Stories from the Edge of Music #37: Summer in the city — and a season of folk music and blues festivals
Also: Some more Substacks you should follow, and some video links of music you may not have discovered — yet.
My first summer festival is done, and I have four more to go to. Since I don’t know anyone with a summer cottage in which I can do nothing (except a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, read a good book, and play Scrabble), I may as well go on the road — and tell you all about it.
PS: I promised some notes this week about Mitch Podolak, but that’ll have to wait until I report next time from the Calgary Folk Festival.
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WHAT YOU PROBABLY THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT FOLK FESTIVALS JUST AIN’T TRUE
Ah, yes, folk festivals! Wooly socked and Birkenstocked, we stand in the rain, we dance when the sun comes out, we’re probably vegan and gluten-free, and we’ve brought our kids and they need ice cream…
The clichés abound, and some of ’em are even true. The overriding image, though, is that folk festivals are the very opposite — the polar opposite — of COOL.
But we’re at Mariposa now — the oldest folk festival in Canada — and what is pretty pop princess Noah Cyrus doing here? Or pioneer rapper Maestro Fresh Wes? Or Shad, a younger urban music star? (Editor’s note: Shad is in his 40s. Which is young to Richard.)
Back in the day, folkies would fall over themselves trying to define what “folk music” was, what folk is. Nobody worries about that anymore — folk is whatever a festival’s “artistic director” (or programmer) says it is. Basically, anything goes, as long as the music has its roots in the past, or its leaves in the future.
Doing an impossible jigsaw puzzle is easier than building a festival
Programmers have an almost impossible task. As I wrote in Stories from the Edge of Music #12, assembling a festival is as complicated as a giant jigsaw puzzle — there are SO many factors to consider. Here’s what I wrote then, when I had half as many readers as I apparently have now:
ADs have, at the beginning of the process, a wish list of who they’d like to have.
Probably the first names on that wish list will be major “headliners” — artists they’d tried to get last year but couldn’t, and maybe some local people who were promised appearances in the past. Early calls, made as far as a year in advance, to agents, managers and (in a few cases) the artists themselves, all may yield positive results.
Then comes a whole raft of other considerations. In no order whatsoever, are an equal number of male and female performers being chosen? Are there artists from Black, First Nations, gay and trans communities? Are there brand new and even unknown artists? What about veterans from folk’s storied past? And how about artists for children? What’s the percentage of Canadian artists? Are there performers from other parts of Canada — and from other countries outside of Canada and the U.S.?
Are there enough artists to fill the five or six daytime stages? Which artists work well with which other artists? What combinations of artists can make up an unforgettable workshop? Finally, are there enough artists being hired who are a draw with the potential audience?
Yes, I’ve noticed — we’ve not even talked about the musical part of it all! So, are there proportionate numbers of artists representing the various genres under the “folk” umbrella? And that includes (at a minimum) singer-songwriters, bluegrass groups, “Americana” artists, blues players or bands, “world” music performers, “alternative” artists, “country” performers — and those who just can’t be put into neat descriptive boxes.
Oh, yes, and one more really important thing: stay within the budget!
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Canada’s oldest festival is still a ton of fun
Mariposa was my first festival this year, and — musically — it didn’t seem to hang together as well as it might have done, thanks (I suspect) to a couple of important factors. First, the festival lost Liz Scott, arguably the best programmer in Mariposa’s long history (and that certainly includes this writer, who did the job for four years back in 1989-92). Second, a number of artists were booked before the new programmer, Spencer Shewen, was appointed — he arrived relatively late in the process, which usually begins within a few weeks after the previous festival ends. Some of the choices may not have been on his wishlist.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t loads of amazing music and many memorable moments. The Good Lovelies singing “Heebie Jeebies,” Rick Fines playing and singing anything, Mia Kelly, my beautiful friend Loryn Taggart every time she played, Kim Churchill (what a killer guitar and harmonica player this Aussie is), dear Irish Mythen (the only singer who never needs a microphone) and Colin Linden — we figured we’ve known each other for 52 years! The unexpected newcomer that rocked my socks was a three-piece band from Australia called Hussy Hicks — so much fun!
