The Edmonton Folk Music Festival - Friday

[Vic Bell]

Rains overnight had let up by morning but the clouds were still thick and
the reports did not bode well.  Friday afternoon we headed down to the site
and had an early dinner so as to be able to catch the start of things.
Scruj MacDuhk were first up on the mainstage and were primed and ready.
Leonard's dad Mitch Podolak sat watching from the side of the stage.  The
band had been set up in an arc with a dance floor in front so I knew
something different had been added and, sure enough, a couple of young step
dancers added foot percussion to some of the band's numbers.  Ruth Moody
got the audience to join in singing "Rai Tun Tun Ana" and the first
audience dancers hit the dirt as well.  Scruj are a hard working ensemble
and Ruth's vocals are top notch, a young band to keep your eyes on.

Zubot and Dawson got a tweener, offering their usual tasty licks as the
crew set up for Pakistan's Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali.  This group of ten men
were dressed fairly somberly and seated on risers on the stage.  They sang
and offered percussion on various drums and instrumentation on harmonium.
These accordion-like instruments looked like small file cabinets with an
opening top bellows and a keyboard.  Qawwali is Sufi devotional music and
the two leaders of this group are nephews of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan.  While the music and language was unfamiliar, I found much of the
intonation and emotion of the vocals reminding me of the Gypsy Kings.  The
singers traded the lead, often several times in the same song and the
emotion and passion they felt for their music was evident.

Backstage, I was bundling up in the cold again and running herd on Liam.
Theresa, Oscar Lopez' wife showed up bearing a large white cockatoo who
preened, fluffed his feathers and vocalized loudly, much to Liam's initial
dismay.

Oh Susanna took the stage as a tweener with assistance from Blue Rodeo bass
player Basil Donovan as the crew set up for Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.
Dressed in their "Blackie" suits that feature fancy embroidery and white
piping down the seams, Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson were
primed and ready.  They hit the stage with Fred Eaglesmith's "49 Tons" and
other songs from their juno winning "Kings Of Love" album.  Jude, Liam and
I took a hike up to the top of the hill, leaving Elliot in playground
heaven over in the kid's area.  At the hilltop the intermediate speakers
provided good sound still, but once beyond the lower sections of the hill,
the audience was increasingly disconnected as their chatter and roaming
around proved.  The size of crowd is certainly part of it.  Even half way
up the hill you have to have binoculars to see anything on the stage,
although the festival has mounted three video screens which are in
operation during the darkness.  There's the site itself, which gathers
thousands of people on the hillside overlooking the stage, the city skyline
and the river valley.  Add to that the people watching and you have too
darn much visual stimulation.  From the top of the hill it was evident that
the 1500 capacity of the beer garden had been reached.  That's another part
of it.  "Party" is the name of the game here.  At the top of the hill
Blackie launched into a rocking "Working Man" inviting audience
participation on the "yeah yeah yeah" chorus.  From the hilltop we could
just barely hear that the audience right in front of the stage was
complying.  Back behind the stage, the first light rains started in as the
band performed "White Line Road" trading off on lead vocals.  By set's end,
the rains had stopped again and the band earned a semi standing ovation.

Kev Carmody brought his didgeridoo up for a tweener.  I was standing
leaning against the side of the CBC trailer and the didgeridoo bass notes
got the sides of the trailer vibrating.

Irish super-group Lunasa were next up offering a selection of jigs and
reels which once again filled the dancing areas.  While the instrumentation
was top notch the lack of vocals soon left me spacing out and I headed back
to the green room to visit.  Others it seemed felt the same.

With the darkness complete, Tim Furst, (formerly Fyodor Karamazov of the
Flying Karamazov Brothers) took to the stage.  Bearing two small bowls tied
at the ends of a ten foot long rope, he set them alight and started
swirling and twirling this blazing concoction all over the stage.  Some
spillage left flames dancing on the mainstage carpet but these soon
self-extinguished.  I did notice that a large fire-extinguisher was part of
the on-stage equipment however.  Scruj's Oliver Swain offered another
tweener performing on the bass and singing very powerfully in Ukranian (I
think).

Compadres James Keelaghan and Oscar Lopez hit the stage with side compadres
Vince Deitrich on drums and Brent Gubbles on bass.  They performed songs
from their album including "Grow Up", "Mi Vida" and others.  Was it a fog
machine backstage or was it the real weather?  I don't know but soon the
heavens opened up in a major downpour that drove us back into the shelter
of the green room.  As the rains pounded the tent overhead I could hear
"Red River Rising" (ironically) and a closing "Follow Me Up There Carlos"
which earned the band a semi-standing ovation...a good thing since most
people in the audience were huddling together and holding tarps and
umbrellas.

As Tim Furst hit the stage for more fire twirling we gathered the kids and
our gear and packed it in.  Cold and rain I can endure alone but it's
another ballgame with family around.  Over the shuttle van radio we were
able to catch Mary Chapin Carpenter doing "Passionate Kisses".  I heard
afterwards that she performed essentially the same set as she had done in
Calgary.  Danu were on tap to close that evening and I presume the Celtic
stompers had their fun in the mud.  Back at the hotel, we chose to warm up
with baths and showers and a wee dram of scotch and passed on the Friday
night party downstairs.

To be continued.

cheers,  Vic