269: Festival Express

Top row (left to right): Beth Orton, Bahamas, Royal Wood. Middle row (left to right): Casey Laforet, Mark Sasso. Bottom row: Melissa Mulholland and Justin Rutledge.

This year's Winnipeg Folk Festival was only the second one in which I ponied up for the entire weekend pass (the other, 2009's all-star edition with Neko Case, Josh Ritter, Iron & Wine, Patrick Watson, etc.). I've attended 20 versions of the festival – Kerry notes that there's been more summers in our lives with time spent at the Winnipeg Folk Festival than without – and even if the dynamics have changed over time, it's always a good, good time. And it's always searing, searing hot. God must like the Winnipeg Folk Festival – not like the seedy, soggy Red River Ex, or the bedeviled Teddy Bears' Picnic.

I enjoyed catching up with a lot of our favourites like Justin Rutledge, Bahamas and Elliott Brood (who earned hardest-working-band title for soldiering on despite blowing the circuits twice). Reacquainting with big-shots who cut their teeth here, like Feist and Iron & Wine. Getting a taste for new-to-me stuff in Royal Wood, James Vincent McMorrow and The Head & The Heart. Finding out Beth Orton has recovered enough from motherhood to rediscover her performing chops.

But the place just makes us happy. And exhausted. After so many years it's developed into a kind of old comfy shoe sorta thing. And when it's finished, like last night when the sun finally let up and Bahamas just would not quit with the encores, it's sad. The next day is always a working Monday, but it's only 364 days until next time.

Bachelor Exercise No. 3

Bachelor exercise number three: documentation of a rarely-seen event – that of a modern bachelor wallowing in low, low, rock-bottom culinary standards. Peanuts & Corn Records' founder/producer/rapper mcenroe provides the soundtrack. Accompanied by a bowl of original shredded wheat bricks and brown sugar, a competent mix that provides the daily dose of both fibre and teeth-rotting sweetness.

So, milk carton is emptied. Fridge is bare. Bag is packed. And I. Am. Outtahere.

Addendum: add one more song to the list established in bachelor exercise number one.

263: The Music Man

This illustration – as a sketching exercise – goes way back to those hazy, crazy days of the summer of 2010. I signed up and vowed an online pinky-swear with my American friends Melissa and Amy to try a little exercise in collaboration. Each of us would blast out an hour of sketching with some Pigma Microns, filling roughly one-third of a page, then mail it on to the next participant. Then repeat, and pass it on again. The end goal would be three filled pages, with illustrations shared and completed equally among the three of us. Easy-peasy.

Except that after two rounds of play, life set in and the exercise disappeared into the ether. I can't even remember what happened on my end of the deal, with the third piece, to let it sit on my desk for an eternity and a day. But fast-forward almost two years when, during a cleanup of my drawing space, I came across the incomplete final installment.

And I thought, nuts to this, finished the thing and mailed the finished three-person creation home to Amy in Arizona. I'm also holding fast to the assignment's original rule that no one finished piece be displayed until all three return to their humble place of origin. But in the meantime, here's a rejig of my original drawing that got it all started: a one-hour pen drawing of Canuck gadzoople-threat entertainer C.R. Avery, who I saw at the 2009 Winnipeg Folk Festival – run through the Photoshop-machine.

Click here to nab a more detailed look.

Bachelor Exercise No. 1

Bachelor exercise number one: a list, of the songs in our iTunes library that I'm pretty confident I could sing all the words to, if someone were to put a gun to my head and instruct me to (in alphabetical order, by performer):

• Take On Me, A-ha (see above)
• Already Yours, Bahamas
• A Day In The Life, The Beatles
• Because, The Beatles
• I've Just Seen A Face, The Beatles
• Maxwell's Silver Hammer, The Beatles
• Norwegian Wood, The Beatles
• Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, The Beatles
• Rocky Raccoon, The Beatles
• Taxman, The Beatles
• Stand By Me, Ben E. King
• Oh Alberta, Elliott Brood
• I'm Popeye The Sailor Man, Face To Face
• Business Time, Flight Of The Conchords
• My Daddy Was A Rock N' Roller, Jason Collett
• Back Dirt Road, Oh Susanna
• That Was Your Mother, Paul Simon
• Jeremy, Pearl Jam
• Big Time, Peter Gabriel
• Even Better Than The Real Thing, U2
• With Or Without You, U2
• Our Retired Explorer, The Weakerthans
• One Great City!, The Weakerthans
• Virtute The Cat Explains Her Departure, The Weakerthans
• The Hardest Button To Button, The White Stripes

