Scene a la Calgary

“I Heard Them Play Our Song. . .”

2009-11-14T17:18:00.000-08:00

I hope Justin Rutledge forgives me for borrowing a fragment of his lyrics to open. However, last night at Central United if felt as if every song played by Melissa McClelland and Justin Rutledge simply was “our” song.

There is no doubt that the setting in Central United Church contributed to the evening. It is a Methodist Meeting Hall built to heroic proportions. The pews are arranged Greek amphitheatre style, curving around the central wall and stage. As the floor is slopped, we all have a sense of intimacy with the performers. Wood floors and wall panels create a sense of warmth and keep the sound lively. And the sound technician travelling with the show had the room precisely and finely tuned, enhancing the magnificent artistry of the musicians.

On offer on Friday the 13th – 21st Century Madrigals by two troubadours who seem to have figured out that we North Americans are shaped by movement, geographic and emotional. We research our family stories by tracing the places our ancestors moved from and to. We build our own stories moving from place to place, and leave companions to search for the hope of a new relationship. We build new families as we go. Both Melissa McClelland and Justin Rutledge can observe and spot the precise image that holds the definition of a journey and set the lyric to music that makes it live. Even those songs which were first hearings seemed to be resonating with a core experience, as if I must have heard it before. Yep, all the songs played last night were our songs.

Escorted by richly described images in the lyrics set to music that illuminated the meaning, we, the audience, accompanied the musicians on a richly textured journey. From ballads, through blues, into folk rock, there was a treasure of musical stories to be absorbed.

Were You There?

2009-10-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

SAIT, The Gateway Lounge, October 16th. . .

A triple bill show that built through the evening to a fully energized experience of shared music.

Jon Amor opened facing a daunting task - solo, and armed only with his guitar he let his songs of personal experience capture the room. It always surprises me how far the blues have traveled from the U.S. south, and this guy just proved again that reflecting on life and love is hard, but with music in it there is no dragging us down for good.

Mark Berube and the Patriotic Few then dazzled again. I was surprised, but should not have been, by how many of the precise images in his lyrics were still fresh in my mind from last summer's hearing. Is this artist his own muse? He explores how the big world stories reflect on the front porch, storefront, street and highway. The cabaret style pulls you in so you can hear the poetry better. Totally engaging and satisfying.

Lee Harvey Osmond - Tom Wilson and friends - then proceeded to pump up the energy in the room to yet another level. Rediscovered that acid folk is one of those exciting genre mutations that opens the mind, heart and soul to fresh perspectives on what it means to be human. Truly this was our collective brains on music and we jumped with excitement for a bravura performance.

Once again, the SAIT Gateway sound technician had the room perfectly tuned. Thank you!

And thank you, Calgary Folk Festival for sponsoring this show. I was still talking to people about it at the train station when I ran into the lady who had been at the SAIT President's Ball just across the campus. It seems they got Kalan Porter - and I thought, wow, my ticket only cost $25 (plus the CDs - but hey - support live music) for a much better evening!

Les Violons Du Roy

2009-09-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

After raving about the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, I decided it was time to revisit the Quebec City group - Les Violons Du Roy. This is certainly Canada's most famous youth orchestra. Their gig is to play early music using modern instruments but with baroque bows. The conductor, Bernard Labadie, is immensely imaginative in the ways he brings these works to life through these young musicians.

I have been fortunate enough to hear them live twice.

The first occasion was the Christmas season that they brought their version of the Messiah to Toronto - competing with the TSO Victorian warhorse version and the canonized rendition by the most famous baroque group in Canada - Tafelmusic (think music rendered in a bell jar - dead and sterile). What we heard was an energetic, impassioned performance of the work. It was almost like hearing it for the first time it was so fresh. Even the music critic for the Toronto Star was on his feet cheering at the end and wrote the next day that it was certainly the most authentic sounding and entertaining rendition that he had heard that season.

The second live hearing was a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion. A work rarely heard anymore. Partly because of its musical challenges. Partly because of some unfortunate bigoted theology embedded in the lyrics. However it is a powerful piece when performed well. Les Violons Du Roy performed it exceedingly well. For once I heard it as a religious ceremony, not a concert piece. The experience was transporting. The soloists who were performing with the orchestra and choir were extraordinary that night. Pure gates of heaven beauty in their solo arias.

Tonight I am listening to the group's CD - a recording of Handel's Water Music. The setting was a royal barge party on the Thames River and you can feel that in this recording. A stately party to be sure, but the subtle energies are all there.

Delightful again.

FIESTA

2009-09-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

That is the title of a marvelous CD that I was given this summer. The recording is from the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under the leadership of their enormously talented young conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Presented is the music of Latin American composers - spanning the last century. By and large the selections reference the local dance rhythms in a symphonic setting. Some pieces are simply exquisite; others bring the full sense of a town festival being celebrated with energy. All of the pieces deserve repeated hearings. This orchestra is ideally suited to present this material. The musicians play with a high degree of precision and clarity melded with an obvious genuine love of music.

The most famous piece on this CD (among North American listeners) is "Danzon No.2" composed by Arturo Marquez. The energy in this piece is on full display. Listening I was transfixed but yearning to stand and dance. You can find the orchestra performing this piece on the web - a video from the BBC Proms several years ago. Search it out and enjoy!

Next up was to pick up the Orchestra's recording of Beethoven's Symphonies No 5 & 7 just because I like the pieces and thought a spirited rendition would freshen them up. The performance is better than that - precise and passionate. Even though such a large orchestra never existed in the composers day, this performance sounds very authentic.

