>>PREVIEW
CALGARY FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL
July 27 to 30
Prince’s Island Park
Renowned for its beautiful setting and superb lineup of artists, an invitation to participate in the Calgary Folk Music Festival is a signpost that an artist has arrived. This year, musicians Tim Hus, Rachelle van Zanten and Jay Crocker join soundscape creator Eric Moschopedis as Alberta artists experiencing their first festival. Festival veterans Lorrie Matheson, Kris Demeanor, Amir Amiri, Ronnie Hayward, Ellen McIlwaine and Sorrow Bound, as well as comedian and host Howie Miller, will provide moral support.
Fresh from representing Alberta at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., Hus has played dozens of festivals like South Country Fair, Big Valley Jamboree and others as far away as Hamburg, Berlin, and Hanover, Germany. Hus considers Calgary’s folk festival special as he looks forward to the positive atmosphere and good sound.
"I don’t foresee any challenges aside from maybe finding a parking spot. It can be challenging performing original music in a rowdy bar environment where people seem more interested in Top 40 music and the VLTs, so the prospect of a show at the Folk Festival is very inviting."
Guitar goddess van Zanten is also a veteran of many festivals, including North Country and South Country fairs, as well as those held in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa. At the Edge of the World Festival in Haida Gwaii, a 6.1 Richter Scale earthquake shook the stage during her guitar solos.
"I think Jimi (Hendrix) was there," she says.
She expects "musicians with a guitar case in one hand and a cappuccino in the other" when she arrives at the Calgary fest, and figures the details are so precisely taken care of that her biggest challenge will be finding her hotel at night.
"The best thing for me is the opportunity to play with all these other great musicians in the workshops. It is because of past workshops that I have had the privilege of jamming with mentors and future musical compadres."
This will be the fifth time around for Demeanor, who played in 1996 and 1998 with Tinderbox and in 2000 and 2003 with his infamous Crack Band.
"The first time I attended the festival, I saw James Keelaghan play "Jenny Bryce" and a long haired John Mann from Spirit of the West thrashing his head around like a maniac. They exuded a confidence and also, with the mellow evening air and cottonwood fluff all around, a kind of serenity. I wanted very badly to join them.
"Ten years later I was finger picking story songs and thrashing my head around like a maniac at the festival. I felt part of a special, secret society. It was very much as I had imagined, minus the confidence and serenity."
The last word goes to Matheson, who played the festival with National Dust in 1999 and solo in 2003 and will play the Edmonton festival for the first time this year.
"Most of the gigs I play during the year are for people who want to get laid, play pool or get drunk with their friends. Most of them complain about paying a cover charge and a lot of them want to hear covers. Last week I got called an asshole because I turned down a request for "Ziggy Stardust." The crowd at the festival has no qualms about paying to hear music, and they actually listen.
"Folk music, to me, anyway, is not so much about genre, but about attitude – much like real punk rock. I don’t think you should give ’em what you think they want, give ’em what you got. Do it well, passionately and professionally, and challenge ’em. This’ll probably sound a bit pie-in-the-sky, but songwriters are supposed to supply their audience with social commentary, with their worldview. The audience doesn’t necessarily have to agree, but I think the exchange of ideas is paramount." |
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