On the main stage, William Prince was — as he always is — just so good and so likeable; you just want to hug this gentle giant. The surprise, for these ears, was Jesse Cook, an eclectic “world music” guitarist with an astonishing band. Bruce Cockburn, inducted into the festival’s Hall of Fame, was in good voice and looked happy — the last time I’d seen him, a couple of years ago in Edmonton, he seemed listless, bored and unhappy to be there.
And who did I miss? Another festival’s worth of artists: Old Crow Medicine Show, my friends in Blue Moon Marquee, the Doghouse Orchestra (well, I’ll see them in their “home bar,” the Cameron, in a few weeks), Shawnee Kish, and Sarah Shook and the Disarmers. And a dozen or so more!
Festivals are events, not concerts. And the company you hang with makes it all worthwhile, even if the music at any given time is less than perfect. My “gang” — Steve, Kat, Julia and Mariska — had as much fun as I did. It was Mariska’s first Canadian festival (she deserves to be singing at a festival next summer!). And Julia, who’s seriously into electronic dance music, gets the last word: “Too many sad songs. But the cleanest toilets, and that’s amazing.”
All of us are enormously grateful to Pam Carter, Mariposa’s president, for making our visit as joyful as it was.
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FIVE MORE SUBSTACKS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT
Rena’s Substack —
is in her 70s, and she’s as feisty as she was, I suspect, in her 30s. Like me, she still wants to travel. by Sophia Money-Coutts. British toff Ms. Money-Coutts writes one of the funniest Substacks ever! Damn, she used to work on The Tatler, the U.K. bible for the upper classes and the stupidly wealthy and entitled. — has escaped from The New Yorker to bring his four- or five-paragraph ruminations on our daily idiocy to Substack. — is certainly not cooling his political rhetoric. Angrily furious that Donald Trump (and now JD Vance) even exist, he uses the best invective to describe the orange scourge and his cult followers. Sample: “Oh, for fuck’s sake, you gullible rubes — thinking Donny Convict is going to change is the dumbest fantasy ever.”. As you might guess, this is a newsletter primarily about Bob Dylan’s non-stop endless tour. If you’re into Saint Bob, this is a must.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
SOME VIDEO LINKS FOR YOUR WEEKEND
First up, the Aussie band Hussy Hicks — my “discovery” at Mariposa:
Don’t you just wanna hug William Prince — such a gentle giant! Here’s a duet with Serena Ryder:
And here’s the best-named band ever, the Good Lovelies:
… and for contrast, the original, by Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five in 1926:
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QUOTE(S) OF THE WEEK
“Republicans hope is that a majority of voters will simply forget all Donald Trump has done to help himself and hurt this country. That strikes many Americans as falling in the narrow space between revolting and appalling.” — Dan Rather, writing on Substack.
“Over the age of 65, never waste an erection, never trust a fart.” — Mitch Podolak, Canadian folk festival pioneer.
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LAST WORD THIS WEEK — ON THE ROAD AGAIN
I’m on the road a few days after you get this. At the Calgary Folk Festival I’ll be doing a song-and-stories session — I’ll tell the stories, and my dear friend T.Nile will sing the songs. I’ll also host the annual War Stories workshop, at which I persuade artists to tell their strangest road experiences… Oh, and they’ve put my name on the festival T-shirt.
Then I’m at the Calgary Blues Festival and am being interviewed on Wednesday July 31. The interviewer will be John Rutherford, and it’s at the King Eddy in the National Music Centre at 6.30 p.m. Friendly faces in the audience appreciated!
Then on to the Canmore Folk Festival where I’ll be the interviewer — chatting with Connie Kaldor, James Keelaghan and Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy. After that, off to Edmonton — looking forward to hearing Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at the folk festival!
Hope your summer’s as much fun as mine is being.
Richard I've only just seen this - THANK YOU v much. I will endeavour to keep the standard up...
You are so kind to give me a mention! Mahalo. 🥰