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Wednesday, November 21, 2018
2018 Winnipeg Folk Festival
2018 Winnipeg Folk Festival
It was a truly memorable folk fest this year. There were a few snafus and bummers, as well as weather-related issues to deal with, but it all came together nicely as usual and a good time was had by all. Of course every folk fest is memorable, but this year's was one that will not be topped by the time it had come to a wonderful end.
As usual, it starts out with dragging all our camping stuff out of storage and doing the usual inventory, including the rounding up of batteries for lights, fans, and other things. Then there's chairs, bicycles, the shower gear, inverter, etc. I had a brain fart and shorted out our inverter, so we had to get a new one, but other than that we found everything and got it organized before the last minute. The peace of mind is worth it, believe me.
We got the van mostly loaded the night before we left and I figured out how to not spend 30 minutes getting the hitch on for the bicycle rack too by remembering how to be a tool using animal, and then secured the bikes on the rack. So come Tuesday morning we only were an hour late getting on the road, which is pretty darn good for us. Our friend Teresia was taking care of our dogs, and poor Tucker had to wear a cone of shame because of a cut on his butt he wouldn't leave alone, but he was already on the mend before we left so we weren't worried about him.
The trip to Winnipeg went by quickly, with only a little road construction for a few miles in Minnesota and North Dakota to deal with. We made a quick stop in Fargo at the Barnes & Noble bookstore to get a Games magazine for Erin as she likes to do the puzzles while listening to music at the folk fest. Then after the usual last U.S. stop in Pembina to gas up before crossing the border we sailed though customs and made it to the Bhigg House in Winnipeg by 7:30pm.
Since the sun didn't set until 9:40pm there was plenty of time to load most of the group camping gear in our van to take out to the campground in the morning. Thankfully Wolfgang Klassen also came by with his truck to take some things too, so I didn't have to cram the minivan full to the ceiling this year. Then since Erin and I hadn't eaten dinner yet we went out with Elizabeth to a diner for a late supper. (Dave was at a wedding reception on Tuesday night, so we didn't see him until after we got back from eating.) About the only bummer was that Elizabeth's driver's side door window had been smashed the night before when it was parked on the street, so she would have to park it in the garage for the night. That meant parking our loaded minivan and two bikes (locked to the rack, but still) out on the street for the night, which made us nervous of course, but there wasn't an alternative.
We turned in around 11:30pm and set the alarm for 6:15am. I didn't sleep all that well, and when a thunderstorm hit around 5:30am I got up, looked out to see if the minivan was o.k. and was relieved to see that it and the bikes were fine. So I jumped in the shower and got dressed, and then Erin was up and got dressed as well and we were off. We made a stop at a Tim Horton's for breakfast and coffee before heading out to Birds Hill Park, and just as we went past the entrance at 8am there was the end of the long line of folkies waiting to get in to camp. We waited there for a half-hour before the line started moving, but luckily we were right across from a porta-pottie so having the coffee wasn't a problem. It took another 45 minutes before we finally exchanged our tickets for wristbands and made it over to the festival campground. It had been raining early, but by the time we got there the storm had blown through and the sky was clearing. But wow, was it windy!
We ended up parking just past the bend in the road, which meant a long walk, but at least it was on the road which is easier to roll a cart on that a dirt path. So being foolish, we overloaded the cart for our first trip, mostly the shade structure, and the two of us trudged slowly down to the 1A pathway, and eventually made it to our usual campsite, which Heather had held for us. Whew. Wolf was also there, so I went back for another load while Erin supervised, because that's what Erin does. That, and she was trying to conserve her sore hip and not overdo it. I did two more loads and Wolf did one for me too, which by then I needed myself.
The high winds made putting up tents difficult, but as Erin and I were starting to put up our own big tent (it's 16'x10') a couple of festival campground volunteers came by and offered to help us, and in no time it was up. I need to write the festival about that and express my thanks about that generosity, it's what helps make the folk fest such a wonderful event. We had everything up by about 4pm, including the shower tent (which I did all by myself, after a few failed efforts in that wind) and the kitchen tent too. Dave and Elizabeth came and Elizabeth had sandwiches and cold drinks to share that were greatly appreciated as Erin and I hadn't been able to get groceries for ourselves.
Then others were arriving, including Karen and Juan, who had a rotten thing happen to them earlier in the day while they were visiting Winnipeg's Museum of Human Rights when Karen had a car window smashed and Juan lost a backpack with his passport and meds in it. Thankfully he was able to get more meds right away for $100 (yay Canadian health care system) and started getting the passport dealt with. Sadly getting a new car window wasn't as easy so that had to be covered with plastic sheeting until she made it back home.
Then we found out that Dave Clement's tent (the one Erin and I got him three years ago) was missing its rain fly, so Elizabeth and Dave had to go back into town to get another tent and they ended up staying in town for the night, but at least they got to go swimming in the park's lake before heading home. I was hungry enough to go over to one of the campground food trucks and got a pizza for supper, and shared some of it with Wolfgang who had been working hard all day long. I did take a stroll around the campground and then we all kind of crashed out early as it was still windy and a fire wasn't an option.
Thursday morning started out calmer, but then got windy again (gusts up to 40mph!) and it damaged a pole on one of our tent's side windows. It wasn't fixable but at least we could do without it. I saw a few other tents and such that were blown over, but thankfully there was no other damage in our Baggiecon group. Of all the things that can happen weather-wise, wind is about the worst (fire is THE worst) because a tent can only hold up to so much. It was a beautiful day otherwise, so after hauling water and having coffee I got on my bicycle and decided to ride around the park and visit the Quiet Camping area where other folk fest campers who like more peace and quiet at night stay. I stopped on the way to visit a cemetery where those who had settled the area before the park was created from the land they lived on were buried. Lots of Ukrainian and Polish names there, and their graves were being kept nicely and remembered well. I don't believe in life after death, but the living do find solace there.
Then I found a paved pathway going through the woods that I went down, and it not only got me out of the wind but was nice and shady too. What a nice park! I also spotted a horse trail (there's a ranch next to the park where you can get a horse and go trail riding - Erin used to do a breakfast ride on Sunday mornings many years ago during the folk fest, and they still offer it) and then arrived at one of the Quiet Campground sites, which only had a few cars parked there. I rode around to four other sites and only one had more than ten vehicles parked in it, so there's not that many people doing Quiet Camping, from what I can tell. I did come across another group of friendly volunteers who were greeting people arriving at the Quiet campground, so I'm sure more people were coming as there would be music at the Main State later in the evening.
Then I rode on the park ring road for a mile or so and took a driveway down to the park's lake, where I found an unpaved trail that was still bikeable and rode around the far side of the lake to where the concession was and ordered myself a burger and went wading in the lake to cool off a bit. Then I jumped back on the bike and cruised back to the festival campground to find a few more people arriving to set up their tents. Dave was back and the other tent they found in their garage was... not that great, unfortunately. Karen was going back into town though and offered to take Dave back to the Bhigg House again to see what they could find, and they took off while I was still in camp. Next year I'll spend more time making sure what's being taken out has been gone through and checked out first. (FWIW, I write these reports more for my benefit than for any entertainment value it has. Obviously.)
As Erin hadn't gone around the festival campgrounds yet, I thought we could go over to play Scrabble at the Big Games site in Zone 4 (where the RV's are). Erin liked that idea and so did Heather (?), so we walked over and found three other folkies had just started a game, so I joined as the fourth player and Erin got to do what she likes best - help everyone make up words! I was leading towards the end, but just got beat out after a killer word was played. Oh well, it was a hoot just to play. Then I got to play a game of chance tossing rings on little bottles and won by getting two of my five rings around them, and my prize was a handy tote bag. Hey, it didn't cost anything to play so it was a good deal. Then it was back to camp, where I finally got out my guitar and started playing under the shade structure.
By then Kat Rother had arrived with her friend Janis and they were setting up their tents around the Baggiecon circle. I had my Rise Again fake book on the stand and turned the page to the Musicals section and found Matchmaker (from Fiddler on the Roof) and started playing and singing it, and almost immediately Kat came over and started _really_ singing it, with gusto. What fun! Kat told me she once performed in a production of the musical and loved the songs, as do I. It's moments like these that make the folk fest such a wonderful time. Wolf also got his guitar out and we pass the time playing music under the blue summer sky.
After about an hour of so of that, it was getting late enough in the afternoon for the water in our black water cubes to be warm enough for a shower, so I took one and then decided not to go watch the Main Stage show that night. Which is kind of odd for me, but I was feeling a little tired and just wanting to chill. So I did. We did have a nice fire and spend time around it doing some music again before turning in. I'd forgotten my earplugs when packing, but I did manage to sleep well enough.
Friday started out much better wind-wise, but it was definitely warmer. Since this was the only day that our friends Lana and Anya would be at the folk fest, Erin decided to spend the day with Lana, which left me free to do whatever after I was done doing the tarp run at 10:20, again with a #1 tarp ticket thanks to Polly. I found a great spot close to the front of the Main Stage but far enough back you didn't have to look up more than look out, in other words about five tarps/rows back.
