As another Vancouver Folk Music Festival wraps up this summer, we were again on-site to experience the sights, sounds, and flavours of one of the city’s landmark events.
[Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton]
There were so many wonderful shows and only two of us, so we made the rounds and noted a few of our favourite highlights that also got the crowd on their feet at sun-splashed Jericho Beach Park last weekend.
Stage 1 got underway on Saturday with “Balkan Brunch” (starring Briga and Maria in the Shower). Stage 1 is one of the mellower areas of the site, with its adjacent Little Folks Village. The percussion, trumpets, and tunes were the perfect late morning start to our day.
[Reid Jamieson]
Over at Stage 3, local indie fave Reid Jamieson brought his beautiful voice and songs to the stage. We were later treated to a couple more of his songs on Sunday at the “From a Deep Down Place” workshop. Jamieson’s the winner of several songwriting competitions and has worked with Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café show for nearly 10 years.
[Delhi 2 Dublin]
Another Saturday highlight was “Transglobal Overland“, where Delhi 2 Dublin, Raghu Dixit Project, and The Latchikos were grooving with the crowd as hands went in the air and bodies swayed. If you didn’t catch the Friday night Delhi 2 Dublin show at the Main Stage, this was your chance to take it all in. These guys are solid!
[Phildel]
Our hidden gem was discovered that day on Stage 3 with Phildel, a UK-based singer-songwriter with a soothing voice reminiscent of Dido. Her rise to fame is a challenged one: music was banned from her family home when her mother remarried a Muslim fundamentalist.
We missed picking up her latest CD, The Disappearance of the Girl, however we doubt she’ll disappear anytime soon. Here’s hoping she’ll return to the Folk Fest.
Steve Earle and The Dukes were in command of the prime Main Stage 8:30 pm time slot. This guy’s a true gem, having worn singer, songwriter, actor, playwright, novelist, and short-story writer hats. Influenced by another great hero, Townes Van Zandt, Steve is a gifted musician and we felt his huge stage presence even once we stepped back from the photo pit and made a blanket space halfway back from the stage.
[Joseph Daley of Hazmat Modine]
Sunday kicked off in big bang style with The Cat Empire and Hazmat Modine on Stage 3. Cat Empire, an Australian genre-transcending group, worked well together with Hazmat, a name derived from an amalgam of American industrial imagery. Hazmat’s wicked tubist Joseph Daley has performed with Sam Rivers, Carla Bley, and Lionel Hampton.
Joaquin Diaz and fellow musicians took the Stage 1 morning shift, adding a fiesta-like atmosphere to the grounds with lots of accordion and percussion to get the crowd dance-happy.
[Loudon Wainwright III]
[Danny Michel]
Sunday afternoon’s From a Deep Down Place saw Sam Baker, Loudon Wainwright III (who we had the pleasure of interviewing), Danny Michel, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, and Reid Jamieson took the packed Stage 5 area for a song series ‘close to the heart’. Here was Loudon’s moment to shine, with the hilarious “My Meds” from his latest CD, “Older Than My Old Man Now”.
[Johnny Irion and Sarah Guthrie]
Jamieson and Michel each had lovely songs up their sleeves, while married couple Sarah Lee Guthrie (Woody’s granddaughter; Arlo’s daughter) and Johnny Irion strummed a couple of tunes.
The group got together at the end for one last number, making this our afternoon highlight.
Loudon Wainwright III claimed Main Stage opening rights and we felt kinda bad for his guitar-feed misery. At one point, he’d actually forgotten a line from a tune; we’re certain that the mix-up on the mic may have gotten the best of him. A great moment for the crowd was his retelling of one of his Dad’s Life Magazine columns, about their family dog at the end of his days. Retelling that one without a hitch is what makes this granddaddy so awesome.
Sunday evening highlights? Easy one. The Waterboys followed Loudon’s set and belted out some of the band’s songs from 30 years back (“A Girl Called Johnny”, “The Whole of The Moon”), part of their Fisherman’s Blues Revisited tour. We recently learned that the band once devoted half an album in tribute to Patti Smith.
Steve Wickham’s wicked violin caught my eye as I entered the pit for a few shots. And imagine my luck when “A Girl Called Johnny” started up and I was but a few feet from the band. Shivers.
This is a band with endurance.
[DeVotchKa]
While the crowd filled in for DeVotchKa’s set, I watched a few numbers from the eclectic Colorado outfit and moved to Stage 3. This was a world away in atmosphere, where Anthony Joseph and the Spasm Band had the audience ALL on their feet and dancing. My only thoughts were wow, these guys should have taken the Main Stage! This Trinidadian/UK group has performed for nearly 25 years, and you just can’t get any more energetic than leadsman Anthony Joseph.
Not only a musician, Anthony’s published a novel, three collections of poetry, and several recordings. Rubber Orchestras, their latest CD, has been added to our shopping list. Anthony Joseph and the Spasm Band’s combo of bass, drums, horns, wind and percussion has often been labeled “voodoo funk”.
There were mutterings during the festival about not having had enough world music groups on board, but we beg to differ.
After two and a half days of sun-infused music, food, and movement, this show perfectly capped off another great Folk Fest. See you in 2014 for the 37th edition! Check out my 2013 Vancouver Folk Music Festival photos here (Day 1 and 2) and here (Day 3).
We also sat down with Loudon Wainwright III for an interview between his afternoon workshop and early evening concert; we’ll link it here once it’s live.
