HATS OFF TO FOLK
The California Honeydrops singer Lech Wierzynski loses his cap while performing at the 2019 Edmonton Folk Music Festival at Gallagher Park on Sunday.
Don’t take the Edmonton Folk Festival for granted, because Ani Difranco sure doesn’t.
The indie-folk legend made a point of telling the large crowd at her Saturday afternoon performance on Stage 6 that she cut her teeth at Gallagher Park, paying a bit of homage to the festival that nurtured her and hundreds of other young musicians.
Her concert was just one of many to prove that Edmontonians are willing to brave a dismally grey day to spend time on the hill, including a crammedto-the-gills workshop on Stage 2 featuring Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo, Pieta Brown, The Ballroom Thieves and Afie Jurvanen of Bahamas.
New Orleans’ Hurray for the Riff Raff never sat still long enough for easy sonic identification, which is one of the main reasons why the mainstage openers were so good. Pleasures were many, and unexpected.
The Navigator’s lilting Latin American beat filtered through Tom Waits was a highlight, as was the clattering indie-rock of Hungry Ghost, synths creeping into the chorus, a touch of Nels Cline in the guitar. Rican Beach went out to “colonized people all over the world,” while a faithful, crowd pleasing version of Joan Osborne’s One of Us presumably went out to everyone.
“You’ll hear more successful bands at this festival, but you won’t hear a higher note,” joked Afie Jurvanen, a.k.a. Bahamas, wrenching said guitar note during the middle of his song Opening Act. True that, though this particular configuration of Bahamas seems less interested in going for the highest note and more for riding on a sweet and smoothly effortless folk-funk groove. The groove had a tinge of yacht rock to it, and if you heard the deadpan Jurvanen (“I see some unsanctioned dancing out there”) at an angle, at times it might have sounded like Bill Callahan doing a Mac Demarco impression. That’s meant as a compliment, by the way.
Decked out in a camouflage jacket, changing guitars every other song, you knew that Bruce Cockburn was on a musical mission. Part of that mission included slight revisions of older songs like Lovers in a Dangerous Time and Peggy’s Kitchen Wall, deep cuts (Tokyo), Dobro strummed blues (Cafe Society), elegies for Canadian poets (3 Al Purdys) and accordion-led political rants. Concentration was complete as the singer-songwriter and guitar deity ignored the swarming mosquitoes attracted to his Juno-enriched blood.
Nothing says Edmonton Folk Music Festival quite like Bruce Cockburn, except for maybe Blue Rodeo. A perennial audience favourite, and a very familiar sight in these parts, the final band on Saturday night’s near-all “b” bill knew exactly what was expected of them and seemed happy to deliver. There was no attempt at foreplay as the veteran Toronto six-piece launched immediately into Five Days in May, followed up with What Am I Doing Here, and then proceeded to hit every necessary pleasure (Diamond Mine? Check!) point for their fans as they closed out Saturday night.
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival wrapped up Sunday night with performances by Colter Wall, The War and Treaty, and Dan Mangan, among others.