After grabbing a sushi burrito (and a pair of green sunglasses as a promo gift) at Chosabi in the food court I headed over to find a shady spot at Bur Oak at 11am to hear a celtic band from Quebec, Genticorum. They were a trio (guitar, violin, accordion) and had people up dancing even though it was already getting hot, and though I didn't dance myself I was also bouncing along to the beat in my seat. Then it was up to the Little Stage in the Forest at noon to check out Wallis Bird, who was a very young woman from Ireland who was a fiery performer, doing a lot of percussive work with her guitar and also using amplification to drive her beat. She reminded me a bit of Ani DiFranco. At the end of her set, I then drifted over to Spruce Hollow to catch a workshop featuring among other Ferron, titled Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, and yep it was songs about lost love and longing, and Ferron does those very well. Of course there was another workshop featuring Martin Simpson that was at the same time, and that was a bummer of course. There always has to be at least a couple conflicts that can't be resolved at the folk fest.
Then I headed over to the Big Bluestem state to catch a workshop featuring among others fiddler Natilie McMaster, and... it was packed. Thankfully I ran into Erin and Lana who were already there under a shade tree and I joined them to hear a great workshop with lots of fiddle playing and dancing. McMaster is really popular in Winnipeg! Here's a picture of Lana and Erin in the shade that I took. We also had one of Lana's former students who was selling ice cream bars stop and sell us a few, which were really tasty and frosty cold, and while he was there next to us he was swarmed by plenty of other folkies looking for cool treats under the hot sun.
By the time the workshop was over it was 4pm, and I headed back to camp to relax, have a beer, and a shower. Dave and Karen had returned and as luck would have it Karen has found the missing rainfly on Dave's good tent in an out of the way shelf in the Bhigg House garage. Dave and Elizabeth were busy setting it up next to our tent where we'd held a spot for it. Our RV battery was doing fine thanks to the solar panel getting plenty of sun, which was a good thing because everyone in camp had a phone or tablet that needed charging. We did have an issue using a power strip with Shaun's old inverter, so it was good thing Erin and brought the new one too and the power strip worked fine with it. You never miss your power until your device's battery runs down. Or something like that.
I didn't head down to catch the very first act on the Main Stage at 6pm, but with Natalie McMaster being next up at 7pm I definitely wanted to take full advantage of the front baggie. I was joined there by Erin and Lana, who also wanted to be up front, and McMaster took the stage with her band and she lit up the crowd from beat one. McMaster fiddled, danced, fiddled and danced, all in the bright sun and heat, so when she took her bottle of water and poured it down on her chest, we shared in her relief too. (Erin knows about that from years of working in the summer heat at renaissance festivals.) The highlight of the show though was when McMaster invited her seven year old daughter onto the state to also fiddle and then dance for the audience, and of course everyone clapped and cheered her on. IMO, this was the best Main Stage act of the festival for me at least - traditional and energetic and sweet.
Next up was a band from Boston, Darlingside, four guys singing all around one microphone and playing traditional accoustic instruments. I liked them and was settling in to enjoy their set when my phone rang and it was Kerri, who had planned on arriving on Friday in time to hear Natalie McMaster but was delayed, and she was in the festival parking lot and she had tried to call others in our Baggiecon group and managed to reach me finally. I said I could meet her and take her back to our site in the festival campground. I stopped by the back baggie to let folks know there that I was going to help Kerri and then headed for the parking lot, where I met Kerri playing a rather funky fiddle at a tent where a guy who has been selling homemade intruments for the past several years has been. (It's one of those things the festival just lets happen, and it's cool.) So I introduced myself, and found I'd seen her before playing for her duo Sister Tree in the Twin Cities. Small world! We headed back to camp, got a cart and went to her car to bring her tent and her own fiddle back to camp. Then I helped her pitch her tent, and we headed back to the Main Stage.
Of course this all took well over an hour, so by the time I was back on the front baggie the next act, The Strumbellas, from Toronto, was up on stage and whooping it up. I'm glad I at least caught part of their set as they were a lot of fun. Then it was time for the night's headliner, Courtney Barnett and her band to play. Barnett's style of rockin' guitar riffs and talking blues soon got the crowd getting into her groove, but she also threw in a couple of really pointed and angry songs too about some of the things women face that they shouldn't have to. That reminds me that this year the ration of male to female performers was 50/50. While the WFF has for decades been good about getting female acts to perform at the festival, women have never been equally represented either. I later heard one of the women on one of the daytime stages remark that she was happy that she didn't have to look for other women performers to talk with for a change, so there's that.
Barnett's set ended at midnight, but for us it was back to camp to stay up for a while longer. Approaching our circle I heard someone singing Northwest Passage and golly, it sure sounded like it was Stan Rogers himself singing it. Turned out it was Stan's son Nathan Rogers who had come to sit in the Baggiecon circle for awhile (Nathan has camped in festival camping before) so it was what you'd call a memorable moment to be sure. Nathan stayed around for a bit and sang a couple more songs, and then headed off in to the night. By then I was kind of bushed, so I turned in around 1am, but having forgotten to pack earplugs, I kept waking up about every half hour to hear singing, laughing, and talking around our campfire. Not that I really minded, but sleep it was not. Then around 4am I woke up to the sound of someone being sick nearby and then the voiced of a couple of festival medics who came to help out. They were very kind and then took the sick person to the first aid tent. So much for getting a good nights sleep though. I think I finally managed to get maybe two hours worth, but I woke up a little after 7am on Saturday morning and needed coffee bad, and that wasn't good.
So after again running the front baggie and getting breakfast, I headed over to Bur Oak to hear Nathan Rogers lead a workshop of Stan Rogers songs, and of course singing along was MANDATORY. The title of the workshop was 45 Years, because it was the 45th year of the Winnipeg Folk Festival this year and there's this song by Stan called 45 Years that were meant to go together, you see. A lot of other Baggiecon folks were there too, as you might expect, including Dave Clement. Sadly, Erin wasn't feeling well that day and stayed back in camp, but as luck would have it the Bur Oak stage faces directly at the part of the festival campground where we were all camped, so Erin could hear it at least. I did capture three of the songs Nathan Rogers did for her and she saw them later.
I stuck around after the show for a bit waiting for Erin, and then helped Dave Clement over to the Snowberry state to listen to the We Banjo 3 band from Ireland while Dave was waiting for his wife Elizabeth to arrive from town to go swimming with him at the lake. It was getting pretty warm and windy by then, but I found a shady spot way in the back for us to sit and we relaxed, listended, and talked a bit too. By the time the concert was over Elizabeth still hadn't come, but Kerri came by and she sat with us too, and I decided to head over to Green Ash to hear another workshop with Mandolin Orange and Darlingside, while sitting again way in the back under a shade tree. I had plenty of water to drink and a comfy chair, and the music was nice too.
I felt like heading back to camp then, and had a bit to eat and drink, and then I just kind of crashed out. I had gotten very little sleep the night before and with the heat I just needed to stay in camp instead of heading back to the festival grounds. I was so tired I eventually went to bed early and finally found some earplugs so I was able to get over eight hours of decent sleep. It was a bummer to miss all the performers on Main Stage Saturday night, and Erin said the band Las Cafeteras was terrific. Oh well, I'm going to have to pace myself better next year. Erin did buy a CD of Las Cafeteras and I have listened to that at least.
Sunday morning I felt much better and before leaving camp to do the tarp run at 10:15am I talked with Erin and we planned to meet later at the gospel workshop at the Big Bluestem stage at 11am, and then spend the day together. So after the tarp run I grabbed some breakfast and walk over to the stage it started to very lightly drizzle I found a spot under a spruce tree to stay dry under and eat while waiting for Erin. She arrived just before 11am and wanted to sit up front, and we were able to find a nice spot for the two of us a few rows back, and there was only a little wisp of a shower during the show, which gave me a chance to wear my poncho for the only time that weekend. Ken Whiteley was leading the workshop and it was very good, with members of all the various bands and performers playing together well and of course the audience sang along too.
Erin and I headed over to the forest stages, first to catch part of Ferron's concert at Spruce Hollow and then go hear Martin Simpson's set, which was fantastic. We'd found a spot in the front row and got to see a true master of fingerstyle guitar up close. You can't believe he's playing so well and then you stop caring about that and just listen to the song. He did one about his father that he said he always sings in his set, and it was funny and sad and true to life. That reminds me that I want to get his latest CD because he didn't quite have it ready in time to be available at the folk fest.
Then because Erin wanted to, we went back over to the Spruce Hollow stage to catch the last half of the "Memphis in the Meantime" workshop that featured Lilly Hiatt (John Hiatt's daughter), Amythyst Kiah, and the 10 String Sympathy, and it was a great workshop with all three working and playing of one another. Nice when that happens, and I was really impressed by Amythyst Kiah's performance.