So where did this come from, that very young musicians perform with magnificent technique and elan? The liner notes tell me. Thirty years ago one man started in an underground garage to teach street kids how to play. At the height of Venezuela's oil boom, he convinced the government to support the program. Today there are 15,000 music teachers participating in a country wide music development program that can start as early as age two. One focus is to give children at risk an alternative to gangs and drugs. For example, a story from the liner notes:

"Lennar Acosta, now a tutor at the Simón
Bolívar Conservatory, had been arrested nine
times for armed robbery and drug offences
before the Sistema offered him a clarinet. “At
first, I thought they were joking,” he recalls. “I
thought nobody would trust a kid like me not to
steal an instrument like that. But then I realized
that they were not lending it to me. They
were giving it to me. And it felt much better in
my hand than a gun."

To think that at the height of the Alberta Oil Boom, our government chose the opposite direction and abandoned music in the public education system. Shame. And of course the streets of downtown Calgary, with the gang initiations and drug wars, reflect just how shortsighted that decision was.

Planning an Early Fall BBQ?

2009-09-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a playlist for you:

~Black Eyed Daisy from Colored Aristocracy by Carolina Chocolate Drops
~Everybody Does It Now from The Sparrow Quartet EP by Abigail Washburnzzzzzzz
~Everybody Move It from Separate Ways by Teddy Thompson
~Fire on the Mountain from ASA by Asa
~Shelter from Sounding a Mosaic by Bedouin Soundclash
~Say Hey (I Love You) from All Rebel Rockers by Michael Franti & Spearhead
~Your Love from Songs for Reggae Lovers by Bushman
~Shake Me Like a Monkey from Big Whiskey the GrooGrux King by Dave Matthews Band
~Love at the End of the World from Love at the End of the World by Sam Roberts Band
~Right Moves from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter by Josh Ritter
~The Only Way from Hope & Other Casualties by Mark Erelli
~Stay with Me Tomorrow from Everyone's in Everyone by Patrick Park
~Sausalito from Conor Oberst by Conor Oberst
~Down in a Cold Dirty Well from Holly by Justin Nozuka
~If I Live or If I Die from Sidelines of the City by Cuff the Duke
~All About You from The Road We're On by Sonny Landreth
~Blues Overtook Me from One Night in America by Charlie Musselwhite
~Love Grown Cold from Standing Room Only by Roomful of Blues

Let's Help Save BeatNiq

2009-09-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I have not been at BeatNiq as often as I could have. However I will be there on Sept 10 with my $100.

Some wonderful memories of magical performances - just one to mention, Colin Storey last year playing "Sumertime" - almost forgot to breath it was so mesmerizing.

And as with others, have shared moments with a significant other, when the music performance, the place, and the crowd all built an elemental evening for us.

We need this club!

Summer Joy

2009-08-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

Last night sat on my balcony snacking on nectarines, riopelle cheese and caribou-cranberry pate while I listened to some John Coltrane. What a wonderful way to relax into a warm summer evening.

Find Some Comic Energy at the Calgary Fringe Festival

2009-08-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

Want to know where the hidden gem might be at this year’s Calgary Fringe Festival? Meet Paul Hutcheson who is presenting On Second Thought.

Paul is in his sixth year as a solo performer with 20 festivals under his belt. He is a veteran of the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit as well as festivals in New York, Orlando, Colorado and San Francisco. He has a few awards to celebrate the experience.

“Performing is a passion, and I love appearing at the Canadian Fringe Festivals,” says Paul. He relates how a Wednesday, 2 pm show with only 4 people, who have never met each other, can essentially give a master class in stage presentation to a solo performer. “It becomes a real stretch to reach those four people, who have chosen to sit as far apart as they can, and draw them into the show,” Paul relates. “However, I have noticed this year that people are seeking comedy at inexpensive venues as an escape from the woes of the recession. So my life as a solo comic performer is a touch enhanced – mentally and financially!”

Paul reports that On Second Thought is a reflection on the choices we make on life’s journey. He hopes to demonstrate that a linear approach can lead to ridiculously unfortunate psychic traps (bored is a good clue you are in the wrong place). While, on the other hand, poking a life choice with a quirky second thought can spark a wondrous trajectory leading to unexpected places that fit the soul. As he speaks I can hear the inventive humor (some risqué, some digestive track focused, and some just plain fun) that will be driving this show. In other words, if you are feeling alienated, drop kick a kinky thought at your social or work scene, and let the world turn until you recognize a place and time as your normal.

I am looking forward to having some great laughs when sharing this journey with Paul at a show this week.

UPDATE: Caught the show - Precisely observed vignettes rich in comedy. You will celebrate how we as humans persevere in our journeys of discovery.

Find Paul and On Second Thought at the ArtPoint Gallery – 1139 11 St SE.

August 2 – 1:45 pm
August 3 – 3:45 pm
August 6 – 9:45 pm
August 8 – 5:45 pm

Dreaming in the Park

2009-08-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

The MRC Shakespeare in the Park production of Midsummer Night's Dream is well worth sitting on the grass on Prince's Island this year. Across all the roles the cast is very strong. It is a real treat to see this play presented so effectively. Particularly enjoyable is having the actors double the roles of Thesus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Titania - the first time I have seen this (Peter Brooks did it first in the last century).

As usual with this company, this is a very fresh and totally engaging reading of the play. If you go, it will be like seeing it for the first time again - how often do you get to be a virgin twice? Of course, that thought is part of the whole mix resulting from the collisions between power and ambition impacting politically correct sexuality and the sex drive hard wired into us that drives this play. The music of Queen, with its androgynous scope, fits naturally into the play as incidental music - a wonderful choice.

Go - you will chuckle, you will roar with laughter, and you will stand and cheer at the end.

Views On Midsummer Loves

2009-07-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Did you fall in love, or fall deeper into love with your current significant other, at the Calgary Folk Music Festival?

Here is a playlist for you.

