CD purchased just before the CD tent closes.
Claire Jenkins Avec Band (well more accurately half the band) remind us that "if you go out in the woods today" you will have some serious jigging to do. So we do.
The only way I can describe Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band is that he is some sort of blend of prophet and Caliban, if Shakespeare had written Caliban as a hero. Is Vulcan's Forge hidden in Mystic Valley (Valle Mistico near Tepoztlan, Mexico) where they have been recording? Did Vulcan and his wife Venus arm this band with powerful instruments and infused them with the power to play them so that all the world has to hear and be swayed by the message? There is no describing the force of the music which invades your mind via your heart. Simply buy the CD when it is released latter this year. In fact, buy 2 and give one to your best friend.
I made it!
Ani DiFranco is about to play and I am still here and we might get through the set without a severe storm. What fun she is to hear. Your feet are tapping out the tunes of protest. It seems it will be a joyful march toward creating some change. Ani has written a song about the "Holy Atom" in response to her efforts to prevent a nuclear waste dump being located on a Native Reserve. During that process she experienced congressmen and lobbyists laying GOD on her. When GOD becomes the official excuse for everything, something is bankrupt besides Wall Street. Ani is really good at reminding the emperor and his minions that that suit of new clothes was a rip off.
Ok, it is time to count the CDs bought, and which I will enjoy immensely, while I subsist on Kraft Dinner for the next 10 days! Hey, winter is long here, and I purchased them to help preserve the memory of many outstanding performances.
Sam Roberts was so right: "If it is played from the heart, it is folk music."
Amen ! Go in Peace !
At the last workshop I attended on Sunday I am hearing Jaune Toujours from Belgium again. They are the obvious hit of the frenzied Bacchanalia this year - attracting all the people who want to work some serious earth magic through moving body parts in syncopation to some jiving melodies. I am standing next to one of the Festival artists and we have this delightful conversation about the joy of these festivals being the discovery of acts one has never heard of before. He asks what kind of instrument one of the band members is playing. Why he thinks I know will remain one of life's mysteries. I tell him it is a Balkan xylophone, but stringed. He nods in agreement; that description was close enough to the sound of the instrument to seem right.
Sonny Landreth opens the final show with music straight out of the bayou. Love that Louisiana jiving sound that inspires songs like Sonny's tribute to a Louisiana Trailer Park titled: "In the Promised Land." There is a sense of humour to his music which is infectious.
The tweener act is Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko, a duo billed as from Ontario and Mali. Sounds of Africa fill the air. Is this Prospero's Island? Are the natives about to take it back from the vendetta nursing Prospero? Mount Royal College's Shakespeare in the Park is doing "The Tempest" this year at the other end of the site, and this Island may be magicked.
The Sparrow Quartet is next. Two banjos, a cello and a violin. The female vocalist, who plays one of the banjos, can not be from this universe. This group must have been the court musicians for the Faerie King and have been left behind when the Faeries left Middle Earth. Serene, sensual, heart quickening, and soul restoring set. Another CD purchased just before the CD tent closes.
Claire Jenkins Avec Band (well more accurately half the band) remind us that "if you go out in the woods today" you will have some serious jigging to do. So we do.
The only way I can describe Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band is that he is some sort of blend of prophet and Caliban, if Shakespeare had written Caliban as a hero. Is Vulcan's Forge hidden in Mystic Valley (Valle Mistico near Tepoztlan, Mexico) where they have been recording? Did Vulcan and his wife Venus arm this band with powerful instruments and infused them with the power to play them so that all the world has to hear and be swayed by the message? There is no describing the force of the music which invades your mind via your heart. Simply buy the CD when it is released latter this year. In fact, buy 2 and give one to your best friend.
I made it!
Ani DiFranco is about to play and I am still here and we might get through the set without a severe storm. What fun she is to hear. Your feet are tapping out the tunes of protest. It seems it will be a joyful march toward creating some change. Ani has written a song about the "Holy Atom" in response to her efforts to prevent a nuclear waste dump being located on a Native Reserve. During that process she experienced congressmen and lobbyists laying GOD on her. When GOD becomes the official excuse for everything, something is bankrupt besides Wall Street. Ani is really good at reminding the emperor and his minions that that suit of new clothes was a rip off.
Ok, it is time to count the CDs bought, and which I will enjoy immensely, while I subsist on Kraft Dinner for the next 10 days! Hey, winter is long here, and I purchased them to help preserve the memory of many outstanding performances.
