>>PREVIEW
CALGARY FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL
July 27 to 30
Prince’s Island Park
A gourmet buffet of music, but too many choices to taste? No need to become a musical bulimic –– here is Fast Forward’s guide to happy musical snacking at this year’s Calgary Folk Music Festival.
SATURDAY
· 10:30 a.m. – X Marks the Spot (Ship and Anchor Stage). Worth getting up early, the Canadian chicks will rule the roost as Feist and Melissa McClelland enjoy a dulcet sing-off. Chantal Vitalis and Rachelle van Zanten conjure the atman of Hendrix and Page while showcasing their guitar goddess prowess. You’ll be wide-awake by the third song.
· 11:50 a.m. – Countrier Than Thou (Ship and Anchor Stage). Local boys Tim Hus and Tom Phillips meet Toronto death-country trio Elliot Brood and Illinois’ unpredictable Robbie Fulks to engage in heartbreak, cheatin’, drinkin’, fightin’ and cryin’. Oh, yeah, and then there’s the music, too.
· 4:15 p.m. – Roots 66 (Mercury Stage). Ex-Blaster Dave Alvin sparks his home-smoked vintage feel with Jay Farrar’s (Son Volt) riffs that long to anoint the past while making love to the present. Meanwhile, Austin’s Eliza Gilkyson pours her smoky vocals into the shot glass of Fulks’ chameleon country wit. If you only make it to one side-stage show this year, this one should be it.
· 4:15 p.m. – All Mod Cons (Sunterra Stage). Perhaps it’s true that the fest’s artistic director, Kerry Clarke, wants to torture you with bliss. Why else would she sadistically book this show at the same time as Roots 66? The national irony-deficit should show a surplus as locals Kris Demeanor and Lorrie Matheson lay their sardonic lyrics at the feet of Dan Bern, who can discuss the International Jewish Banking Conspiracy with the same expertise with which L.A.’s Stew can comment upon The Negro Problem. Dar Williams will hold her own in the melody and insight department as well. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might even pee.
SUNDAY
· 10:50 a.m. — Feed Your Head (Conoco Phillips Stage). The spectrum of human emotion will be splattered with rainbow bursts from these master storytellers. While The Mammals run a melodic bulldozer over the boundaries of folk music, Durham’s Jez Lowe can summarize their process in a musical editorial. Meanwhile, Gilkyson will add tuneful colour commentary and Bern will keep his tongue starkly in cheek.
· 3:30 p.m. — Always a Dahl Moment (Ship and Anchor Stage). Savvy fest goers have come to expect a moment of transcendental musical bliss that mentally removes them from the northern hemisphere, at least for an hour. Expect this workshop, featuring veteran slide blues guitarist Ellen McIlwaine with her Fijian-born table player Cassius Khan, Calgary’s Tehran born Amir Amiri and his musicians, and India’s Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt with Ramkumar Mishra, to provide more exotic flavour than a fresh spice boutique. |
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