You Go To My Head - Chet Baker Quartet, Chet Baker: Jazz in Paris
La Vie en Rose - Sophie Milman, Sophie Milman
Tristes Souvenirs - Molly Johnson, Messin' Around
Biban Ke - Asa, Asa
A Taste of Honey - Lizz Wright, Dreaming Wide Awake
Beautiful - Adi Braun, The Rules of the Game
But for Now - Jamie Cullum, Twentysomething
Stay - Sophie Milman, Make Someone Happy
After Tonight - Justin Nozuka, Holly
If You Were a Sailboat - Katie Melua, Pictures
Lover, You Should've Come Over - Jamie Cullum, Twentysomething
Loving You - Paolo Nutini, These Streets
Tonight - Molly Johnson, Messin' Around
Love - Kelley Hunter, Mercy
Show Me Yours - Adi Braun, The Rules of the Game
Reste(Stay) - Sophie Milman, Make Someone Happy
Lover Man - Chet Baker Quartet, Chet Baker: Jazz in Paris

Just One Together at the Calgary Folk Festival

2009-07-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Glendower: I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.

Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?

-- William Shakespeare, Henry the Fourth, Part One

The aural sensual overload is taking a different turn this year. I can hear the spirits answering the calling by the musicians. Very much inhabiting a different dimension as I approach Day 4.

Arrive later than I could have. However I am in time to pick up lunch and settle into the Acorn concert. Again a band with superior arrangements for instruments that challenge the genre. The tune they play from the next CD tells me this band is dedicated to complex music that is very accessible. It will be a pleasure to buy their CD's as they develop.

In the next time slot there is an abundance of great choices. What a marvelous gift from Kerry Clarke and compatriots. What other festival has so much great talent assembled that all you really need to do is pick anything, and simply enjoy the hour?

I decide to cheat and start at Streaming Consciousness and then switch to Pacifica for the opening of that concert. Glad I do. Ramped up by the great musicians at Streaming Consciousness, after I move I discover Pacifica. She is calling to the spirits that reigned prior to the European invasion. I am suddenly convinced that the patriarchal god simply has gotten it wrong. We should be listening to the earth, not laying waste to it.

As I must hear Umalali one last time this weekend, I opt for the Guided by Voices workshop. The Good Lovelies, Akron/Family, Dry Branch Fire Squad and Umalali draw us into a world where the spirits of human community really do answer our calls. I shall not soon forget the rousing closing number, led by Umalali but joined by their colleagues and all of us, of "Just One Together." No matter what else happens this evening, I am going home with a new treasure in my memory bank.

At the mainstage Darrol Anger, Mike Marshall & Vasen have the daunting task of inviting people back to their tarps with some entrance music. These guys go much further. Their playing would have qualified them as court musicians for Prince Esterházy at what might have passed for an 18th century garden party. A sweet and enchanting introduction to the evening.

The newspapers are rightly full of the experience emerging from the pairing of the Sojourners and Mavis Staples. The Sojourners demonstrate that the term "spiritual" emerged from the human need to call out for solace and justice. Mavis Staples demonstrates how that call was amplified in the 60's so that the simple, yet strong calls were mutated into anthems that still resonate today - mostly because the work is not yet complete. Yet the power of hope is strong in both sets. And I begin to understand how a young politician with the theme: "Yes, We Can" gets elected to the American presidency.

Ok, I admit I was fully enchanted by Loreena Mckennitt. No one can anticipate moments like that. However, when they happen, it is best simply to absorb the experience. Did the oracle at Delphi invite pilgrims to her temple at dusk with a solo harp? I think not. However, my bet is that some druid priestesses did in their eon. The enchantment spreads as her songs of the Celtic journey through space and time invade the site. A group of young people behind me spontaneously form a circle and dance the rhythms of Beltane. We are "Just One Together" yet again this evening. It is too powerful to describe. It had to be felt.

Thank goodness for the finale. We all needed some direction to find our way home. For sure we know what to do for the next year: Let our light shine!

Yes, the evening ends with me joyfully singing along, in the key of off, with 15,000 other like minded companion spirits.

Like the musicians, I must thank the staff and the volunteers of the CFMF. Your enthusiasm and dedication makes pulling off the logistics of an event of this scale look easy. I know it is not. Thank you. See you next year!

The Earth Opened at the Calgary Folk Festival

2009-07-26T23:15:00.001-07:00

Loreena Mckennet gave a staggeringly powerful performance tonight. One can never anticipate such a magical moment. However one can be very glad to be there to see Gaia restored to her rightful place - as prime goddess in the pantheon.

Wandering Soul at the Calgary Folk Music Festival

2009-07-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

Day 3 and the perfect weather continues. I am very happy that shade is plentiful at most of the workshop stages. We are going to need it.

Start the day with some tacos and head for the Trophy Scribes workshop. What wonderful sedition is on offer from masterful musicians. Love everybody, but become entranced by the Tom Fun Orchestra. Decide to catch up with them at the Twilight Stage tonight.

Next, go check out the Steve Dawson concert. Can't decide if I like his own tunes or the covers better. Both are presented with a rich voice and wonderfully accomplished playing.

Caught a bit of Dick Gaughan - and remember how much I like politics mixed with art. As he says, what an agitator can say in one sentence, it takes a song nine verses!

Grab a cider with cranberry at the Beer Garden. Totally refreshing, but feel it going straight to my head so stop at one and head out. Am going to try Dry Branch Squad. I feel I must give Bluegrass a chance. These guys are superior, and I could see myself sitting a while. However there are still cringes around the edges of the hearing. So I opt for Deep Dark Woods. Totally rewarded by encountering this band. Perhaps volunteering briefly at the Drop In Center last winter has given me a new respect and sense of urgency for songs about human encounters that produce roadkill. There is a sense of yearning in the songs and music - is it hope, or just plain determination? They are great, so the listening required to answer that question will be wonderful.

