Alberta band AA Sound System kicked things off
to a sparse crowd on Friday night. I thought they were ok
before, but this set sold me. Their upcoming record was produced
by Danny Michel, and it seems that he injected some upbeat
melodic elements into their sound, and it worked wonders. I
thought they were much more interesting and melodic than before,
and their set had me itching to hear that CD.
From the look of this crowd, it looked like it
might be a slow weekend for the festival. The festival date was
moved in 2005 because of Centennial Celebrations and summer
games or something, so it was held on a long weekend. This could
have made for another World Next Door Festival sized disaster if
people chose to go to the lake or something instead of the
festival, but this was not to be the case. This actually turned
out to be an even bigger crowd than last year, by a sizeable
margin. This could be chalked up to a variety of things. I
personally preferred it on the long weekend so that I didn't
have to take that extra day off work to get home. Next weekend
the festival returns to mid August. I sure hope to see another
big crowd out (although I don't want people suddenly knowing
what a great festival this is and making it super busy.)
Sarah Slean
Important note
to Regina Folk Festival organizers:
Ugly amp racks and pieces of equipment would
make much more sense BESIDE the stage than IN FRONT of it. Has
nobody figured this out yet? Why must they put equipment between
me and the performers? One of the great mysteries of this
festival.
There was something strangely offputting about
this workshop. It was called "Strong Voices: Celebrating Life,
Love, & Beauty." The workshop itself was beautiful, but just off
to the side of the stage there were some clearly troubled people
who likely live in this park most of the time, drinking some
sort of poison from a paper bag. It was a weird juxtaposition of
beautiful music designed for those of us who are more
comfortable and well off, and some people who likely didn't
share our same comforts. It's nice that these people get to
attend the festival just like anyone else (it is FREE, after
all), but I had to wonder if they weren't a little bit upset
about this major imposition into their park and their lives.
Vusi Mahlasela
One of few performers at the festival that I
was unfamiliar with, Vusi Mahlasela is one of South Africa's
most famous folk singers. Vusi's songs are powerful and
interesting, even if I have no idea what he's singing.
Only at a relaxed and intimate festival such
as this would you ever see pop/rock singer Danny Michel and a
traditional South African folk singer at the same workshop,
playing together. It's just part of the Regina magic.
.
Kris Demeanor
Sarah Harmer
Buck 65
There were two standout stars at The Regina
Folk Festival in 2005. They are both performers I've seen dozens
of times before, but they never cease to amaze me. The first was
Kris Demeanor. Live is absolutely the best place to come to know
and love Kris Demeanor. He always makes every show fun and
unique for himself and the audience. I so respect his dedication
to making each show fun and interesting. He really gets that a
performance should be something special. He also gets that if he
has fun and tries wacky things, the audience will usually have
fun also.
This workshop with Buck 65, Sarah Harmer, and
Nathan was called "Wicked Truths and Delightful Lies: Secrets."
Most folks played one of their songs that somehow related to the
theme, as you'd expect. But not Kris. He decided to make his
songs up on the spot. The absolute funniest one was improvised
by him and the other participants. He decided to take
inspiration from the world's only true newspaper "The Weekly
World News." He made up a crazy chorus made up of lines culled
from the paper (I sure wish I could remember it. It was really
long, wordy, weird, and hilarious.) Then, he asked each
performer on stage to flip to an article in the paper and make
up a verse about the story. Putting people on the spot like that
doesn't always work, but when you have material as good as that
in the "Weekly World News," you're in for a treat. This was one
of the funniest workshops I've ever seen, thanks almost entirely
to Kris.
You can see Buck 65 in the background there.
He cheated a bit and made up his own wacky verse, but I suppose
that's the same thing as writing for the Weekly World News, and
it worked wonderfully, so I don't mind that he bent the rules a
bit.
(see, there's that ugly stage equipment
blocking the beautiful Keri Latimer.)
The beautiful Terry "T-Bar" Wilson givin' me
some lovin'.
AA Sound System
This wasn't the best seat in the house, but it
sure was the most colourful.
John K Samson
of the Weakerthans
Sarah Harmer
Every folk festival has its yearly characters.
Winnipeg has crazy dancing guy and crazy dancing girl (although
I haven't seen either one of them for a couple of years, sadly),
and Regina has Tai Chi guy. He doesn't dance, he does these
super slow Tai Chi like moves. It's very cool. He's entertaining
enough during the day, but at night, he goes electric. He adds
glow sticks to his routine at the side of main stage each night.
Kids are always trying to steal his glow sticks, but Tai Chi guy
just keeps on flowing.
The Sadies
All you need for a magical workshop are these
two brothers. No matter what the them and no matter who else is
playing, these guys will play along and make everyone sound
better for it. Even Mary Gauthier wouldn't tell these guys to
shut up (WFF joke.)
On The Weakerthans' latest album, John K and
Sarah Harmer do a duet, but how often do you think anyone gets
to see them do it live?
The high pace world backstage. You don't need
a backstage pass or any kind of access to schmooze at Regina.
Everyone just hangs out together. Terry made quick friends with
Sean from the Sadies.
Tons of Fun
University (T.O.F.U.)
