Saturday, July 23, 2005

Our first full day at the festival allowed for a bit more exploration. The site has all of the usual pieces of a folk fest, the merch tent, local food vendors offering up a variety of healthy food options, and crafters selling everything from clothes to drums. There seems to be a bit more of a focus on alcoholic libations, as the workshop stages are the site of the festival's two big beer tents. For those who enjoy a nice drink, it made for a convenient way to watch music and indulge at the same time, but folk festivals typically don't want people hanging out and drinking all weekend, so they make it a bit more inconvenient to do so. The crowd at the event is a curious mix of the usual hippies and suburban-wanna-be hippies and young hipster kids out to see the hot indie rock acts of the day. They all seem to converge at the beer tent. Over the weekend I saw plenty of young, drunken fools as you'd expect to see at a rock festival, but not as many as I initially feared. Everyone seemed peaceful and happy, just as I'd expect at a folk festival, so it was a fine mix of folk enjoying whatever they were into.

I had hoped that at a smaller festival with fewer stages, there would be a lot less musical conflict for me to deal with, and I assumed that the choices between stages would be fairly simple. How wrong I was. With only 2 real workshop stages, one tiny, mostly spoken word stage, and the main stage, I figured I would have no problem picking and choosing. Unfortunately all 4 stages run pretty much all the time (the smaller spoken word stage shuts down earlier; it's not equipped with lights and such) there seemed to be no shortage of conflicts. First thing Saturday I faced such a dilemma with Johnston, Doucet, Cuff the Duke and more playing away at the Lake Stage and "This Train is Leaving," with Kelly Joe, Kevin Fox, The Be Good Tanyas, Eliza, and others at the Island Stage. In the end, Eliza won again. She's one of the few at the festival that I had never seen but was dying to, and knowing that it might be a long time before I got another opportunity, any workshop with her in it was an easy pick. This workshop was far busier than the ones the previous night, so it was harder to find a spot up front. We were beginning to think that Winnipeggers are the only ones who rushed up to the front of the stage for a good spot, as we had absolutely no trouble finding green space at the front on Friday, but it was more valuable real estate on Saturday.

After a quick meet and greet with some of my favourite artists (Eliza is an absolute gem of a person, wonderful to chat with, as she is to watch and listen to), we headed over to main stage to see former Winnipegger Luke Doucet.

Luke is an absolute natural when it comes to performing. He's been in bands around town for as long as I can remember, and he must have grown up with a guitar in his hands. Whether solo or with a tight backing band, as he had at Hillside, Doucet commands your attention and refuses to let it go. He is the consummate professional performer, always putting on a top-notch show, whether it's solo in front of a few folks at a local coffee house or playing for thousands in Sarah Mclachlan's backing band. It's always good to see someone from Winnipeg going over well with a crowd elsewhere, so it was good to see so many folks enjoying Luke's energetic set.

Lately he's been joined on stage by his girlfriend Melissa Mcclelland, who I first met and heard playing with a great group called Ladybird Sideshow. She's got a great voice and writes some great songs on her own, and made for perfect accompaniment on Luke's material.

After an exciting and engaging set, I thought that nothing could make the show any better, so I thought it might be a little bit odd that Luke would invite his 9 year old daughter Chloe on stage to sing along. I've heard her before; Luke and Chloe do a song on a great local kids' compilation called "I'm Somebody Too," which is really cute, but probably not the greatest song ever committed to CD. I expected to hear that and hear the cute kid singing cute little parts, which would make for a cute end to the show. What I didn't expect was for this amazing child to steal the stage from the professional musicians who she was joining. Together they ran through Tom Waits' "Gun St. Girl." Let me tell you, that kid can sing. She is her father's daughter, performing with absolute confidence and poise even at such a young age. She was simply amazing, and it was no surprise that it was the show-stopper moment. Watch out for this kid later in life. Not only is she cute, but she's got a dynamite voice and was bang-on with her parts.