Now I am totally hooped. The Yonge and Restless workshop has the power line up. I decided yesterday evening that I really wanted to see the Mark Berube & the Patriotic Few concert. Mark Berube and the Patriotic Few win and I am glad. I love the Mr. Berube's voice. It is an agile and sweet instrument. I love the cabaret style songs and arrangements. I totally love the imagery in the songs that suggest rather than preach. I totally get it. I am so looking forward to the concert here in the Fall.

Back to the beer tent where I get two rewards. Test out the new lime beer from the sponsoring brewery and it is wonderful on this hot summer afternoon. And the Yonge and Restless workshop is still going. Justin Rutledge is singing a powerful tune about desiring to be in the heart of the river, and he asks us to join in and sing it to the towers looming out of downtown. Sarah Harmer gives us a tune that says "stay tuned" for tonight's mainstage set. Steven Page shows a sense of humour. The Good Lovlies display their syncopating harmonies. What a workshop this must have been.

Next will be Phil Wiggins and Corey Harris. However on my way to the workshop site Ferron's magnificent voice calls out to me as a pass by and I am tempted. Then seconds later as I pass the . . .'til I Cried workshop, another magnificent voice is calling out to me. However, I am on a mission and find a place at the Phil Wiggins & Corey Harris concert. Am I ever glad I did. These guys give a master class in Piedmont Blues. Somewhere in my brain is the phrase "calling out the blues." That concept has always kind of made sense given the lyrical and chord structure of a standard blues song. Until today I had never had the full experience of just what that might entail. This is a magic moment to be treasured.

Really enjoy Justin Adams and Juldeh Camera who open the mainstage. A wonderful set up for the night. However I have to get to the Twilight Stage to hear the Tom Fun Orchestra. This band is pure imagination and accomplishment. They are going to be very important or implode. Only the muses know how this is going to work out. However I am sold on punk-grunge Celtic when the talent is at this level. I have never heard anything like it, but want to hear much more of it - mostly because we are on the edge of becoming a post industrial economy and these guys know just what that is all about, hailing from Cape Breton.

Back at the mainstage, Steven Page is struggling. What initially seems quite effective fades to inconsequential very quickly. I am surprised at the limited guitar skills on display, which I think is contributing to the ineffectiveness.

The mini-set by Hayes Carll validates just what I said above. Here is talent opening light onto the soul.

Alejandro Escovedo comes on and lays down the smoking set that I have been waiting all weekend for. This man's talent is epic in proportions and he is as keen an observer as Homer (the 4000 years dead poet, children, not the TV character - although there may be something to ponder there). The totally powerful opening numbers establish who is master now. Then the 3 quieter tunes in homage to colleagues and his father's journey from Mexico to Texas (which must have been totally terrifying for a 12 year old guided by a 16 year old in 1919). Then the anthems that somehow reference the goals we must set for our society now that most of us have survived the Bush the Younger presidency. He subtly gives us the guideposts from his generation and instills the energy we will need to take up the cause. Amazing.

Glen Campbell is going to be Glen Campbell of old, with rusty pipes. There are some technical difficulties making him uncomfortable on stage. I seize the moment to take a power nap so I can hear this set in my mind's eye, back when I first watched it on TV.

I am in awe of how many tickets his brand has sold. It seems thousands leave as soon as his set is concluded. This in turn makes me completely in awe of the programmers for the Calgary Folk Festival. What a balancing act, bringing in the 'names' to sell tickets so they can bring in all the other acts and give them a chance to perform in front of thousands of people. My hat is off to the CFMF - you do it extremely well.

Bellowhead blows my mind. What a full rich sound they bring to a 700 year old genre by arranging the traditional English folk songs for both traditional and modern orchestral instruments. The arrangements are magical. And then they they start to play with the genre, and it becomes even more fun. I have only once before seen the crowd react so spontaneously (get well, Michael Franti). I have to take a bathroom break so walk the path back to the only potty that I believe might not be knee deep in urine soaked toilet paper and shit; all along the way through the food tent path couples are spontaneously jigging in front of each other and then embracing in a whirling dance celebrating sheer life. This is the CFMF at its best, yet again.

Sarah Harmer keeps the promise of the earlier afternoon with her closing set. It is as if Clio, the muse of history, has stepped into time to inspire us with songs of memory to keep each other going. At any rate, 12 hours into the day, and I would be prepared to stay up all night listening to this troubadour. Not to be, as the lanterns appear signaling that we must depart gently into the night.

However we will reassemble Sunday!

Celebrating Social Insurgencies at the Calgary Folk Music Festival

2009-07-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Day 2 and the weather is holding. It would be too hot if we were not on an island being cooled by the breezes that blow through the river valley. And there is lots of shade to be had.

First order of business is to hit the Merch Tent - absolutely must have this year's t-shirt for my granddaughter (I need one as well, but the mission is to get her one before they are sold out). I manage to stay focused and do not hit the CD bins - just yet.

Settle into my usual spot (a state secret, but a lot of people are discovering it this year and it is getting crowded - may have to do a scouting mission for a new refuge).

Then LeE HARVey OsMOND open. A brilliant set that presents songs from the underbelly of society. I am drawn to the dancing area so I can absorb it fully. A member of the group is a veteran of the 60's coffee house circuit and his solo is a time trip. This collective melds so many traditions together - the music is complex, but sounds simple - a specific joy to experience.

Then a mini-set from Mark Berube and the Patriotic Few. Mr. Berube has an astonishing voice. Strong, clear and an amazing range that he negotiates effortlessly (which is a lot of hard work to pull off - it needs those 10,000 hours of practice to master). The songs appear to be lighter than those from LeE HARVey OsMOND, but are just as well observed and subversive. A major talent discovery for me and some workshops move from "very likely" to "definite" category.

