Lineup announced as Block Heater festival continues to expand
Second-generation singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, U.S. alt-country veteran Iris DeMent and political songwriter Dan Bern are among the acts who will bring some warmth to three cold days in February for the third annual Block Heater festival.
The lineup for the event, which will run at various venues from Feb. 15 to 17, was announced Friday afternoon.
“Justin Townes Earle’s star has risen since we last had him at the (folk festival),” says Kerry Clark, artistic director of the Calgary Folk Music Festival. “We like to have roots headliners. We had Hayes Carll last year and Alejandro Escovedo the year before.”
Unlike the often raucous party on Prince’s Island in July, Block Heater has emerged as the festival’s quieter younger sibling, offering an array of largely roots-oriented acts in intimate venues.
This year, the lineup will also include Canadian fusion group Delhi 2 Dublin, blues duo Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer and Calgary acts such as Deicha & The VuDudes, Astral Swans, FOONYAP, Lab Coast, Windigo and Raleigh.
For the first time, Block Heater will expand into other mediums with the screening of Brown Girl Begins, a politically charged dystopian film directed by Sharon Lewis, who will be at the screening for a Q&A. It will be followed by a musical performance by Yolanda Sargeant.
“This is a Black Future Month event,” says Clarke. “Black Future Month is celebrating black and achievements and future and achievements.”
Block Heater will introduce a few new artists as well, including performances by Heavy Bell, a musical homage to Elizabeth Smart’s 1945 prose-poetry novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, performed by actor and singer-songwriter Tom Keenan and Royal Canoe’s Matt Peters.
Amythyst Kiah is a Tennessee- based blues-folk singer who won raves this year at the Cambridge folk festival.
Block Heater will also move beyond its Inglewood confines this year, spreading into the East Village. Venues include Inglewood’s Festival Hall and Ironwood, but also Studio Bell’s National Music Centre and the King Eddy.
The 2018 Block Heater lineup includes:
Amythyst Kiah
Astral Swans
Begonia
Brown Girl Begins (Film) Dan Bern
Deicha & the VuDudes Delhi 2 Dublin FOONYAP Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer
Heavy Bell
Iris DeMent
Jessica Moss
Justin Townes Earle
Kalle Mattson
Kris Demeanor
Lab Coast
Leeroy Stagger
Lucette
Mister & Mystic
Ndidi Onukwulu nehiyawak
Raleigh
Steve Poltz
The Wilderness of Manitoba Windigo