Ottawa Folk Festival announces lineup

The Ottawa Folk Festival – taking place this year from Thursday, September 6 through Monday, September 10 – and in its second year under Bluesfest administration, has announced its initial lineup and, like last year, it almost looks like there are two distinct festivals happening. Although there’s some overlap in the audiences, they attract two very different kinds of crowds.

Getting most of the attention is an indie-rock headliner-oriented, bluesfesty kind of festival that mostly plays out on the main stage with some spillover onto the smaller stages. Clearly, this aspect of the festival is after the younger demographic that wants to party late into the night. The move into September, when university students are back in town, is a move to attract more of this crowd – as are such acts as Bon Iver, Kathleen Edwards, Great Lake Swimmers and Great Big Sea (who do have have a lot of folk roots in their music).

Then, there’s the traditional folk festival centred on the smaller stages, and on the daytime workshop stages, with maybe a bit of spillover onto the main stage. This is the aspect of the festival meant to attract the kind of people who have been supporting folk festivals for years and years and decades, who support folk artists and go to folk clubs, who love the music without regard to what may be hip or popular at a particular moment in time.

Among the artists I’m most looking forward to seeing at the Ottawa Folk Festival this year are Red Horse, a trio that brings together Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky, all three of whom are superb singer-songwriters. Although I’ve seen all them individually many times, I’ve not heard them live as a trio yet. The Red Horse album was great and you can see my review at this link.

The Once from Newfoundland is another group whose recordings I really like but have not yet had a chance to see live. My review of their first album is at this link.

One of the main stage performers I am looking forward to is Amy Helm. Her work as lead singer of Ollabelle and backing her father, the late Levon Helm, has been great.

Old Man Luedecke – who I wrote about at this link – and Michael Jerome Browne – whose latest album I reviewed at this link – and Corb Lund – whose latest album I reviewed at this link – are artists I’ve seen many times before, who I always enjoy, and who I highly recommend.

I was also pleased to see Pat Moore on the bill. She’s got several fine CDs and is a strong live performer.

Two others acts whose videos I looked at online and now want to see are Belle Starr and Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys.

All of the artists I’ve mentioned plus many others and the ticket information is now available on the Ottawa Folk Festival website.

I await with interest announcements of other artists and the unveiling of the workshop schedule.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Ottawa Folk Festival – Sunday and wrap-up

Sunday in Ottawa was cloudy, very windy and unseasonably cool courtesy of the northwestern edge of Hurricane Irene. Unlike Montreal, just 120 miles to the east, we were spared Irene’s torrential rains – all we felt was an occasional isolated drop or two.

We started our Ottawa Folk Festival day at the Falls Stage watching the last half-hour or so of Ball & Chain and their band playing a fine set of Cajun music for dancing. Sylvie even got me up on the dance floor for a number.

We stayed put for a strong concert performance by Lynne Hanson, one of Ottawa’s finest singer-songwriters. Lynne’s songs are firmly rooted in the storytelling tradition and fiddler Lyndell Montgomery’s playing really helped bring out the best in them.

Then it was up to the workshop area where I hosted a round robin session called Southern Folk with two great Texas-based singer-songwriters, Kelly Willis and Hayes Carll, Lynne Hanson – who comes from southern Canada – and the David Wax Museum, a Boston-based band influenced by Mexican and Appalachian folk music. All of them played some great songs and I had a fine time hosting.

We then headed back to the Falls Stage to hear an excellent set by Anaïs Mitchell – who was in a songwriters’ workshop I hosted in 2006 at the Champlain Valley Folk Festival in Vermont – and the first half of a charming performance by Catherine MacLellan.

By then, the cold was really getting to us. As much as I wanted to stick around and hear concerts by Lynn Miles, Hayes Carll, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, and Levon Helm. It just wasn’t in the cards. It was “Goodnight Irene” for us.

As I mentioned, I really think there were two very different festivals happening at Hog’s Back Park this past weekend. A variation on Bluesfest, particularly at night and particularly on the main-stage; and a variation on the traditional Ottawa Folk Festival on the rest of the grounds, particularly during the daylight hours. The formula was successful in that it brought in bigger crowds than the Ottawa Folk Festival has seen in years.

If that’s what it takes to have a successful folk festival in Ottawa, then, I suppose, that’s what it takes. But, there are a few things that can be done to make the festival better.

The first, as Ian Robb suggested in a Maplepost message, is shut down the main-stage during the day. The overbearing sound from that stage just puts an unnecessary damper on several of the other stages and the jamming area. The daytime programming on the mainstage was unnecessary and the crowds drawn by some of the main-stage headliners (as opposed to the folkies who come for the festival experience) only show up at night anyway.

Second, the festival should be booked with an artistic vision that includes creative workshop programming. The Ottawa Folklore Centre did a great job with what they had to work with, but the workshop programming was an afterthought in the grand scheme of the festival when it should be at the forefront because that’s what makes a folk festival special.