By then it was 4pm and I decided to go back again to camp and shower, have a beer, and just check up on things. It does make me nervous to have my guitar there sometimes, especially given that the night before Erin had had both her iPad tablet and Android phone stolen from the table they were being charged on under our shade structure. This year was the first time Erin had ever had something ripped off at the festival campground, and while it didn't ruin a good time it was still a bummer. Oh well, she had the phone "bricked" immediately, making it worthless, and later got herself another new iPad (the stolen one was nice enough but it was six year old) after we got home from Costco that she really likes now. Next year we'll figure out a way to secure all our wireless devices better while they're charging.
I did take my time getting back to the front baggie and only caught half of the set by St Paul and the Broken Bones, who were a big ten-piece band with a front man who was a pretty darn good soul singer for a white guy, because he wasn't afraid to be BIG as a singer. Reminded me of Charles Barkley, who I say a few years ago at the folk fest, especially when he went out in the crowd to sing. They really got the crowd fired up good on a beautiful Manitoba summer evening.
The tweener then was Huun-Huur-Tu, the Tuvan throat singers from, yes, Tuva. Erin heard them over twenty years ago at the folk fest and the sounds and harmonies they voiced during their short set were well-recieved by the crowd too, and I'm sure there were plenty of people out there who had also been there back when. It's nice when some acts get to return after so many years.
Then there was Passenger, who was just one guy out there on stage with a guitar and nothing else. Seemed a big out of place given how the previous act was so hot and big sounding. He started out singing and then appealing to the crowd to join along which might have been a bit too cute but he was so sincere and nice about it that you couldn't help but be enthused too. He'd been a street busker and I'm pretty darn sure that's where he honed his ability to grab an audience. So I was really getting into it when Polly P. came back to the front baggie and told me that Dave Clement was going to be up on stage later for the finale to sing The Mary Ellen Carter with Ken Whitely.
Whoa.
I'm sure the look on my face was about as dumbstruck as I'll ever look. You see, Dave back in 1994 with his band Dandelion Wine was supposed to do The Mary Ellen Carter for the fok fest finale but because there was a storm that blew in during the last main stage set by James Keelaghan (who we were told at his show this past October literally lifted the stage lights up and then down, which was pretty scary when you're up there) they ended the fest for safety reasons. (Erin's told me that she'd had her car backstage to help transport Dandelion Wine's gear and how she had to drive out with four passengers and all their instruments in her little Ford Escort wagon, in the blinding rain, bottoming out in the dirt road ruts, but thankfully they made it back to the Bhigg House o.k.)
So I went back to the back baggie and saw Erin, who also confirmed that Dave would be part of the finale. (Erin said she'd heard it from Heather, who had heard it from Dave back in camp earlier that day. Long story short, Dave was also at the Martin Simpson show sitting with Susan Israel, a good friend and fine musician herself whose daughter plays with Ken Whitely, and she was relating how Ken really didn't like singing the more "nautical" verse of The Mary Ellen Carter and Dave reminded her of the time he almost sang it on the main stage, and I guess a little lightbulb went on in Susan's head. Susan later talked with Ken about having Dave sing the problematic verse and Ken, bless his dear heart, said sure, David could join them and sing that verse.
So now you know the rest of the story. Anyway, I went back to hear the rest of Passenger and then the last set by Sheryl Crow, who was really a lot of fun and did her sunshine pop thing with her fine band well. It's not folk music but when you know all the songs and can sing along it's still a great time. Just as much fun as The Barenaked Ladies Sunday night closing set was last year. Crow did get to do an encore, and then it was time for the finale. Almost every Baggiconer was there and right up along the front of the main stage to hear The Mary Ellen Carter and we were yelling "Dave! Dave! Dave!" which he heard and laughed a bit about. Susan Israel was next to Dave (I'm sure she was helping guide him on and off stage) and laughed too. What a wonderful moment. I've never seen Dave with a bigger smile on his face than he had up there under the bright lights.
I'll just link to the video I shot of the performance and say no more. Best folk fest ever.
It was a truly memorable folk fest this year. There were a few snafus and bummers, as well as weather-related issues to deal with, but it all came together nicely as usual and a good time was had by all. Of course every folk fest is memorable, but this year's was one that will not be topped by the time it had come to a wonderful end.
As usual, it starts out with dragging all our camping stuff out of storage and doing the usual inventory, including the rounding up of batteries for lights, fans, and other things. Then there's chairs, bicycles, the shower gear, inverter, etc. I had a brain fart and shorted out our inverter, so we had to get a new one, but other than that we found everything and got it organized before the last minute. The peace of mind is worth it, believe me.
We got the van mostly loaded the night before we left and I figured out how to not spend 30 minutes getting the hitch on for the bicycle rack too by remembering how to be a tool using animal, and then secured the bikes on the rack. So come Tuesday morning we only were an hour late getting on the road, which is pretty darn good for us. Our friend Teresia was taking care of our dogs, and poor Tucker had to wear a cone of shame because of a cut on his butt he wouldn't leave alone, but he was already on the mend before we left so we weren't worried about him.
The trip to Winnipeg went by quickly, with only a little road construction for a few miles in Minnesota and North Dakota to deal with. We made a quick stop in Fargo at the Barnes & Noble bookstore to get a Games magazine for Erin as she likes to do the puzzles while listening to music at the folk fest. Then after the usual last U.S. stop in Pembina to gas up before crossing the border we sailed though customs and made it to the Bhigg House in Winnipeg by 7:30pm.
Since the sun didn't set until 9:40pm there was plenty of time to load most of the group camping gear in our van to take out to the campground in the morning. Thankfully Wolfgang Klassen also came by with his truck to take some things too, so I didn't have to cram the minivan full to the ceiling this year. Then since Erin and I hadn't eaten dinner yet we went out with Elizabeth to a diner for a late supper. (Dave was at a wedding reception on Tuesday night, so we didn't see him until after we got back from eating.) About the only bummer was that Elizabeth's driver's side door window had been smashed the night before when it was parked on the street, so she would have to park it in the garage for the night. That meant parking our loaded minivan and two bikes (locked to the rack, but still) out on the street for the night, which made us nervous of course, but there wasn't an alternative.
We turned in around 11:30pm and set the alarm for 6:15am. I didn't sleep all that well, and when a thunderstorm hit around 5:30am I got up, looked out to see if the minivan was o.k. and was relieved to see that it and the bikes were fine. So I jumped in the shower and got dressed, and then Erin was up and got dressed as well and we were off. We made a stop at a Tim Horton's for breakfast and coffee before heading out to Birds Hill Park, and just as we went past the entrance at 8am there was the end of the long line of folkies waiting to get in to camp. We waited there for a half-hour before the line started moving, but luckily we were right across from a porta-pottie so having the coffee wasn't a problem. It took another 45 minutes before we finally exchanged our tickets for wristbands and made it over to the festival campground. It had been raining early, but by the time we got there the storm had blown through and the sky was clearing. But wow, was it windy!
We ended up parking just past the bend in the road, which meant a long walk, but at least it was on the road which is easier to roll a cart on that a dirt path. So being foolish, we overloaded the cart for our first trip, mostly the shade structure, and the two of us trudged slowly down to the 1A pathway, and eventually made it to our usual campsite, which Heather had held for us. Whew. Wolf was also there, so I went back for another load while Erin supervised, because that's what Erin does. That, and she was trying to conserve her sore hip and not overdo it. I did two more loads and Wolf did one for me too, which by then I needed myself.
The high winds made putting up tents difficult, but as Erin and I were starting to put up our own big tent (it's 16'x10') a couple of festival campground volunteers came by and offered to help us, and in no time it was up. I need to write the festival about that and express my thanks about that generosity, it's what helps make the folk fest such a wonderful event. We had everything up by about 4pm, including the shower tent (which I did all by myself, after a few failed efforts in that wind) and the kitchen tent too. Dave and Elizabeth came and Elizabeth had sandwiches and cold drinks to share that were greatly appreciated as Erin and I hadn't been able to get groceries for ourselves.
Then others were arriving, including Karen and Juan, who had a rotten thing happen to them earlier in the day while they were visiting Winnipeg's Museum of Human Rights when Karen had a car window smashed and Juan lost a backpack with his passport and meds in it. Thankfully he was able to get more meds right away for $100 (yay Canadian health care system) and started getting the passport dealt with. Sadly getting a new car window wasn't as easy so that had to be covered with plastic sheeting until she made it back home.
Then we found out that Dave Clement's tent (the one Erin and I got him three years ago) was missing its rain fly, so Elizabeth and Dave had to go back into town to get another tent and they ended up staying in town for the night, but at least they got to go swimming in the park's lake before heading home. I was hungry enough to go over to one of the campground food trucks and got a pizza for supper, and shared some of it with Wolfgang who had been working hard all day long. I did take a stroll around the campground and then we all kind of crashed out early as it was still windy and a fire wasn't an option.