After we picked up our jaws off the ground, it was time to make a major life decision. Saturday at 2 was the moment I was dreading most, with something I'd normally drop everything to see on all 4 stages. Josh Ritter was in concert on main stage. I'd seen him open for Sarah Harmer here and he was kind enough to come in and do my show while he was in town, but I was eager to hear him do a full set. Michael Johnston and friends were doing their big showcase at Lake Stage, and Geoff Berner and a bunch of other great folks were on the small Sun Stage doing something called "Let's Drop the Big One Now." Again, though, I couldn't pass up the chance to see Eliza Gilkyson, because her concert was to be her last Hillside appearance. It was a tough decision, but in the end, I know for certain that I did exactly the right thing.

I'd heard Eliza's last disc and seen her do a few songs already this weekend, so I knew she was going to be great. I didn't expect to be so utterly blown away (especially following young Chloe's moment in the spotlight.) It's a real shame that my insanely busy lifestyle (3 jobs, several volunteer duties, two radio shows, a couple of websites, trying to help out with some great kids I'm related to, oh, and then there's the sleeping, eating, and spending time with family and friends that I somehow try to fit in) doesn't allow me to really listen to music much anymore. Music is my love and my passion, but I just don't have the time to really sit and digest much of it anymore. More often than not, it's background music as I do a million other things. That's why I love going to shows so much. It really allows me to focus on the music and the words. But often at shows I'm with friends or in a noisy bar or whatever, and I'm easily distracted, so often I can't zero in as much as I'd like. The Winnipeg Folk Festival is especially bad for really listening, as I'm always running around and running into old friends and beating the heat and whatnot, it seems that I'm never actually listening. But here, in a quiet tent in quiet Guelph, I was allowed to sit comfortably and enjoy nothing but Eliza Gilkyson. He melodies and playing and singing caught my ear like they never had before. Her stories had me laughing and thinking. But the words. Oh the words. Never before had I sit and really, really absorbed her powerful lyrics. When she closed off with one of her heaviest, most powerful songs, "The Ballad of Yvonne Johnson," after telling the story of Johnson's amazingly troubled life, I was dumbfounded. Such a powerful story combined with such a powerful voice and such a powerful performance left me wiping my eyes (what? it's the seasonal allergies, ok?) I don't think that I've ever been so moved by a performance in all of my life, and I've seen some pretty powerful ones.

At the end of it all, an ovation that you rarely witness. You see plenty of standing ovations, even at a hip festival such as this, but almost never do you hear the kind of loud, sustained applause and cheering that I did on that day. Even when the stage hand came up to announce that they had to set up for the next act, people cheered and clapped for Eliza. She seemed moved at the side of the stage, and picked up her guitar. People went crazy. But the stagehands tore down her mic and started to set up for the next act, and all Eliza could do was shrug and wave. Still people cheered. As the sound person threw on some filler music, to perhaps signal that there was no hope, the crowd started to dissipate. It's too bad, because I'm sure we could have all listened to this amazing woman all day.

With Kelly Joe Phelps, The Hidden Cameras, and Erin McKeown all doing anticipated concerts, it was going to be another tough decision to follow that up. Given the choice, I'll most often pick a workshop featuring a variety of artists over an hour long concert by one established artist, so we headed over to one that had the potential to be either amazing or pointless, "Diamonds in the Rough: Unrecorded Songs," featuring Kevin Fox, Sarah Slean, Dave MacKinnon of Fembots, Luke Doucet, and Melissa McClelland. Kristi and I are fans of McClelland and liked the thought of seeing her do her own stuff for once, and we really like all of the other performers on that bill, so we headed over. I could hear the voice of some musician in my head saying, "if these songs are unrecorded, they must not be very good, so why should I play them at a festival," but I headed over to see what folks would do. Most of them must have been thinking the exact same thing, because some did new songs that were on upcoming records and some did older, obscure songs that had been recorded but maybe weren't as known. Either way, it was an interesting workshop, although not the true treasure trove of exclusive opportunities to hear weird and wonderful songs that one might have expected.