Sam Roberts was so right: "If it is played from the heart, it is folk music."
Amen ! Go in Peace !
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Singing and Dancing in the Rain at the Calgary Folk Festival
Day 3 at the Calgary Folk Festival was simply glorious, even in the evening rain.
In the afternoon I wandered from stage to stage catching bits of workshops. There were so many enticing ones, all going on at once, that I opted for the "walk-by-listening" route today. Encountered a group from Albuquerque New Mexico who were playing the traditional folk morbid songs with a dashing style; then met a group now, more or less, based in Budapest, who grew up in Albuquerque who were totally into the sounds of the Roma. Gotta love it!
Gotta love the CD tent too, which just happens to be situated at the nexus of the place. Fortunately the nuisance of the mandatory bag check meant there were a few more walk-pasts than walk-ins.
What you have to hate is tonight's MC. In the long tradition of finding the most inappropriate person to host the mainstage, tonight's MC certainly takes second place as the worst. The potty mouthed 'comedian' from a few years ago still holds first place. This young lady tonight spouted so many inanely stupid things that I was completely happy not to be able to hear most of her blathering. Fortunately no one has trained her in diction and the use of a microphone, so much of what she was struggling to utter was lost. Think Valley Girl trying to kick the stupid habit by attending the college campus cafeteria and listening to the real students gossip about their professors. Honey, your stupid isn't a habit, it is hard-wired.
Well that is off my chest!
Toward the end of the last workshop I have stopped at (The Handsome Family from Albuquerque NM) it starts raining lightly (more of a drip than a rain). I am targeted to do a festival survey. The Handsome Family advise us that the safest thing to do in a rainstorm is to gather around a morbid folk song, and that makes complete sense to me. So it is confirmed that the sensory overload is beginning. The survey taker is trying to keep up with my response to the question: "Which acts did you come to the festival to hear; it is a long list. Then the opening act starts up on the mainstage. Their sound immediately captures my full attention. The survey taker agrees with me that the band is very, very good (they are only about 16 bars into the first song) and I check the program to see who it is - Josh Ritter, who was on my list. With a laugh, the survey taker releases me and I am off like patriot missile.
There is only one thing to do when Josh Ritter is playing - get up and dance. His music is completely infectious. His lyrics are collections of intense images, almost sound bites in their brevity with a whack of chords supporting them in the air. When he does a ballad you simply fall into it, float and dream - kind of like luxuriating in a hot tub with a significant other after making love. He is beaming with happiness from the stage, adding energy to an already enthusiastic crowd. He tells us he will be back very soon. I will be there. His CDs sold out but I will find one.
In the interlude, some legitimate comic relief. John (I learn his name later in this story, but we will start using it now for convenience) has spent a little too much time in the hot afternoon sun in the beer garden consuming beer and some other recreational substance. After wandering around the beer garden holding aloft a large branch providing the safety of shade to the assembled crowd (his concept, not mine), he decides to bring it to the river bank near where I sit and toss it in the river. He follows it into the river. He has drawn a crowd (there is something about a man stumbling in circles with a tree branch the size of a Christmas tree who is heading for the river chanting: "I love life," that attracts attention, including security). As he crawls out of the river, security tell John to sit down while they explain to him that he is finished. They know his name because this is incident number two for the day. John has enough sense to know that they are asking him to wait by the river because he is going to be offered a free ride to the drying out chamber run by the Calgary Police Service. So he generously tells his main squeeze for the day that she can stay for the show, but that he is out of here. He then proceeds to walk, fall, swim across the river (more of a moat on this side fortunately for him). Halfway across he realizes his cell phone is in the pocket of his pants, pulls it out and brandishes it at the watching security, now joined by the police. He is really angry that the !@@**%%^^###'s have caused him to ruin his new iPhone. He finally reaches the other side, climbs up the bank, like a crab on cocaine. Then, to prove to us all that he is ok to drive his car home, he does a series of quite accomplished back flips. The police are not convinced. Nor was I. But we all, except for John, had a good laugh. Shakespeare could not have written a better scene.
