From: watson@hg.uleth.ca (The terror that flaps in the night)
Subject: Winnipeg Folk Fest Part II
Reply-To: watson@hg.uleth.ca
Organization: University of Lethbridge
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 17:09:06 GMT

Well, finally, after a long hiatus (ie. vacation) and a couple weeks of
catching up on work, I have some time to sit down and finish off my adventures
at the Winnipeg Folk Festival held last month.  So here it is...

         CAROL DOES THE WINNIPEG FOLK FESTIVAL -- PART II

It was Friday and the first full day of the festival (Thursday was the evening
performance only).  The weather was cooperating and we had scattered clouds and
comfortable temperatures.  I packed up my backpack and my chair and headed off
into the grounds to find the stage for the first of the workshops that I
attended that day.  Here is a rundown and summary:

A is For Aesop (Songs That Tell Stories)
----------------------------------------

Paul & Win Grace:  performed a couple of traditional American folk songs; Paul
  appeared to be a talented fiddle and mandolin player; a young daughter with a
  pretty voice sang one of the songs

James Keelaghan: an Albertan; strong performance as always; brought passion
  to his musical stories; great baritone voice
 
Steve Gillette: smooth mellow voice; great guitar picking ala Doc Watson

Lennie Gallant: nice Acadian influenced songs

Greg Brown: looks like a beatnik (goatee, bandanna and sunglasses); animated
  singer with a rough yet resonant voice; incredibly charming; I think I'm in
  love

A mellow workshop and appropriate for first thing in the morning.  Standout
performances came from James Keelaghan and Greg Brown.


Tradition With a Twist 
---------------------- 

The Drovers: another fabulous performance; high energy; performed an extended
  version of "All Good Times are Past and Gone" that included a killer 
  percussion break with bodhrans, congas, cowbells, snare drums and Robin 
  Anders (ala 3 Mustaphas 3 and BiL) on a dumbek; flailing tree dancers 
  abundant for this set

Blood Oranges: from Boston; fast and furious; like a bluegrass influenced
  garage band; gorgeous (and very young) bass player with incredible hair  :)

The Oyster Band: no show  :(

Despite the fact that I was totally bummed out that the Oyster Band hadn't
arrived at the festival yet, I enjoyed this high energy (and loud) workshop.
Both performances were great and it was my first close up glance at the
Drover's bodhran player, Jackie Moran.  I was also entranced by Robin Anders
and his incredible face, hands and asymmetrical haircut. He was instantly
recognized when he appeared on stage and got a rather hearty ovation from the
audience. Since both bands had alot of equipment, the set up time cut into the
playing time, though.


Bodhran
-------
Gino Lupari (Four Men & A Dog)
Kelly McGowan (The Harbord Trio)

This was a totally cool workshop that really got me hooked on the bodhran. 
They demonstrated different malleting styles and showed how to get an abundance
of different sounds out of the drum both off the skin and the frame.  Gino was
so inventive, at times wrapping his entire body around the bodhran (he
generally played sitting down).  Kelly plays bodhran and a celtic harp with The
Harbord Trio which also includes Don Ross, an incredible guitarist.


Concert
-------
Quetzalcoatl

I went with my mother to this workshop as she's a latino music freak.  This
Latin American quartet did not disappoint.  They played traditional songs from
various regions of Mexico as well as contemporary songs from Cuba, Venezuela,
Peru and Argentina.  They used a wide variety of instruments and were very
charming as they attempted to communicate, in broken English, the story and
meaning behind each song.  They expressed over and over how happy they were to
be in Winnipeg because they had often heard of the festival, but had only
dreamed of performing there.  The lead singer had one of the warmest, most
sincere smiles I have ever come across.  We ran into them on one of our treks
backstage and mom immediately started speaking Spanish to them.  They were
pleased to communicate in their mother tongue and the percussionist was
surprised when my demonstrative mom gave him an affectionate hug. I teased her
mercilessly afterward by suggesting that she was rubbing groins with him.  :)