Ah festivals. Either there's a million things going on or nothing at all. We wandered by the CBC Fuse set to see who showed up for the Arts & Crafts in session (I thought Fuse was about combining unlikely artists? Why Arts & Crafts folk who play together all the time," I wondered.) To alleviate my concerns, they brought along Ford Pier, who, after his weird performance on Friday, I wasn't entirely excited to see again, so we didn't stick around for long.

I decided to go over to Island Stage, where some of the hip, young bands were set to play. I've hung around a college radio station long enough to know when there's going to be aloof indie rock hipsters at a show, and I knew that the lineup of Apostle of Hustle, followed by Cuff the Duke was bound to bring out some folks that you might not find at a true folk festival. I was right. The tent was absolutely jam packed with young kids dancing to the energetic bands on stage. Perhaps it's just the old folkie in me, but I noticed a marked difference in the crowd, the reaction, and the vibe of the event. I started to work on this theory which would help me to avoid the happening events and enjoy the music as I'd intended. I began to devise my formula for calculating the "Hipster Quotient (HQ)Ó" which I'd use to good effect over the rest of the weekend. Now, don't get me wrong, the bands were tight and energetic and definitely called for a boisterous, dancing crowd more than some folkies from Winnipeg sitting on a blanket with a bag of trail mix (ok, we had no trail mix, but it suited the joke). I was most impressed by Cuff the Duke, who I'd seen before in Winnipeg. They used to be these young stoner kids who goofed around and had fun, but weren't entirely focused on the music, I thought. Now, they're a tight, energetic rock band that really energized the audience and impressed even this old folkie.

Because we are old and were somewhat tired out already, we decided to lay outside of the tent and relax while still catching some of the music. Kristi had her eyes closed and hat pulled down, and a security guard came over to me and asked, "She's not sleeping, is she?" I said, "uh, I'm not sure. So what if she is?" It turns out that under a bizarre circumstance set forth by a bizarre liquor law, you are absolutely forbidden from sleeping anywhere that alcohol is served. So even though we were not consuming alcohol and hadn't really done so, we were not allowed to sleep at all inside the workshop stage area, for fear that the festival's liquor license would be revoked. I looked dumbfounded at the security dude and said, "Are you kidding me?" He said, "no." I assured him that we'd be wide awake. That's a new one.

At 7 my good friend Geoff Berner hit the stage for his concert. After the guy was nice enough to get us into the festival, the least we could do was to show some support and go to his show, but really, there's nowhere else I would rather have been. Berner is totally funny, entertaining, and an absolutely brilliant lyricist and player. People often don't take him seriously or give him the credit that he deserves, but his lyrics are so clever and insightful and he really is one of the best songwriters I've heard. He was a big hit at the Hillside festival last year, so he was brought back to the delight of the festival patrons. I've seen Berner before at shows, but most of them have been bar shows where folks have come more or less knowing what to expect. At a festival, you get folks checking you out who wouldn't otherwise hear of you, and it was entertaining to see the diverse reactions of those in the crowd. Many of us up front knew Geoff and sang along and loved every minute of it. Some folks, like our new friend Carlos, saw Geoff for the first time and were completely won over by his performance. Others seemed confused and even afraid, and didn't stick around long. That's to be expected with a Geoff Berner show. It was a typically great show, and featured a guest appearance by The Be Good Tanyas' Frazey Ford.

Our devotion to Geoff meant that we had to miss a fun looking set called "Guilty Pleasures," featuring Kelly Joe, a great new discovery called The Shiftless Rounders, and one of our few chances to see Po' Girl. I'd seen Po' Girl at 3 festivals last summer (Winnipeg, Calgary, and Regina) and was very impressed with them and looking forward to seeing Allison again. We got there in time to catch the last little bit of the workshop and then to have a brief chat with Allison and to give her the gift that T-Bar sent along for her.

