The Canmore Folk Music Festival - Sunday

[Vic Bell]

My night was a rough one as Liam decided that sleeping next to the bed on
cushions pulled from the couch was not his cup of tea.  After carrying him
around howling for awhile we gave in.  Once in bed, he decided that his
preferred posture was spreadeagled.  Guess who ended up sleeping on the
couch cushions?  Ah the joys of parenthood.

Another clear and sunny morning gave us great views of the incredible
mountain vista around Canmore.  This is pretty familiar territory for
me...I've been to every Canmore festival since 1980 and I've climbed a
bunch of the mountains in the area but I never get tired of viewing it
again.

Over at the site I ran my Sunday stage plots around to the side stages and
started mapping our mainstage workshops on the big white board.  We were in
for a tough day.  Canmore differs from other festivals in this area in that
workshops happen simultaneously on the mainstage as well as two side stages
with the mainstage featuring the more complex set-ups...lucky me!

We started out with "Social Commentary" featuring Lennie Gallant, Geoff
Muldaur and Maria Dunn.  Lennie did this workshop as a trio and Maria, like
Geoff, was solo, so it was a fairly easy start to the day.  I'd been
cautioned earlier that Geoff had arrived the day before in a rather crusty
mood so I set out to establish a comfy relationship with him.  Coming from
the pressure cooker of L.A. Geoff soon fell under the Canmore spell and we
watched him unwind almost visibly.  By festival's end, he, like everyone
else, was part of the family.

The performers chose to tackle this workshop round robin style as might be
expected.  Each offered their songs and some commentary on their origins.
This mainstage workshop and the "Voices of Women" workshop on Stage 2 even
more so, was badly sound-spilled by the Kito No Taiko drummers performing
unamplified on Stage 3.  Word of advise to artistic directors...if you hire
Japanese drummers, don't programme anything else at the same time.

"Roots Run Deep" featured Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir,
Hans Theesink and Laura Love with Rod Cook.  By this time the day was hot
but this workshop was even hotter.  Collaboration was the name of the game
with each act taking turns leading a number while the rest jumped in on
accompaniment.  Geoff Muldaur sat offstage watching with delight.  The
on-stage electricity got the audience jumping too and the workshop ended
with a full-house, extended, standing ovation.  The performers came
offstage completely buzzed by what had occurred.

"Young Upstarts" featured Scruj MacDuhk and Maria Dunn and her
band...fiddler Shannon Johnson and her brothers Solon on bass and Jeremiah
McDade on whistles and David Ward on guitar.  The two groups started off
trading songs back and forth but gradually this ensemble started adding
licks to each other's contributions and the workshop ended with a
full-blown collaboration.  The result was another standing ovation from the
audience.

"Love the Blues" combined Hans Theesink and Blue Groove with Eric Bibb,
Geoff Muldaur, Rod Cook and Joe Mock.  Linda Tillery and three members of
the Choir jumped in to assist.  Eric Bibb had been held up by guess
who...Air Canada, and wasn't there at the start, but he showed up part way
through and we plugged him in.  Once again collaboration
ruled...particularly with Linda and company ready to add back-up vocals.
Once Eric arrived, he proved to be a particularly charming addition and he
soon fell in with Linda and Hans for the rest of the weekend.  Cheers,
howls, much dancing and carousing came from the crowd throughout this
workshop.

Given the tangle of lines we already had onstage, "Klezmer Mania" with
Finjan and Night Sun was a stage manager's challenge and I was busy at the
white board plotting what to do.  Eventually we got things sorted out and
off they went.  With Klezmer the game, Night Sun was obviously outclassed
by Finjan and they admitted so from the start.  Even so they jumped in on
some collaborative experiments amidst the song trading and a good time was
had by all.

Our final workshop, "Canadian Coastal Waters" brought together a collection
of islanders.  Valdy (Saltspring), Gary Fjellgaard (Gabriola), Lennie
Gallant (PEI), and Pied Pumkin (Shari Ulrich lives on Bowen Island).  The
expected nautical themes were explored round robin style.  Valdy displayed
his usual good humour doing an accapella version of "Eddystone Light" and
there was banter re east and west coasts among the participants.

We devoted 15 minutes to completely striking and clearing the stage and
untangling our lines so as to give us the best shot at tackling the
evening's concerts.  With the workshops out of my hair I began to be able
to relax.

Night Sun were set to start off the evening concerts as grim looking clouds
filled the sky and began to obscure the peaks.  With one eye on the weather
we made our contingency plans and covered the monitors with plastic just in
case.  Night Sun turned in an enthusiastic set, this being their first
visit to these parts.  They certainly earned some fans but "first act of
the evening syndrome" and a scramble for tarps and rain gear as the first
drizzles began, kept them from an encore.