Third, there were a few too many acts booked that had no connection to folk or roots music. While headliners like Steve Earle, Colin Hay and Levon Helm certainly do belong at folk festivals, there were some who just didn’t.

Fourth, include more traditional music and dance and more traditions. I’d have loved to have seen some klezmer music, some Celtic music, some traditional African music and so much more. There should always be room for traditional music and a diversity of traditions at a folk festival.

This was year one for the Ottawa Folk Festival under Bluesfest management. Despite such problems as sound bleed, I did think it was a more-than-worthy festival. I hope it will continue to evolve into the great festival it can be.

--Mike Regenstreif

Levon Helm -– Ramble at the Ryman

LEVON HELM

Ramble at the Ryman

Vanguard

levonhelm.com

Most Saturday nights, Levon Helm puts on a show called the Midnight Ramble at his studio in Woodstock, New York. His band plays and they feature a guest or two. Tickets cost $150.00 and typically sell out. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard from several people who have that it’s worth every penny.

Occasionally, Levon takes the show on the road. He’ll be here to close out the Ottawa Folk Festival on August 28. Ramble at the Ryman captures the legendary singer and drummer from The Band, along with his band, and several guests in a 2008 Ramble show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, one of the most legendary music halls south of New York City.

It’s an eclectic blend of Americana music that Levon and his associates play. There’s lots of New Orleans in the mix – particularly in the second line horn arrangements. There’s also Memphis R&B, Appalachian folk and old-time country, blues, bluegrass, and, to be sure, rock ‘n’ roll. Levon, a survivor of throat cancer, does some of the singing, but, a lot of the vocals are handled by band members and guest artists.

Six of the 15 tracks are drawn from Robbie Robertson’s Band songbook and it’s obvious, three-and-a-half decades after The Last Waltz, Levon still finds a lot of joy and opportunities for creative expression in the songs. The album opens with “Ophelia,” with its celebratory, second line horns-meets-The Band arrangement. Along the way, Levon revisits the Cajun-flavoured “Evangeline,” sung as a duet with Sheryl Crow – their version holds up well next to the original version which featured Emmylou Harris singing with The Band – and “Rag Mama Rag,” done bayou-meets-Bourbon Street-style with some great trombone work by Clark Gayton. Later, the album closes with three Band songs as Levon and company breathe new life into “The Shape I’m In,” “Chest Fever” and “The Weight.”

Among the other highlights are a sweet version of the Carter Family’s “No Depression Heaven,” with lead vocal by Sheryl Crow, a bluegrass-meets-Dixeland-meets-rock ‘n’ roll arrangement of the traditional “Deep Elem Blues,” and a sweet country version of Buddy and Julie Miller’s “Wide River to Cross” with guests Buddy Miller on guitar and vocals and Sam Bush on mandolin.

It all whets the appetite for the Ottawa Folk Festival show.

--Mike Regenstreif

Ottawa Folk Festival line-up announced

The line-up for the first OttawaFolk Festival put together by Bluesfest director Mark Monahan has been announced. Looking at the schedule, which stretches across four days from Thursday, August 25 to Sunday, August 28, it kind of looks more like a Bluesfest schedule than a traditional folk festival with artists booked to do lengthy concert sets on multiple stages Thursday and Friday evenings and all day and evening on Saturday and Sunday.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m of the opinion that folk festival workshops are the heart and soul of the folk festival experience. The Ottawa Folk Festival workshops are being curated by Arthur McGregor of the Ottawa Folk Festival and will be announced in the coming weeks. The schedule grid shows two workshop stages to be filled in. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the workshop schedule falls into place.

The full list of artists and the concert schedule can be found on the Ottawa Folk Festival website, but some of the artists I’m most looking forward to seeing include the Levon Helm Band (I’ll be posting a review of Levon’s great new live album, Ramble at the Ryman, in the next week or so); Hayes Carll, a very fine singer-songwriter from Texas; Justin Townes Earle, the son of Steve Earle (who will also be at the festival), who has released three excellent albums over the past few years (my review of his latest, Harlem River Blues, is at this link); and Vance Gilbert, a terrific singer and very sophisticated songwriter.

Local favourites on the schedule include Lynn Miles (my review of Lynn’s latest, Fall for Beauty, is at this link) and Lynne Hanson.

Among the artists I’ve never seen before that I want to see are the David Wax Musuem, a kind of folk-rock-Mexican-roots band from Boston; Peter Himmelman, an interesting songwriter; and Jayme Stone, an explorer of the five-string banjo.

I’ve heard good things about the new festival site at Hog’s Back Park so I’m looking forward to hearing some good music there.

I do have some reservations about the line-up. There aren’t many artists on the list who play much traditional music, or even traditionally-oriented music. There should always be lots of room for real folk music at a folk festival.

--Mike Regenstreif