Ought Nine In Music

2009 was a fantastic year for music in our house, our town and in our country. K. and I attended some fine shows passing through the city, culminating with my favourite Folk Festival – check that, far and away favourite – since I started attending in 1993. Seven of my favourite albums (and four of ten favourite singles, below) this year hail from the homeland. Canada, take a bow.

1) Patrick Watson // Wooden Arms – I picked this up in advance of their appearance at the FolkFest and haven't put it down since. Spooky, ethereal, inventive, like nothing else I've heard in a long time.

2) The Deep Dark Woods // Winter Hours – a selection of K.'s from the Folk Fest, the perfect prairie album with great storytelling.

3) Metric // Fantasies – mebbe not as airtight and rock-hard as Live It Out, but solid nonetheless. Just try not and sing along to "Stadium Love" at the end.

4) Neko Case // Middle Cyclone – following the footsteps of "Ghost Wiring" and "The Needle Has Landed", "Red Tide" continues an odd streak for myself of finding the final track my runaway favourite from Neko's albums.

5) JBM // Not Even In July – who is this guy? A gorgeous piece of work.

6) Bahamas // Pink Strat – a FolkFest discovery and absolute wiz on the guitar, Afie Jurvanen's album is desceptively sweeter than the goofy/gruff rock-star exterior he exhibits on stage.

7) Marie-Pierre Arthur // Marie-Pierre Arthur – I have no idea what she's singing about beyond the titles "Elle" and "Pourquoi", but I'm hooked – a tribute to her amazing voice (and her band's sound).

8) Clem Snide // Hungry Bird – a quiet and heartfelt little thing.

9) Yeah Yeah Yeahs // It's Blitz! – the one-two punch of "Zero" and "Heads Will Roll" is as balls-out as anything put out in a long time, making up for a mellower back end than I would have liked.

10) Great Lake Swimmers // Lost Channels – a solid addition to their œuvre, even if a step down from the beginning-to-end awesomeness of Ongiara.

I also pilfered a number of singles off of albums I wasn't keen on as a whole. They're ranked here, and this list does not include singles from purchased albums:

1) Radiohead // "These Are My Twisted Words"
2) Handsome Furs // "I'm Confused"
3) Laura Gibson // "Spirited"
4) A.C. Newman // "All Of My Days And All Of My Days Off"
5) Charlotte Gainsbourg // "Heaven Can Wait"
6) Leeroy Stagger // "Everything Is Real"
7) Basia Bulat // "Gold Rush"
8) Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros // "Home"
9) Florence + The Machine // "Kiss With A Fist"
10) Franz Ferdinand // "Ulysses" & "Katherine Kiss Me"

201: Festival Banner Crop

Top row (left to right): Iron & Wine, Okkervil River, Patrick Watson. Middle row (left to right): Great Lake Swimmers, Josh Ritter, Neko Case. Bottom row (left to right): Hey Rosetta!, Serena Ryder, Elvis Costello.

"Alright Winnipeg, check this sh*t out" ­ – Afie Jurvanen (aka Bahamas)

This year's Winnipeg Folk Festival was spectacular, for me, on many levels. But principally two: talent and weather. The latter goes without explanation; for myself, a lousy forecast can dampen even the best show – fortunately I can't think of too many examples where this has happened. So, lucky me.

But the crew behind the scenes, who patch this whole thing together, put forth an incredible lineup for 2009 – in my humble opinion, the best ever. Frankly, somebody there must have read my mind. Some notes from this year's festival:

The continuation of a second night-time stage has been a huge blessing, and this year's was, by leaps and bounds, the best. Between the only scheduled showing by late addition Hey Rosetta! On Friday, a quick pop-in for a screening of The Big Snit on Saturday and back-to-back concerts on Sunday from Patrick Watson and Great Lake Swimmers, the old guard can have their main stage.