Time for wandering and food and drink and to enjoy the beautiful evening before catching a bit of Kevin Fox's concert and then settling in for the great workshop that was to follow it at the Lake Stage, "Small-Town Songs" with Josh Ritter, Erin McKeown, Kate Schutt, Ridley Bent, and more. That was a really fun one that just didn't last long enough. Note to festival organisers: putting 4 great performers on stage in a short, 45 minute set just doesn't cut it. If one performer does long songs (as is always the case) the rest might not even get to do two songs. If you're going to have a bunch of performers on stage at the same time (and I love it when they do), you need to give them more than 45 minutes. Josh Ritter was so charming and just really down-to-earth and glad to be there.

Erin McKeown was powerful and makes you wonder how she packs so much energy into such a tiny body.

Ridley Bent was a hit with the hipsters in the crowd (although the HQ was rather low because one of the big rock bands, Stars, was on the main stage) with his amusing acoustic singer/songwriter raps.

The real hit for me was Kate Schutt, who I'd never heard of before but was quite amazed by. She plays this weird instrument that literally combines a bass and a guitar on one neck, and she plays both with absolute ease and amazing skill at the same time. It makes for a really powerful sound. She was quite enjoybale and was one of those discoveries that such workshops are so good for.

My inner hipster (cultivated by 5 years at a college rock station, although kept in check by my love of folk fests and singer/songwriters) pulled me over a couple of times to see The Arcade Fire on main stage. We had figured that the HQ and general audience concentration would be higher at this show than any other of the weekend, so I wasn't about to stand and catch it all. To their credit, the members of The Arcade Fire put on an amazing show, but the music just isn't entirely my cup of organic fruit smoothie. Good thing, because it meant that I was free to check out Boogaloo Situation hosted by Michael Johnston and featuring Royal Wood, Ember Swift, and a whole bunch of other great folks.

Now that was fun. Johnston impresses me for so many reasons, but at this festival, he took my respect and doubled it. He's one of those performers who really gets that a performance is supposed to be fun, original, and exciting for the audience AND the performer. He doesn't rely on some rehearsed, pre-scripted version of events that stays the same every time he plays; he mixes it up and has fun, and knows that the audience will have fun if he does. He seemed to be in a million workshops, and at each one, he played along and had fun with just about everybody. Of course it helped that wherever he went, Lewis and Dave came along, and whenever the three got together magic was bound to follow. I hadn't been all that impressed with Ember Swift when I'd seen her in Winnipeg (don't get me wrong, she's great at what she does, but it's just not my thing) and I might not have loved Royal Wood in another setting, but Johnston set the bar and the energy level high and the other performers tried their best to meet the challenge. It made for one of the most fun, energetic, wild performances I've seen. Sure, The Arcade Fire must have been intense and powerful on mainstage, but I was perfectly happy to be grooving to the Boogaloo Situation at Lake Stage.

I did manage to duck over to main stage just before the inevitable 11:00 end of the festival. We don't have any kind of curfew out in the middle of nowhere at The Winnipeg Folk Festival, which is good, because it's always a bit of a downer when a great show is cut short at a city-based festival because of a noise curfew (man was I upset when I made my first trip to the Edmonton Folk Festival in the mid 90s to see Elvis Costello and he had to wrap it up by 11 with no encores). The Arcade Fire was very conscious of the looming deadline, and one of the members said something along the lines of, "The cops are going to come and shut us down if we don't turn off the stage, but we'll come out in the crowd and do one more, so help us out and sing along if you know it. It seemed that folks did. The band began the song on stage, and then one by one jumped down into the packed audience and played their song. I couldn't hear that well, so headed over to Lake Stage to meet up with Kristi and Michael. A few minutes later, we could hear the sound of approaching drums and horns, and a parade led by The Arcade Fire and made up of several hundred audience members made its way past the stage and around the site. It was a really unique and amazing end to a really great day in Guelph.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Although I am always excited to see great music, I was looking forward to this day because it looked more relaxing, since there wasn’t a whole lot that I was dying to see. I knew that we’d find some good stuff, but after all of the hustling, this was going to be a more low-key day. If our energy level didn’t dictate that, Mother Nature surely would. For the first time in our travels, it looked as if into our lives a little rain would fall. We were fairly well prepared and willing to sit under whatever tent we could find, so we weren’t too terribly worried about it.

