‘WOMEN’S MUSIC’ PIONEER
FERRON TO PLAY VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL, AGAIN
Vancouver Folk Music Festival
July 13-16 | Jericho Beach Park
Tickets and info: Free, July 13 (reserve a ticket online). From $50, July 14-16, thefestival.bc.ca
Forty years ago, the first Vancouver Folk Music Festival was held in Stanley Park. In 1979, the event moved to its gorgeous site at Jericho Beach Park. Back in those days, the civic conscience revolved around more than endless whining about affordability and “are we or aren’t we world-class?” debates. A healthy climate of activism was about, and the festival provided a forum for it.
This climate provided good breeding ground for emerging artists seeking new means of telling their stories. One was Vancouver’s trail-blazing Ferron (July 16, 2:25 p.m. on Stage 2), who performed such women’s movement anthems as Testimony at the second folk festival.
A pioneer on the then nascent “women’s music” scene, the acclaimed singer-songwriter would inspire subsequent generations and influence everyone from Indigo Girls and Le Tigre to Ani Di Franco. Her exquisite lyricism would be compared to Leonard Cohen. Albums such as Testimony (1980), Shadows on a Dime (1984) and Phantom Center (1990) all received five-star ratings on allmusic.com.
Ferron’s return to her hometown, the festival stage, and the audience that grew up with her makes sense in this anniversary year. The musician, who divides her time between homes in Saturna Island and Florida, says it almost didn’t happen.
“A while ago, I ended up with arthritis in my hand that was pretty bad, and touring around as a solo woman gets lonely and horrible, and since I wasn’t craving stardom or anything I backed off from it all,” Ferron said.
“But Barbara Higbie (Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist) contacted me and said this was all wrong, and set up this gig at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, which I treated like my swansong. It was a really wonderful show, and after it I walked into the lobby and there was someone who wanted to manage me, another who wanted to book me, and now I’m busy through next summer.”
In retrospect, it seemed a somewhat inappropriate time for an artist with such a strong feminist perspective and connections to the women’s movement to be retiring. If anything, Ferron’s material such as Stand Up (from Phantom Center) or Our Purpose Here (from Testimony) is a refreshing counter to rising sexism in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The singer notes the times this music initially grew out of were “ferocious, but not in a deliberate way.” Perhaps now people need reminders of that ferociousness.
“Maybe that’s what happened, people wanted these songs and here I am working,” Ferron said.
“Perhaps I was born into that time to be one of those women who just wasn’t going to lie about anything, and here we go again. All the gals on my stage are younger than me, and perhaps I was their mentor.”
Decades after she started strumming at the groundbreaking women-only Full Circle Coffeehouse in Mount Pleasant, she still can’t believe Vancouver proved such a key centre for the feminist movement.
“I’m amazed that it happened from here, because back in the day this place was always five years behind in everything, including clothing,” Ferron said.
“We were just doing our own, little, fierce thing, which I didn’t think was changing the world but was certainly changing me, letting me be me.”
Songwriting has always represented a personal road map of Ferron’s life. After turning 65 in June, she thinks there may be a record on retiring, but not retirement, in her future.
July 13 the festival presents Canada Far & Wide: Grand Esprits. This free (with reserved ticket) event is an initiative of the Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary, Canmore and Regina festivals to produce a touring project celebrating the Canadian songbook. Performing songs by the likes of Stan Rogers, Leonard Cohen and K’naan will be Cris Derksen, Mélisande (électrotrad), Cold Specks, C.R. Avery, Jim Byrnes, Women in the Round, Carolyn Mark, Choir! Choir! Choir!, Leonard Podolak, The Funk Hunters and Paul Pigat.