Thursday morning started out calmer, but then got windy again (gusts up to 40mph!) and it damaged a pole on one of our tent's side windows. It wasn't fixable but at least we could do without it. I saw a few other tents and such that were blown over, but thankfully there was no other damage in our Baggiecon group. Of all the things that can happen weather-wise, wind is about the worst (fire is THE worst) because a tent can only hold up to so much. It was a beautiful day otherwise, so after hauling water and having coffee I got on my bicycle and decided to ride around the park and visit the Quiet Camping area where other folk fest campers who like more peace and quiet at night stay. I stopped on the way to visit a cemetery where those who had settled the area before the park was created from the land they lived on were buried. Lots of Ukrainian and Polish names there, and their graves were being kept nicely and remembered well. I don't believe in life after death, but the living do find solace there.
Then I found a paved pathway going through the woods that I went down, and it not only got me out of the wind but was nice and shady too. What a nice park! I also spotted a horse trail (there's a ranch next to the park where you can get a horse and go trail riding - Erin used to do a breakfast ride on Sunday mornings many years ago during the folk fest, and they still offer it) and then arrived at one of the Quiet Campground sites, which only had a few cars parked there. I rode around to four other sites and only one had more than ten vehicles parked in it, so there's not that many people doing Quiet Camping, from what I can tell. I did come across another group of friendly volunteers who were greeting people arriving at the Quiet campground, so I'm sure more people were coming as there would be music at the Main State later in the evening.
Then I rode on the park ring road for a mile or so and took a driveway down to the park's lake, where I found an unpaved trail that was still bikeable and rode around the far side of the lake to where the concession was and ordered myself a burger and went wading in the lake to cool off a bit. Then I jumped back on the bike and cruised back to the festival campground to find a few more people arriving to set up their tents. Dave was back and the other tent they found in their garage was... not that great, unfortunately. Karen was going back into town though and offered to take Dave back to the Bhigg House again to see what they could find, and they took off while I was still in camp. Next year I'll spend more time making sure what's being taken out has been gone through and checked out first. (FWIW, I write these reports more for my benefit than for any entertainment value it has. Obviously.)
As Erin hadn't gone around the festival campgrounds yet, I thought we could go over to play Scrabble at the Big Games site in Zone 4 (where the RV's are). Erin liked that idea and so did Heather (?), so we walked over and found three other folkies had just started a game, so I joined as the fourth player and Erin got to do what she likes best - help everyone make up words! I was leading towards the end, but just got beat out after a killer word was played. Oh well, it was a hoot just to play. Then I got to play a game of chance tossing rings on little bottles and won by getting two of my five rings around them, and my prize was a handy tote bag. Hey, it didn't cost anything to play so it was a good deal. Then it was back to camp, where I finally got out my guitar and started playing under the shade structure.
By then Kat Rother had arrived with her friend Janis and they were setting up their tents around the Baggiecon circle. I had my Rise Again fake book on the stand and turned the page to the Musicals section and found Matchmaker (from Fiddler on the Roof) and started playing and singing it, and almost immediately Kat came over and started _really_ singing it, with gusto. What fun! Kat told me she once performed in a production of the musical and loved the songs, as do I. It's moments like these that make the folk fest such a wonderful time. Wolf also got his guitar out and we pass the time playing music under the blue summer sky.
After about an hour of so of that, it was getting late enough in the afternoon for the water in our black water cubes to be warm enough for a shower, so I took one and then decided not to go watch the Main Stage show that night. Which is kind of odd for me, but I was feeling a little tired and just wanting to chill. So I did. We did have a nice fire and spend time around it doing some music again before turning in. I'd forgotten my earplugs when packing, but I did manage to sleep well enough.
Friday started out much better wind-wise, but it was definitely warmer. Since this was the only day that our friends Lana and Anya would be at the folk fest, Erin decided to spend the day with Lana, which left me free to do whatever after I was done doing the tarp run at 10:20, again with a #1 tarp ticket thanks to Polly. I found a great spot close to the front of the Main Stage but far enough back you didn't have to look up more than look out, in other words about five tarps/rows back.
After grabbing a sushi burrito (and a pair of green sunglasses as a promo gift) at Chosabi in the food court I headed over to find a shady spot at Bur Oak at 11am to hear a celtic band from Quebec, Genticorum. They were a trio (guitar, violin, accordion) and had people up dancing even though it was already getting hot, and though I didn't dance myself I was also bouncing along to the beat in my seat. Then it was up to the Little Stage in the Forest at noon to check out Wallis Bird, who was a very young woman from Ireland who was a fiery performer, doing a lot of percussive work with her guitar and also using amplification to drive her beat. She reminded me a bit of Ani DiFranco. At the end of her set, I then drifted over to Spruce Hollow to catch a workshop featuring among other Ferron, titled Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, and yep it was songs about lost love and longing, and Ferron does those very well. Of course there was another workshop featuring Martin Simpson that was at the same time, and that was a bummer of course. There always has to be at least a couple conflicts that can't be resolved at the folk fest.
Then I headed over to the Big Bluestem state to catch a workshop featuring among others fiddler Natilie McMaster, and... it was packed. Thankfully I ran into Erin and Lana who were already there under a shade tree and I joined them to hear a great workshop with lots of fiddle playing and dancing. McMaster is really popular in Winnipeg! Here's a picture of Lana and Erin in the shade that I took. We also had one of Lana's former students who was selling ice cream bars stop and sell us a few, which were really tasty and frosty cold, and while he was there next to us he was swarmed by plenty of other folkies looking for cool treats under the hot sun.
By the time the workshop was over it was 4pm, and I headed back to camp to relax, have a beer, and a shower. Dave and Karen had returned and as luck would have it Karen has found the missing rainfly on Dave's good tent in an out of the way shelf in the Bhigg House garage. Dave and Elizabeth were busy setting it up next to our tent where we'd held a spot for it. Our RV battery was doing fine thanks to the solar panel getting plenty of sun, which was a good thing because everyone in camp had a phone or tablet that needed charging. We did have an issue using a power strip with Shaun's old inverter, so it was good thing Erin and brought the new one too and the power strip worked fine with it. You never miss your power until your device's battery runs down. Or something like that.
I didn't head down to catch the very first act on the Main Stage at 6pm, but with Natalie McMaster being next up at 7pm I definitely wanted to take full advantage of the front baggie. I was joined there by Erin and Lana, who also wanted to be up front, and McMaster took the stage with her band and she lit up the crowd from beat one. McMaster fiddled, danced, fiddled and danced, all in the bright sun and heat, so when she took her bottle of water and poured it down on her chest, we shared in her relief too. (Erin knows about that from years of working in the summer heat at renaissance festivals.) The highlight of the show though was when McMaster invited her seven year old daughter onto the state to also fiddle and then dance for the audience, and of course everyone clapped and cheered her on. IMO, this was the best Main Stage act of the festival for me at least - traditional and energetic and sweet.
Next up was a band from Boston, Darlingside, four guys singing all around one microphone and playing traditional accoustic instruments. I liked them and was settling in to enjoy their set when my phone rang and it was Kerri, who had planned on arriving on Friday in time to hear Natalie McMaster but was delayed, and she was in the festival parking lot and she had tried to call others in our Baggiecon group and managed to reach me finally. I said I could meet her and take her back to our site in the festival campground. I stopped by the back baggie to let folks know there that I was going to help Kerri and then headed for the parking lot, where I met Kerri playing a rather funky fiddle at a tent where a guy who has been selling homemade intruments for the past several years has been. (It's one of those things the festival just lets happen, and it's cool.) So I introduced myself, and found I'd seen her before playing for her duo Sister Tree in the Twin Cities. Small world! We headed back to camp, got a cart and went to her car to bring her tent and her own fiddle back to camp. Then I helped her pitch her tent, and we headed back to the Main Stage.
Of course this all took well over an hour, so by the time I was back on the front baggie the next act, The Strumbellas, from Toronto, was up on stage and whooping it up. I'm glad I at least caught part of their set as they were a lot of fun. Then it was time for the night's headliner, Courtney Barnett and her band to play. Barnett's style of rockin' guitar riffs and talking blues soon got the crowd getting into her groove, but she also threw in a couple of really pointed and angry songs too about some of the things women face that they shouldn't have to. That reminds me that this year the ration of male to female performers was 50/50. While the WFF has for decades been good about getting female acts to perform at the festival, women have never been equally represented either. I later heard one of the women on one of the daytime stages remark that she was happy that she didn't have to look for other women performers to talk with for a change, so there's that.
Barnett's set ended at midnight, but for us it was back to camp to stay up for a while longer. Approaching our circle I heard someone singing Northwest Passage and golly, it sure sounded like it was Stan Rogers himself singing it. Turned out it was Stan's son Nathan Rogers who had come to sit in the Baggiecon circle for awhile (Nathan has camped in festival camping before) so it was what you'd call a memorable moment to be sure. Nathan stayed around for a bit and sang a couple more songs, and then headed off in to the night. By then I was kind of bushed, so I turned in around 1am, but having forgotten to pack earplugs, I kept waking up about every half hour to hear singing, laughing, and talking around our campfire. Not that I really minded, but sleep it was not. Then around 4am I woke up to the sound of someone being sick nearby and then the voiced of a couple of festival medics who came to help out. They were very kind and then took the sick person to the first aid tent. So much for getting a good nights sleep though. I think I finally managed to get maybe two hours worth, but I woke up a little after 7am on Saturday morning and needed coffee bad, and that wasn't good.