Patrick Watson (the man) and Patrick Watson (the band) were lights-out. I hadn't seen them before, and had no clue how they'd manage to put across live what they do on their albums (having a most daring percussionist doesn't hurt). I only wished I'd waded in closer to see his homemade mobile soundsystem, which I could only describe as a backpack/coat-rack of megaphones. Their Sunday workshop with Danny Barnes, human beat-box C.R. Avery and klezmer-rapper Socalled was quite fine in its own right. A ton of improvised fun, anyways.

The Great Lake Swimmers put in an appearance or ten, or so it felt, holding their own against Josh Ritter and Neko Case (Saturday afternoon), and the bombastic Okkervil River (Sunday). Arguably the hardest-working band of the festival, they capped off the weekend with a rousing version of "I Am Part Of A Large Family" with Serena Ryder, complete with a rose-red sunset.

These sideshows almost make me forget my personal highlights of the evening main stage, the specially-added Wednesday marathon from Elvis Costello, the all-eggs-in-one-basket Friday night, capped by Iron & Wine and my lady crush Case (led off with the happiest man in the business, my man-crush Mr. Ritter) and a Saturday bash with the 11-piece British party band Bellowhead – complete with tuba solo.

I had a great time with my camera this year, shoehorning my way up close for some of the daytime shows. Bigger, crisper looks at any of these photos can be had here.

Ought Eight In Music

If anything happened for me in '08, it was increased exposure to more music. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm no connoisseur ... yet. But I make up for it, and more, by being extremely finnicky. And that's where I become at odds with other music lovers, in that I'm rarely happy enough with albums from start to finish to warrant nabbing them whole, and instead have fast become a fan of – gasp – the single. I often find myself rummaging through iTunes these days like a scavenger, picking off sensational songs here and there after sampling albums that say much less to me. Not to say it doesn't happen for me though; I broke a personal record this year for buying albums in a year I'm hearing critics and experts dub less than stellar. I've also noticed a trend in my buying habits in that albums I do get tend to drift towards material I'll listen to together with Kerry, while singles and part-albums I amass veer more for just myself.

Here's my top 10 albums and singles from 2008. Some may be late-2007 crossovers, and the singles list does not include songs from the albums list.

Asking for Flowers – Kathleen Edwards
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Consolers of the Lonely – The Raconteurs
New Seasons – The Sadies
Narrow Stairs – Death Cab For Cutie
Mountain Meadows – Elliott Brood
Gossip in the Grain – Ray LaMontagne
Oh My Darling – Basia Bulat
The Hold Up – Donovan Woods
Andorra – Caribou

"The Rip" – Portishead, Third
"Halfway Home" – TV On The Radio, Dear Science
"Help I'm Alive" – Metric (single)
"Lights Out" – Santogold, Santogold
"In the End It's Your Friends" – Shout Out Out Out Out (single)
"Bitches in Tokyo" – Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War
"Time to Pretend" – MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
"Time Machine" – Sweatshop Union, Water Street
"Body of Years" – Mother Mother, Oh My Heart
"Believe In Me" – Sloan, Parallel Play

164: New Toy

Top row (left to right): Pop Wagner, performing in a weekend house concert; barite rose, from my rockhound days as a kid. Middle row (left to right): home sweet home on my Wii control; patterns in stained glass. Bottom row (left to right): back off, get yer own tasty sammich; extreme salt shaker action.

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With the money I earned from leasing this photo to the City of Winnipeg to use on their website, I treated myself to an EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens for my Rebel. And I am absolutely loving it at the moment; I've barely even scratched the surface of what it can do to improve my game. It's just fun to see things around the house – little things, particularly – in a whole new light.

Some of these are available for closer inspection on Flickr.

