This evening, I'll be heading down to the 28
th
annual
Calgary Folk Music Festival on
Prince's Island - in the heart
of the city. There, I should have plenty of chances to soak up
hot sun,
hot
sounds, and
hot samosas, thus completing
the
Folk Fest trifecta.
I'm really excited about tonight's all Canadian programme
featuring 2007
Juno award winners
Lubo Alexandrov and Kaba Horo,
and
City and Colour. Also on the
bill, I see Folk Fest veterans
The Sadies and bilingual neo-cabaret singer
Rufus Wainwright.
If the festival can be compared to an iceberg, tonight is
merely the tip. Throughout the weekend, 67 artists from Canada and beyond will monopolize the banks of
the
Bow River, as thousands of laidback, earth-friendly,
generation-spanning music lovers gather en masse.
Although the evening main stage shows are typically the main
draw for the festival, I'm eager to check out some of the weekend afternoon
artist workshops. It's a chance for artists to abandon their polished stage
persona and collaborate freely with their peers in a largely improvisational
environment.
One of the busiest performers this year is virtuoso violinist
Final
Fantasy, AKA
Owen Pallet. On
Saturday, he's doing workshops with
Ridley Bent,
Jon-Rae and the River, and
Jeremy Fischer. He gets to relax for
about thirty minutes before jumping on stage again with
The Cape May and
Eleni Mandell. He's doing a solo show in the
evening too - and yet another on Sunday.
Soul/Funk inferno
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
will bring the heat as they play with
Sarah Slean,
Henry Butler, and
Anne Loree.
Later, they cut the rug with
New Bohemians
and
Bettye LaVette. Fairweather
New Pornographer,
Neko Case, has a workshop with
Oh Susanna,
The Sadies, and
The Good Brothers.
Let's hope the rain holds off for all the
Folks on stage and
on the grass, but especially for
Ms. Case. The last time I saw her, she had to
cut her set short due to the
wrath of nature at
Sasquatch 2006.
Charles Gunn is a freelance writer and Calgarian.