So after again running the front baggie and getting breakfast, I headed over to Bur Oak to hear Nathan Rogers lead a workshop of Stan Rogers songs, and of course singing along was MANDATORY. The title of the workshop was 45 Years, because it was the 45th year of the Winnipeg Folk Festival this year and there's this song by Stan called 45 Years that were meant to go together, you see. A lot of other Baggiecon folks were there too, as you might expect, including Dave Clement. Sadly, Erin wasn't feeling well that day and stayed back in camp, but as luck would have it the Bur Oak stage faces directly at the part of the festival campground where we were all camped, so Erin could hear it at least. I did capture three of the songs Nathan Rogers did for her and she saw them later.
I stuck around after the show for a bit waiting for Erin, and then helped Dave Clement over to the Snowberry state to listen to the We Banjo 3 band from Ireland while Dave was waiting for his wife Elizabeth to arrive from town to go swimming with him at the lake. It was getting pretty warm and windy by then, but I found a shady spot way in the back for us to sit and we relaxed, listended, and talked a bit too. By the time the concert was over Elizabeth still hadn't come, but Kerri came by and she sat with us too, and I decided to head over to Green Ash to hear another workshop with Mandolin Orange and Darlingside, while sitting again way in the back under a shade tree. I had plenty of water to drink and a comfy chair, and the music was nice too.
I felt like heading back to camp then, and had a bit to eat and drink, and then I just kind of crashed out. I had gotten very little sleep the night before and with the heat I just needed to stay in camp instead of heading back to the festival grounds. I was so tired I eventually went to bed early and finally found some earplugs so I was able to get over eight hours of decent sleep. It was a bummer to miss all the performers on Main Stage Saturday night, and Erin said the band Las Cafeteras was terrific. Oh well, I'm going to have to pace myself better next year. Erin did buy a CD of Las Cafeteras and I have listened to that at least.
Sunday morning I felt much better and before leaving camp to do the tarp run at 10:15am I talked with Erin and we planned to meet later at the gospel workshop at the Big Bluestem stage at 11am, and then spend the day together. So after the tarp run I grabbed some breakfast and walk over to the stage it started to very lightly drizzle I found a spot under a spruce tree to stay dry under and eat while waiting for Erin. She arrived just before 11am and wanted to sit up front, and we were able to find a nice spot for the two of us a few rows back, and there was only a little wisp of a shower during the show, which gave me a chance to wear my poncho for the only time that weekend. Ken Whiteley was leading the workshop and it was very good, with members of all the various bands and performers playing together well and of course the audience sang along too.
Erin and I headed over to the forest stages, first to catch part of Ferron's concert at Spruce Hollow and then go hear Martin Simpson's set, which was fantastic. We'd found a spot in the front row and got to see a true master of fingerstyle guitar up close. You can't believe he's playing so well and then you stop caring about that and just listen to the song. He did one about his father that he said he always sings in his set, and it was funny and sad and true to life. That reminds me that I want to get his latest CD because he didn't quite have it ready in time to be available at the folk fest.
Then because Erin wanted to, we went back over to the Spruce Hollow stage to catch the last half of the "Memphis in the Meantime" workshop that featured Lilly Hiatt (John Hiatt's daughter), Amythyst Kiah, and the 10 String Sympathy, and it was a great workshop with all three working and playing of one another. Nice when that happens, and I was really impressed by Amythyst Kiah's performance.
By then it was 4pm and I decided to go back again to camp and shower, have a beer, and just check up on things. It does make me nervous to have my guitar there sometimes, especially given that the night before Erin had had both her iPad tablet and Android phone stolen from the table they were being charged on under our shade structure. This year was the first time Erin had ever had something ripped off at the festival campground, and while it didn't ruin a good time it was still a bummer. Oh well, she had the phone "bricked" immediately, making it worthless, and later got herself another new iPad (the stolen one was nice enough but it was six year old) after we got home from Costco that she really likes now. Next year we'll figure out a way to secure all our wireless devices better while they're charging.
I did take my time getting back to the front baggie and only caught half of the set by St Paul and the Broken Bones, who were a big ten-piece band with a front man who was a pretty darn good soul singer for a white guy, because he wasn't afraid to be BIG as a singer. Reminded me of Charles Barkley, who I say a few years ago at the folk fest, especially when he went out in the crowd to sing. They really got the crowd fired up good on a beautiful Manitoba summer evening.
The tweener then was Huun-Huur-Tu, the Tuvan throat singers from, yes, Tuva. Erin heard them over twenty years ago at the folk fest and the sounds and harmonies they voiced during their short set were well-recieved by the crowd too, and I'm sure there were plenty of people out there who had also been there back when. It's nice when some acts get to return after so many years.
Then there was Passenger, who was just one guy out there on stage with a guitar and nothing else. Seemed a big out of place given how the previous act was so hot and big sounding. He started out singing and then appealing to the crowd to join along which might have been a bit too cute but he was so sincere and nice about it that you couldn't help but be enthused too. He'd been a street busker and I'm pretty darn sure that's where he honed his ability to grab an audience. So I was really getting into it when Polly P. came back to the front baggie and told me that Dave Clement was going to be up on stage later for the finale to sing The Mary Ellen Carter with Ken Whitely.
Whoa.
I'm sure the look on my face was about as dumbstruck as I'll ever look. You see, Dave back in 1994 with his band Dandelion Wine was supposed to do The Mary Ellen Carter for the fok fest finale but because there was a storm that blew in during the last main stage set by James Keelaghan (who we were told at his show this past October literally lifted the stage lights up and then down, which was pretty scary when you're up there) they ended the fest for safety reasons. (Erin's told me that she'd had her car backstage to help transport Dandelion Wine's gear and how she had to drive out with four passengers and all their instruments in her little Ford Escort wagon, in the blinding rain, bottoming out in the dirt road ruts, but thankfully they made it back to the Bhigg House o.k.)
So I went back to the back baggie and saw Erin, who also confirmed that Dave would be part of the finale. (Erin said she'd heard it from Heather, who had heard it from Dave back in camp earlier that day. Long story short, Dave was also at the Martin Simpson show sitting with Susan Israel, a good friend and fine musician herself whose daughter plays with Ken Whitely, and she was relating how Ken really didn't like singing the more "nautical" verse of The Mary Ellen Carter and Dave reminded her of the time he almost sang it on the main stage, and I guess a little lightbulb went on in Susan's head. Susan later talked with Ken about having Dave sing the problematic verse and Ken, bless his dear heart, said sure, David could join them and sing that verse.
So now you know the rest of the story. Anyway, I went back to hear the rest of Passenger and then the last set by Sheryl Crow, who was really a lot of fun and did her sunshine pop thing with her fine band well. It's not folk music but when you know all the songs and can sing along it's still a great time. Just as much fun as The Barenaked Ladies Sunday night closing set was last year. Crow did get to do an encore, and then it was time for the finale. Almost every Baggiconer was there and right up along the front of the main stage to hear The Mary Ellen Carter and we were yelling "Dave! Dave! Dave!" which he heard and laughed a bit about. Susan Israel was next to Dave (I'm sure she was helping guide him on and off stage) and laughed too. What a wonderful moment. I've never seen Dave with a bigger smile on his face than he had up there under the bright lights.
I'll just link to the video I shot of the performance and say no more. Best folk fest ever.
Wallis Bird (who was next to Dave and Susan on stage) then sang Wild Mountain Thyme and did a wonderful version, and after her Amythyst Kiah sang Amazing Grace and made it new again, no small feat that, just her voice and guitar. Then all of us who were up front made our way back to the way back baggie and waited for Dave to return from the Main Stage, and then we all got in our traditional circle to sing Ripple before heading back to camp, singing shanties all the way back to the festival campground.
We then wound down around the campfire and burned as much wood as we could before turning in for the night, which was quiet and peaceful. Morning came clear and cool and after we all got up and had a cup or two of coffee, it was time to pack out. Unfortunately one of the baggie carts broke a wheel so it took us more time than it would have otherwise, but we managed to get everything out by about 1pm and headed back to the Bhigg House in Winnipeg to unload the Baggiecon camp gear in the garage and then Erin and I decided to head back home rather than stay, in part because we were still a little worried about theft from our van if it was left parked on the street.
The drive home was uneventful and fairly quick, with no hassles at the border which is always a relief. The dogs and cat were happy to see us as always. Best folk fest ever.
We then wound down around the campfire and burned as much wood as we could before turning in for the night, which was quiet and peaceful. Morning came clear and cool and after we all got up and had a cup or two of coffee, it was time to pack out. Unfortunately one of the baggie carts broke a wheel so it took us more time than it would have otherwise, but we managed to get everything out by about 1pm and headed back to the Bhigg House in Winnipeg to unload the Baggiecon camp gear in the garage and then Erin and I decided to head back home rather than stay, in part because we were still a little worried about theft from our van if it was left parked on the street.
