FFWD Weekly
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Letters by FFWD Staff Re: In with the old, where are the new?, by Mike Bell (Music, May 11) In answer to your query, of the 51 artists booked so far at the folk festival, 26, or half, have never played Canada and/or Calgary. This includes everyone from the punk/bluegrass Bad Livers, to unusual Canadian artists Lullaby Baxter and Lilison di Kinara, to San Francisco’s Freddy Roulette – a blues slide guitarist that Henry Kaiser considers one of the world’s finest, to country singer Kimmie Rhodes, to far-flung performers – Eric Bogle’s favourite Australian musician Kev Carmody, India’s Musafir, Brazil’s Comadre Florzinha, Belgium’s Lais, the young Irish group Danu, etc. We’d love to release a lineup that features Tom Waits, Ben Harper, Macy Gray, David Byrne, Marianne Faithful, Lou Reed and other artists we’ve attempted to book. However, it’s great that artists like Blue Rodeo and Great Big Sea, who tend to be more willing to commit to being here than the aforementioned, are coming. I presume some of the new artists booked at the 2000 Calgary Folk Music Festival are just ones you’re not familiar with. In order for you to get excited about festivals, must they be filled with artists you know but that have never performed in Cowtown? Yes, many of the "mid-range" artists have already played in Calgary, but not necessarily at the festival, which is likely the reason they are now familiar to 200 to 500 Calgarians. It’s great for these artists to be able to play in front of crowds of 10,000 and to collaborate with other artists from around the world. By programming internationally acclaimed performers alongside relatively unknown artists, the festival creates rare opportunities for audiences to discover new music, and for recognized and up-and-coming artists to collaborate with each other. Our strategy of including a percentage of known/repeat artists successfully draws larger audiences who then see wonderful but under-appreciated artists that are an equally important part of the festival. Thanks, though, for the positive aspects of your piece, particularly the closing part about the diverse musical lineup and the folk festival being worth attending no matter who’s on the bill. Kerry Clarke, associate producer, Calgary Folk Music Festival

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