A Tale of Two Cities
Edmonton Folk Music Festival - August 5-9, 2004
Calgary Blues and Roots Festival August 12-15, 2004
By Al Kunz
Authors Note:
A recent move from Minneapolis to small-town Idaho has
severely impacted my chances for live music beyond the cover-playing
bar bands you find everywhere. The solution was obvious. If the
music wouldn't come to me then I'd go to the music. On several
occasions fellow Rockzillaworld writers
have called me Rockzillaworld's ambassador to Canada
-- it seemed about time I fulfilled those duties. After seeing
the lineup for these two festivals held on back-to-back weekends
I knew where to go. I refused to take notes (after all, I was
on vacation and didn't intend to write a review). But by the
time I'd responded to how-was-it emails from friends this overview
was almost written. By necessity this will be far from comprehensive
coverage. Sixty-six acts in Edmonton put that well beyond my
capability. Instead I'll explore the contrasts and similarities
between the festivals and attempt to report the highlights. I'm
calling it "A Tale of Two Cities," but if you prefer
Cheech and Chong to Dickens think of it as "What I Did on
My Summer Vacation" instead.
It was the best of times. It was the wor -- No. It was the
best of times and it was even better times. Other than showcasing
roots music, solutions to logistical details common to most festivals,
and David Byrne (who headlined a night at each) these two fests
couldn't have been much different.
 The 25th edition
of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival was spread over eight stages
(a main stage and seven subsidiary stages) throughout Gallagher
Park (part of a wonderful system of parks strung along the North
Saskatchewan River that bisects the city). Seating is on blankets,
tarps, low-slung lawn chairs, or the grass depending on what
you're willing to carry from stage to stage. The nighttime skyline
of downtown as viewed from the natural amphitheatre in front
of the main stage makes for a venue with ambience that can't
be beat.
 In just its second
year, the Calgary Blues and Roots Festival was held in McMahon
Stadium (the site for the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter
Olympic Games and home field for both the Calgary Stampeders
of the Canadian Football League and the University of Alberta's
football team). All performances are on a main stage or a smaller
side stage used by local performers who keep the music going
between main stage acts. Seating logistics and musical choices
are much simpler. Pick either reserved seating (a seat with back
support in a center section) or general admission (bleacher style
seating to the side). Either way you've got the run of the grounds
and can access the standing and dancing area situated between
the main stage and the reserved seating area. Your only musical
choices are to watch whoever is on stage or not (perhaps by perusing
the craft or food tents, maybe getting a drink in the beer garden).
Edmonton's format consists of a combination of main stage
concerts during which the side-stages are idle interspersed with
a choice of multiple side-stage shows that are either single
performer concerts or what they call "workshops," a
songwriter-in-the-round format with three or four performers.
Performances are short (forty-five minutes to an hour) but most
performers give multiple performances (a concert and multiple
workshops) throughout the weekend. In contrast Calgary's main
stage performances are all single performer concerts with set
times ranging from forty-five minutes (for opening acts) up to
one and a half hours for each day's headliner.
While spanning a wide range of music, Calgary's lineup is
much more focused and (at least this year) entirely North American
based acts. The chances for discovery are much more limited.
Of the twenty-three main stage acts I was familiar with all but
five (with one exception all were Canadian acts yet to make significant
inroads in the U.S.). Edmonton's sixty-six performers hailed
from twelve different countries. I was clueless about a majority
before the festival and that remains unchanged for most of them.
However by attending workshops that feature a favorite performer
you're exposed to other acts. This chance for discovery of a
new favorite is the best part of Edmonton's format. It's also
the worst, giving you ample opportunity to discover someone new
to loath.
Here are a few of the musical highlights from each festival
(with a few lowlights thrown in as well).
Each city had one of the handful of people I'll consistently
go out of my way to see. In Edmonton it was Fred Eaglesmith who
I saw multiple times (a concert and two workshops). Fred's offbeat
sense of humor and interaction with the crowd and other artists
is always entertaining. Seeing him for the first time on his
home turf with lots of fellow "Fredheads" was a treat.
The last few times I've seen Greg Trooper it's been as part of
an audience that would easily fit in an elevator. After hyping
him to whoever would listen it was enjoyable seeing him win over
a crowd of thousands in Calgary.
An hour before Rodney Crowell's scheduled performance in Edmonton
they announced that the weather service was predicting a deluge
of rain in about forty-five minutes. The clouds and wind drove
away enough of the crowd that I was able to grab a prime spot
in the shadow of the stage. Guitarist Will Kimbrough, Crowell,
and the rest of his band held their ground as the wind pushed
them around and lightening flashed on the horizon. One acquaintance
described the performance as a tad too slick for his taste. For
me a tight performance feels slick when the material is slight,
but well-practiced when playing superior songs. With Crowell's
set list made up almost exclusively from songs off his last two
discs, The Houston Kid and Fates Right Hand (both
of them career toppers) I didn't think this performance suffered
from slickness at all.
