Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal – June 14-18, 2017

Back in the mid-1980s – 30-something years ago – when I was running the Golem, a highly regarded folk concert venue in Montreal, I formed a committee with several like-minded people and attempted to launch a folk festival in Montreal. Despite our best efforts, it never happened.

Jump ahead more than a couple of decades to 2008 and Matt Large and Rebecca Anderson of Hello Darlin’ Productions – by then well-established as Montreal’s major producer of folk-rooted and folk-branched concerts – joined forces with Carl Comeau of Hyperbole Music and launched the Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal. Matt, Rebecca and Carl made a folk festival happen in Montreal – and it has developed into a terrific summer festival.

The festival started modestly with its main site for the first four years at the St. Ambroise Terrace behind the McCauslin Brewery beside the Lachine Canal. By 2012, the folk fest had outgrown the terrace and moved a mile or so east on the Lachine Canal to a bigger site at Ilot Charlevoix. And, by 2015, they’d also outgrown that site and moved further west on the banks of the canal to the more expansive Centennial Esplanade near the corner of Saint Patrick and Pitt Streets in the Lachine Canal Park. The festival returns there in a couple of weeks for its 10th annual edition.

Before getting to the park, though, the Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal launches with three indoor events in venues close to the canal.

First up is an opening party on Wednesday, June 14, 7 pm, at Bar de Courcelle (4685 Notre Dame West). The free event features music by the Off-Whites.

Then, on Thursday, June 15, 8 pm, there are two simultaneous multi-artist tribute concerts.

At Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay (6052 Monk) there will be “Ain’t Life Sweet: A Tribute to Penny Lang,” the late doyenne of the Montreal folk scene who passed away last year. The amazing line-up of artists paying tribute to Penny will include Annabelle Chvostek, Eve Goldberg, the Durham County Poets, Michael Jerome Browne, Jason Lang & Scudfux, Bobby Dove, Connie Kaldor, Bill Garrett & Sue Lothrop & Roma Baran, and Dana Whittle & Béatrix Méthé. I have to be in Ottawa that night, but it’s an evening I would not miss if I could be in Montreal. Tickets are available at this link.

Meanwhile, at Théâtre Pardoxe, there will be a concert called “Always On My Mind: The Songs of Willie Nelson” with Joe Grass, Jim Bryson, Li’l Andy, Katie Moore, Andrew Horton, Sin and Swoon, Thus Owls and more. Tickets are available at this link.

Then on Friday, June 16 (beginning at 5 pm), Saturday, June 17 (beginning at 2 pm) and Sunday, June 18 (beginning at 2 pm), the music will be in high gear on three stages at the main festival site where general admission is free of charge (tickets are available for the shaded, perk-filled, VIP section at the main stage at this link).

I won’t list the entire lineup here (check out who is performing and the schedule on the festival website at this link) but among Friday’s highlights on the main stage will be Steve Poltz, Birds of Chicago and Donovan Woods. Saturday’s highlights on the main stage will include Beyond the Pale, William Prince, James Keelaghan, and Michael Jerome Browne. And, Sunday’s highlights on the main stage will include Amanda Rheaume, Les Tireux d’Roches and Sarah Harmer.

I’ve been one of the main stage MCs at the Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal almost every year (I couldn’t be there in 2012) and I’m looking forward to be back again this year on Saturday, June 17. Please say hi if you’re around.

Congratulations to Matt, Rebecca, Carl, and the great crew of volunteers, for 10 years of the Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal – now, by far, my favorite annual event in Montreal.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal – June 17-21

Growing slowly-but-surely over the past eight years, Montreal’s Folk Fest on the Canal, has matured into my favorite summertime event in Montreal. Staged on a much smaller and much more human scale than massive events like the jazz festival, this year’s edition of the Folk Fest on the Canal promises to be among its best yet.

Montreal’s Folk Festival on the Canal will include several indoor concerts in venues near the Lachine Canal and a weekend of free music on its banks. This year’s free events are taking place at a new location in the Lachine Canal Park – the Centennial Esplanade near the corner of Saint Patrick and Pitt Streets, about 1.5 km west of the old site.

Tom Rush

The festival opens with legendary folksinger Tom Rush in concert on Wednesday, June 17, 8:00 pm, at the George Vanier Cultural Centre (2450 Workman).

As I noted in my review of Tom Rush Celebrates 50 Years of Music, Tom’s early Prestige and Elektra albums were among the first albums I bought when I was getting heavily into folk music in the late-1960s. So, while I’m a little young to have picked up on Tom right at the beginning of his career, I have been listening to Tom for a very long time. I still listen to those early recordings and to all the rest he’s made over the years.