Fifty Bucks Well Spent

Thanks to my now-married friend Allan ­ – and the iTunes gift card he bestowed on his groomsmen earlier this fall – I was able to unabashedly walk into Apple's virtual shop recently and haul ass with a basket of all manner of aural goodies. I'm working on being more in tune with tunes; this list of music that I'm currently appreciating muchly comes thanks to a few sources: CBC Radio 3 and NPR podcasts, the recently (and nicely) reformatted CBC Radio 2 late-night programming, my occasional Illadelphian music hook-up Melissa (and husband) ­ – and of course Al, who provided the coin as part of a most incredible gesture. Thanks again.

Singles

"Hey Modern School Girl " – *The Awkward Stage, Slimming Mirrors, Flattering Lights
"The Sun Will Set" – Bombazine Black, Here Their Dreams
"Frenchy's" & "The Pulse" – *Holy Fuck, LP
"Acid Tongue" – Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue
"Hello Tomorrow " – Karen O. & Squeak E. Clean (single from the 2006 Adidas commercial)
"Body Of Years" – *Mother Mother, O My Heart
"Cocaine Cowgirl" – *Matt Mays & El Torpedo, Matt Mays & El Torpedo
"All The Old Showstoppers" – *The New Pornographers, Challengers
"Life In Parentheses" – *Novillero, A Little Tradition
"How Can You Be Sure" – Radiohead, Fake Plastic Trees (single)
"Believe In Me" – *Sloan, Parallel Play
"Time Machine" – *Sweatshop Union, Water Street

Albums

Summer Rains – The Ditty Bops
*Ongiara – Great Lake Swimmers
Till The Sun Turns Black – Ray LaMontagne
Time Without Consequence – Alexi Murdoch

* Canadian content!

153: Folk 'Em If You Got 'Em

Behold, a six-pack of Canadians.Top row (left to right): Rebekah Higgs, John K. Samson of The Weakerthans, Basia Bulat. Bottom row (left to right): Joey Burns of Calexico (said he was born Canadian, who am I to disagree), Kathleen Edwards, Andrew Whiteman of Apostle of Hustle.

The 2008 Winnipeg Folk Festival expanded on a reputation for bringing the world to our door, outpost that we are, all tucked away up here in the dead-center of the continent. While the virtues of the festival itself continue to be debated as it grows ever larger, more popular and businesslike, it still cannot be ignored as the province's premier annual event for area music-lovers. This year more than most, I was able to get a sense of the festival's something-for-everyone credo – on the same weekend, followers of afro-beat, jug-blowing bluegrass, Word-spreading gospel and – here's where I get excited – a satiating mix of Canuck (and elsewhere) indie rock, could all locate their niche and contently co-exist.

On the evening main stage, genres meet and, on occasion, awkwardly connect (example: Thursday's opening set included, in order, Côte d'Ivoire singer Dobet Gnahoré, The Weakerthans and multi-culti feelgood hero Michael Franti). On the daytime stages however, themes can be hammered out and attendees can get their niche-y fixes. Among personal highlights were glimpses (or more) of...

• Geoff Berner’s Thursday evening accordion-led ballad The Dead Children Were Worth It, hilariously skewing the bloated Vancouver Olympics. His subsequent knock on fest sponsor Volkswagen was even better.
• Kathleen Edwards, whose lyrics can lift your spirit one moment, then crush your head in a kung-fu grip the next. Her mainstage rendition of Back To Me and a playful version of The Cheapest Key were dazzling.
• Friday’s “I Hate Tucson” afternoon show, with Hayden, Calexico and The Weakerthans merging talents, often backing on each other’s songs. Calexico’s brass brought extra oomph to the Weakerthans’ Pamphleteer, and their own simmering build-up on Corona was pretty awesome in its own right.
• Basia Bulat and The Apostle of Hustle – seeing both up close for the first time, finally putting faces to the names.
• Ray Davies, despite seeming a touch cantankerous and primadonna, provided as good a weekend capper as any by obliging fans to a sing-along of Lola.
  

(Unfortunately, Saturday was a complete washout, a rarely-witnessed summer trifecta of cold, wind and rain that kept me housebound – yeah I'm a wus, but you shoulda seen it).

The more I get a handle on my camera, the more I can appreciate the access that can be had at the festival. My best shots above, plus a few more, can be viewed here on my Flickr home base.