ASIDE: If this pairing was an ad for the double bill at SAIT Gateway Lounge this fall, it worked. I will be there.

One more ASIDE: Carolyn Mark continues to be an exceptionally good MC - thanks!

Drift back to my refuge and Bell Orchestre appears and entrances. Again the music is complex but sounds simple. Orchestral instruments being used to explore the sounds you might hear in another dimension. The final number is one of the most beautiful pieces that I have ever heard inside or outside a concert hall. I do not think that I can describe it adequately. Let's just say the sounds emerging from these classical instruments were on the far edges of the instruments' technical range, but the result of the meld presented feelings of the tranquility found when we celebrate our common bonds. Amazingly satisfying.

The Good Lovelies present the next mini set. Sparkling triple harmonies from these ladies. They are working in the very old love song tradition. A great modern example of the origins of this tradition can be found in Karina Gauvin's CD: Les Chants d'Auvergne. But no need to search for that, just find these ladies on stage this weekend and enjoy. The lyrics evoke the best of the values found when two people love simply. The harmonies make you think such a thing is possible. I will be certain to follow them this weekend.

Gomez, the self-identified British Rock Insurgency, arrive. Blast off! I am immediately in the dance area which is functioning as a mosh pit. We are a mix of people who know the band well and those of us who are discovering them. Wonderful abbreviated conversations about the band while we dance our hips out of place. These are great rock musicians, and they mean to create change. I am ready to march with them. It is an astonishing set.

I miss Jolie Holland as I am in dire need of hydration and the line up is long at the lemonade stand. I am intrigued by what I can hear, so will track her at the workshops.

Mekon is fun. Another collective of musicians who are exploring a pure traditional folk sound, but you know the punk genre where they started is still there - inspiring energy where you might have expected mournful wailing. A fresh hearing for the genre - which is all I desire this weekend and am experiencing in spades.

OK, Arrested Development is this year's "formula band." Here to give the crowd an occasion to stand and dance. They present virtually the same set as they did the last time they were hear. It was intriguing then. It is boring tonight. It is fun to watch the crowd dynamic though.

Cory Harris reminds me how much I love the pure, clean picking sound of Piedmont Blues. I really have to seriously explore this genre as it does not seem to have antecedents in Bluegrass (which I can not abide for more than 15 seconds) but seems to have emerged in the same geographic region. A winter project involving a lot of listening. A perfect antidote for the stale, sanitized pseudo hip-hop that went before.

Uh Oh, someone is wearing Miss Havisham's faded wedding dress on stage. A sure signal that we are in for an over the top performance or really disappointing self indulgence. Great Expectations are not met - it is relentless, boring, self indulgence on offer. Halfway through The Decemberists set I join the exit parade.

Am really excited about Saturday's workshops and will get to the site far earlier than usual. I have found all the supplies that I might need, except the sun screen.

An Acoustic Celebration at the Calgary Folk Festival

2009-07-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Arrive just in time for Justin Rutledge (damn work, but is supports my music habit). He is an artist whose CD's I just can not get into, but people who have seen him live have told me that he is first rate. I immediately know by the second song that they are right. The guy radiates a connection right across the massive field and I settle in and just listen entranced.

What can I say about Jay Crocker? I saw him open for Michael Franti in a rock mode. I have seen him in his jazz mode. Tonight he is proving that a man with a guitar can transform the place into an intimate venue. I just kept mentally leaning in to hear 'closer.'

Umalali is the first great gift of the weekend. The instant thought is that I would love to attend a workshop that paired this group with some throat singers. With our studio sound based music culture we can lose sight of the pure honesty of the oral tradition in tracking and remembering the human experience. You can feel the last 400 years of their culture in this show. And I am up and moving the feet for the first time this weekend - great joy.

Chad VanGaalen - for one so young he sure takes me back to the original folk revival days. I think it's because beneath his songs is a very wry sense of humour which I share.

The Woodchoppers Association with Jah Youssouf - the saviors of the weekend by filling in a set. And what a gift. For the very first time at the Folk Festival I find that I have wandered up near the dancing area - just being drawn in. Love it when the Calgary crowd's French comprehension is challenged! But the passion to communicate (both ways) means we figure it out. I love the band. However there is something about the instruments from Mali that really resonates tonight. Perhaps it is the setting; perhaps it is that I know people have been listening for thousands of years to the sounds these instruments calling out. I am bewitched.

I give up on Mutabaruka. I like the idea of presenting a poet, but I can not hear him well. Will catch him in a workshop. So I wander the food tents looking for something to eat. Surprising how long the lines are this late in the evening.

Back, with food, in time for Iron and Wine. For some reason his performance is the perfect ending to the evening. He has a unique voice - lyrics that present strobe flashes of how generations interact or how we grow old, but hold memories of "the summer we were 17." Song after song is just beautiful. He definitely has his own voice, but reminds me of someone. I find the memory at last - Jim Croce sounded a bit like this (check out "These Dreams" on the net). And the barrier falls: This will be the first CD purchased this weekend.

Administrative Trivia

Originally Iwas opposed to the idea of a "4 day band" because I know it will drive me nuts as it gets more and more grotty with built up sweat and grime. However, I opt for one. I realize that by getting one, I will only have to stand in line once at the ticket gate.

I am very hopeful that the Festival has finally found the solution to the MC problem. Carolyn Mark is doing an excellent job. Please the earth gods that Nancy White will as well. I am relying on Nancy's radio hosting experience (and talent) to carry Saturday and Sunday.