The drive home was uneventful and fairly quick, with no hassles at the border which is always a relief. The dogs and cat were happy to see us as always. Best folk fest ever.
Friday, November 3, 2017
2017 Winnipeg Folk Festival
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| The view from inside our tent of the Baggiecon circle. Nice weather this year! |
One thing we finally did this year was take our bicycles, as our minivan has a hitch and I was able to get an adapter so I could attach my old bike rack to it. It worked fine, although it was very long and we had to be careful not to drag the bikes at times. It was great to have them to ride around the festival campground and to the festival site, as well as to a nearby lake (where you could swim) in Birds Hill Park. We'll definitely be bringing them next year.
Our friend Teresia in New Richmond was kind enough to take care of our two dogs and cat, and even took them to her home so they could play with her dog Freya in her backyard a few times, as well as taking poor Ceilidh down in the basement with her when fireworks were going off on the Fourth of July. We were able to stay in touch with her while away too, thanks to T-Mobile now giving us free calls, texts, and even data when in Canada. It was really handy to be able to use our phones at the folk fest to keep in touch with each other as well as our fellow Baggiecon campers.
We'd planned on leaving Monday and getting to Winnipeg a day early so we could have time to pack all the camp gear and have time to visit too, but it turned out that Erin had to work until 2pm that day, and that combined with the usual extra time it always takes to pack all our stuff we decided to hold off and leave Tuesday morning instead. We finally left at 9:30am and had a pleasant drive to the border where we had no hassles crossing thankfully, and made it to the Bhigg House a little after 7pm.
That didn't leave much time to load the Baggiecon group camping gear and Dave Clement's own gear, which required me to repack the whole minivan, but I managed to get it done in about an hour and a half and I was barely able to park the minivan in the garage with the bike rack on. (I didn't want to take it off because I had a *really* hard time getting it on with the new adapter and didn't want to mess with it again.) After finishing I took a refreshing shower we all had a nice late supper that Elizabeth fixed for us and then our friends Donna and Terry came by for a visit (including two new Baggieconners, France and Steven who had arrived at the Bhigg House a couple of hours after we did) and we talked until after 10pm when they left and I then went to bed.
Erin and I had a decent night's sleep and we took our time in the morning as Wolfgang and Lillian were there plenty early enough to get a good camping spot. So after having some coffee and gathering up our things Erin and I got in the minivan and drove out to Birds Hill Park. We got there around 10am just as the parking lineup to get in the festival camping area was dwindling down to the last few dozen vehicles, and we ended up parking in the first row of the overflow parking lot. So not ideal in terms of hauling everything in but not nearly as bad as having to park somewhere waay up at the very far north end.
We found Wolf and Lil right away in Zone 1A, as they'd claimed almost the same exact spot that Baggiecon was last year, thanks to being just about the first vehicle in the lineup. It's always a mad rush as there are around 1000 eager camping beavers all trying to get a favorite spot, usually in the shade of some trees. We instead look for a firepit in the open where there's a breeze and we set up a 10'x20' car port for shade as well as shelter from the rain, and that's worked well for us for decades, ever since Erin volunteered her old art show canopy waay back in the goodle days of the early 1990s.
It took about ten full garden cart loads to get everything out of the minivan, which I did (with some very welcome help from Wolfgang) while Erin stayed around to do the organizing as her foot was giving her some pain. She'd bought a new pair of sandals before we left that helped her walk without bending her arthritic toes so much, but I was fine with doing most of the hauling. It was a good thing that I've been working out on the ellipticals at the gym and had gotten into better shape leg-wise. Of course there were hundreds of other people working just as hard hauling their gear as I was and not all of them were younger than me!
The last thing I got was my bicycle, and my reward was having the fun of riding it back to camp instead of slogging on foot. Whee! Then after Erin and I decided where the tent was going to go, she went off with France back into Winnipeg to get some groceries and other things and I helped get the kitchen tent up with Wolfgang and then put out tent up. In the meantime Dave and Elizabeth had been bringing in their things, including a cooler with sandwich fixings that Elizabeth organized, and we all had a break with a cool drink and a welcome bite to eat after working hard. Then Lenore arrived and I helped her put her tent up, and soon after that came Lana, then Polly and Sharif, and pretty soon the circle was filling out nicely.
In fact, we'd finished with everything by 4pm or so, and Dave and Elizabeth took off for the lake to cool off (it was fairly warm at around 86F, but with a few clouds) and I took a shower in our spiffy shower tent. As usual, we had passersby ask what it was and after being told it was a Tardis we told them it was our shower, complete with water warmed in black plastic cubes and pumped through a shower head with the help of a 12-volt RV battery that was recharged with a 20-watt solar panel. Yes, it all has to be hauled in but when you're going to be there for 5-1/2 days the creature comforts are worth it.
Then by the time Erin and France made it back we were ready to relax for the evening. Thanks to a truck coming by with a rack of firewood for us we were all set for the rest of the fest for campfires. I'd brought two guitars with me this year, my Simon & Patrick that I usually play but this year I brought it for Dave Clement as he's been dealing with some serious issues with his left hand and couldn't play the Seagull 12-string guitar I'd been bringing for him since 2010. (Dave has a very fine Taylor 410 guitar himself, but he won't bring it out to the festival as it's a $2000+ instrument.) So I strung my S&P with light-gauge strings to make it easier to fret. The other guitar I brought was my Seagull Artist that I bought two years ago, and while I was nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs to bring it out to the fest because it's in such good condition (the S&P still sounds fine but it's acquired its share of dings in 22 years) but I was careful and it survived the experience without a scratch. Whew.
Besides Dave and myself, Wolfgang and Heather also brought guitars and a ukulele to play around the fire, and there were plenty of other people happy to sing along and occasionally sing something themselves. Sadly, we had no drummers but there was another group camping next to us that had a drummer who was quite good (I know, hard to believe) and we enjoyed hearing their music too during the fest. It's really become more of a pickin' and strumming scene in the festival campground now, with no big Castle Boys encampment or even fire show over at Pope's Hill now. There are still some featured attractions to be found, including the Big Games folks, an ink stamp tattoo parlor, an open jam session site, etc., but they're all smaller-scale. I know some miss the big stuff that used to be around, but it's a more mellow place for it. I think the folk fest management has decided to make the festival site itself the place where the big stuff happens at night, and that's fine with me.
Thursday morning came all too early as usual for me as I can never sleep in for very long thanks to my own internal clock that wakes me up whether I want to or not. It was a beautiful morning and I soon got to making that first pot of coffee after making sure the solar panel was in a sunny place to charge our battery. I usually have a couple of thermos bottles handy to use to pour hot coffee into so another pot can be made, but John and Karen hadn't made it yet because John wasn't feeling well and John had the thermos bottles. Thankfully the coffee maker was able to keep up with demand as more Baggieconners got up. We did later hear from Karen and John that they were on the way but wouldn't be making it until Friday, which is certainly better than not making it at all as folk fest happens only once a year.
As Thursday is a day where there's only music at the Main Stage in the evening, we had the whole day to relax and have fun in the festival campground. I just hung around for a few hours and visited with people and did some water-hauling (a note: I wasn't pleased with the number of people who think the communal water spigot is where their personal hygiene should be done. If I wanted to step in puddles of spat-out toothpaste, I'd bloody well say so. I must send a letter to the fest asking if they could perhaps put a sign on their flag that asks folkies to do their spitting elsewhere. Also, it really lengthens the line of people getting water.) Later in the afternoon, I went off riding my bicycle around the grounds and rode over to the lake to check it out and found Dave and Elizabeth were there for a swim themselves, and after I went wading I spent some time with them before heading back.
On the way, I decided to check out where there used to be a lesser-known entrance into festival camping so people could use a pit toilet in a picnic area, but found it was blocked off with a double fence. We used to be able to walk from the Bur Oak stage directly back to camp, but after 2011 the fest had put an end to that, so I wasn't surprised that they'd closed the entrance too. But I did find there was a nice asphalt path that ran from the picnic area north along the festival camping fence line, so I took off and quickly made it to the entrance that allowed access to Pope's Hill. Something to remember, and write down for future reference, I thought. And so I am!
I then took a spin up Pope's Hill to enjoy the view for a minute and then sped back down and re-entered the festival campground, and eventually rode over to where the Giant Scrabble game was set up in the RV camping area and found Erin and Lana there playing. Well, not playing as much as advising other players and Erin impressed them so much she earned the title "Scrabble Goddess" from one of the players there. They should meet Erin's sister Mary sometime...
