Wayne D's Blog

Please note, all the pictures in this posting are thumbnails, click them to see the full size picture

 
Last weekend we made out annual pilgrimage to Owen Sound to attend the Summerfolk music festival. This three day festival has main stage converts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings with workshops featuring different combinations Saturday and Sunday during the day.  We arrived in Owen Sound Friday afternoon and check into our motel where we were greeted with the artwork you see here. Yes, it's painted on velvet.


The we headed off to line up. Lining up is one of the Summerfolk rituals.  In order to get a good seat in the amphitheatre it's necessary to line up a number of hours in advance. On Saturday and Sunday morning that means anytime between 6 and 7 a.m. for gates that open at 10:30 and 10:00 a.m.  The good news is that sometime between 8 and 8:30 the organizers come down the line and hand out numbers so you can go back to your campsite or motel and come back just before the gates open to go in and place your chairs in the amphitheatre for the night concert. On Friday we arrived at the front gates between 2 and 3 and set up our chairs to wait for the 5 p.m. gate opening time. The two highlights of the Friday night concert were Dala and Ruthie Foster.  Dala are two 20 something women who have the sweetest harmonies.  Though I am generally not a big fan of the blues, Ruthie Foster manages to combine the blues, gospel and folk singing to a style that all her own. Two other notable acts from Friday night were Steve Dickenson and the African Guitar Summit.


Saturday morning Steve and I woke up and 6 a.m. and managed to get ourselves in line by about 6:40 a.m.  We were quite proud of ourselves considering we didn't have an alarm clock in the room and the motel didn't do wake up calls. For this Herculean effort we received numbers 23 and 24.  Back to the motel for a quick nap and then back to the festival site at 10:30 to set up our chairs.  Throughout the workshop schedule on Saturday we managed to catch Dala, hear the Wyrd Sisters sing about how one can have fun in the tub, catch the guitar greats and be introduced to the phenomenon that is the Chucky Danger Band. These four guys from Charlottetown, PEI dress in white shirts and black pants, have their hair cut short and are quite popular with the young ladies.


Our favorite artists from Saturday night were David Sereda, John Wort Hannam and Fig for a Kiss. The skies opened during the Wyrd Sisters set and we dived under our tarps. The rain stopped after about 30 minutes. One memorable moments of the weekend was watching one hardy soul dancing up a storm during the short downpour.  We decided to skip Rita Chiarelli's Italian Sessions and Jane Burnett's Guantanamo Blues set and head down to the beer tent where we caught the end of Dala's set along with the The Undesireables before we headed back to the motel to sleep.


Sunday morning saw Steve and I in line promptly at 6:30 where our efforts netted up numbers 11 and 12.  After a short nap we were back at 10 a.m. for the morning gospel workshop where the mixture of gospel, traditional hymn tunes and other inspirational songs was the perfect way to start off a Sunday morning.


Highlights of Sunday's workshops included the session in the Children's village where a number of the artists explained their instruments and jammed together. Did you know a Celtic harp has 31 strings and at least on Sahra Featherstone's harp the coloured strings help her to navigate? Or that a playing a Cajon doesn't hurt you fingers if you take it easy and don't get too excited? Joe Phillips ukulele playing was also first rate. The fiddle session where Anne Lindsay showed and played the Swedish nyckelharpa and the Finnish jouhikko, two instruments she learned for her Lord of the Rings gig, was also memorable . During this workshop Sahra Featherstone and Duncan Cameron from Fig for a Kiss danced a spontaneous waltz during Anne Lindsay's performance. The dinner show from Flamenco Caravan brought the day to a close that couldn't have been better.


Sunday nights most memorable performances came from the Anne Lindsay Band and Hart Rouge.  Steve Dickinson also impressed when he played three or four covers with audience participation while filling in the time while Prairie Oyster was setting up. I regret that a lack of attentiveness on my part meant that I missed John Somosi's performance.



At 12:30 we hopped in the car with four CD's, Fig for a Kiss, Chucky Danger Band, Dala and Ruthie Foster for the trip back to Richmond Hill. It was a great weekend of music and we will be making the trip again next year. If I have one suggestion for the artistic director next year it's that they program a little less world music on the main stage. Lyrics are an integral part of music and when I can't understand them I feel like I am missing something.