Back to the music. The Duhks (pronounced 'ducks;' I love the sense of humour in the spelling) have finished setting up. A group of young musicians from Winnipeg who are into exploring what one can do with the pure acoustic sound. It turns out that when you really know and love acoustic instruments and study all the earth based folk genre, you can make pure magic in the air. The zydeco piece had me dancing again. The Celtic pieces had me dancing again. All this set is what they worked up for their new CD which is due out in mid August. I breath a sigh of relief; I will buy it, but I am spared another visit to the CD tent today. They then announce that advance copies of the CD had been delivered to the site today and that it is available at the CD tent. Oh my. . . .
The first 'tweener' act is an ensemble that consists of Maryem Toller and a group of musicians that got off a plane from Egypt two days ago. They open with a violin solo that immediately transports me to Egypt, a city plaza, a restaurant patio, after dinner with the music from the house musicians melding with the night air - I pick Alexandria, because in my imagination it is a more magical place than Cairo. In the next few songs Maryem sings and she has one of the most beautiful, pure, voices that I have ever heard. It is the voice of an Opera alto soprano, without the mannerisms. The North African Arabic music tradition on display is reflecting that the musicians in this tradition evolved while observing all the human traffic generated by living in the cradle of civilization and then one of the crossroads of the world for the last 6,000 years. Yep, the Folk Festival tarps are magic carpets again. I thank the earth goddess that one of the concert promoters on site may have booked her for a return this winter. The question becomes: CD, ticket this winter, or both?
A Hawk and a Hacksaw are next. This is a husband and wife team plus a few equally as good musicians whose musical journey starts in Albuquerque NM, moves to central Europe, and now work out of Hungary and New Mexico. They give us the music of the Roma, which of course reflects the earth music of all of Europe. It is engaging, but does not hold me. So I wander off toward the CD tent to pick up my advance copy of the Duhks CD. Next to the CD tent is the alternate stage where superior acts that can not be fit into the mainstage schedule are offered a venue in the early evening. Playing are 'Los Straightjackets' a band from California that perform covers of great rocking blues standards while wearing tuxedos and Mexican lucia libre wrestling masks. I am really thinking that I have stumbled into the cafe in Star Wars when the drummer launches one of the finest drum solos that I have ever heard live. If I were not dancing, she would have had me riveted to the spot.
Back to the mainstage where James Blood Ulmer is on. Another blues master displaying all the talent that 40 years of observing life, writing songs to fit and then performing them can achieve. He is responding to the crowd and wants to play all night. I really hope that he is booked back into Calgary so he can do just that.
Sam Baker is the next 'tweener' and is coming off a world class workshop where he and Sonny Landreth just wowed everyone with their jamming. If you know what Ian Tyson did in creating an original Alberta country-folk sound (Four Strong Winds is just one of the standards), that is what this guy has been doing in Texas for at least a generation. There is nothing finer than a troubadour in full song.
Next up are a UK group: The Men They Couldn't Hang. They proceed to lay down a set of rocking folk originals. We brought this music with us when the boats sailed from England in the 17th and 18th centuries to settle North America. You could drop into any Saturday Night kitchen party in Newfoundland right now and hear virtually the same music. I say as much to the young guy who has joined me on the bench beside the river. It turns out he is from Newfoundland; is here in Calgary studying music; and his class has just finished studying the song the band is now playing (a semi rebellious song about the injustice of being forced into the British army to die fighting Napoleon) and he reminds me that we have this same song in our core of folk: The Cowboy's Lament. As the band switches to Celtic, he tells me about the subtle differences between Irish and Scottish Celtic sound, and reminds me that the whole Celtic thing was originally imported from France (or whatever it was really called before the Romans named it Gaul). It is a little bit hard to follow the conversation as I am dancing again. The band announce that they have been booked back into Calgary. It is going to be a great winter season of concerts!
While the stage hand volunteers are setting up for Blue Rodeo we get Mark Erelli. I immediately think - I have heard this guy before. But I have not. I heard his predecessors back in the 60's when we were fueling the Vietnam War protests with music. The neurons are flashing and I am young again. Definitely a CD is in order as he has updated the sound to today's needs for protest. I can live in two time frames at once with his music. Michael Franti has a great song - Yellfire, which opens with the line: "Revolution has no warnings." It doesn't for those with closed hearts. The rest of us can hear its approach.
Blue Rodeo is up and does what Blue Rodeo does. I love the band. However there is very little special about the set beyond a couple of jamming moments. If I wanted to hear the studio tracks, I would be home, dry, sitting down and listening to the CD. Tonight, I want to be enticed to dance in the rain which has started to fall again.
