Ottawa Folk Festival 2009

We spent 2 1/2 days last weekend at the Ottawa Folk Festival and had an exceptional time. This was our second year attending and we had the same problem as last year - too much good music all at the same time. Which show to choose?

Friday night we attended concerts by The Sadies, Victoria Vox, Vishten, Kinnie Starr, Amy Millan (solo but part of Stars and Broken Social Scene) and Stephen Page (formerly of the Barenaked Ladies).

Saturday night headliners were the Arrogant Worms, James Hill and Anne Davison, the Good Lovelies and Bruce Cockburn.

Sunday night headliners for us were the Good Lovelies and Friends (Charlotte Cornfield, Tall Trees and Digging Roots), David Ross Macdonald and Joel Plaskett. Unfortunately we were too tired for the last concert of the evening and missed Idy Oulo from Cameroon.

One of the special features of the Festival is workshops held during the day where a number of artists come together to perform their songs. Usually the workshops have themes. Most of the time, the artists perform in turn after a brief intro of how their song relates to the theme. However some of the other artists will frequently "jam" with the others, resulting in some amazing moments.

Workshops on Saturday were Double Bill (Tall Trees and Victoria Vox), Three (Joel Plaskett, David Ross Macdonald and Catriona Sturton - sans Joel who was stuck in New York and was replaced by John ??? on guitar) and Favourite Colours (The Sadies, Amy Millan and Charlotte Cornfield). I also attended an afternoon concert by Mr. Something Something, a great band from Toronto and a show by That 1 Guy that turned into a show by That 1 Girl when Mishirangi had to fill in. Another case of performance anxiety when That 1 Guy's instrument didn't clear Customs in time for the show.

The other special feature of the Festival is the Cross-Cultural Artist Collaboration. These are a series of concerts where the performers get together before the Festival opens to select, practice and play a few pieces. They also write a new piece of music. Different groups perform a series of concerts with 10 or 15 performers per show. This concert culminated with the musicians marching off the stage and playing on the centre of the Dance Tent dance floor, to great cheering from the audience.

Sundays workshops that I attended were African Roots (Jah Youssaf, Abdoulayne Kone and Lewis Melville), Flowing with the Go (Anne Davison, Linsey Wellman, That 1 Guy and Robbie Anderman) and Outstanding In Their Field ( gardener Ed Lawrence, Charlotte Cornfield, The Arrogant Worms, Digging Roots, Stewed Roots and Tall Trees).

Of particular note was the Songs From The Road workshop with Bruce Cockburn, Stephen Page, Joel Plaskett and Ana Miura.

Songs from the Road drew such a crowd as to totally overwhelm the Hill Stage! It could easily have been a Main Stage show.

The afternoon concert was a rip roaring show by The Woodchoppers Association featuring Jah Youssaf and Abdoulayne Kone.

The highlights of the weekend were Victoria Vox, the Flowing with the Go workshop, Bruce Cockburn and Trevor Pool of Tall Trees:

Victoria Vox is a vivacious and fun ukelele musician from Maryland with a nice collection of well-crafted songs. She was busy playing a number of shows throughout the weekend and could often be seen watching other shows. My wife and I had a nice chat and learned where she honed her French skills, used on two of her great songs. She also produces her own tongue-in-cheek (pun intended) his and hers underwear collection featuring ukeleles! See them at her website http://www.victoriavox.com/!

The Flowing with the Go workshop was one of the best displays of musicianship I have seen. The concert began with That 1 Guy starting a very mid-eastern piece reminiscent of tracks from Peter Gabriel's Passion (Soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ) and the remaining artists improvised along. Here is a somewhat choppy sideways clip of the end of the piece (I must remember to keep the camera horizontal when filming video!) You can get a sense of the song in the dying notes. The remaining pieces from each of the other musicians were equally amazing.

Trevor Pool got my pick as an up-and-coming musician to watch. During the Good Lovelies and Friends show, Trevor was improvising on the guitar along with a Stewed Roots song as if he had played it all his life.

Finally, Bruce Cockburn was amazing as always on his own and improvising along during his Sunday workshop. Here he is signing an autograph for a young fan (my son).

One very unique aspect of the festival is that the stars are all wonderfully approachable and accessible. We had nice chats with Victoria Vox and David Ross Macdonald as they were walking on the Festival grounds and had CD signings, autographs and picture with Bruce Cockburn, Joel Plaskett, James Hill and Ana Miura. All were friendly and were genuinely pleased to talk with us. Compare that to other festivals where security guards usher the stars from their bus to the stage and back again.

The festival also featured a number of kid-friendly activities such as an instrument "petting zoo", with more different stringed instruments than I have ever seen and a number of workshops. My kids attended a tin whistle workshop as well as a blued harp or harmonica workshop where they got to keep their instruments courtesy of the Ottawa Folklore Centre. Ukelele building was also available this year.

I would like to thank the Festival organizers for putting on such a wonderful event this year. It was a very well run, fantastically family-oriented, friendly and intimate without any of the drunken roudiness of the other summer festival closer to town.