Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal – June 15-19, 2016

Folk Fest Sur le Canal, by now my favorite summertime event in Montreal, returns for its ninth year with lineup that includes several interesting indoor concerts in venues near the Lachine Canal and three days of outdoor concerts along its banks featuring many performers I’ve enjoyed for years and others I’ve not heard before.

For a second year the outdoor events are taking place at Lachine Canal Park’s Centennial Esplanade near the corner of Saint Patrick and Pitt Streets.

The festival traditionally opens with a gala concert featuring a legendary folk artist. This year it will be John McEuen, a mainstay for a half-century with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and a solo performer and collaborator-extraordinaire known for his virtuosity on banjo, fiddle, mandolin and guitar. John performs Wednesday, June 15, 8:00 pm, at the George Vanier Cultural Centre (2450 Workman).

John McEuen

On Thursday, June 16, 8:00 pm, the festival presents a concert called The Future is Bright: A Glimpse in the Next Era of Montreal Folk featuring three young performers – Stefanie Parnell, Alexander Brown and Tamara Weber-Fillion – the festival says “are poised to achieve great things.” The concert takes place at Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay (6052 Monk).

On Friday, June 17, 9:00 pm, the festival is presenting A Long Strange Trip: The Songs of the Grateful Dead, a one-time-only event featuring Joe Grass, Andrew Barr, Brad Barr, Steve Hill, Katie Moore, Li’l Andy, Peter Mika, Colin Perry, Notre Dame de Grass and others. With so much great material to draw on this should be a great evening at the Paradoxe Theatre (5959 Monk).

Also on Friday, June 17, from 5:00 pm and again Saturday and Sunday, June 18 and 19, 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.

Sheesham and Lotus and Son

Highlights of the Friday schedule at Centennial Esplanade includes concerts by Sussex, a terrific new Montreal band fronted by Rob Lutes that combines roots and jazz influences and instrumentation, and Sheesham and Lotus and Son, whose music is rooted in old-time folk, blues, country and traditional jazz.

Among the Saturday highlights are concerts with children’s music legends Sharon and Bram; Montreal’s Notre Dame de Grass, one of the best bluegrass bands in Canada; and Joel Plaskett, who moves easily and naturally between roots and pop music.

Lizzy Hoyt

Sunday’s highlights includes concerts with Shtreiml, perhaps Canada’s most creative klezmer ensemble; acclaimed Montreal songwriter Katie Moore; Calgary-based Lizzy Hoyt, who moves easily between traditional folksongs and her own contemporary material; Richard Shindell, a superb American singer-songwriter (now living in Argentina), whose recordings I often featured on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show; and a collaboration between Socalled, who has creatively combined hip hop and Jewish music, and Yves Lambert, a legend of Quebec traditional music and the former front man of La Bottine Souriante.

Ticket information for the indoor concerts and VIP section in the park, the complete schedule and all the other information you might need are on the festival website.

Congratulations again 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.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Corin Raymond – Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams

CORIN RAYMOND

Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams

Local Rascal

corinraymond.com

Toronto-based singer-songwriter Corin Raymond arrived on my radar about seven years ago thanks to a brilliant song called “There will Always be a Small Time,” a piece I described at the time as “a near-perfect piece of songwriting.” But, just as there is so much more to Ian Tyson than “Four Strong Winds,” or to Gordon Lightfoot than “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” or to Leonard Cohen than “Suzanne,” or to so many other examples, there is more to Corin Raymond than “There will Always be a Small Time.”

That is more than evident on Corin’s new album, “Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams,” a set of nine fine songs he either wrote or co-wrote, and one cover.

Corin is a singer-songwriter whose work engages the listener, the words and melodies combining to draw listeners into the stories he’s telling – and whether the stories are autobiographical or about other people, real or fictional, it’s the story that matters with the lyrics, music, arrangement and delivery all in service to the story.

The album opens strongly with “Hard on Things,” co-written with Rob Vaarmeyer, in which he conversationally describes all those things he’s hard on – from his body to many material things and, by implication (“I’ve worn out two gold wedding rings”), his relationships.

Among the other highlights are “Under the Belly of the Night,” co-written with Jonathan Byrd, which pays tribute to fallen early rock ‘n’ roll and R&B heroes Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson and to how their music endures so many decades after their deaths; “Two Miles of Trains,” co-written with Raghu Lokanathan, an upbeat, infectious celebration of hobo culture (the album’s title comes from this song); and “Morning Glories,” a piano-based tribute to some of the characters – flawed but good-hearted folks – that one might encounter walking around a rundown Toronto neighbourhood.

Corin Raymond makes you care about the people in these songs.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Noel Paul Stookey – At Home: The Maine Tour

NOEL PAUL STOOKEY

At Home: The Maine Tour

Neworld

noelpaulstookey.com

As I’ve noted before, I was too young to have been caught up in the wave of commercial folk groups – like the Kingston Trio and Limeliters – that became hugely popular in the late-1950s. But several groups that came along just a little bit later – in particular Ian & Sylvia and Peter, Paul & Mary – did have a huge impact on me as my interest in music, and especially folk music, developed in the ‘60s. Years later, I got to know Noel Paul Stookey a little and, through him, met Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers, when Peter, Paul & Mary performed in Montreal in the ‘80s.

Along with the many Peter, Paul & Mary albums, Noel has also recorded many solo albums and his latest, At Home: The Maine Tour, is a warm and intimate, extended live set – 24 songs running 79 minutes – recorded during a tour of Maine, his home state for the past four decades. It’s an entirely solo affair – no back-up musicians or singers – with the spotlight all on his voice and very accomplished guitar arrangements.

The set is a CD/DVD combo with the songs on the CD and videos of them recorded at the concerts on the DVD. Some of the songs are numbers I’ve never heard before while others are new versions of songs from Peter, Paul & Mary or earlier solo albums. (I think one of the songs, the then-unreleased “Facets of the Jewel,” may have had its world premiere when Noel was my guest on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program in 1999.)

The most moving pieces on At Home, are “Jean Claude,” a reflection on the Holocaust from the perspective of an old French man who, as a boy, witnessed his friend, a Jewish boy named Michel, shipped off to a Nazi death camp; “Familia Del Corazon,” an inspiring song I’d never heard before that’s an important reminder of what countries like the United States and Canada truly represent to ourselves and to the rest of the world (and an important message in these Trumpian times); and “Not That Kind of Music,” a tribute to Pete Seeger written a couple of years before Pete passed away.

Among my other favorites in this set are such classics as “Wedding Song (There is Love),” a beautiful piece he wrote to sing at Peter Yarrow’s wedding; “Whatshername,” a jazzy reminiscence, many years later, of one who got away (I’m sure most everyone has a whatshername to recall); “Virtual Party,” a witty, delightful spoof of anonymity in the digital age; and “Glory Train,” Noel’s adaptation of the traditional “This Train,” which brings the set back to the first Peter, Paul & Mary LP 54 or so years ago.

Near the end of the album, Noel sings “In These Times,” and it strikes me that At Home: The Maine Tour is a timeless collection from an artist with a deep understanding of his times.

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--Mike Regenstreif