The next evening Crowell participated in a workshop with the
Texas-based duo of Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez along with
Ferron (a Canadian Folkie) and Michael Franti (frontman for the
funk-hip-hop-reggae fusion band, Spearhead). Crowell drew from
the same song-sources as the night before, using this opportunity
to perform songs that fit best within a solo acoustic format
("I Wish It Would Rain") as well as reprising a new
political song from the previous night (possibly titled "What
Were You Thinking").
This performance was also a prime illustration of the good
and bad of the songwriter-in-the-round format. It had someone
I liked (Crowell) an act I expected to like (Taylor and Rodriguez)
and two I knew little about. Ferron proved what I've known about
myself for some time. If I describe it as folk I don't like it
much. If I call it something else (singer-songwriter, Americana,
or whatever) then I probably do. Ferron was definitely folk.
Turns out that Rodriguez is easy on the eyes (bringing out my
inner-Neanderthal) and plays a mean fiddle. Taylor's songwriting
is legendary (from "Wild Thing" to "Angel of the
Morning") and he's good enough to get covered by acts as
diverse as Frank Sinatra, The Runaways, and Bocephus. But this
performance didn't really move me. Maybe the duo was a victim
of inflated expectations on my part. More likely they were the
victims of Michael Franti. Although I liked Franti's music in
this format (much more than when he played a main stage show
with a full band later that night) Franti's songs were long and
his pre-song patter was even longer. On the plus side I found
someone whose music is worth further exploration (probably starting
with Franti's acoustic Songs From the Front Porch). The
downside is the ability for one performer to monopolize the set.
In Calgary Crowell's ex-wife, Roseanne Cash, had her current
husband, John Leventhal, along to play guitar. Although known
as a songwriter and producer Leventhal turns out to be a master
guitar player as well. During her set Cash took the crowd from
dancing in their seats to tears. She got us going with her greatest
hits and smashed our emotions to the ground with tributes to
her father and stepmother (a Johnny Cash song, a June Carter
song, and ending with a recent Cash composition about her dad,
"House on the Lake").
Each festival had a Sunday morning gospel set that was enough
to get even this borderline-agnostic dancing and screaming Hallelujah.
In Calgary it was the Blind Boys of Alabama while Edmonton offered
Bonnie Bramlett followed by a rare gospel set from Wanda Jackson.
The pinnacle of these Sunday performances was Bramlett joining
Jackson on "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
Sitting in the Calgary beer tent Saturday morning I heard
a sound check that started with a run through of the Smokey Robinson/Rare
Earth hit "Get Ready" and Marvin Gaye's "What's
Going On." I told a gentleman standing nearby something
like "this sounds promising." Luckily I didn't continue
the thought ("but I don't remember any Motown cover bands
on the bill"). He responded with "yeah, we just got
some new backup singers, but I think they're going to work out."
The band I was hearing was The Funk Brothers, that night's headliner.
Made up of the rhythm section that played on the majority of
the hits from Motown's heyday, calling the Funk Brothers a "cover
band" couldn't be more inaccurate. The 2002 documentary
Standing In the Shadows of Motown has not only given them
the attention they deserve, but also provided the opportunity
for them to tour. Something they rarely did during their prime
years (spending most of their time in the studio).
Two performers in Edmonton I'd barely heard of were the best
musical discoveries of the trip. Rachael Davis and Serena Ryder
have several things in common. Both are in their early twenties,
yet have been performing at some level for a long time (Davis
since she was 2 according to her bio, Ryder long enough to have
released 5 albums). Both have a wide vocal range. Each mixes
multiple musical genres (blues, folk, country, rock, and whatever
else you can think of). Each writes most of their own material.
They differ in where they're from (Ryder from Ontario and
Davis from Michigan - a pretty subtle difference) and their instrumental
skills. Davis has had years of formal training. It shows. Ryder's
guitar playing is enough to get by. It doesn't detract from her
performance, but it doesn't add much to it either. It's almost
as if she knows her voice is her true instrument.
Last their stage presence is vastly different. Davis seems
almost embarrassed and a little unsure of herself in her between
song patter. Yet she ingratiated herself enough with the audiences
to pack as many people as would fit at one of the side-stages
for her final performance of the weekend and received the most
convincing standing ovation I saw at any show. Ryder appears
extremely confident onstage - almost as if she feels she's meant
to be a star (I'd compare her to Charlie Robison without his
cockiness). If the world was fair (and evidence suggests it isn't
always) then Ryder will be the next big star from Canada.
A great musical experience was made better by the people,
who were among the friendliest crowds I've ever seen. Some new
friends in Calgary have convinced me to repeat the trip next
summer with the addition of the Calgary Folk Festival the weekend
before. For more information about each festival visit www.edmontonfolkfest.org and www.bluesandroots.com where you can signup
for newsletters that will let you know the lineup for next year
as soon as they're announced. Visit www.rachaeldavis.com or www.serenaryder.com for more about my favorite
discoveries.
Contact Al Kunz at kunz-at-rockzilla.net
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