Uillean Pipes
-------------
Kirk Lynch (Scartaglen)

I sat right up front for this workshop so I could watch him closely. Before he
started playing he took his pipes apart and explained what each piece was from
the bellows, to the resonators, to the chanter.  He played a few different
styles from dance and marches to laments and salutes.  The Uilleans looked
difficult to play (I'd forget to pump on the bellows) but he played them with
ease and I wallowed in the drones.  :)  And why is it that pipers are such
scruffy skinny fellows?  ;)

Squeezeboxes
------------
John Kirkpatrick
Donal Murphy (Four Men & A Dog)
Dave Moore
Gary Powell (The Bone Tones)
Terrance Simien

I only caught the first part of this workshop.  John Kirkpatrick was a no-show,
so they had appointed Terrance Simien as the replacement host. Unfortunately,
Terrance was slobbering drunk, waving around a bottle of wine.  Right off the
bat, he loudly stammered and slurred, "Does anybody out there know how to play
this fucking thing?".  He had a terrible time remaining seated in his chair and
another musician in the audience (Michael Jackson, an Aussie) came to his
rescue, grabbed the accordion which was clumsily hanging from his neck and
started playing. We left shortly after (along with most of the people who had
kids with them) and jokingly made bets on his state of sobriety for his
mainstage performance the next night.

To See What Everybody Sees & To Think What Nobody Thinks
(The Fine Art of Songwriting)
--------------------------------------------------------

Connie Kaldor: compelling voice; versatile and funny
 
Richard Thompson: wow... wow... oh god... wow; a fabulous solo acoustic
  performance of three songs: Vincent Black Lightning (ooooohhh ahhhh), God 
  Loves a Drunk (entrancing) and a song I didn't recognize with snippets of 
  lyrics like "You wouldn't want me any other way", "rare thing", "lost child".
  (Cummon someone help me out here); I was mesmerized watching his hands move
  over his guitar and his vocals were perfect.  *sigh*

Stephen Fearing: great guitar work and incredibly powerful vocals; sings so
  hard, it must hurt; did a moving version of "Blue Line"

Pierce Pettis: a young nice looking fella with an edgy acoustic style that was
  rather pleasant; was totally impressed with sharing a stage with Richard
  Thompson to the point of requesting an audience member to take a picture
  "so I can bring it home to my buddies and tell them all to kiss my butt".

Ani Di Franco: sings hard, plays hard; it was almost frightening; strong gutsy
  voice; an acquired taste; sang a song about bi-sexuality and I recall another
  with unexpected menstrual flow as it's central image; she caught the
  audience's attention but almost too forcibly, IMHO.

Greg Brown: oh wow... he was fabulous again (it's so wonderful discovering
  someone new to me); writes incredibly sentimental tunes and his live
  performance style is unmatched; his facial expressions, his grunts and
  groans and humor had me laughing and crying; his song about coffee and
  attempting to wake up his sleepy woman in the morning was both humorous and
  poignant.

This was the last workshop of the day and, damn, it was worth the wait. Richard
and Greg both stole my heart (and a few hormones). By arriving at the workshop
early, I managed to muscle my way to a front row spot near stage right. When
the performers started filing onto the stage, Richard took a seat directly in
front of me on the far right within 2 feet.  I thought I was going to pee...  :)
He was dressed in a green ball cap, light blue denim shirt, navy slacks, purple
socks and black leather roeboks -- the ultimate in folk chic. *giggle*  The
audience was large for this workshop and Richard had them eating out of the
palm of his hand.  After the workshop concluded, since I was so close, I
approached him and said the magical words that I had been waiting so long to
tell him.  I shook his hand, smiled nervously, and said in my best Canookie,
"Richard, I think you're swell...".  He thanked me graciously, and I turned
away, smiled, and thought of a special person who inspired me to utter such
a brilliant statement.  ;)

Evening Concert
---------------

Things got started late because the first bluegrass act, Country Gazette was
delayed at the Canadian border, so they set up for the second act instead. So
on came Acoustically Inclined, a local group.  This sextet played a nice
variety of folk-rock and jazzy numbers. I was impressed by their viola player,
Richard Moody and their guitar player, Luke Doucet.  Luke is a rather bizarre
looking character and would have won the "Haircut Award" with his 3/4 bald head
with long hair starting below the ears and his thin oriental looking mustache.
I bought their latest release _A Short Subliminal Message_ and it has a few
really good tunes: "Purple Bellbottoms Man", "Body of Light" and a spacy tune
called "Peyote Twisty".

