The Ottawa Folklore Centre closes

Ottawa Folklore Centre (Google Streetview)

The folk music community in Ottawa, in Ontario, and, indeed, across Canada, was dealt a harsh blow today with the announcement that the Ottawa Folklore Centre has fallen into bankruptcy and has closed.

The announcement came in a letter to the community (see below) from Arthur McGregor, who founded the Ottawa Folklore Centre in 1976 and ran it with tremendous dedication and love for nearly four decades – most of his adult life. As Arthur writes in his letter, it has been his life’s work.

The Ottawa Folklore Centre was never just a musical instrument store. It was also a music school where skilled musicians taught novices how to sing and play guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, fiddle and who knows what else. It published songbooks by the likes of Stan Rogers and Bruce Cockburn and it was a community gathering point. The Ottawa Folklore Centre was a place to drop in and hang out. It was a great source of information about what was happening on the folk scene. The Ottawa Folklore Centre was a beloved community institution that nurtured and supported other community institutions – from the Ottawa Folk Festival to Canadian Spaces on CKCU to the Canadian Folk Music Awards, Rasputin’s Folk Café, Irene’s, the Black Sheep Inn, the Ottawa Grassroots Festival, and virtually every other festival, concert venue and music producer in the region.

But, noting all of that, and so many other incredible accomplishments, doesn’t begin to address the real, lasting contribution of the Ottawa Folklore Centre – which was to make folk music an accessible, affordable, participatory part of people’s lives.

Arthur McGregor performing at the 2013 Ottawa Folk Festival. (Mike Regenstreif)

I know that running a business like the Ottawa Folklore Centre has never been easy. But it’s been more than a business – for Arthur, in particular, but also for just about everyone else who has ever worked there – it’s been a calling. Most of the folklore centres I got to hang out as a young folkie – the legendary New York Folklore Center, the Toronto Folklore Centre, and the Montreal Folklore Centre – were gone by the 1980s. A select few – the Denver Folklore Center, the Halifax Folklore Centre, and, until now, the Ottawa Folklore Centre, come to mind – have endured. I hope their communities know what treasures these places are.

I have some idea of how tough it’s been for Arthur to keep the Ottawa Folklore Centre going over the past number of years. And while most business-oriented people might have called it a day long ago, Arthur kept on keeping on because, deep down, he knew how important the Ottawa Folklore Centre has been to our community.

Thirty-eight years! It’s been a great run, Arthur. The entire folk music community is giving you a well-deserved standing ovation for all that you’ve done and accomplished with the Ottawa Folklore Centre.

Arthur’s letter:

Thursday, July 23, 2015

There are few things more important to me than folk music and the deep community that it engenders. I have dedicated most of my life to this community.  For the past 38 years the main symbol of that dedication has been the Ottawa Folklore Centre. I opened it on Bronson Avenue in 1976 and later, Terry Penner, my late wife, and I moved it to its present location on Bank Street. These thirty-eight years have not been easy but I have continued, with the help of family and friends…hundreds, in the face of many challenges and been proud of what we have accomplished. I have persisted in upholding the original vision of the OFC as a true centre for musicians to come together as well as a centre for teaching. The pursuit of this vision has meant much personal sacrifice over the years and the road has been far from easy. But it has been my life’s work and I am particularly proud of the esteem the community has held for this work and this vision.  That esteem was gloriously on display when it first became known that the business was running into trouble last year. A benefit concert was held which raised enough money to keep us afloat for a while.  This outpouring of love was humbling and heart-warming at the same time.  It is because of this love and community support that the decisions I now have to make are so onerous and difficult. 

In recent years the challenge of keeping the OFC alive has been steadily increasing to the point where the impact on my personal life is no longer bearable.  It has become quite clear that in spite of our on-going efforts and personal sacrifices, this business is simply not sustainable.

We have sought much professional advice and explored several options. I have pursued possible buyers of the business, real estate agents to see if sub-leasing parts of the building is feasible, hired consultants to help organize the business to reflect current realities. We have worked with community organizations to share programming. I have tried everything I know to keep this business afloat. I have invested all the money that I have available to me. I have nothing left to give, monetarily or physically.

With sales recently weakening as the summer arrives, the final decision has been made for me.

Effective July 23, the Ottawa Folklore Centre Ltd. is declaring bankruptcy and will be in the hands of a bankruptcy trustee, Ginsberg/Gingras. There will be customers, students, staff, suppliers, and teachers who will not understand this choice and who will lose earned income and payments for lessons and goods that The Folklore Centre will not be able to honour. I apologize for this. It is not for lack of trying.

Arthur McGregor

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--Mike Regenstreif

Helen Verger Award

Mike Regenstreif receives the Helen Verger Award from Mark Monahan.

I was humbled and honoured this past weekend to be this year’s recipient of the Helen Verger Award from the Ottawa Folk Festival.

Named in honour of the late Helen Verger, the founder of Rasputin’s Folk Café in Ottawa, the award is presented annually to “to an individual who has made significant, sustained contributions to folk/roots music in Canada.”

Year after year at the Ottawa Folk Festival, I’ve seen the Helen Verger Award presented to an incredible collection of folks and, every year, I’ve thought to myself what great choices each was for the award. Almost all of them have been people I know – including many friends. In the Weavers’ version of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” they sing, “We are travelling in the footsteps of those who’ve gone before,” and, indeed, it is such a great privilege to see my name join theirs in the list of Helen Verger Award recipients:

Murray McLauchlan (1995); Colleen Peterson and Sylvia Tyson (1996); Bruce Cockburn (1997); Ferron and Ian Tamblyn (1998); Chopper McKinnon (1999); Garnet Rogers (2000); Kate & Anna McGarrigle (2001); Buffy Sainte-Marie (2002); Jane Siberry (2003); Jackie Washington (2004); Willie P. Bennett (2005); Arthur McGregor (2006); Penny Lang (2007); Chalmers Doane (2008); Paul Mills (2009); Harvey Glatt (2010); Gene Swimmer (2011); Chris White (2012); Lynn Miles (2013); Mike Regenstreif (2014).

Thank you so much to the Ottawa Folk Festival, to Mark Monahan and to Ana Miura, for this tremendous honour.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Ottawa Folk Festival – Sunday, September 8

Mark Monahan presents the Helen Verger Award to Lynn Miles

If there’s been a dream night for the traditional folk festival audience at the Ottawa Folk Festival over the past three years it was surely Sunday night with back-to-back concerts by Ottawa’s Lynn Miles, among the finest of Canada’s contemporary singer-songwriters, the dynamic Carolina Chocolate Drops, who are at the forefront of the recent revival of the African American string band tradition, and legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot.

The evening began with the announcement that Lynn, a stalwart of Ottawa’s folk music scene for more than two decades – she performed at the first Ottawa Folk Festival in 1994 – was the 2013 recipient of 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. Lynn, who, as well as being a great singer-songwriter in her own right, has also been a champion of so many other artists, was an excellent choice for this year’s award.

Immediately after Ottawa Folk Festival executive and artistic director Mark Monahan presented the award to Lyn, she gave a terrific hour-long concert accompanied throughout by the exceptional guitar playing of Keith Glass and, for one song, a cover of “Helpless,” a nod to the festival’s missing headliner, Neil Young, by vocalist Rebecca Campbell.

Lynn Miles

Songs from Downpour, Lynn’s superb new album, dominated a set that also included several of her classics including “Black Flowers,” one of the best coal mining songs of recent decades.

As Lynn finished her concert on the RavenLaw Stage, the CUPE Stage came alive with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who turned in one of the most dynamic sets of traditional music I’ve heard in Ottawa in years with original members Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens – who are both multi-instrumentalists – joined by Hubby Jenkins, also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, and cellist Leyla McCalla.

Dom Flemons & Rhiannon Giddins of the Carolina Chocolate Drops

Using varying combinations of instruments, with Dom and Rhiannon trading lead vocal roles, they ranged through a repertoire of traditional African American folk music, including much from the African American string band and blues traditions, as well as the occasional foray into other styles – including a terrific performance of Celtic mouth music by Rhiannon. At one point, Rhiannon was joined by her sister, Lalenja Harrington, for a dynamic a cappella gospel song.