A Tower Of Song

So our trip east to see my new nephew Avery in Nova Scotia, and Leonard Cohen in Toronto, was a total creative rejuvenation. A five-day whirlwind, the most I could take after blowing our vacation wadge in Portugal, was punctuated by seeing one talent at the top of his game, and another one just starting out. I'll break it into chunks over the days to come, starting here, with Mr. Cohen.

Growing up with both parents as fans, and having a wife who in all likeliness would step over my dead body to meet him, I've always been a silent admirer. I appreciate any musician at the talent level of Mr. Cohen, regardless of genre, so to witness a rare live performance was worth any toil of diving deep into downtown Toronto to experience it first-hand. And to do it among thousands of devotees waiting 15 years – or for some, possibly their entire lives – to see him perform, made the experience even sweeter.

A former co-worker of mine who sings in a band, said the secret is to surround yourself with better musicians. This would be the same for Mr. Cohen; he is not The Voice, even if his growl is a defining characteristic, but his words – pop stars take note – are the stars of the show, and his bandmates excelled at framing them. And then every once in awhile he surprised, opting to read verses instead, or in finding the perfect tune to accent his vocal range. Mr. Cohen's œuvre – the legacy, decades in the making – was on full display, and his surprising physical spryness made the evening more of a party than anyone likely expected, fuelling the fire that yeah, maybe he will drop by again one day.

Right Backatcha, CBC Radio 3

One of my more rewarding Flickr finds has been the CBC Radio 3 group page. It's a decent enough depository for quirky or interesting snapshots of Canadiana (mixed in with some straight-up scraps of randomness) – and I've contributed more than my fair share, 41 in total. But the ultimate goal of anyone submitting to the CBC Radio 3 group is being chosen. Chosen specifically, as image of the day, a special moment in a photo's life where it ascends to official background status on the CBC Radio 3 homepage. This past Tuesday, a photo I took of my Rocket Robin Hood buttons for the 2006 GDC Manitoba button swap attained image-of-the-day status – the second time I've made the cut (the first being last June, with this shot of Kerry on the swings in Matlock taken with slide film many moons ago). In addition, this shot of a grumpy Shriner in last summer's Icelandic Festival in Gimli was used on the CBC Radio 3 blog (below) in a discussion about, well, summer festivals.


For this, I earned the pleasure of receiving a free t-shirt and nostalgia-riffic CBC button in the mail while away on vacation. Yeah. So there. Free t-shirt. I figure that's fair, not only for a day's use of a couple photos, but also for the many Canuck bands I've discovered through their Friday podcast.

118: All The World's A Stage

Clockwise from top left: Jason Collett makes Kerry swoon; Amy Millan, a voice that melts butter; gruff-looking Millan bandmate; Mark Sasso of Elliott Brood gets primal on the banjo.

Last weekend I attended my 14th Winnipeg Folk Festival. My time spent on the festival grounds varies between the full four days or as little as one day, as was the case this year. My first festival took place a week or so after my high school graduation. I've experienced the festival campground as a teenager (and the booze that invariably comes with it), the mud-inducing downpours and standout performances ranging from Leslie Feist, Xavier Rudd, Neko Case and The Weakerthans to the Buena Vista Social Club, Billy Bragg and Sir Bob Geldof.

Of the 14 years, the 2007 lineup was the least familiar to me, but the performers I was keen on managed to all be on stage during the Saturday – so I focused on that (perhaps a poor decision; word has it Friday night kicked some butt). I brought my camera and zoom along this year to stay occupied capturing concert footage at the daytime stages, since the recent festival norm seems to be stifling hot days rendering me stir-crazy from heat. It's only a year – minus a week – until the next one.

A few more shots from last Saturday can be viewed in this Flickr set (including a couple of an Imperial Storm Trooper ... no foolin').

Escape From Winnipeg: The Soundtrack

The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.

– Rob (John Cusack), High Fidelity

I remember this quote each time it comes to making my annual summer road trip CD. What began as a simple challenge between Kerry and I in 2004 has become a springtime ritual: a chance to string together a soundtrack for the all-too-brief season of weekend getaways.