I admit that we missed almost all of this set
because we went out for dinner. But what I heard, I did not get.
Not at all. But people went nuts for these guys when they were
done, so I must have missed something.
Kris Demeanor
and Chantal Vitalis
These two make an amazing pair. Lots of fun.
Check out that prairie sky. At most festivals,
you have this big stage that blocks everything out. Not Regina.
The transparent stage makes for some really beautiful scenery at
sunset.
Joining Sarah Harmer's band for this tour was
Danny Michel. He started out as a sideman, I know, but he's
become such a captivating solo performer, so I wondered how he'd
fit in in the background. Well, he's never totally in the
background. He's so fun to watch that he never really blends in,
but he's very respectful and never ever steals the show from
Sarah. He added some great parts to her songs, but again, was
never as flashy or powerful as he certainly can be, because he
knows not to detract from her and the songs. He's a pretty
classy guy and a great performer.
I also found out that as much as I love my
camera, it kind of sucks when you're taking pictures directly at
a bright light. I'll have to toy with it some more, but most of
the mainstage pics that I took really suck, unfortunately.
Sunday,
July 31, 2005
This beginning of the day set by Kris Demeanor
was one of the most memorable shows of the year. First, there
was absolutely nobody there. Well, there were a few folks
sitting back in the shade, and me and Kristi up front, but Kris
and Chantal were basically playing for themselves. And who could
fault them for putting on a slack show in such circumstances?
But these are not your average performers. Instead of a lazy
show, Kris put on one of the most hilarious shows I've seen. He
sat or lay on the grass for songs, and generally put on one hell
of a show.
The musical highlight had to be Kris,
screaming his ode to seasonal allergies, "Get Down, Airborne
Bastard!" Easily one of the most catchy songs of the summer.
Shuyler Jansen
The dance floor in front of the very lively
and danceable Cracker Cats. This local band was another new
discovery. They're like a livlier Po Girl or Be Good Tanyas.
Lots of fun to watch.
The other true star of the festival was Danny
Michel. Now I love seeing Danny Michel. Whenever you go see him,
you know you're going to get a great show. But somehow in
Regina, he was even funnier and more engaging than usual. He
seemed to be in almost every workshop (he introduced himself at
one point by saying, "Hi, I'm Danny Michel. You may remember me
from such workshops as ALL OF THEM." and he was right.), and at
every one, he played different material and had more fun than
the last. He took a cue from The Sadies and played along with
just about everybody, and made each workshop special.
In addition to the regular Danny Michel
favourites, he played a new song called "Midnight Train." It had
one of the most memorable guitar riffs of all time (I can hear
it still, months later). It sounds like an old Motown soul song
or something, but it's actually an original, destined for his
next record. I sure can't wait for that.
And then Kris Demeanor and Danny Michel got
together. This was a workshop called "Coming Home: Childhood
Memories." Danny tried to reintroduce the word "Wizard!" into
our vocabulary of exclamations. He also had a little bit of fun
playing, of all things, the theme from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Through the miracle of modern technology, you can pretend that
you were there (or, if you were there, you can relive it),
because I took some short video clips with my camera. Watch as
the dumbass shooting the first clip realizes that he won't be
able to rotate video like he does with photos, so the video
starts off sideways, and then spins. Hope you're not queasy.
Download Danny Michel singing "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
Kris and Danny collaborated on another great
childhood tv theme, when they jammed out a very jazzy version of
the theme from Spiderman.
Download Danny & Kris singing "Spiderman"
Kris likes to get right down there with his
audience. He got grass stains on his nice white pants, and he
did it all for us.
Danny showed us why he doesn't play harmonica
at his shows.
The Sadies made this alt.country workshop
extra fun by pulling out a bunch of interesting cover versions.
Download The Sadies singing Neil Young's "Everybody Knows this
Is Nowhere."
While we peacefully enjoyed music, off in the
distance, there was an epic battle between good and evil.
Lightsabres can be deadly weapons. They can also get you in
trouble (the kids got a time-out, after someone got hurt.)
We decided to take a dip in this beautiful
decorative pond on the way to dinner. I'm pretty sure that's not
really what it's for.
Oh Susanna was supposed to be featured at the
festival and on the main stage on Sunday night, but a little
while before this, she had her first baby (very prematurely) so
couldn't make it. Danny stepped in to do a main stage set, and I
really don't think anyone could have complained about that.
We drag Kristi along to these festivals
because she's a good sport and fun to have around, but she's not
a huge music nerd like we are. We're always running off meeting
famous people and getting autographs, and usually Kristi is left
holding the Sharpies and the camera. So it was a huge surprise
that, right there at the Regina Folk Festival was someone she
was dying to meet. That's actor John Corbett of Northern
Exposure, Sex and the City, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame.
He was in Saskatchewan to shoot a horror film and took a day off
to check out the festival. He sat at the back by the beer tent
and almost nobody bothered him. We saw Danny Michel go over and
schmooze, so we knew that it was safe for Kristi to go in. She
almost chickened out, but that look on her face and the
subsequent fame proves that it was worth it. Right Kristi?
The grand finale featured the entire Good
Family, Ron Sexsmith, and even a surprise appearance by Corb
Lund.
See you next year Regina!
.
