Five Days of Discovery: The Winnipeg Report

5 days of discovery was the marketing slogan for the 37th Winnipeg Folk Festival (Jul 7--11, 2010). So how well did the festival deliver on the promise? Bear in mind that I went to the festival with a feeling that the line-up was just a little too familiar--about a third of artists have either appeared at The Cedar during the past 5 years (or in the case of Delhi 2 Dublin, appearing in September). Now, these are very high quality acts, no question, otherwise they wouldn't be at The Cedar, but the festivals I enjoy most are those where I am continually being exposed to new delights. From the cup half (or 2/3) full perspective, however, this means that 2/3 of the acts have not played at the Cedar recently, and there was plenty of new acts to sample. I chose to largely ignore known entities (apart from a few I couldn't resist) during the daytime stages, and opted to instead check out some new talent. Here are my discoveries, at least one from each day of the festival

Wednesday: The surprise discovery here had to be Sam Baker, with an all too short tweener between the Wailin' Jennys and Emmylou Harris & Her Red Dirt Girls. Sparse, haunting songs with a voice to match, and an incredible backstory that included surviving (but only just) a terrorist bomb attack on a Peruvian train he was traveling on in 1986.  I regretted not taking advantage of the opportunity to see a full concert by Sam later in the weekend, but that's the nature of the festival: you simply can't see everyone you'd like to.

Later in the evening, new inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Jimmy Cliff blew us all away with a performance that showed 38 years after The Harder They Come catapulted reggae (and the singer) to international attention, Jimmy still delivers the goods. Not a discovery as such, but very reassuring after a disappointing, overly-inflated set from the last big name reggae artist the festival brought in a year or so back. Jimmy's set featured incredibly tight playing from his band, and covered many of the big hits, including an updated version of the classic protest song Vietnam, now referencing Afghanistan instead (a little harder to scan, surely). A bit sad that so little has changed in the world. 

Thursday: A string of acts I was more or less already familiar with meant discoveries were late coming on Thursday night. Tao Seeger and John Hiatt both gave solid sets, but the evening came alive for me when the Avett Brothers took the stage. I had a passing familiarity with their work, but I was unprepared for the explosive intensity of their live performance. Nothing terribly refined about their playing, although I really enjoyed the cello work by classically-trained Joe Kwon, but it was sure good fun, some seriously good songwriting, and nice variety in pacing. Definitely a band at their prime, and see them live now if you get the chance--and/or pick up their new CD/DVD set Live, Volume 3 when it comes out in October.  Levon Helm Band rounded up the evening with one of those big production sets featuring uniformly great supporting musicians, including Levon's daughter Amy (Ollabelle), and Larry Campbell.

Friday: The daytime stages are where I tend to hear the most interesting musical surprises at Winnipeg, so I was right up there in the front couple of rows at the Green Ash stage when United Steel Workers of Montreal opened the day at the ungodly (to musicians, music venue employees, and sleep-deprived festival campers) hour of 11am. This group was a stab in the dark, but I was primarily brought in by the claim in their bio as "top live act in Montreal", which, knowing a little about the thriving Montreal scene and the heavy competition, promised big things. I was not disappointed in any way. Front man Gern f was a riveting presence, and according to his bio, has been been accused of having a voice pitched somewhere between a sober Shane MacGowan and a completely unhinged Springsteen, which is a pretty fair description. Very lively music in the alt-country, punk neighborhood, great tatts, and a very, very entertaining live band--even (or maybe especially) at 11am.

Later in the afternoon, Bette et Wallet gave an utterly charming performance at the Little Stage. I was swept up by the unpretentious energy of couple Mary Beth Carty (Nova Scotia) and Gabriel Ouellette (Quebec) and the joy with which they presented their new lyrics set to old tunes from the Celtic, Quebecois and other traditions. 

Saturday: Saturday, usually the biggest and busiest day of the festival, seemed to limp along a bit this year. Maybe the threat of rain (which never amounted to more than a few showers in the late afternoon) kept people away, or maybe I was getting tired at day 4 of the festival. But perhaps the best of the discoveries was Mauvais Sort, a nouveau  Quebecois group in a workshop with The Duhks, Bette et Wallet and The Dardanelles. Which brings me to the brass invasion; what is it with the sudden influx of brass instruments into the folk world? Not a bad thing by any means, just caught me by surprise, and this was a discovery in of itself. Mauvais Sort, Rock Plaza Central, Peatbog Faeries, Cat Empire and several other groups had prominent brass sections. 

Great fun to see and hear the three amplified thumb pianos of Konono No 1 again! They took a while to warm up, but once they got going...

The best of the mainstage acts for me was the opener, Etran Finatawa (Niger)--gritty desert blues reminiscent of some of Tinariwen's work, and beautiful costumes. Hot Tuna played beautifully, but I enjoy them much more in a smaller space such as the Cedar. Australia's The Cat Empire had a ton of fans in the audience, but my lifelong allergy towards cats ruled the day.

Sunday: How can it be Sunday already? The festival is slipping by so fast… In the early afternoon, I took in a cool workshop by Andrew Bird with Konono No 1, which was a wonderful concept with somewhat mixed results. It was interesting to hear the polyrhythmic influences in the handful of tunes that Andrew cherrypicked from his repertoire, in an effort to find the most common ground, and to facilitate interaction with Konono, and he contributed some neat whistling and violin work to their tunes, but it fell short of a full-fledged collaboration. Maybe another time?

By now, I was ready for some quieter, mellower music, and I found what I was looking for over at Little Stage and nearby Bur Oak: Bo Ramsey, Luluc, and Greg Brown. Australian duo Luluc was the discovery of the festival for me--I had noted the sample song from them on the festival iphone app (what a useful addition to the publicity materials, by the way) as being particularly strong, and their Thursday night tweener between the Avetts and the Levon Helm Band had further whetted my appetite. Sparse, beautiful vocals from Zoe Randell, and sympathetic, understated but very supportive guitar from Steve Hassett, made for a quite lovely, intimate concert. They've recently moved to Brooklyn, so hopefully we'll have a chance to hear them come through these parts in the not too distant future.  And breaking my own rule of not seeing familiar acts, I could not resist an all-too-rare opportunity to catch Bo Ramsey in a solo set at the Little Stage (brooding, smoldering, stunning), and to follow up Luluc with Greg Brown, who performed with Bo (no surprises there), but also local drummer JT Bates. Another rock solid performance from a master.

On the mainstage, Gord Downie (of The Tragically Hip) was another welcome discovery for me--iconoclastic, and charismatic, I didn't always know what he was on about (any ferry drivers in the audience?), but he was entertaining and outspoken. And it was great to hear a solo, very inventive Andrew Bird again, when he took to the mainstage as the closing performer--on his birthday, no less.

So, all up, that seems like plenty of discoveries for me in a very full five days. And there were still one or two artists I never got to hear properly, like Devon Sproule, or DJ Dolores (I'll get my chance at Calgary Folk Fest next weekend), or Delhi 2 Dublin (coming to The Cedar on Sept 29)--and that's just the D's--which means that after 5 days of RECOVERY, I am eagerly looking forward to Calgary, and then, an enthusiastic return to Winnipeg in 2011. Thanks to Chris Frayer and staff for making this festival happen, and for helping with my arrangements.