All in all a gentle invitation to the weekend on offer tonight. I could feel the layers of stress peeling off. It was a damn long and cold winter, and the recession has not been kind to so many people that I know. However I have 3 more days of communing with musicians and other 'expert listeners' and am looking forward to it!

Drifting Down Memory Lane at the Calgary Folk Festival

2009-07-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

Last year after the Festival, a colleague said to me: "The Calgary Folk Festival changes people." He was commenting on his parents who had been given a free day pass by Charlie Musselwhite and then had not appeared again until midnight Sunday.

I don't think the Festival experience actually changes people. It invites people to be open to something innate in the human spirit and we accept the invitation.

Daniel J. Letivin in "This Is Your Brian On Music: The Science Of A Human Obsession" postulates that each of us is an expert listener. Eventually he presents the actual science that what makes a Mozart, Joni Mitchell, Verdi or J. S. Bach is 10,000 hours devoted to the craft. Almost every human has those 10,000 hours of listening to music (my children excluded, but I am correcting that with my granddaughter).

My theory is that the Calgary Folk Music Festival is a commune built by expert listeners for expert listeners. We each recognize we are "home" as soon as we hear the first chords drift across the field, and each year the connection gets stronger. We know we are there to simply revel in listening to some great music and to discover new paths on the music journey because the artists each have the fruits of their own 10,000 hours to share with us. An example - the year that all the musically literate 20 somethings were out to hear Feist, Broken Social Scene, etc., Jeff Healy appeared with his Jazz Wizards band. They were playing the jazz from the 1920's. All the young crowd were rapidly enticed into dancing and shaking booty. And I chuckled, because their great grandparents would have been jiving to this music, much to the horror of their great-great grandparents!

And while I regret that I will not get to hear Michael Franti and Spearhead perform this year, it is only a regret. I am more than happy to get on with listening to everybody else and discovering some new magic from an unexpected artist.

Let the ceremonies begin!

Celebration

2009-05-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the huge Sasquatch Music Festival in Seattle. Alas I was there last weekend! However the Cheese Festival and Wine Tasting Tent in Pike Place Market were great. Tons of people, superior wines to taste and wonderful buskers filling the air with music. Loved the counter culture on display in Seattle - including my own.

Jim Byrnes new CD - "My Walking Stick" is a marvel. Think Robert Johnston meets early Ray Charles. Completely different from his last two CDs but just as enchanting. The final track on the CD: "Creole Poetry" is a wonder, and worth the price of the whole CD. You will know what it means to be human and in touch with the spirit world after close listening.

Also bought Ruthie Foster's new CD - "The Truth According to Ruthie Foster." One track "Love in the Middle" by Eric Bibb is one of those great songs you are sure was pulled from the collective memory of the human race. It is immediately familiar on first hearing. Ruthie and the superior studio musicians she gathered for this CD just nail it.

Then there is Dion's "Heroes, Giants of Early Guitar Rock." A salute to the likes of Chuck Berry, Elvis, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, et al. Seriously wonderful time warping happens when you listen to this CD.

Finally, need to track down a way to buy Angus Wilson's CD "In the Gray." A friend brought it back from Rosebud and it is simply mesmerizing. Indie bent stripped down to a beautifully intense acoustic sound. I will find a way to own it.

Winter Was Long!

2009-05-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

But full of good music.

The major treats?

Joan Baez. Gotta love it when an icon's current work is as interesting as her classic work.

Alberta Ballet's production of Joni Mitchel's the Fiddle and the Drum. An extraordinary collaboration of installation art, dance and the music. Spell binding.

Met Opera's Live HD transmissions. Got to three this year. The Salome was rewardingly intense. La Sonnambula had the cast born to sing the major roles. Alas a stage director's conceit damaged the production. La Cenerentola - just about perfect in every sense. I doubt that I have heard the ensembles sung with better matched voices.

Hearing the Duhks at SAIT - what a treat to feel their energy in an intimate venue!

Two jazz concerts - a group of young musicians at BeatNiq that were spellbinding and a classic jazz master at Epcor Engineered Air Theatre. Transporting music both nights.

Now to get ready for the summer. Am already pumped about the Calgary Folk Festival - the scope of the artists leaked promises four magical summer days, and Michael Franti says he is coming to it as well - oh yes that will be a show stopper performance again!

Calgary International Blues Festival

2008-08-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Touching the Earth and the Sky at the Calgary Folk Festival

2008-07-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

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 !

Singing and Dancing in the Rain at the Calgary Folk Festival

2008-07-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

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 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time Warping at the Calgary Folk Festival

2008-07-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

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!

Serendipity at the Calgary Folk Festival

2008-07-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Oscar Peterson

2007-12-24T14:45:00.000-08:00

"You can't just sit down and play the piano. You have to think of phrases, colours, intensities. That's the only way it can be."
Oscar Peterson

True magic has left the world with the death of Mr. Oscar Peterson. I was lucky enough to hear him in concert live once, in an intimate venue. It felt as if there were nothing between me and the soul of the music he was presenting. By soul I am using the ancient greek sense of the word which embodies the melding of the senses and the mind creating a projection of something more than we usually experience directly on earth. With Mr. Peterson's playing it was as if Plato's projected shadows assumed warmth, colour and dimension.

If you had the patience to sit and listen contemplatively, his musicianship took you to places not quite expected. It was like a train trip; one not only experienced the sense of moving down the road, but the pleasures of all the surrounding views.

I agree, we will not see his like again, but we will see musicians, inspired by his talent, who catch our imaginations fully, and that is his great legacy to us.