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| Erin in the green t-shirt (and greenish hair) kibbitzing with the kids playing Big Scrabble |
After getting back I then learned that Polly had gone down to get in line for a tarp ticket and managed to get a #2 for us, and I agreed to run it at 5:15pm. So at 4:45pm I grabed the Baggiecon tarp and biked down. When it was time for us #2's to do the tarp stroll, I kept an eye out for where the #1's (who went first, naturally) might have left an empty space for a tarp, and sure enough I found a 6x8 area only four tarps back from the front of the Main Stage and folded my tarp down to fit it. (You're allowed up to an 8'x10' tarp.) Yay. I then took a look around and noticed that instead of there being a solid wall of huge subwoofers in front of the stage like there was last year, there were only about 8 or so, and that looked promising after last year's blowout of sound.
The evening show was scheduled to start at 7pm with an opening ceremony, but I headed back to camp to have a quick shower, figuring that I'd then not have to take one in the morning which would save me time before I would be running the tarp again at 10:15 am. Soon enough it was close to 7 pm so I headed down for the main stage. I missed the opening ceremonies, but made it in time for the first show by Small Glories, a duo featuring Cara Luft (formerly of The Wailin' Jennies) and J.D. Edwards and they were a fine opening act and represented Winnipeg nicely, trading off lead on each other's songs and doing some fine guitar and banjo playing as well. Just right to start the night.
The first tweener of the night was Carly Dow, who was nice if not particularly memorable. One of the reasons I wait a bit to write all this up is to see what's stuck with me after a month or more has passed. The next act, Brandi Carlile, was _very_ memorable. I'd been told by Chas Somdahl before the folk fest to be sure and hear her and I'd certainly hear her played on the radio for the past several years and liked what I'd heard. But as a live performer she was amazingly good. She had two sidemen playing with her who had been with her for many years and they were tight but not too tight, if you know what I mean. The Chris Frayer, the artistic director of the folk fest had mentioned in a news article that he thought Brandi Carlile would be one of the hits of the festival, and he was right. Carlile is a fine songwriter and she also has a great singing voice - powerful but not shouty at all and right on key. I couldn't take my eyes off her, and at one point when she lowered her mike and walked to the front of the state and just sang, I was really glad I'd found that spot for the tarp close to the front. Wow.
After Carlile's last song the crowd really wanted an encore but we didn't get one. Oh well, I guess the need to keep things on schedule matters, but jeeze. The next tweener was Aoife O'Donovan, who I'd heard sing on Prairie Home Companion a few time and I had liked what I heard. But again, her short set wasn't all that memorable and then it was time for the last act of the night, the band The Shins. I didn't know much about them but they were definitely a rock band with a bit of a techno flavor to them and they'd bround with them a fantastic light show that I enjoyed as much, if not more, than their music. Their drummer was quite impressive, but their lead singer was hard to decipher so I just relaxed and watched the lights and had a good time, and so did the rest of the crowd. I took a video of it with my iPhone and I'll try to load it here. Don't tell anyone...
Then it was back to the campsite and more playing around the campfire before turning in for the night, which passed peacefully to the sounds of distant and sometimes not-so-distant drumming. Friday morning started out as a copy of Thursday's, refreshingly cool with a warming sun. I started coffee and did a water run and by the time Polly was back in camp with a #1 tarp ticket I was feeling fine as others arose in camp. Even Erin didn't seem to be suffering too much from the usual morning fuzziness before coffee. I had plenty of time to collect things (thanks to having showered the day before) and then walked down with my chair and the tarp for the run, and I ended up getting a spot almost exactly where I did the night before. I guess all that training is finally paying off.
After having a bite for breakfast, I wandered over to the Bur Oak state to hear a guitarist workshop that I figured I'd appreciate as a guitarist myself, and it was pleasant enough, although I'd have liked more jamming. I did like Marisa Anderson's playing for being out of the ordinary in terms of it's eclectic inspiration. After the workshop I did a walk around the Handmade Village and ran into Anya behind the Green Ash stage where I sat for a while and, ghu help me, checked my phone for stuff. I know I should have far better things to do but I had data and I just had to. In my defense, I wasn't the only one with my face planted in my phone. I did at least use the folk fest app, which was nice to have.
Then it was off to the Big Bluestem stage to hear some bluegrass. There was an all-afternoon bluegrass revue scheduled there for Friday and while I didn't want to hear it all, I was interested in Nick Forster and Danny Barnes, on guitar and banjo respectively. They were fantastic players and had good stage presence, unsurprisingly on Forster's part as he's a host of a live radio show and had been talking for years to audiences. When they started with the tune Eight More Miles to Louisville, I knew I was in good hands for the whole set.
I would have liked to stick around to hear fiddle player Tim O'Brien after that, but I wanted to head back to Green Ash to hear a workshop with Bruce Cockburn, Graham Parker, and Daniel Lanois, which was heavily attended by the time I got there as you might expect, so I found a spot a way back among the trees in the shade, as the sound was good no matter where you sat. There was a lot of banter and the playing wasn't as tight as I'd heard from Forster and Barnes, but it was a lot of fun still. Cockburn's voice struggled a bit at first when he started singing, but that thankfully didn't last long and it's not surprising given he's now around 72 years old. Geez, where does the time go? Parker made some bemused remarkes about that subject, but he was still young at heart and rocked, well, as much as you can rock out at a folk festival anyway.
I thought about sticking around for one more workshop, but there wasn't anything that just grabbed me (although I heard later that the choir workshop with Bruce Cockburn was a big hit). I headed back to camp where I took a shower and enjoyed a cold beer, or maybe two, I don't remember, and chatted with other Baggieconners who were there. I headed back down to the Main Stage and caught part of the first act, Esme Patterson, who is yet another indie artist I had no clue about, although she'd played with some bands I had heard of, like Shakey Graves. I don't think I'm that out of touch with popular music, but I do have some blind spots for sure.
Then after a local tweeer, Richard Inman, was Bruce Cockburn, solo, who I really wanted to hear and, wow, he turned in a fantastic set. His guitar playing was amazingly sharp and fluid, and I wasn't the only one on the Baggiecon tarp to note that. Of course he's a great song writer too and his entire set was superb from start to finish. Given he'd already done a couple of workshops his voice was good too and I think some of the younger folkies who were wondering "who IS this guy?" were pleasantly surprised. We wanted an encore but didn't get one yet again and as it turned out I don't remember anyone getting one on Main Stage this year. Guess that's a new policy to keep things on time. I blame Xavier Rudd, who literally had the power plug pulled on him back in 2013 when he was the closing performer on Sunday night.
I then trucked on over to the Big Blue at Night stage to hear Camper Van Beethoven's set, which was a lot of fun, and after that I decided I was ready to head back to the campground and play some music myself. After we'd gone around the circle for an hour and some more we ended up doing some show tunes after talk around the fire turned to that subject, with Kat gleefully leading us, and we had great fun. I tried to shoot a video with my phone and at least got something, here...
Saturday morning was again beautiful, which one can get used to. Then as usual I did the tarp run and then got some breakfast and decided to head over to the Shady Grove stage for the first workshop featuring duos, including Nick Forster and Danny Barnes, as well as The Small Glories, and 100 Mile House. Yeah, I'd already seen two of the acts, but I liked them and it was nice to spend time in the shade early in the day and avoid the sun for a bit longer. I'm pretty mindful about not getting sunburned over the whole five days as it's pretty miserable to deal with a bad case of sunburn while at an outdoor festival.
Then, to be honest about it, I can't quite remember what I was doing for the next hour or two. Probably walking around the Handmade Village and elsewhere on the grounds. (I'm writing this months later because I simply didn't get around to it right after getting home.) But eventually I headed over to the Green Ash stage and caught the last part of a workshop there before Graham Parker & Brinsley Schwartz had a concert scheduled at 2:45pm and I managed to find a just-vacated spot for my chair right up near the front where you can see the whites of the performers eyes, er, their fingers on the guitar fretboard. I'm glad I did as I enjoyed seeing both Parker and Schwartz get their groove on. Still pretty spry for a couple of 1970s guys, I gotta say.
Then I managed to get a hold of Erin on the phone (yay for a working cellphone) and said I'd look for her at the Bur Oak stage where there was a workshop titled Waiting For The Great Leap Forward that included Peter Yarrow, and it was something we both wanted to see. As it turned out of course, so did a lot of other people and it was a big crowd. Luckily, Lana Klassen spotted me and called my name and she had a nice spot that still had a view of the stage a ways back in the shade along with Anya and her friend Heather, so I put my chair down just in time and held a spot for Erin too, who just made it as the set started. Whew. It turned out to be a good old-fashioned folk singing set with the crowd getting to join in often too, and yes, there was a political message or two as you would expect. The final number led by Yarrow was Bob Dylan's Blowin' In the Wind, and by the time the last chorus was sung everyone was standing and swaying in the wind, arms held up high. Not many dry eyes that I could see, but then I was a bit visually impaired myself...