I am so pumped for Sunday. No "walk-by listening" at the workshops. I have picked the ones featuring the musicians whose work I want to seal in my mind before the complete sensory overload occurs. And I will find a way to stay to hear Ani Difranco close the festival!
I will, I will !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the afternoon I wandered from stage to stage catching bits of workshops. There were so many enticing ones, all going on at once, that I opted for the "walk-by-listening" route today. Encountered a group from Albuquerque New Mexico who were playing the traditional folk morbid songs with a dashing style; then met a group now, more or less, based in Budapest, who grew up in Albuquerque who were totally into the sounds of the Roma. Gotta love it!
Gotta love the CD tent too, which just happens to be situated at the nexus of the place. Fortunately the nuisance of the mandatory bag check meant there were a few more walk-pasts than walk-ins.
What you have to hate is tonight's MC. In the long tradition of finding the most inappropriate person to host the mainstage, tonight's MC certainly takes second place as the worst. The potty mouthed 'comedian' from a few years ago still holds first place. This young lady tonight spouted so many inanely stupid things that I was completely happy not to be able to hear most of her blathering. Fortunately no one has trained her in diction and the use of a microphone, so much of what she was struggling to utter was lost. Think Valley Girl trying to kick the stupid habit by attending the college campus cafeteria and listening to the real students gossip about their professors. Honey, your stupid isn't a habit, it is hard-wired.
Well that is off my chest!
Toward the end of the last workshop I have stopped at (The Handsome Family from Albuquerque NM) it starts raining lightly (more of a drip than a rain). I am targeted to do a festival survey. The Handsome Family advise us that the safest thing to do in a rainstorm is to gather around a morbid folk song, and that makes complete sense to me. So it is confirmed that the sensory overload is beginning. The survey taker is trying to keep up with my response to the question: "Which acts did you come to the festival to hear; it is a long list. Then the opening act starts up on the mainstage. Their sound immediately captures my full attention. The survey taker agrees with me that the band is very, very good (they are only about 16 bars into the first song) and I check the program to see who it is - Josh Ritter, who was on my list. With a laugh, the survey taker releases me and I am off like patriot missile.
There is only one thing to do when Josh Ritter is playing - get up and dance. His music is completely infectious. His lyrics are collections of intense images, almost sound bites in their brevity with a whack of chords supporting them in the air. When he does a ballad you simply fall into it, float and dream - kind of like luxuriating in a hot tub with a significant other after making love. He is beaming with happiness from the stage, adding energy to an already enthusiastic crowd. He tells us he will be back very soon. I will be there. His CDs sold out but I will find one.
In the interlude, some legitimate comic relief. John (I learn his name later in this story, but we will start using it now for convenience) has spent a little too much time in the hot afternoon sun in the beer garden consuming beer and some other recreational substance. After wandering around the beer garden holding aloft a large branch providing the safety of shade to the assembled crowd (his concept, not mine), he decides to bring it to the river bank near where I sit and toss it in the river. He follows it into the river. He has drawn a crowd (there is something about a man stumbling in circles with a tree branch the size of a Christmas tree who is heading for the river chanting: "I love life," that attracts attention, including security). As he crawls out of the river, security tell John to sit down while they explain to him that he is finished. They know his name because this is incident number two for the day. John has enough sense to know that they are asking him to wait by the river because he is going to be offered a free ride to the drying out chamber run by the Calgary Police Service. So he generously tells his main squeeze for the day that she can stay for the show, but that he is out of here. He then proceeds to walk, fall, swim across the river (more of a moat on this side fortunately for him). Halfway across he realizes his cell phone is in the pocket of his pants, pulls it out and brandishes it at the watching security, now joined by the police. He is really angry that the !@@**%%^^###'s have caused him to ruin his new iPhone. He finally reaches the other side, climbs up the bank, like a crab on cocaine. Then, to prove to us all that he is ok to drive his car home, he does a series of quite accomplished back flips. The police are not convinced. Nor was I. But we all, except for John, had a good laugh. Shakespeare could not have written a better scene.
Back to the music. The Duhks (pronounced 'ducks;' I love the sense of humour in the spelling) have finished setting up. A group of young musicians from Winnipeg who are into exploring what one can do with the pure acoustic sound. It turns out that when you really know and love acoustic instruments and study all the earth based folk genre, you can make pure magic in the air. The zydeco piece had me dancing again. The Celtic pieces had me dancing again. All this set is what they worked up for their new CD which is due out in mid August. I breath a sigh of relief; I will buy it, but I am spared another visit to the CD tent today. They then announce that advance copies of the CD had been delivered to the site today and that it is available at the CD tent. Oh my. . . .
