After all the rain on Saturday, the weather
for the Ottawa Folk Festival on Sunday was much better – cool with a mix of sun and non-threatening cloud.
As I’ve noted before, I consider the
daytime programming – particularly the workshops – to be the heart and soul of
a folk festival and I spent almost all of Sunday parked at the workshop stage
where I heard a lot of fine music and was rewarded with much of the
spontaneous interaction that folk festival workshops are noted for.
The first of Sunday’s scheduled workshops
was an on-stage interview with actor/singer-songwriter Jill Hennessy.
Unfortunately, we arrived late – just in time to hear her perform one of her
alt-country songs at the end of the session. I would have liked to have heard more.
The rest of the workshops were
multi-artist, round robin style song swaps with vaguely-defined thematic titles
which pretty much allowed the artists to take them wherever they wanted to go.
First up was Any Way You String It, hosted by Arthur McGregor of the Ottawa
Folklore Centre who was playing his banjo for the occasion. Other participants
included country artist Nudie of Nudie and the Turks, Newfoundland folk trio
The Once and the sublime singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson (who was joined for a
song by the equally sublime singer-songwriters John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky,
her partners in the folk supergroup Red Horse).
Among the workshop’s highlights were
Arthur’s instrumental banjo interpretation of “The Star Spangled Banner,” Nudie’s
dipping into Sam Cooke’s early years for some Soul Stirrers gospel, The Once
getting all the artists playing and the whole audience singing on Bob Dylan’s
“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and Eliza’s sing-along rendition of “Slouching
Towards Bethlehem.”
Next up was Hellos & Goodbyes hosted by
Lucy Kaplansky with British folksinger John Smith and a stripped down version
of the indie-rock band Said the Whale.
Clearly Lucy, who called Eliza Gilkyson up
to sing with her on one song and John Gorka on another, carried the workshop
with several of the songs from her stunning new CD, Reunion, including the
title track which recalls a 1971 family reunion in Toronto when she was 11 and
a recent concert trip to Toronto attended by many of her Canadian cousins.
John demonstrated his songwriting roots in
traditional British folk music and also played a version of Richard Thompson’s
“Beeswing” that was quite lovely despite nervousness that caused him to trip-up
in a couple of verses. John’s work with open guitar tunings was quite creative.
Said the Whale, playing without their bassist and drummer, seemed a bit like a
fish – or whale – out of water in the folk festival workshop setting.
Toward the end of the workshop, I dashed
over to the main stage to see Chris White, one of the most tireless animators
of Ottawa’s folk music scene, receive the Helen Verger Award. Named for the
founder of Rasputin’s the late, lamented Ottawa folk café, the award has been
presented annually by the Ottawa Folk Festival to someone for outstanding
contributions to Canadian folk music. Chris, the Ottawa Folk Festival’s
founding artistic director and guiding spirit for 16 years, was a most
deserving choice for the award.
Then it was back to the workshop stage for City
Slickers, Country Songs, hosted by Pat Moore, followed. Also on hand were
Gordie McKeeman & (one of) His Rhythm Boys, Catriona Sturton and Amy Helm.
Pat, accompanied by guitarist Pat
McLaughlin, was a charming host and contributed several excellent performances
in both straight country and Ray Charlesesque country/R&B. Catriona
particularly shined on a harmonica/guitar instrumental.
But, clearly, the stars of this workshop
were Gordie and Amy. Gordie was also playing without his bassist and drummer,
but his infectious fiddling and step-dancing and Peter Cann’s hot guitar
playing more than carried the day with their down-home tunes.
Amy, who played mandolin, was accompanied by guitarist Dan
Littleton and called up Byron Isaacs – who also plays in her band and was a
band mate in Ollabelle – to sing harmony on a couple of songs. Amy was the only
person I heard sing a Woody Guthrie song at the festival in this centennial
year of Woody’s birth. Her rocking version of Woody’s “I Ain’t Got No Home” was
reminiscent of the version by Bob Dylan and The Band (which included Amy’s dad, Levon Helm) from the 1968 Woody Guthrie memorial concert at Carnegie Hall. She
also did a stunning version of Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand.”
There was lots of musical exchanges and jamming by all of the artists throughout the City
Slickers, Country Songs workshop.
Then it was back over to the larger stage
area to see most of Michael Jerome Browne’s concert set. Performing solo
and playing multiple instruments
including guitar, fretless gourd banjo and fiddle, Michael showed his mastery
of various traditional and contemporary roots styles – blues, folk, Appalachian,
Cajun, etc. – in a repertoire that ranged from traditional folk material to an
Al Green soul classic and several of Michael’s excellent original songs written
in collaboration with lyricist B. Markus.
And that was it for me at this year’s
Ottawa Folk Festival. Scheduling conflicts meant I couldn’t stay for the Sunday
evening concerts. Among those I particularly wanted to see were Amy Helm and
Red Horse (Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky.)
The festival also continued with a Monday
night concert headlined by Bon Iver which apparently attracted a massive crowd
to Hog’s Back Park.
Last words
I’m very happy the Ottawa Folk Festival
attracted the big crowds it did this year. It portends well for the future.
As I noted in my first report, the Ottawa
Folk Festival has really become two festivals in one – an indie rock event and
a folk festival. Unfortunately, the overbearing sound bleed from the big stages
sometimes overpowered the quieter folk stages.
I fully understand why Bluesfest director
Mark Monahan has gone in the indie rock direction with most of the programming.
Clearly, his choices brought in the biggest – and youngest – crowds in the
festival’s history. But the two streams of programming needn’t compete the way
they do.
My suggestion would be to program a real
folk festival during the daytime and the louder rock acts at night. The big crowds
of university students and folks in their 20s, for the most part, only show up
at night anyway.
Expand the workshop schedule on Saturday
and Sunday with more stages and creative, visionary programming that doesn’t
seem like it’s almost an afterthought – including having much more and much more
diverse traditional music. Shut down the huge main stage during the day and
restrict daytime concerts on the bigger side stages to folk and/or acoustic
artists. There’s so many of them around. It will also bring in a lot more of
the traditional folk festival audience, many of whom feel alienated from the
current festival format.
And then, use the evenings for the louder
indie-rock concerts that bring in the huge crowds. As I said, those crowds only
show up at night anyway.
Kudos to Mark and the rest of the Bluesfest
team for maintaining some of the Ottawa Folk Festival traditions including the
kidzone, dance area, and environmental policies, and for banning smoking on the
festival grounds.
And kudos, too, to the great corps of
volunteers, another Ottawa Folk Festival tradition.
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