Now, if I remember correctly, Country Gazette came up next and played a set of
bluegrass that was OK, but not all that memorable.  I found myself wishing Bela
Fleck and the Flecktones had made a return appearance instead.  The Justin Vali
Trio followed.  This troop I remembered because Justin played a real exotic
looking harp-like string instrument made of bamboo, wood and metal.  The
instrument is called a valiha (pronounced valy) and could produce an incredible
variety of sounds.  I didn't get a chance to see this trio in any workshops,
which was too bad because I wanted to see this valiha up close -- it looked
fascinating from my foggy binoculars.

I went scrounging for sustenance (food and drink) during the next performance,
John McCutcheon.  As I consumed some yummy Tai food that was burning my lips 
off, I recall his music as being rather mellow and his hammered dulcimer
playing was really amazing.  Perfect stuff to dine to...  :)  A French Canadian
group followed - Michael Faubert.  He was dressed rather flashy in a bright red
jacketed suit and performed some really cool Qubcois and Acadian songs that
were both traditional and contemporary.  What I really liked was the man who
did "la pattee" (sp?), a version of foot dancing.  I remember my French
grandfather trying to teach me this warped version of sit-down clogging and it
wasn't easy. But, this fellow was fabulous and made it look so easy.  You
couldn't help but move your feet too.

Next up was Jim Post.  My mother was surprised that they had him on as a
mainstage performer as she feared that this 'old sod' would put the audience to
sleep.  But he proved her wrong.  He performed an energetic and witty set that
more than kept the audience happy.  His voice is very strong and you can detect
his gospel singing influences in his folk music.

By this time of the night (it was nearing midnight), it was getting rather cold
and I was putting on my third layer of clothing but still shivering.  The
master of ceremonies got the with one of those participation songs that had
the thousands of us jumping around and acting rather silly, but hell Canooks
will do anything to stay warm.  Following our little warm-up session was Sue
Foley's set.  She really wasn't very good and fumbled over her blues licks
repeatedly.  She apologized for her rough start and blamed her lacklustre
performance on the cold.  The word backstage is that she downed a bottle of her
favorite white lightning was a method of warming up before the performance. Her
vocals were very weak and the audience was starting to get a little restless
and cranky with a few members near the back yelling "Get off the stage!". I
dunno, maybe her performance was a complete success and it was just the
audience that was a failure.

The last performance of the night was The Oyster Band.  I was looking forward
to this all day and knew they had finally arrived because we bumped into John
Jones backstage while lining up for coffee.  I recognized him instantly and
exclaimed my joy at their safe arrival, then followed it with an embrace (which
he initiated).  John isn't all that tall, so his face didn't come all that far
from my chest.  oopsie....  :)  The Oysters were marvellous and instantly had
everyone up on their feet dancing. It was obvious that the cold night didn't
bother them. The performance was consisted mainly of songs from their latest
album, _Deserters_.  "Angels of the River" was particularly well done.  I was
hoping to hear some of their older stuff from _Liberty Hall_, but it was not to
be... They did a rousing cover of "I Fought The Law" and the audience was
pumped up and didn't want to go home.  The crew I was with was tired, so we
packed up (and I pouted) and started our trek back to the car. They were still
playing when we drove off -- it was 2:15 am.

Watch for Part III as Richard Thompson performs on the main stage, we get
dumped on in a flash storm and I get my hands on Jed Foley's pipes.

- Carol
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk