Folk Music Ontario Impressions

I might have told a few folks that I was done with music conferences.  Lots of standing and little sleep for a long week-end takes a lot out of me nowadays.  Anyway I took in some showcases and poked my head into a couple of panels at this year's Folk Music Ontario Conference.  I made a little 5-minute video montage of some personal highlights.

This clip starts with a horn band and ends with a horn band - and the last one is the Dirty Catfish Brass Band from Winnipeg. They put on a great set.

Then there's a murder ballad by banjoist Hannah Shira Naiman, which inspired me to start writing a murder ballad...

Hearing Australian blues star Lloyd Spiegel live for the first time was probably the highlight of the festival for me. I had recently listened to his new album and thought it was great. He's a big deal in Australia and I'm sure he'll be a big deal in America.  I was so mesmerized that I forgot to turn on my camera till he announced the last song.  Saw him later and turns out he knows Clayton Doley and his brother Lachy very well. He's got a lot of sold-out shows in Ontario but Hugh's Room is not one of them so if you want to experience what will be the best blues and most entertaining evening of the year, book your ticket at Hughs.

A young artist called Jordana knocked me out with her hi-tech performance.  When I do my looping, I don't get into a lot of "layering" but she was doing it very well, building up a track with vocal harmonies and percussive sounds.  I saw her at 2am pushing her bundle buggy and shouted down the hall "I like what you're doing!" and she stopped in her tracks, walked back over to me and shook my hand and said thank you.  Electronica is not exactly welcomed with open arms at the folk music conference but it's 21st Century folk music and it's here to stay.  Remember when the traditionalists were trying to keep out the singer-songwriters? Well, we saw how that turned out.  There's more and more of them and they're writing more songs.  I remember the first time I saw someone showcasing a bit of electronica at Folk Music Ontario (back when it was called OCFF).  This poor young gal came with a looper pedal and some other effects & drum machine. After her first number, there was a stampede to the exit. Not so much this time.

Don't know why I put two clips of dancing... but I was watching those dancers thinking "they have turned their feet into musical instruments", then one of those Fitzgerald sisters started playing her fiddle backwards and doing other cute tricks. The sweet eccentric Catriona (she pronounces in "Catrina") was charming as ever (I watch a lot of her Facebook Live webcasts). Then it was time to head upstairs to the private showcases where it was a blur of folk activity...yet seemed a little calmer than previous years. 

For the first time ever, the Toronto Musicians Association Local 149 had a room which was hosted by TMA business representative Quique Escamilla who made very authentic tacos for everybody and, because it's the union, all performers got paid. How radical is that?  That's where I got to hear my friend Brenna MacCrimmon doing her solo (Turkish) thing for the first time- totally different than when I saw her with Bill Westcott at Sauce where they were doing Tin Pan Alley songs. 

And electronica folk had a home in Marc Merilainen's "Silent House Concert" room where everybody was handed a cordless headphone when they walked in.  Marc himself is a fine guitarist producing some beautiful textured layers of sound in those headphones. They only thing that might have enhanced it further would have been some "special" brownies or something - but it was quite psychedelic on its own.  Jean-Paul DeRoover from Thunder Bay also had some tasty looping going on.  Every year there's more of that and I'm hoping next year I might be doing a set there.

And I made a couple of stops at the Guelph room where I heard Laura Bird, kind of a Godmother to the Guelph music scene, which abounds with talented and typically very nice people.

The video montage ends with the Dirty Catfish Brass Band from Winnipeg doing the obligatory brass band march through the hall.  I bet they got a lot of offers from the festival buyers in the house.

Maybe there were fifty buyers to accommodate that group of 500 or so earnest young folkies looking for attention.  And young and fresh is still what seems to catch they eye of festival directors.  And it's all well and good that the gigs go to artists whose career is mostly ahead of them, but we had a little confab of seventy-something folkies commiserating how maybe it's time to speak out against the creeping "ageism" that is (sub-consciously) prevalent in people booking acts or handing out grants and awards.  At this conference, they seem to have achieved 50/50 gender parity, and nearly 50/50 Franco/Anglo parity among the performers (though it's probably closer to 5% Francophone among the buyers). A very high proportion of Indigenous performers too, but that's OK. Maybe it's time for us old-timers to get some special consideration.  Everybody wants new faces, but some of us with old faces still have plenty to offer, even if we're moving a little slower.