After that, I decided to head back to camp and take a quick shower and relax a bit, but as it turned out I decided to stay in camp and not head down to the Main Stage at all. I just felt more like chillin' for some reason. I did get some fresh ice for the cooler at the camp store and refilled some water jugs, had a beer and a bit of a walkabout in the neighborhood on my bike before settling in with my guitar and having fun beneath the setting prairie sun. (It doesn't set until 9:30pm and stays light for sometime after that.) Baggieconners eventually started trickling back home and then we were waiting for Dave Clement to return so we could have our ceremony welcoming newcomers to Baggiecon, but we waited, and waited, and waited and still no Dave and it was well after midnight. Erin was tired and decided to turn in herself before Dave finally arrived around 1pm, and we had a ceremony. Turned out Dave's friends from out east, France and Steven, wanted to stay until the very end of the last set, and on Saturday it ends fairly late, obviously. I've not been staying late myself to hear the last act on Friday or Saturday as it's generally more a dancing scene. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not what I've been into. Part of that has been the crazy loud sound that made the Main Stage hard to bear for the past few years, but this year it was turned down significantly, and I've since learned it won't be cranked up so high again, so maybe I'll reconsider hearing the last acts more next year.
Sunday morning dawned just as nice as the previous ones and before I took off I took the time to coordinate with Erin and Lana to meet them at the Shady Grove stage at 11am for the first workshop there. Then as I walked to the main entrance to get in line for the tarp run, I spotted Polly way up front in one of the lines and elected to walk right up to her like she was waiting for me, so I could be one of the first people in. Not quite fair, but no one really minded or at least said anything. I even got my chair pre-checked and enjoyed the front gate volunteers pep song, which was sweet.
Then the gates opened and I was able to walk straight to Shady Grove and put my chair right in the very front row, and put a towel out to hold space for more chairs, which people graciously accepted. Then it was off to the tarp run and back again to join Erin, Lana, and Anya to hear an amazing Celtic workship featuring yet another superb band from Prince Edward Island that Lana loved, Ten Strings and a Goat Skin, along with a blazingly talented band from Scotland, RURA, and another singer-songwriter from Scotland, Paul McKenna. It was everything you could want in a workshop, with virtuoso playing and jamming galore, some heartfelt moments, and humor too. Erin and Lana, talented artists both, also spent time sketching one of the handsomer musicians (they said they like him because he didn't move so much, but it was really because he was good-looking). At the end of the workshop they had him sign them, and he was tickled. Me, I was fired up and ready for more.
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| I'm sure Lana & Erin would invite him to come look at their etchings anytime too! |
Then it was right over to the Big Bluestem stage to hear a concept workshop based around the Byrd's bluegrass-rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo that they released back in 1968. Featured musicians included Hot Rize, The Small Glories, Lenoard Podolak, Luke Roberts, and again Matt Haeck, among others. The idea (did two years previously by Robyn Hitchcock and The Sadies for The Band's Stage Fright LP) was to play the songs on the album in sequence, with performers taking turns on each song. They did a very good job, from the opening Dylan cover to the last song "Nothing Was Delivered", which was nicely ironic.
I should mention that I did get there early enough to hear the end of the previous concert by a great, big, fun brass band from Los Angeles, MarchFourth, which not only featured around a dozen musicians, but also circus performers in their act. They reminded me a lot of a band from England I heard back at the 2009 folk fest, Bellowhead, with even more zanyness, and they had practically everyone in front of the state up and dancing and bouncing along with their groove.
Then, after all that, I went back over the Bur Oak to catch the last fifteen minutes of Peter Yarrow's concert, which I would have liked to hear all of but I'm glad I got to hear what I did. Erin was there to hear it all and she loved it, and she managed to pick up two CDs of his in the merch tent to take home. But wait, there's more! There was one more workshop over at Green Ash with Camper Van Beetheoven and the Saturday night closing act from Africa (Kinshasa to be precise), Mbongwana Star. What does a rock band from Los Angeles and one from Kinshasa have in common? As it turned out, the opening song they jammed on was Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive. That was fun, and it was a wonderful way to bliss out under a perfect summer sky.
I did leave a bit early to go back to camp to clean up and then head back down for the last night of the festival, always a kind of sigh, it's all over already feeling, but I was feeling so good I just couldn't feel sad. The sun coming through the trees as I came back in was so nice I took a photo of it, and it captures the feeling well enough.
I grabbed some dinner at one of the food booths (a yummy burrito, I think) and made it up to the front baggie to hear the last few songs by the first performer of the night, Foy Vance. He had a very nice voice, but not terribly distinctive songs, at least to my ear. The next-to-last act for the fest was Joey Landreth, who was energetic and nice enough, but as the sun was going down it wasn't shaping up to be a rousing end for this year's folk fest. Well, I needn't have worried about that, as the final act was The Barenaked Ladies and I knew they would be a lot of fun. But they were even more fun than I anticipated and their energy and banter was infectious and the whole crowd just lit up in response. They were tight musically, funny, frenetic, and waay too bouncy for guys their age. I loved it! We all did! More Kraft Dinners for everyone!
Then it was time for the Finale, and rolling up the front tarp one more time with a satisfied mind. The usual trio of closing songs, The Mary Ellen Carter / Wild Mountain Thyme / Amazing Grace were all performed very well, respectively by The Small Glories with Leonard Podolak, RURA (a great choice!), and Begonia, who sang beautifully. It was getting chilly by the time I arrived for our usual Baggiecon closing song, and there were two dozen of us who all made a circle and sang Ripple one more warm time. Sigh. Then back to camp where we repeated the Baggiecon newbies ceremony which made Erin happy since she'd missed it on Saturday night. Then after some singing around the fire we turned in and had sweet dreams. It helped that a number of campers in the festival campground had already left earlier in the day and that we weren't the only ones remaining who were tired but happy.
Monday morning dawned clear and cool, with no rain in the forecast until later in the afternoon, which left us plenty of time to pack everything and haul it out to the minivan. We left the shade structure up until the end so we had some shade to take breaks under, but we finally took it down and bid farewell and left Birds Hill Park at about 1pm. Thankfully, I remembered all the road construction on the Perimeter Highway at Hwy 59 and took an alternate route (Dugald Road) back into Winnipeg, where we unloaded all the Baggiecon group camping gear we had into the Bhigg House garage.
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| Taking one more break in the shade on Monday before the final load out... |
I guess I didn't keep it so short, but the tale just kept growing...
Monday, June 19, 2017
There Comes the Strangest Moment
by Kate Light
There comes the strangest moment in your life,
when everything you thought before breaks free—
what you relied upon, as ground-rule and as rite
looks upside down from how it used to be.
Skin’s gone pale, your brain is shedding cells;
you question every tenet you set down;
obedient thoughts have turned to infidels
and every verb desires to be a noun.
I want—my want. I love—my love. I’ll stay
with you. I thought transitions were the best,
but I want what’s here to never go away.
I’ll make my peace, my bed, and kiss this breast…
Your heart’s in retrograde. You simply have no choice.
Things people told you turn out to be true.
You have to hold that body, hear that voice.
You’d have sworn no one knew you more than you.
How many people thought you’d never change?
But here you have. It’s beautiful. It’s strange.
There comes the strangest moment in your life,
when everything you thought before breaks free—
what you relied upon, as ground-rule and as rite
looks upside down from how it used to be.
Skin’s gone pale, your brain is shedding cells;
you question every tenet you set down;
obedient thoughts have turned to infidels
and every verb desires to be a noun.
I want—my want. I love—my love. I’ll stay
with you. I thought transitions were the best,
but I want what’s here to never go away.
I’ll make my peace, my bed, and kiss this breast…
Your heart’s in retrograde. You simply have no choice.
Things people told you turn out to be true.
You have to hold that body, hear that voice.
You’d have sworn no one knew you more than you.
How many people thought you’d never change?
But here you have. It’s beautiful. It’s strange.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Park Bench
by Albert Garcia
There should be a park bench.
We’ll sit next to each other,
watching a man throw a tennis ball
to his yellow lab, sending
and retrieving the dog
whose loyalty to task is clear
to both of them. I’ll say something
to start, something I’ve wanted
to say for years, words I’ve never before
been able to put together,
and you’ll hear them perfectly,
my words like a child’s wooden blocks
you can hold in your hands,
turning them for their modest gleam.
What you say comes as a breeze
that sinks in my skin,
not warm, not cool, just
what I needed to feel and hear,
like bath water, like tea. Then
we sit, and the dog
lopes out again to retrieve
his ball. The man waits
for what he knows is coming,
and the breeze, if there,
moves between us, back
and forth, silently.
There should be a park bench.
We’ll sit next to each other,
watching a man throw a tennis ball
to his yellow lab, sending
and retrieving the dog
whose loyalty to task is clear
to both of them. I’ll say something
to start, something I’ve wanted
to say for years, words I’ve never before
been able to put together,
and you’ll hear them perfectly,
my words like a child’s wooden blocks
you can hold in your hands,
turning them for their modest gleam.
What you say comes as a breeze
that sinks in my skin,
not warm, not cool, just
what I needed to feel and hear,
like bath water, like tea. Then
we sit, and the dog
lopes out again to retrieve
his ball. The man waits
for what he knows is coming,
and the breeze, if there,
moves between us, back
and forth, silently.
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