The first 'tweener' act is an ensemble that consists of Maryem Toller and a group of musicians that got off a plane from Egypt two days ago. They open with a violin solo that immediately transports me to Egypt, a city plaza, a restaurant patio, after dinner with the music from the house musicians melding with the night air - I pick Alexandria, because in my imagination it is a more magical place than Cairo. In the next few songs Maryem sings and she has one of the most beautiful, pure, voices that I have ever heard. It is the voice of an Opera alto soprano, without the mannerisms. The North African Arabic music tradition on display is reflecting that the musicians in this tradition evolved while observing all the human traffic generated by living in the cradle of civilization and then one of the crossroads of the world for the last 6,000 years. Yep, the Folk Festival tarps are magic carpets again. I thank the earth goddess that one of the concert promoters on site may have booked her for a return this winter. The question becomes: CD, ticket this winter, or both?
A Hawk and a Hacksaw are next. This is a husband and wife team plus a few equally as good musicians whose musical journey starts in Albuquerque NM, moves to central Europe, and now work out of Hungary and New Mexico. They give us the music of the Roma, which of course reflects the earth music of all of Europe. It is engaging, but does not hold me. So I wander off toward the CD tent to pick up my advance copy of the Duhks CD. Next to the CD tent is the alternate stage where superior acts that can not be fit into the mainstage schedule are offered a venue in the early evening. Playing are 'Los Straightjackets' a band from California that perform covers of great rocking blues standards while wearing tuxedos and Mexican lucia libre wrestling masks. I am really thinking that I have stumbled into the cafe in Star Wars when the drummer launches one of the finest drum solos that I have ever heard live. If I were not dancing, she would have had me riveted to the spot.
Back to the mainstage where James Blood Ulmer is on. Another blues master displaying all the talent that 40 years of observing life, writing songs to fit and then performing them can achieve. He is responding to the crowd and wants to play all night. I really hope that he is booked back into Calgary so he can do just that.
Sam Baker is the next 'tweener' and is coming off a world class workshop where he and Sonny Landreth just wowed everyone with their jamming. If you know what Ian Tyson did in creating an original Alberta country-folk sound (Four Strong Winds is just one of the standards), that is what this guy has been doing in Texas for at least a generation. There is nothing finer than a troubadour in full song.
Next up are a UK group: The Men They Couldn't Hang. They proceed to lay down a set of rocking folk originals. We brought this music with us when the boats sailed from England in the 17th and 18th centuries to settle North America. You could drop into any Saturday Night kitchen party in Newfoundland right now and hear virtually the same music. I say as much to the young guy who has joined me on the bench beside the river. It turns out he is from Newfoundland; is here in Calgary studying music; and his class has just finished studying the song the band is now playing (a semi rebellious song about the injustice of being forced into the British army to die fighting Napoleon) and he reminds me that we have this same song in our core of folk: The Cowboy's Lament. As the band switches to Celtic, he tells me about the subtle differences between Irish and Scottish Celtic sound, and reminds me that the whole Celtic thing was originally imported from France (or whatever it was really called before the Romans named it Gaul). It is a little bit hard to follow the conversation as I am dancing again. The band announce that they have been booked back into Calgary. It is going to be a great winter season of concerts!
While the stage hand volunteers are setting up for Blue Rodeo we get Mark Erelli. I immediately think - I have heard this guy before. But I have not. I heard his predecessors back in the 60's when we were fueling the Vietnam War protests with music. The neurons are flashing and I am young again. Definitely a CD is in order as he has updated the sound to today's needs for protest. I can live in two time frames at once with his music. Michael Franti has a great song - Yellfire, which opens with the line: "Revolution has no warnings." It doesn't for those with closed hearts. The rest of us can hear its approach.
Blue Rodeo is up and does what Blue Rodeo does. I love the band. However there is very little special about the set beyond a couple of jamming moments. If I wanted to hear the studio tracks, I would be home, dry, sitting down and listening to the CD. Tonight, I want to be enticed to dance in the rain which has started to fall again.