Haunted by Psyche

2007-11-25T08:38:00.000-08:00

In Greek mythology, Psyche was described as the most beautiful woman in the world who attracted the amorous attention of the god Eros. Psyche became the lover of a mysterious paramour who would not reveal himself; she of course turned on the lights one night and found out Eros was in fact her lover. For some reason that was the end of the relationship, until a series of tasks assigned to Psyche were completed (editorial aside: religious mythology does not have to make sense, it just has to attract and hold your attention). So Eros is seen begging assistance of a pantheon of goddesses to help Psyche complete her tasks, and as a reward at the end Zeus grants her immortality, and she and Eros live happily ever after forever.

At least until Freud gets hold of the story at the beginning of the last century. He ends up describing a permanent conflict between Id, Super Id and Psyche in the human condition, and poor Psyche becomes a neurosis (which, when you think about it, is sort of a god-like condition for the 20th century).

So here is a playlist to explore what we believe about love and relationships in the late 20th and early 21st century. I think the ladies approach the topic quite differently from the gentlemen, so the voices are separate in the listing.

Adi Braun - Hymme A L'Amour
Julie London - Two Sleepy People
Ella Fitzgerald & Oscar Peterson - How Long Has This Been Going On
Ethel Waters - Maybe Not At All
Katie Melua - The Closest Thing to Crazy
Sarah Noni Metzner - Constant
Sophie Milman - Something in the Air Between Us
Katie Melua - If You Were a Sailboat

Teddy Thompson - Shine So Bright
Patrick Park - Stay with Me Tomorrow
Paolo Nutini - White Lies
Jamie Cullum - Photograph
Michael Franti & Spearhead - Love, Why Did You Go Away?
Vargas Blues Band - I Need Your Love So Bad
Ryan Adams - The Sun Also Sets
Jeremy Fisher - Shooting Star (In Spite of It All)
Paolo Nutini - Autumn
Jason Danieley - You Walk with Me

All this music is available to buy on line. Please support the artists!

Calgary Opera's Rigoletto

2007-11-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

Calgary Opera and the Jubilee Auditorium are consistent about two things. On opening night the show will not be quite ready for prime time. It will hang together well enough, and they will likely get it fixed by the final performance on Friday, but, we really should be offered discount tickets for the opening night.

More on this later, but let it be said the cast was superb. Glorious singing from beginning to end. So there is a third thing Calgary Opera is very consistent with: casting the ideal people for the roles. In advance there was the anticipation of hearing Richard Paul Fink in the lead role. His rich baritone is ideally suited to Verdi and it was a real treat to hear him live after so many afternoons on the radio. His stage presence adds to the voice characterization. David Pomeroy has the ideal tenor for the Duke's role - melodic and heartfelt throughout. He was particularly effective in conveying the lack of self awareness that is central to this role, particularly in the Donna e mobile aria. Tracy Dahl exceeded expectations, bringing to the role a new colour in her voice that created a wonderfully realistic portrayal of Gilda who is torn between being a captive pet of her father, longing for the perfect first love, being rewarded with the ultimate betrayal, and then taking flight from life in the guise of self sacrifice.

So, what was not ready?

Yet again the sound technicians spent the first part of the evening tuning the hall. Really, is that not supposed to happen during rehearsals? This is not a problem unique to the Jubilee. The Jack Singer does the same thing. Shame.

The Director's take on the opera and the unique stage design were a challenge. The stage direction and set worked extremely well in the first act; failed completely in the second, and struggled but managed to work in the third.

The problem seemed to be that with the concept we the audience would require some overstated symbolism to 'get the drift.' Guess what, Verdi has already done that with the score. All the director and stage designer really need to do is reference the vivid imagery, not pound it in with distracting props. Did we really need the moon for Gilda's first act aria? Did we really need Gilda's white dress, red dress and then white dress again? And we definitely did not need the oversize Halloween pumpkins to symbolize the twisted, haunted and broken minds of the court? They reminded me of the universally reviled post modern Euro-trash production of Macbeth that Chicago Lyric put on a few years ago. A main feature of that set was a gigantic armoire which all the murdered characters used for their entrances and exits just so we would know the Macbeths had skeletons in their closet.

The music was great. The CPO sounding wonderful in their reading of the score.

Perhaps what Calgary Opera needs is to appoint someone with the authority to oversee these concept productions and remind the 'creators' that less is more, and to simplify is better than complex elaboration when all they need do is enhance the images and emotions in the work. And, for sure, if it is a new work, spend the money on adequate rehearsal time before opening night.

Time Warping

2007-10-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

Les Violons du Roy is a magnificent chamber orchestra based in Quebec City. While playing on modern instruments, they use Baroque bows and bowing techniques. There is an energy to this group's playing that makes all of its performances transport the audience back in time. As the music critic for the Toronto Star said after their presentation of Messiah in Toronto it was convincingly authentic sounding. I was there and can only agree.

One of their most recent recordings has them paired with Vivica Genaux, the American mezzo soprano who is staking out a great international career in baroque repertoire. The CD presents Handel and Hasse arias. The discipline of the singer and the orchestra is perfectly matched with enthusiastic and joyful energy they have discovered in the arias.

The aria from Alcina is peerlessly performed. I last heard Jennifer Laramour sing this in the Chicago production of Alcina, and thought that was the finest baroque singing I had ever heard. This rendition at least matches that evening.

Next up from Les Violons du Roi is a new CD of Handel's Water Music in early November. I am looking forward to grabbing it as soon as it is available, not least because the work is the first piece of classical repertoire that I remember actually liking.

Shooting Stars

2007-10-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

October 20, 2007. The Liberty Lounge at Mount Royal College. Justin Nozuka and Nathan Wiley. Enough said? I think not.

Nathan Wiley opened and it was the first time I had caught his act. You know it's a good night when you want the opener to play for another hour, at least. Where does he get the inspiration for these songs that explore the dark alleys of the urban soul? His repertoire reminded me of Fado, the European Urban music genre which only appears late at night in Lisbon to sing of human frailty and celebrate, in a backhanded way, that it is fundamental to the human condition to push back against what fate deals us. May it please the music gods to bring Nathan Wiley back for a full evening.