If this isn’t a Folk Fest, it still has some of the classic characteristics, including the Sunday Morning Gospel Jam at Island Stage with Po’ Girl, The Be Good Tanyas, Shiftless Rounders, Josh Ritter and many more. We got to the site rather late and weren’t entirely gung ho about running around like mad, so by the time we got to the stage area, the tent was packed. We weren’t as excited about sitting outside the tent, so we headed over to Lake Stage for a bit of “Calling All Instruments Symphony,” with Les Batinses, D. Rangers, Tasa, and friends. We only caught the end but it seemed like a high energy, entertaining affair.

Following that was supposed to be a session called “Down Under the Groove” with Buck 65 and Xavier Rudd. I’d never seen Buck 65 before but had heard from many hipsters that he’s amazing in concert, so was looking forward to that. Also, I was looking forward to seeing how Xavier went over in Guelph. He was one of the most amazing performers at the Winnipeg Folk Festival last year and has become a huge rock star in our fair city ever since. I wondered whether Guelph had caught on to his amazing ability yet or whether they were in for a surprise. The tent was pretty packed, but we found a decent spot at the side of the stage to watch this one. That’s when we really noticed the bugs. In Winnipeg, our mosquitoes are legendary, and for good reason. They’re brutal bloodsuckers that can drive anyone crazy. We were pleased to find that there are almost none in Guelph. What they do have are flies. Lots and lots of flies. Now, they’re not the biting kind, so I guess there’s nothing to complain about, but sitting under the tent with the weather getting kind of gloomy and a little bit of rain starting to fall, the flies were congregating with us. The thing about flies is that they don’t do anything. They land, buzz around, and fly off. But somehow it DROVE ME NUTS! Anyway, as we sat and swatted flies, the stage was cleared of the previous workshop, but there appeared to be no move to set up Xavier’s elaborate setup. In fact, there was no sign of him at all. Soon came the announcement that the session was not going to happen. I heard a few different stories after the fact. One was that Xavier got to the site late and didn’t have time to set up his million and one gizmos for a quick little 45 minute session. Another story was that he just didn’t want to have his stuff pulled over there in the rain. With so much stuff to set up, it takes a lot of work and Xavier has to have someone (his right hand man James) set up and check everything out for him. It gives him a bit of a reputation among stage hands as a bit of a pain in the ass. I think I heard that he used like 27 lines when he set up in Winnipeg, so I’m sure the one-man stage crew at Hillside was not entirely upset that he didn’t show. (How is it that Winnipeg Folk Festival needs like 10 people to set up each stage and Hillside can do it with only one?) Some folks seemed a little put off by the cancellation, but we were fine with a little extra down time.

There wasn’t much else going on, so some wandering and some lunch was in order. At 1 there wasn’t a whole lot of options either, so we set up back at Lake Stage to see Kate Schutt’s concert. Even though she had plenty of time to set up and sound check with an empty stage before her show, she seemed to be having trouble and the show didn’t start on time. She was frantically trying to get her guitar working. Luckily there was a tech on hand from a local music store who was able to take her guitar/bass contraption apart and get things sounding good again. Her set was very entertaining indeed. She had an amazing drummer along from Boston, who matched her musical ability and made for a lively show. She also invited Jaxon from the D Rangers along to join her. She’d make a great addition at a jazz or blues festival, so I hope she gets more work and more known in the future.