But what road trip aficionados may find odd, is that only a few of the songs on the new disc touch on the ideas of travel, being on the road or even movement. But for me, content doesn't even matter ­ – it's all in the rhythm. What's more, these summer discs are never modeled for urban cruising. Instead, they're built for a very specific purpose: escape from the city. That's why this disc in particular was laid out as it is, starting off gruff and loud, eventually winding its way to a cruise-controlled series of softer, stress-free tracks (and the last one is bonus, kind of a just-when-you-thought-it-was-done sorta thing).

I've noticed already that my interest has faded in the CDs I made only a couple of years ago. Tastes change, and that's healthy. And because I was, and still am, a late bloomer to most music scenes, I should probably continue to expect this as I feel out new music as it now pours in ­ because as Jemina Pearl Abegg squeals in "Adventure": it's all cool kiddo, 'cuz we're like, adventurers.

The 2007 lineup

I'm Shipping Up To Boston - Dropkick Murphys, The Warrior's Code
Manifest - The Weakerthans, Reconstruction Site
*Adventure - Be Your Own Pet, Adventure
Wolfgang - Elliott Brood, Ambassador
American Pageant - The Sadies, In Concert Vol. 1
Outsiders - Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much Better
(Antichrist Television Blues) - Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
When Company Comes - The Feelies, The Good Earth
Cold Black Devil/14 Miles - Jackie Greene, American Myth
Corona - Calexico, Convict Pool
*Be Gentle With Me - The Boy Least Likely To, The Best Party Ever
*Snakes In The Grass - The Essex Green, Cannibal Sea
Monster Ballads - Josh Ritter, The Animal Years
We All Lose One Another - Jason Collett, Idols Of Exile
*When U Love Somebody - Fruit Bats, Mouthfuls
Coconut Skins - Damien Rice, 9
Trans Am - Nathan, Key Principles
*Baby I - Amy Millan, Honey From The Tombs
*Born Secular - Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat
Sugar Baby Love - The Rubettes, K-Tel's I Love Pop Music

* These tracks, either directly or indirectly, came to me courtesy of fellow Winnipegger Chris Pointon's awesome (but only occasionally updated) Pop 77 podcast mixes.

Doings

Last night Kerry and I saw one of our favourite performers, Idaho singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, on tour and promoting his stellar 2006 album The Animal Years. We first got a glimpse of him opening for Sarah Harmer for a show at Pantages in October 2005, and bought into his craft and style immediately. I brought my camera to the West End Cultural Centre; I've been harbouring a wish to get a smaller camera to accent my Rebel for months, to use for stuff like this, but since it's winter I figured I'd tuck the big thing under my coat. It was dark and I tried about 20-30 shots, of which I think three worked out (they're over on Flickr). It was a great show. He's a strong singer and a sublimely skilled writer, and equally fine and with the banter. I missed his band, but he's a captivating presence on his own and seemed genuinely enthused with the city – mentioning his newfound crush on Manitoba curling champ Jennifer Jones – and talked of bringing his whole crew another time. Next up for us is a show with local alt-hipsters Nathan, a CD release of their new album Key Principles.

My sister mentioned to me that she was looking here for movie recommendations, which I used to do at one time. Since the fall we've seen our fair share of good stuff, including more than a few Oscar hopefuls. For me, The Departed, Volver, Babel, Children Of Men and The Last King Of Scotland come first to mind, though they're all in their own way tough to watch and need a specific (re: serious) mood to appreciate. The Pursuit Of Happyness was what I'd call quality feelgood fluff (toss Little Miss Sunshine in that catagory also). I'd recommend wintertime successes like Borat and Casino Royale, which filled their roles admirably as exqusitely squeam-inducing and revved-up, smart action fare, respectively. Who Killed The Electric Car and The U.S. vs John Lennon were decent, though biased, documentaries. And The Queen was solid, though I felt I needed to be a few more decades older to really feel that one (it's slow-moving, but Helen Mirren is fabbo). We saw one dud that we could agree on, that being The Good Shepherd. Steer clear.