A few minutes after the Carolina

Gordon Lightfoot

Chocolate Drops finished up, Gordon Lightfoot and his band took to the RavenLaw Stage for an extended set. While Gordon’s voice was just a shadow of what it was in his prime – it sounded almost like a whisper early in the set but grew stronger as the concert went on – it almost didn’t matter as we were really responding to a Canadian music icon responsible for one of the richest song catalogs of the past half-century.

While Gordon’s set leaned heavily on hits from the 1970s and ‘80s, and even material from the ‘90s, the best moments – at least for me – came with “Ribbon of Darkness” and “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” two essential songs from the 60s. I must confess there were other ‘60s songs – “Early Morning Rain,” for example – that I wished he’d done.

Still though, we (the audience) were responding to Canadian folk music legend and thanking him for his hundreds of songs and thousands of concerts over the years.

Chris Smither

After Gordon’s set, we made it over to the Hill Stage in time to hear the last three songs – including a bravura rendition of Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues – by the sublime folk and blues artist Chris Smither. Chris, who I almost didn’t recognize without his blue guitar (just kidding), was in great form and I wish I’d been able to see more.

Highlights from stage bouncing earlier in the day included a workshop called “Peace, Love and Understanding” with John Allaire, Martyn Joseph, the dynamic Welsh singer-songwriter, and Trent Severn, an impressive trio of three women from Startford, Ontario; a solo concert by young Halifax singer-songwriter Mo Kenney; and some impressive songs by Dave Hadfield (Chris’ brother) who was accompanied by Trent Severn fiddler Laura C. Bates in the “Wild People, Wild Places” workshop.

As always in a big festival, there many sets I missed over the course of the Ottawa Folk Festival that I would have liked to have seen. Among them, concerts by Terry Gillespie, Sheesham & Lotus, David Lindley, Matt Andersen, and Patti Smith.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Ottawa Folk Festival – Saturday, September 7

We had limited time – essentially the afternoon – to spend at the Ottawa Folk Festival on Saturday and spent the time enjoying the community-oriented free side of the festival with its workshop and small concert stages.

Tift Merritt

A folk-rock concert by Ottawa singer-songwriter John Allaire was already about halfway through on the Hill Stage when we arrived at Hog’s Back Park and we sat down and enjoyed several songs before moving over to the Slackwater Stage at 3:00 pm for a workshop called “Femme Fatale” featuring young Ottawa-based singer-songwriters Shannon Rose and Catriona Sturton, and South Carolina’s Tift Merritt.

While Shannon and Catriona did well in introducing themselves to a wider audience, the workshop clearly belonged to Tift, one of the most accomplished alt-country singer-songwriters of the past decade. Playing solo in the workshop setting, Tift showed she was just as effective by herself as she is with her concert band turning in compellingly powerful versions of several songs.

If there was a heart and soul to this year’s Ottawa Folk Festival, it could surely be found at the Hill Arthur McGregor, Terry Gillespie, Lynn Miles, Doug McArthur, Arthur II & Tish Parker – and, for a story and song, Chris White – paid tribute to the late Chopper McKinnon, the beloved host of CKCU’s Canadian Spaces for 33 years, a main-stage MC at the Ottawa Folk Festival for most of its existence, and the personification of Ottawa’s folk music scene for so many years.

Lynn Miles, Terry Gillespie & Arthur McGregor

Stage from 4:30 to 6:00 pm when veteran performers

The artists told Chopper stories and sang some of his favourite songs and songs that reminded them – and us – of Chopper. Lynn’s singing Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young, Arthur McGregor’s reading of a poem about Chopper written by Wendy Moore, and Chris’ performance of a seasonal song about Chopper in his Santa-hat were among the most poignant moments of the tribute.

Chris White & Doug McArthur

Unfortunately, sound bleed from other stages, particularly it seems from the very loud Belle Game playing on the CUPE stage, hampered the concentration of both the artists and many in the audience, for much of the tribute.

The timing of the tribute to Chopper was an example of having to choose which stage to be at as there were a couple of other worthy events going on at the same time – a workshop performance and interview with singer-songwriter-astronaut Chris Hadfield and a full band concert by Tift Merritt – that I would have liked to have been at. Both, I'm told, were very good.

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--Mike Regenstreif