Justin Nozuka appeared with his small but tight band. Great musicians all, particularly the bass guitar. I have been listening to Justin's CD, Holly, for weeks, but was still unprepared for the magnetic intensity of his live performance. He held the crowd spellbound with is guitar playing and that soulful voice, that ripples along the melodies. Again, what great lyrics, exposing what it means to be haunted by Psyche, who was the lover of Eros before Freud used the term to describe the complexities of the human mind and soul interaction. When he and his bass guitar player started playing riffs at each other it was music making at its most magical. I doubt if we will ever have the opportunity to see him again in such a small venue; he seems destined for super stardom.

Two for Two

2007-10-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

The good news is that Ground Zero Theatre and Hit and Myth Productions scored again with "The Full Monty." It is also great that Calgary audiences rewarded the show with sell outs.

These guys have the true formula for presenting magical theatre. Find an interesting show; hire half a dozen superb musicians to play the score; recruit great comic actors who can also sing and put the show on in what feels like the best tradition of the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney musicals of the 1940's.

The Grand Theatre itself is a wonderful space, allowing an intimacy between the characters and audience that can not occur in larger venues. This really played a key role in this show as the music and lyrics are very much akin to Haiku Poetry - an illumination of the characters being portrayed. I doubt if there has been a better rendition of the the second act love anthem "You Walk with Me" anywhere else, because the beauty of the voices and subtle intensity of the performances were allowed to shine in relatively intimate space.

What fun I will have this winter tracking down shows produced by all these independent Calgary companies and attending many. I love it that these guys seem to truly believe that it is possible to make a living working in the theatre in Calgary. I will buy tickets, and encourage friends to join me.

Stalked By Eros

2007-10-13T12:50:00.000-07:00

I enjoy picking a theme and creating a playlist, selecting songs from my CD collection. The most recent theme is 'Stalked by Eros.' If you think about it, in literature and song Eros has two major aspects.

There is the 'driven by lust' theme. For example there is Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" or "Othello." In music there is Verdi's "Tosca," just to name one example. Of course, the lesson that we humans never learn is that signing on with this aspect of Eros never ends well. But we do seem to like to sing about the experience.

The second major aspect is the quest for the perfect romantic partner; think Valentine's Day. Much of the classic repertoire from Tin Pan Alley in the 1930's and1940's is the most familiar interpretation of this aspect. These "encounters" can end well, usually only in fairy tales but there is Beethoven's "Leonore." More frequently it ends badly as described in the medieval chansons of courtly love and Lerner and Lowe's "Camelot."

What I found most interesting in selecting the songs for this playlist is the number of current singers who are writing and performing songs, almost meditations, that contemplate the very human reaction to these two aspects of Eros. "Where is the bargain with this cruel god?" seems to be the quest. These artists are working in the best traditions of the traveling troubadours of centuries ago. A very lucky time to be listening, in my opinion.

Here is the list of performances I chose for "Stalked by Eros"

Walking the Back Streets and Crying - Vargas Blues Band
The Next Step - Kelley Hunt
All Around Man - Bluff City Backsliders
Back to the Ground - Jamie Cullum
Nature Boy - Nate Birkey
Couer de Parisienne - Rufus Wainwright
La Vie en Rose - Sophie Milman
Taking a Chance on Love - Ethel Waters
Out of Nowhere - Ella Fitzgerald
Heart and Soul - Mel Torme
A Sunday Kind of Love - Ella Fitzgerald
The Man I Love - Sophie Milman
The Man that Got Away - Judy Garland
Drunk on Your Tears - Jeremy Fisher
Think Again - Teddy Thompson
I Taught Myself How to Grow Old - Ryan Adams
Loving You - Paolo Nutini
Stay - Sophie Milman

All these performances can be purchased on line, and please support the artists by paying for the music you want to have in your collection.

Opening the Season

2007-10-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

The 2007 - 2008 theatre and concert season opened with a bang, literally. Theatre Calgary's production of The Wars was astonishingly good on virtually every level.

I approached this work with much trepidation. It is sheer delight to live in a city where the major and new companies nurture and produce new work. But after the disaster of last season's Frobisher from Calgary Opera, I had many questions about how this novel which uses World War I as a driver of the stories about how governmental and societal violent insanity impacts ordinary humans could be shrunk to the space of a stage. It turns out the answer was that one does not shrink it, but uses multi-media and brilliant stage design to suggest the full scope of the time and place.

I salute the playwright. Timothy Findlay's voice was ardently clear throughout.

There is not enough good that can be said about the cast. The work requires a true ensemble effort around a central character who is on stage virtually every minute of the production. They succeeded magnificently.

Findlay's strength is to engage one both intellectually and emotionally at the same time. This work succeeds in achieving this same magic. I shall not soon forget the final scene. Two words tie the final knot in the tapestry that has been woven through the evening. I was shaken to the core.

Summer Festivals

2007-09-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

What a great summer of music in Calgary.

Michael Franti came back to Calgary and blew a new hole in the ozone layer in early July. His band, Spearhead, has one of the finest drummers I have ever heard. But it is the energy blowing from the stage that is amazing. I hope the US elects a president he can respect in 2008 so he can be less political. I want him to go back to being the troubadour of the urban experience.

Then there was the Calgary Folk Music Festival. Four days of exploring the music of some very interesting musicians, although in blazing heat. Bought 9 CDs on site, a new record for me. They have preserved the essence of the weekend though.

The music at the Calgary International Blues Festival was great. The new site is tragically wrong though. Who wants to sit in a paved parking lot, no shade, fenced off from anything green?