I am so pumped for Sunday. No "walk-by listening" at the workshops. I have picked the ones featuring the musicians whose work I want to seal in my mind before the complete sensory overload occurs. And I will find a way to stay to hear Ani Difranco close the festival!
I will, I will !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Time Warping at the Calgary Folk Festival
Day 2 and the weather continues to be perfect, as does much of the music.
The opening group, Carolina Chocolate Drops, picked up exactly where Sam Roberts left off the night before, with a very passionate and high energy set. Three young musicians, classically trained, who have dedicated themselves to meeting surviving musicians from the great black string bands of the 1920's and recreating that music. There was, back then, and was last night, much to enjoy in that tradition. The female singer has a voice to match the great Ella Fitzgerald. If she ever takes up jazz or blues, the Ella in Berlin concert will be surpassed. The first CD frenzy occurred right after this group's set.
Next up one of the great Chicago blues men: Charlie Musselwhite. We already know from the Carolina Chocolate Drops that he is one of the musicians who has helped them with their discovery of the past. It is such a pleasure to hear a master at work, even this late in his career. The Blues are best when there is a little rust in the voice; there was no rust in the harmonica.
Wendy McNeill was the first 'tweener.'' Think ABBA reunited to sing folk songs scored for the accordion by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yes, unfortunate and immediately forgotten.
The Be Good Tanyas did not improve things. Great musicians trying to keep alive the droning monochrome music of the fortunately extinct Lilith Fair tradition. I suppose someone could like this, but not I. If you were not in touch with some feelings when you write the song, you will not access any feeling or energy when you perform it. Sucked the energy right out of the place.
How to describe Andrew Bird? Travel back to about 1910; enter the Palm Room of any of the great railroad hotels to hear the house orchestra and have some tea. Take the 'special' lump of sugar out of your pocket and stir it into the tea. Enjoy how the music warps on the trip. This guy has a cult following and I can see why. However music that does not resolve, because the psychedelic chemicals are in play will have the same fate as the music of the atonal composers of the last century. It will only be heard if it finds its way into film scores when the director wants to underscore a sense of discomfort. Too bad this very talented guy does not perform straight up anymore.
Another 'tweener," Basia Bulat who starts to restore the evening. She presents the classic folk sound in full bloom. Her performance style is infectious and her sound easy on the heart.
What can I say about Calexico? They have taken their name from a California border town. Part of their rep is a celebration of the classic Mexican band sound. However they mix this with haunting tunes that could only come out of a dark night, lost in the desert outside Phoenix where they are now based. I don't know which of their sounds I like best. I love to dance to that lively music. However I like to contemplate the reaction of the heart to meditative soul music. I will have to check out their CDs (food bank here I come) and explore their rep some more.
The next short set came from Gurf Morlix. A master in the storytelling tradition of southwest folk. Hearing him you are instantly at the campfire during a cattle drive just falling into the night sky. But that does not completely do him justice as his tales are of the modern Texas nomad driving the back roads of life. Definitely someone to check at the weekend workshops.
To close, Bedouin Soundclash. I simply love this band's reggae inspired indie rock sound. Those are inadequate words for a sound that is as complex as life lived as a movie plot twist (*). You want to get up and dance but at the same time you want to lean in and absorb the melding chords and lyrics. Energy and introspection wound together in a spellbinding set.
The (*) is intended to give credit to the author. That phrase comes from a poem by our MC tonight. He is a young poet named Shane Koyczan who performed a number of his poems, which turned out to be excellent. There is something magic about a poem that is no longer on a dry page but given to an audience with all the verve and intonation of the author's voice. Of course it helps that he is politically radical as well as a keen observer of the human condition.
Saturday is a full day - as much as 13 hours are possible on site. I do not think I will attempt that, as one of my missions is to actually survive to hear the last act on Sunday night. I have never made it that far before!
The opening group, Carolina Chocolate Drops, picked up exactly where Sam Roberts left off the night before, with a very passionate and high energy set. Three young musicians, classically trained, who have dedicated themselves to meeting surviving musicians from the great black string bands of the 1920's and recreating that music. There was, back then, and was last night, much to enjoy in that tradition. The female singer has a voice to match the great Ella Fitzgerald. If she ever takes up jazz or blues, the Ella in Berlin concert will be surpassed. The first CD frenzy occurred right after this group's set.
Next up one of the great Chicago blues men: Charlie Musselwhite. We already know from the Carolina Chocolate Drops that he is one of the musicians who has helped them with their discovery of the past. It is such a pleasure to hear a master at work, even this late in his career. The Blues are best when there is a little rust in the voice; there was no rust in the harmonica.