Four member Silk Road with our old friend Qui Xia (Choo Sha) on her trusty
pipa were gathered backstage, dressed in oriental silk dresses.  As a sit
down act I made sure we set them a little further back on the stage in case
the weather started to blow rain onto the stage.  Silk Road's Chinese music
was certainly exotic to many, but Qui Xia has been to Canmore several
times, especially since we all learned that she can jam on her pipa along
with anyone in any style.  "Virtuoso" is an adjective easily applied to Qui
Xia and her companions soon revealed they were no slouches either.  Despite
the drizzles and the cold winds, they warmed everyone's hearts with their
music and charming introductions earning a semi-standing ovation and encore.

Eric Bibb took the stage solo, running through a tasty repertoire of finger
picking blues and very fine singing.  I remember seeing his dad Leon in
Vancouver in the early days and Eric has certainly inherited a fine voice.
He was my big discovery for the weekend and this seemed true for many in
the crowd.  He charmed everyone and easily earned a semi-standing ovation
and encore.

Drizzles slowly gave way as Pied Pumkin hit the stage, with Rick Scott's
onstage antics the catalyst to push the clouds aside completely and bring
the sun beaming through.  I hadn't seen guitarist Joe Mock for many a year
although my familiarity with him goes way back.  I was in the audience at
the Bunkhouse coffeehous in Vancouver in the mid-sixties when Joe won a
guitar in a musician's contest thanks to his hot licks even then.  Mix his
licks with Rick's charisma and Shari Ulrich's vocals and you have an
unbeatable combination.  The audience thought so too, giving them a
standing ovation and encore.

Fully primed by the previous acts, the audience might have thought they
were ready for Christine Lavin.  They weren't.  Anyone who had not seen her
before was given the full treatment.  Set up with a wireless system that
allowed her complete freedom of movement she exploited technology to the
max.  After a few onstage numbers including "What Was I Thinking?", she
donned a headlamp and headed out into the audience singing and playing
guitar, in search of the "perfect" man.  The audience was falling to pieces
with laughter throughout this song, which eventually identified "The King
of Canmore" complete with crown.  She was soon joined onstage by about 20
"Sensitive New Age Guys" from the audience who were were the perfect foils
to be helplessly savaged by Christine's wit.  At set's end the entire park
exploded with a full-house, screaming standing ovation...easily the most
sustained applause of the night.  By pre-arrangement, Christine did her
baton twirling encore off the stage in front of the audience, accompanied
by pre-recorded voice presenting her "thoughts" pumped in over the P.A.
Christine twirls one mean baton and another sustained standing ovation
resulted.

A tough act to follow, but Eric Bogle was not fazed in the slightest.  He
and his three piece ensemble started off with "Singing The Spirit Home" and
continued through a set of songs old and new, somber and absurd, as is
typical of his songwriting.  "He's Nobody's Moggie Now" preceeded "The Band
Played Waltzing Matilda" which earned a well-deserved standing ovation and
encore.

Hans Theesink and Blue Groove were last up for the night.  With Alee Thelfa
on very tasty percussion and vocals and Jon Sass on astounding tuba, Hans
turned in a terrific set of blues standards and originals.  With the
darkness, the audience's attention was completely focused by the lights,
the dancers took to the dirt and a very good time was had.  During the set,
Jon left the stage a couple of times...tuba problems caused by...you
guessed it...the airlines.  One of his valves was sticking and causing him
grief.  Hans and Alee carried on and the audience was unaware that this was
not all part of the plan.  Hans concluded his set with a quiet number that
got the whole audience singing along.  Then, with Alee on djembe and Jon on
tambourine, the three of them stood out in front of the monitors, keeping
the audience singing and gradually moving out into the crowd.  It was one
of those, "you had to be there" moments.  A full house standing ovation
brought them back for a planned encore/finale that included Rod Cook, Maria
Dunn, Lennie Gallant, Rhonda from the Cultural Heritage Choir and others
including your faithful festival scribe, all lending their voices to "Will
The Circle Be Unbroken".

A quick clean-up onstage allowed the crew to head over to the party at the
Hub, a small community hall that has seen many festival parties over the
years.  A sound system was set up but conversation and socializing was the
mood for most.  The stage crew availed themselves of food and beer and
re-hashed the day.  Joe Mock took the stage to play some guitar tunes but
we chose to pace ourselves and packed it in early.

To be continued.

cheers,  Vic