The festival curse suddenly came back again; too much to see at once, with Sarah Slean and Buck 65 sharing a stage for CBC’s Fuse on Lake Stage and one of my other favourite discoveries at this festival, Crescent & Frost doing a concert at Island Stage. We chose another workshop that could be either brilliant or pointless, “Songs I Wish I’d Never Written,” featuring Josh Ritter, Frazey Ford, Romi Mayes, John Mullane from a band called In Flight Safety, and a young kid named Geordie Gordon. Again, one had to wonder why someone would want to play a song in public that he/she regretted writing, but it had potential to be cool, so we thought we’d check it out. In a bizarre scheduling gaffe, Frazey couldn’t make it to the workshop because she had her Be Good Tanyas concert scheduled to start during the workshop. Good thing, because there just isn’t room on that small Sun Stage for a bunch of people. Note to festival organizers: the PA speakers would be just great BESIDE the stage instead of right in front of the stage. Not sure who thought of that brilliant maneuver, but there they are, big speaker boxes blocking both sides of the stage, so there’s really nowhere that you can sit to see everyone on stage if there should be more than about three people. Again, the performers didn’t seem to know what to play so played songs that were about hard times or bad people, and stuff like that. It was a set that didn’t entirely live up to its potential, but had some fine moments.

Now there's a scene you wouldn't likely see at a true Folk Festival. Hipster Jason Collett in his vintage suit and hat chatting with a guy in an improbable kilt, holding an umbrella.

The HQ©. Distant, aloof hipsters afraid to commit or listen, but there to be seen. It's a beautiful thing to watch.

The beautiful scenery as seen from the Sun Stage. That must be either really inspiring or really distracting if you're performing there.

We stayed for part of that and decided to catch the last half of Dave Clark’s grand jam session. That one was a lot of fun with the stage absolutely packed with folks playing along. I guess we made it just in time as the weather took a turn for the worse and some real rain started to fall. It didn’t last long, but long enough to keep the wandering urge to a minimum. The next slot at Lake Stage was blank, as the hard working sound and stage hands get a bit of a break in the middle of the day, and I bet they sure are happy about that.

I did wander for just a little bit, over to main stage to see the beginning of Xavier’s set at 4:10. I wanted to see what kind of reaction he got from the crowd, but they were so slow in settting up and getting going that I opted out of the light rain that was falling and back to the quiet Lake Stage. A bit of a break was in order, anyway.

Again, not much that really interested me after that. We stayed put for part of Gentleman Reg’s set at 5. Reg is a good guy and I’ve seen him in Winnipeg a few times, but it wasn’t entirely what interested me at Hillside. We did wander over for a bit of Halifax rock band In Flight Safety at Island Stage, before making our way to our next stop at Sun Stage for a session at 6.

That one, “Bitter Sweet” was supposed to feature the wonderful women of Po’ Girl, but they had to do their concert immediately after at 7, so opted to do a quick song at the beginning of this workshop and then head over to set up and prepare for their show. We did get music from Crescent & Frost, young local gal Jessica Leger and Melissa McClelland. The funniest part about this session was that it was derailed for a few minutes right in the middle by the children’s pirate parade, which was colourful and funny, but not all that welcome of a disturbance during the workshop.

What on Earth are Michael Johnston and Lewis Melville doing off alone in the bush? Something illicit and dangerous?

Nope. Proving their dedication, they're rehearsing before their workshop. Aren't they wonderful?

Look up. Waaaay up, and I'll call that kid out of that tree before he hurts himself. Good to see the young 'uns getting into Stompin' Tom at an early age, even if it is from up in the air.