Wendy McNeill was the first 'tweener.'' Think ABBA reunited to sing folk songs scored for the accordion by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Yes, unfortunate and immediately forgotten.
The Be Good Tanyas did not improve things. Great musicians trying to keep alive the droning monochrome music of the fortunately extinct Lilith Fair tradition. I suppose someone could like this, but not I. If you were not in touch with some feelings when you write the song, you will not access any feeling or energy when you perform it. Sucked the energy right out of the place.
How to describe Andrew Bird? Travel back to about 1910; enter the Palm Room of any of the great railroad hotels to hear the house orchestra and have some tea. Take the 'special' lump of sugar out of your pocket and stir it into the tea. Enjoy how the music warps on the trip. This guy has a cult following and I can see why. However music that does not resolve, because the psychedelic chemicals are in play will have the same fate as the music of the atonal composers of the last century. It will only be heard if it finds its way into film scores when the director wants to underscore a sense of discomfort. Too bad this very talented guy does not perform straight up anymore.
Another 'tweener," Basia Bulat who starts to restore the evening. She presents the classic folk sound in full bloom. Her performance style is infectious and her sound easy on the heart.
What can I say about Calexico? They have taken their name from a California border town. Part of their rep is a celebration of the classic Mexican band sound. However they mix this with haunting tunes that could only come out of a dark night, lost in the desert outside Phoenix where they are now based. I don't know which of their sounds I like best. I love to dance to that lively music. However I like to contemplate the reaction of the heart to meditative soul music. I will have to check out their CDs (food bank here I come) and explore their rep some more.
The next short set came from Gurf Morlix. A master in the storytelling tradition of southwest folk. Hearing him you are instantly at the campfire during a cattle drive just falling into the night sky. But that does not completely do him justice as his tales are of the modern Texas nomad driving the back roads of life. Definitely someone to check at the weekend workshops.
To close, Bedouin Soundclash. I simply love this band's reggae inspired indie rock sound. Those are inadequate words for a sound that is as complex as life lived as a movie plot twist (*). You want to get up and dance but at the same time you want to lean in and absorb the melding chords and lyrics. Energy and introspection wound together in a spellbinding set.
The (*) is intended to give credit to the author. That phrase comes from a poem by our MC tonight. He is a young poet named Shane Koyczan who performed a number of his poems, which turned out to be excellent. There is something magic about a poem that is no longer on a dry page but given to an audience with all the verve and intonation of the author's voice. Of course it helps that he is politically radical as well as a keen observer of the human condition.
Saturday is a full day - as much as 13 hours are possible on site. I do not think I will attempt that, as one of my missions is to actually survive to hear the last act on Sunday night. I have never made it that far before!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Serendipity at the Calgary Folk Festival
It is Calgary Folk Festival time!
So let me set this up. A co-worker returns from her vacation in Morocco a week ago. She tells me about the magnificent jazz festival in Tangier and the even more entrancing festival of traditional Moroccan music she heard in the mountains the next weekend. "It's all about the drumming," she says and promises to lend me the CD. Another friend and I, shortly thereafter, have a conversation about spirituality and the journey towards it. Then the live music that combines these two conversations comes to me!
The opening act of the Calgary Folk Festival was a band of master musicians from a mountain city in Morocco who are the heirs of a 4,000 year old music tradition which has now evolved into Sufi Trance Music. And I get it, the music that is. Most of us in the western musical culture have difficulty with this sound, but this band was so great the bridge was wide open to access it.
We then had an indie band from Winnipeg, the Weakerthans, whose driving force is exploring life in a city that was important by an accident of history and geography, but which has been in decline for a good 30 years. Some very beautiful rock ballads exploring images of the human condition in this environment. Heart and mind engaged entirely.
In between sets, the festival gets an 'unknown to Calgary' but important musician(s) to play a short set while the main stage is reset. The first was a guitarist from Saskatchewan who was here this week conducting master classes at the Folk Boot Camp. Again, a guy and his guitar turn this massive field of 13,000 people into an intimate space. I am dedicated to following him around the workshops this weekend, and will certainly buy at least one of his CDs. Joel Fafard is his name.
