The Edmonton Folk Fest (2)

Saturday was again another beautiful day. My friend Jen was again fully occupied with volunteering (beer tickets anyone?) while the rest of our group was scattered over the festival. For me my day started at stage number three, where there were some interesting combination. First of all there was the garden party with Dervish, Bellowhead and the Carolina Chocolate drops.

The odd one in this group were the Carolina Chocolate drops, the only band not coming from the European continent. From what I can remember, I was pretty impressed by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I bought their cd the same day, so I must have been. After that there was the masterclass with a great female banjo player called Alison Brown, french artist Daby Toure, Jerry Douglas and Maura O`Connell, an Irish woman with a beautiful voice. There seemed to be a special click between Alison Brown and Daby Toure, who had a lot of fun together when playing their songs. These are the best moments musically at Edmonton: When you notice that two completely different artist who never met before, have a connection with each other and just click. This is what happened at the masterclass. Maura O`Connell the the icing on the cake. Compared to the other songs, her's were a bit more timid and classic, which made a perfect combination with great banjo-picking and african tones.

Now it was time for my first ever view of the Broken Social Scene. Maybe it is a bit of an anti-climax to see one of your most favorite bands playing on a small stage while everyone is chilling out in the sun, but I loved every second of it. The most stylish guy on stage was definitely Brendan Canning; Wearing a pink top with a chequard short skirt. Pretty impressive. Luke Doucet fitted in perfectly in the formation. It was pretty hard to distinguish him from any of the other Socials. John Bottomly was a bit more distinctive on stage as a person, but is music fitted in perfectly with the rest. Another amazing thing about the Folkfest: By going to your favorite band you will also get to know 3 or 4 other bands.

After a spicy dinner I went on and saw the Peatbog Faeries for the first time. A violin and bagpipe play the solo's together, while the rest of the band lays down a subtle groove. It's one of a kind, and the first time I was indeed baffled. Later however you came to realise something: They are a bit of an one trick pony. The bagpipe and violin lead every song and there is not much variation in this theme. Still, in this first concert they were one of the revelations for me for this festival. Heading back to the maintsage it was time for..sleepy music. Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow quartet featuring Bela Fleck was interesting, but they played music that would come much better to it's right in a more intimate setting. I cannot remember anything from Ryan Shaw, which probably says enough. Joan Osborne was on next.

After she finished singing "One of Us", its started raining. A message? A sign? All in all, it was a bit too much "middle of the road" music for me. Aimee mann had a better voice and songs. Last but not least came Michael Franti and Spearhead. Sometimes you just wish that the dead would rise up against the living. In this case the dead guy should be Bob Marley vs. Franti. Shallow, simple and empty. These are the three words with which I would like to describe Franti's music. He can talk all he wants about his former teacher, father or brother, his music lacks the same emotion has he tries to portray in his speeches. Did Bob Marley talk as much? I don`t know..but my opinion is that you should let your music do the talking, and with Michael Franti it was the other way around. What makes it all worse is that everybody was enjoying themselves, and I just didn`t get it. Of course I tried to join in; but after the 20th time where we were asked to jump by Franti I was like; Jump yourself! A good artist giving a great concert shouldn`t have to tell his audience to jump constantly, they`ll do that on their own. Bah..that psuedo-emotional and happy crap was just not meant for my ears. Call me a grumpy old cynic, but you should have seen me during Rage Against the Machine, or Moloko, or the Flaming Lips, or Franz Ferdinand, or Nick Cave...or...or...

Sunday was the last day of the Folkfest. I already had a heavy sunburn that day. Luckily the day started with the Broken Social Scene, Serana Ryder and Royal Wood on one stage. "Looks just like the sun" was a great start of the day. A bit to early apparently for Brendan Canning who joined in a bit later with his bass. Serena challanged Kevin Drew to an improvisation battle, and after some hestitation he took the challange. The lyrics he made up were quite hillarious and made him pass the challange with flying colors. Eventually the band also started to make up a song as a bit of an ode to the Folkfest. Again..my memory abandoned me..I`ve forgotten the lyrics. But believe me, it was a great song and one of the highlights for me of this festival.

After that I made one of my best choices ever: I went to the Mighty Popo. His band is a mix of American and African musicians, and his songs reflect this multi-cultural line-up. He even got the crowd up to dance at some songs, quite a feat at the fourth day of a festival, in the burning sun. Afterwards he would also do a cd-signing. I bought it and got it signed. I don`t know why, but every time I meet a band I never know what to say. You try to avoid the clichee: "wow, that was a great show". But what else is there to say? You don`t know him; You just found out that he and his great music even existed.

Fast I went to the stage where the Carolina Chocolate Drops were performing. I got a perfect seat right in front of the stage, and enjoyed every second of their show. It's not only how they mastered their instruments, it's also their pure enthousiasm while playing. They also have a bit of an experimental side to them. At one of the side stage concerts, the girl, sang a song in gaelic. Quite impressive for somebody from the States. After this performance the festival was pretty much perfect for me. Except for one thing: I still had to see the Broken Social Scene on the main stage.

They tried to get a standing audience in front of the stage, but the security didn`t allow for it. The first half of the concert I thus spend sitting (from a perfect position that I gave us by getting up extremely early) and enjoying the concert passively. I got increasingly annoyed by the clear ambiguity of the audience in front of me. They didn`t seem to care that one of the best and most innovative bands of Canada was playing on stage right in front of them. And they weren`t even performing badly: There was no bad note during the whole concert, it was a tight concert. So halfway the set I decided to go to the front of the stage, and move a bit on the music (some might call it dancing).

A song I especially remember was Ibi dreams of pavement. It's an all out emotional song with a perfect harmony at the end. We were asked to scream our lungs out, and so we did (in the dancing area at least). Thinking back at it, I`m a bit emberassed, but why should I be? It felt good at the time, and if it felt good at that time it was the best thing to do.

For the Duhks I had to get closer to the main stage, since one of my Canadian friends absolutely loved them. I liked what I heard, it was danceable, but that's about all I can remember. Chris Isaac however. Wow! Coming up in a pink suite, runnig around on the field with a hoard of crazy old women chasing him. Trying the climb on the light-tower but miserably (but graciously) failing, running back and finishing his song in style. Then starting to sing a song called bad, bad man. Putting himself in the position of the dictator in the band, who does horrible things to his fellow band-mates (who have been on tour with him for the past 20 years). And to start his most famous song "Wicked woman", and playing it perfectly, still with that same voice as 20 years ago. He changed to an even brighter costume during the second half the set, and continued to play a selection of slow love and rockin' songs. Later I had to explain to me friends that it is not a matter of liking the music yes or no; It is more about the show as a whole, which was just first class entertainment.

What I especially liked was that he does not take himself too seriously: He knows that he is an entertainer, he knows that he is not the greatest songwriter of all time, so what would stop him of giving his audience a great close to a great festival? Nothing! Thanks Chris for beating my expectations of you to pulp! The finale was a song by Ian Tyson; "Four Strong Winds". The crowd sang along en masse. I only knew a few words. Thanks to Neil Young who covered it at the Band's Last Waltz. If the flight-tickets are a bit cheaper next year, there will be a next year. This festival is a lot better than "the way to cocky for its own good" Lowlands. I hate an audience who are trying to be hip a bit too hard. This audience was just nice, gentle and incredibly mellow. And I prefer it that way.