Tom’s concerts are legendary and are always a great event. I’ve seen him a bunch of times at folk festivals over the years and I still vividly remember a series of four concerts I got to see him do at the Bottom Line in New York, circa 1978. And this will apparently be Tom's first Montreal performance since a concert for the Folk Music Club at Sir George Williams University in the mid-1960s  – so this concert will be a rare event.

That same night, Montreal’s Echo Hunters will perform at Victor Studio (1050 Lacasse) at 8:00 pm.

On Thursday, June 18, 8:00 pm, Alex Cuba, will bring his rootsy Cuban songs and outstanding guitar playing to the Corona Theatre (2490 Notre Dame West).

Bruce Cockburn

On Friday, June 19, 9:00 pm, legendary Canadian singer-songwriter-guitarist Bruce Cockburn will perform at the Paradoxe Theatre (5959 Monk).

As I noted, in my review of Small Source of Comfort, Bruce’s music has also been a major part of my musical life for a very long time. I first saw him live in Montreal at the short-lived Back Door Coffee House in 1970 or ’71, right around the time his first LP came out. I’ve seen Bruce play dozens of times since then in venues small and large and every concert has been a compelling experience.

Also on Friday, June 19, from 4:00 pm and again Saturday and Sunday, June 20 and 21, the festival shifts to Centennial Esplanade (corner of St. Patrick and Pitt) for lots of concerts and other activities – all free of charge – featuring a diverse selection of artists, many of whom are new to me.

Highlights of the Friday schedule at Centennial Esplanade includes a concert by the terrific Acadian band Vishten and their contemporary approach to traditional music.

Among the Saturday highlights are concerts with The Bombardils, Sin and Swoon, The Stray Birds, and Basia Bulat. The Saturday concert I’m most looking forward to is with Michael Hurley, an obscure but legendary figure from the 1960s and ‘70s folk scene.

Sunday’s highlights includes concerts with The Slocan Ramblers, Sarah Jane Scouten, Peter Katz, and Jim Bryson.

The complete schedule is available at this link.

Congratulations to Matt Large and Rebecca Anderson of Hello Darlin’ Productions and Carl Comeau of Hyperbole Music for founding the Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal and developing it into the great event it has become.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

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--Mike Regenstreif

Jesse Winchester is coming to Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal

Once upon a time I got to see a bunch of Jesse Winchester concerts every year. That was back in the days when I was running the Golem, a folk club in Montreal, and Jesse was playing three night stands there two or three times a year and selling out virtually every show. This was before the amnesty for Vietnam War-era draft resistors which allowed him to return to the U.S. to play concerts after 1977. So although he was already becoming known as a major league singer-songwriter, and although he occasionally ventured off to play in other Canadian cities, it was almost like he was all ours in those days.

Jesse moved to Montreal in 1967 and I began to see him early on when I started going to folk clubs and concerts as a teenager in the late-1960s. In 1972, I began producing folk music concerts in Montreal and Jesse became one of my favourite artists to work with. He played at Dawson College at my first concert series and was a regular headliner at the Golem, the folk club I ran in Montreal for much of the 1970s and ‘80s. And more than just one of my favourite artists to work with, he’s remained one of my very favourite artists to listen to. I never pass up opportunities to be in his audience.

Jesse, true to his Southern roots, is as soulful a singer as I know and there is a quiet power to his

performances that is unrivaled by any other performer I can think of. He silences and draws in the audience no matter what the circumstances or conditions. I’ve seen him do it in small coffeehouses, at outdoor festivals, in concert halls and in big rock clubs. In 1999, he played the Spectrum in Montreal when he returned to performing after a 10 year hiatus. More than 1,000 people were packed into the place and I never, in all the many shows I attended there, heard it be so quiet and the audience be so riveted. It was like being back at the Golem in 1974 – the only time I ever thought that at the Spectrum.

That Jesse is one of our greatest songwriters is without question. As well as his own fine recordings, his songs have become staples in the repertoires of so many other artists over the past four decades.

There was a major health scare in 2011 when Jesse was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. But, he fought the disease and won. And he returned to the concert stage sounding as great as ever. When I saw him a year ago, none of that quiet, intense power in his singing and performance seemed diminished.

Jesse remarried and moved back to the United States about 10 years or so ago – so Jesse Winchester concerts can’t be taken for granted as in those old days when he was all ours.

Jesse will be performing at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on Thursday, Friday and Saturday April 5, 6, and 7 and at the Pearl Company Arts Centre in Hamilton on Thursday April 11.

Then he comes home to Montreal when Hello Darlin’ Productions brings him to Petit Campus on Saturday April 13. And I’ll be coming home for that one too.

You can read an earlier post of mine about the quiet power of Jesse Winchester, which includes a great video of Jesse singing “Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding,” by clicking here.

You can read my Montreal Gazette review of Love Filling Station, Jesse’s latest album, by clicking here.

And you can read my review of Quiet About It: A Tribute to Jesse Winchester, by clicking here.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif