DIVERSE FOLK
38th edition of festival goes global
From Portland indie-rockers The Decemberists to Leon Bridge’s Texas soul, from Ashley MacIsaac’s celebration of Cape Breton fiddle to rising star Rhiannon Giddens of television’s Nashville, from Ricky Scaggs and Rodney Crowell to Shakey Graves and Brandi Carlile, Haitian rara, Caribbean blues and two styles of throat singing, “folk” in all its many flavours will fill out the banquet at the 38th annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Aug. 10-13.
“I look at programming like a big buffet,” organizer Terry Wickham said before the launch of the 2017 festival lineup Wednesday morning. “You’ve got all these spices and side dishes and, yes, you need some main courses, but in the end, I’m just interested in the music. And I think people have come to trust us in putting this together.”
A quick glance may not yield many marquee names, but closer inspection reveals the 2017 lineup is rich in soul-blues, country, Celtic collaborations, global grooves, pop-folk, aboriginal groups and singer-songwriters and crossover artists like eclectic Valerie June, Foy Vance or Giddens, who previously came to the festival as part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops before she got Grammy notice for her recent solo efforts.
Getting a beer to go with that musical meal should also be easier thanks to a larger beer garden, and a 30-per-cent boost in portable toilets will make it easier to find relief afterwards. Gripes over lineups to the beer tent and toilets have been a top issue for festival goers in recent years.
“Ninety per cent of our complaints last year were over those two issues,” Wickham noted, “and we’re really working on trying to increase the comfort for people. I can pretty well guarantee there won’t be one of those big lineups like we’ve had a few times before. Now it will be easier to have a beer and watch Stage 1. If this doesn’t work, then we’ll give some serious thought to all-site licensing.”
In the only major adjustment to the site at Gallagher Park, the festival’s beer garden boundaries will expand northward to take in about 40 per cent of the space facing Stage 1, and the festival is working with the city to expand audience space at that stage to take over the boulevard along 97 Avenue. The move will increase the fenced-in area for alcoholic beverage consumption from a previous capacity of 2,300 to 3,500 patrons.
Single-day tickets will stay at the same price, but the four-day weekend
passes will go up by $10 to $189 for the personal pass and $219 for transferable passes. Youth and senior passes remain the same price, $22 a day, while seniors 80-plus and children under 12 get in free.
Tickets go on sale Sunday, June 4 at ReMax Field (formerly Telus Field, 10233 96 Ave.) at 7 a.m., with the ticket lottery cut off at 8 a.m. You can order tickets online or by phone from Ticketmaster the same day from 3 p.m. (ticketmaster.ca or 1-855-985-5000).
Wickham said the small bump in pass prices helped him add $200,000 to the talent fees in a total budget of $1.5 million. The continuing low level of the Canadian dollar and artists originating from the United States and elsewhere makes fees as expensive as ever.
Depending on how you count collaborating names, the 2017 lineup includes 65 acts from over a dozen countries. Forty of those acts are hitting the festival for the first time, though a few of those have performed previously in the Edmonton area.
This year’s lineup is particularly strong for blues, soul, R& B and gospel, with acts like Leon Bridges, The McCrary Sisters, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Anderson East, Monkey Junk with Paul Reddick and Tim Williams.
“You’ve got a mixture of some legends, traditional gospel artists and the white soul sound. I think that’s a real strength this year. So are the world beat acts.”
Far-flung global sounds include return visits from Mali’s Amadou & Mariam, Tuva’s rarefied throat singers Huun Huur Tu and Zimbabwe groove masters Mokoomba. Debut acts include the French Guadeloupe blues connection Delgres, Haiti’s multi-generational Lakou Mizik, the Grammy-winning Los Angeles-based Latin American group La Santa Cecilia and Canada’s own multi-ethnic crossover effort Sultans of String.
Apart from Crowell and Skaggs, look for Shovels & Rope to tap country and bluegrass. City and Colour and Birds of Chicago figure alongside roots acts Ten Strings and a Goat Skin, Nunavut’s lively band The Jerry Cans, Boston’s indie-folk unit Darlingside and a 10-piece, horn-heavy version of the English band The Unthanks.
The Celtic contingent features the flute-fiddle-guitar combo McGoldrick, McCusker and Doyle, Four Men and a Dog, Paul McKenna Band and Duncan Chisholm.
Wickham asked Ashley MacIsaac to put together his picks of Cape Breton’s finest to help mark Canada’s sesquicentennial in a traditional way. Meanwhile, Quebec’s Solo is a trad-folk supergroup incorporating members of De Temps Antan and Le Vent Du Nord.
The producer is also booking more artists with their own bands than he used to, including acts like Steve Dawson, Cecile Doo-Kingue, Courtney Marie Andrews and Delgres.
“We ask them, ‘How do you want to perform?’ because you want to present artists the best way you can, but then you’ve got higher expenses, too.”
With 40 first-timers, some festival-goers may take issue with the number of lesser-known acts or the dearth of so-called legends.
“People will say, ‘I don’t know as many acts’ or ‘There aren’t as many favourites,’ but I think in the last few years, we have successfully mined a lot of younger talent. And we’ve had our share of legends.”
Facing a yearly challenge in programming for different generations, Wickham says he’s still trying to please both the middle-aged baby boomers who originally supported the fest and the younger audience he has embraced in recent years.
“We bend the definition of folk, but for the last 10 years, the Edmonton festival has still been the most folky of the major festivals out west.”
One argument suggests, why book high-priced so-called legends who are sometimes past their prime performing years when you can book several separate, gifted, rising stars for the same amount? The fact that the festival has now sold out for 22 years, every year since 1995, seems to support the idea of looking for fresh talent, but then people want what they want.
“If people saw what the fees are for some of those big names — we’re a low-cost experience. I would prefer to find the real jewels out there like Delgres or Field Report or Yola Carter. Some of those will become popular and some won’t.”
For full details on performers and ticket options see edmontonfolkfest.org.