Another tough call at 7 with Buck 65 on main stage, Po’ Girl at Island, a workshop called “Mind the Gap” with Berner and Cuff the Duke and others at Lake Stage, and one that I was sure was going to be a huge hit, “Gumboot Cloggeroo: the Songs of Stompin’ Tom Connors” at Sun Stage. This featured Craig Norris, Jaxon of the D Rangers, local band Nate Cole Outfit, and Michael Johnston. Johnston seemed like the most unlikely imagineable participant in a Stompin’ Tom workshop, but in true MJ style, he had worked hard learning and arranging unique spins on some more obscure Tom classics like “Red River Jane” and “The Ketchup Song.” He figured it best to leave the more obvious choices to the others in the workshop, but it turned out that nobody really bothered to learn those, so, oddly, we were a workshop without “Bud the Spud” or “The Hockey Song.” Jaxon from the D Rangers seemed like the most likely of the participants, but he didn’t even know any Tom songs, instead opting to play songs by folks who are clearly influence by Stompin’ Tom like Washboard Hank (with a great version of Hank’s “Doughnut Shops of Ontario”) and Matt Masters. Host Craig Norris seemed the most gung ho, but his contribution came mostly in the form of printed out lyrics to “Gumboot Cloggeroo,” which nobody seemed to really know, and inviting a friend up to do a song.

You just don't find crowds like this at our Winnipeg Festival. People camp out all day for prime spots right up front in Winnipeg. Here, it's Kristi up front and a bunch of others sprawled out behind.

The gang was joined in a surprise appearance by Luther Wright, who just happened to know “Red River Jane,” so Johnston invited him up to do it with them.

Michael also tried to make this an audience interactive workshop by bringing out a stompin’ board and placing it down in the vast, empty space between the stage and the aloof audience members. We were invited to stomp along during the workshop, but nobody really took him up on the novel idea. At the end, a couple of good sports jumped up to bang their shoes on the board, but I don’t really think that’s what Stompin’ Tom would have had in mind. All in all, I’d have to be honest and say that this workshop didn’t work as well as it should have. Even Johnston’s preparation and willingness to play along couldn’t save the other participants who seemed ill prepared and somewhat uninterested. It’s too bad, because the Tom songs that MJ had played for me sounded pretty darned spectacular, but were somewhat derailed by the guests on stage. Again, this workshop seemed like it could be a lot of fun on paper, but in the end it wasn’t quite what it could have been, so I kind of wished that I had taken the opportunity to see Po’ Girl again or Berner’s workshop, which surely would have been a ton of fun.

With evening setting in and our energy winding down, there wasn’t a whole lot that we were dying to see for the rest of the night. We watched the beginning of Broken Social Scene, but were stuck way at the back by the trees. With the band doing a really slow, boring introduction to their set and some rain starting to fall, we made our way over to Island Stage for a bit of John & The Sisters’ high energy blues set. With the amazing Kevin Breit holding it down on guitar and a great backing band, John’s upbeat blues sounded pretty darned good. At one point, Breit’s kids got in on the action, joining the band onstage. They were no Chloe Doucet though, instead choosing to dance and refusing to sing when John offered one the mic.

One band that I had seen for the first time over the course of the weekend but was eager to hear more of was “Shiftless Rounders” who were in concert at9 at Lake Stage. We sat at the side of the stage and watched this great blues-grass duo’s rootsy set.

Winnipeg’s D Rangers closed off the night with a really exciting set. Jaxon had made a million appearances over the course of the weekend, so many folks were anticipating this one it seemed. There was a lively crowd on hand to see the band rip through a lot of great material. Johnston joined them for a few tunes and proved that he’s as versatile and eager to play as anyone. They all ended off with a rousing medly of songs as the night came to its inevitable end.

All in all, it was a real treat to be able to attend the Hillside Festival. The festival, organizers, the site, and of course the music went together to make it one of the more enjoyable festival experiences I’ve had thus far. It's funny, but I came for the music and ended up enjoying the friendship more. When we weren't busy with festival performances, I got to spend time with Michael Johnston and Lewis Melville, and those are some of the most amazing memories I brought home with me. Whether it was driving around looking for something, anything to eat late at night in Guelph or sitting at the kitchen table watching Michael and Lewis sing and play, there were some amazing non-festival moments that really helped to make this a really relaxing, yet energizing and life-affirming weekend. Music is a very good friend to me. It is a comfort, a strength, and an inspiration, but people are still the best friends of all, and I am truly fortunate to have been able to share the friendship of Kristi, Michael, Lewis, Tannis, Carlos, and so many others this weekend.