What can I say about Aimee Mann who was next? A Virginia Girl. A North American Chanteuse. The songs are of loss and the residual strength that preserves dignity. Think Joni Mitchell but with a trained voice. She announced that the Island site for the festival was almost certainly the most beautiful place she had ever played. I think that I haven't heard anything like her since the great folk divas of the 1960's.
Next short set was from a couple of musicians from Great Lakes Swimmers. Think Peter, Paul and Mary meet the Ray Brown Trio. Deceptively simple tunes that are highly charged with energy. Lyrics with images as finely focused as Michael Franti's tunes. Again I will be following this group around this weekend and more CD purchases!
Sam Roberts closed the evening. As fine as the entire group of musicians that preceded him and his band were, Sam and his band created one of the best rock sets that I ever expect to hear. My immediate reaction was this is classic rock. Then I thought - this rock sound has not really ever existed in this form before. Sure pieces of it have been around - some early Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, some Stones sounds, the Eagles, etc. However this group's sound is very much its own and just a display of superb rock musicianship. The crowd was drawn irresistibly into it, getting up, moving toward the stage to dance. An amazing, amazing close to the first night.
As Sam said to introduce his set: "If the music is played from the heart, it is folk music." Played from the heart we got. And he and his band got a tremendous response from all 13,000 of us on site. I am going out right now to buy the new CD.
The experience at this festival has to replicate, in a modern way, the experience of the great medieval city fairs, part of which included the troubadours arriving from all over Europe to perform, share news and simply glory in still being alive.
And to think, the weekend has only just begun! Glory!
So let me set this up. A co-worker returns from her vacation in Morocco a week ago. She tells me about the magnificent jazz festival in Tangier and the even more entrancing festival of traditional Moroccan music she heard in the mountains the next weekend. "It's all about the drumming," she says and promises to lend me the CD. Another friend and I, shortly thereafter, have a conversation about spirituality and the journey towards it. Then the live music that combines these two conversations comes to me!
The opening act of the Calgary Folk Festival was a band of master musicians from a mountain city in Morocco who are the heirs of a 4,000 year old music tradition which has now evolved into Sufi Trance Music. And I get it, the music that is. Most of us in the western musical culture have difficulty with this sound, but this band was so great the bridge was wide open to access it.
We then had an indie band from Winnipeg, the Weakerthans, whose driving force is exploring life in a city that was important by an accident of history and geography, but which has been in decline for a good 30 years. Some very beautiful rock ballads exploring images of the human condition in this environment. Heart and mind engaged entirely.
In between sets, the festival gets an 'unknown to Calgary' but important musician(s) to play a short set while the main stage is reset. The first was a guitarist from Saskatchewan who was here this week conducting master classes at the Folk Boot Camp. Again, a guy and his guitar turn this massive field of 13,000 people into an intimate space. I am dedicated to following him around the workshops this weekend, and will certainly buy at least one of his CDs. Joel Fafard is his name.
What can I say about Aimee Mann who was next? A Virginia Girl. A North American Chanteuse. The songs are of loss and the residual strength that preserves dignity. Think Joni Mitchell but with a trained voice. She announced that the Island site for the festival was almost certainly the most beautiful place she had ever played. I think that I haven't heard anything like her since the great folk divas of the 1960's.
Next short set was from a couple of musicians from Great Lakes Swimmers. Think Peter, Paul and Mary meet the Ray Brown Trio. Deceptively simple tunes that are highly charged with energy. Lyrics with images as finely focused as Michael Franti's tunes. Again I will be following this group around this weekend and more CD purchases!
Sam Roberts closed the evening. As fine as the entire group of musicians that preceded him and his band were, Sam and his band created one of the best rock sets that I ever expect to hear. My immediate reaction was this is classic rock. Then I thought - this rock sound has not really ever existed in this form before. Sure pieces of it have been around - some early Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, some Stones sounds, the Eagles, etc. However this group's sound is very much its own and just a display of superb rock musicianship. The crowd was drawn irresistibly into it, getting up, moving toward the stage to dance. An amazing, amazing close to the first night.
As Sam said to introduce his set: "If the music is played from the heart, it is folk music." Played from the heart we got. And he and his band got a tremendous response from all 13,000 of us on site. I am going out right now to buy the new CD.
The experience at this festival has to replicate, in a modern way, the experience of the great medieval city fairs, part of which included the troubadours arriving from all over Europe to perform, share news and simply glory in still being alive.
And to think, the weekend has only just begun! Glory!
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