The Trout Forest Music Festival
Ear Falls, ON
Aug. 10-12, 2007

FRIDAY

I've known about the Trout Forest Music Festival in Ear Falls for a few years now, and I've been tempted to go in the past, but this year I just couldn't pass it up. This year the programming was done by my friend Devin Latimer of Nathan, and obviously, we share a lot of musical preferences, because he managed to book a whole lot of my favourites for the weekend. It's seemed in the past that the festival was primarily Winnipeg acts that I knew about with just a couple of more well-known headliners thrown in. I guess I had it in my head that it was kind of a boring hippie-fest. Well, if there was any truth to any of that in the past (which I doubt. I make most of this stuff up in my head), it certainly wasn't the case this year. This year, it was without a doubt the musical highlight of the summer, and a festival I'd be proud to take part in again (and again and again.)

There were a few things that worried me about this festival. First, accommodations are pretty much limited to camping. That's not so bad, but I don't camp. I'm a bit of a pampered suburban suck, and camping doesn't really work for me. It's not that I don't enjoy it, it's just that I'm not good at it, and I like to eat and sleep well, and I like a nice warm shower. Also, it's really far out of the way ("the middle of nowhere" pretty much sums it up), I've heard it's really cold at night, the weather tends to be horrible (that would turn out to be true for a while), and I assumed there'd be bugs a-plenty and I'd be miserable. Boy am I dumb sometimes.

OK, I admit that at first, I wasn't impressed. I'd heard all about how gorgeous the site was and how wonderful it was to be at a festival that wasn't inside a big city. When we pulled up, I remember saying, "this is it?" It kind of looks like a ramshackle shanty town somewhere. Tents are pitched pretty much anywhere in this little "park" next to the water. The site is small, and it's right next to the road. Things looked a little disorganized. I had a bad impression right away. The parking area is on one side of the road and the festival is on the other, so in theory, you're camping pretty far away from your car. We parked the car and walked over to the site to see what was what. At the gate, there must have been nearly 10 volunteers all standing around chatting in their bright red volunteer shirts. None looked like they had much to do. We went up to one guy to ask where to go & what to do, etc., and he really didn't know much. We eventually made our way over to the ladies at the gate, who were not provided with the guest list that I was supposed to be on, and really didn't have a clue what to do with me. They chatted and radioed amongst themselves to try and figure out what to do with me, when I spotted Devin and asked if I could just go talk to him myself and see if he could straighten things out. He chuckled and gave me a pass that solved my problem.

We persuaded one of the mob of volunteers to let us bring the car in to unload our stuff and find a campspot. Our directions for finding a spot basically were, "find an empty spot wherever you can. I think there might be some over there." Not too helpful. We kind of wandered and weighed our options. There didn't seem to be any prime spots left (if there were any to begin with.) The ground is really uneven, and it seemed a little soft and wet. Being an adamant non-camper and an admitted suck, I was getting more worried all the time, and if it weren't so darned far, I might have considered turning around and going home. I spied some familiar faces in one area and found a patch of grass near the bottom of a hilly clump of trees. The ground there seemed sort of flat(ish) and somewhat suitable for camping, so we figured it would be as good as anything and set up. It's kind of weird to me how close you are set up to everyone else (I could hear the guy in the next tent snoring all night), and how seemingly randomly the tents and trailers were placed.

The site.

With the makeshift home set up and the sky starting to look gloomy, we headed over to the festival site in hopes that some good music would cheer us up and make this ordeal seem like a good idea.

Friday night the mainstage is not running, so everything takes place under the tent at Frank's Tavern. Man was that a good thing. We got there more or less in time for a workshop I really wanted to see called "Get Out Yer Geetars." I'll be honest, there was only one reason I wanted to see this one.

Originally, one of the most exciting performers and the biggest names at the festival (to me, anyway) was Texan singer/songwriter Hayes Carll. I've seen him a couple of times now at the Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, and he's been on the show before, and I've come to really like this guy. Recently he signed a big record deal with Lost Highway Records, home to just about everybody who matters, and it seems like he's a star about ready to take off. It came as a bit of a surprise and a disappointment when I heard a few days before the festival that he may not even show up. I checked with festival AD Devin to confirm this and he'd just heard the same thing at the same late date. He was in a scramble to find a replacement, and asked me if I had any ideas. Me? Ideas for a festival? Are you kidding? That's like giving me the keys to the candy store. Give me a chance to book someone I really want to see, and you'll see me come up with a few things for you. So I sent a list to Devin (a few lists, as I recall). The last one said that although all of the folks I'd mentioned would be cool, I'd go absolutely crazy if he could only book one guy, Toronto singer/songwriter Neville Quinlan, better known as NQ Arbuckle, (I believe I actually said I'd go "apeshit" whatever that means). I outlined a number of reasons why he was perfect for the gig, and Devin actually bought it and booked the guy! I couldn't believe my luck. Yeah, it would have been nice to see Hayes Carll again before he becomes a big star and forgets all about Winni-where?, but spending a weekend with the elusive NQ Arbuckle was an even bigger treat, so I was eager to hear each and every note the guy sang and played throughout the festival.

So it was that I headed over to the workshop just before NQ played his first song. It was a new one that I hadn't heard before, and I was giddy. I knew this was going to be good. The workshop also featured guitarist Joel Fafard, a group named Duo-Twang, who turned out to not be anywhere near as horrible as their terrible moniker might suggest (seriously. The name sucks. Change it. You're not that dorky at all.) I thought about phoning Terry Wilson and rubbing it in that the workshop also featured a surprise appearance by T-Bar's old friend Steve Schellenberg. It was a fun session, and NQ did one of my favourite songs EVER, Mixkin Dancehall Blues. Look that one up. It's worth it.

Now, this venue earns its name Frank's Tavern, because it's also the beer tent. Well, actually the back half of it is, while the front half is supposed to serve as a music venue. Note to organizers, as much as I loved being able to sit and have a beer and listen to music, when I was sitting in the tent actually trying to hear a workshop and the yahoos at the tent were louder than the musicians on stage, I didn't think it was so cool anymore. I was pretty pissed off at times actually. I felt like I was at one of those music conference showcases where people just go to talk and ignore the music, not at a folk festival where people actually come to listen closely.

While I'm on the topic of Frank's, I have to mention one of the few really weird things about this festival. First of all, security is totally non-existent. Heck, I'm told that they didn't even have fences around the site at all until a couple of years ago, and even now it seemed unnecessary. Things are so laid back and cool that you can basically walk around doing whatever you want and not have to worry about getting hassled, but somehow, everybody's so laid back and respectful that nothing bad happens. The rule is that there's no alcohol allowed outside of your campsite or Frank's tavern, but people walk around drinking all the time, and people bring coolers full of booze to main stage. Nobody hassles you and nothing bad comes of it, so I say, GREAT! So the funny thing is that you can walk around drinking whatever you want, but you absolutely cannot drink anything but beer and coolers in Frank's Tavern. We tried to walk in with water bottles and were told that they had to be left outside. You can't bring bags or drinks of any kind in there if the security dude is looking, but it seemed that much of the time he wasn't, because some folks, I won't mention any names... managed to smuggle stuff in and out of there pretty well, but I found it really funny that they gave us a really hard time about bringing water back there. As far as festival weirdness/hassle goes, that's pretty tame and acceptable, so I'll take it, but it seems like maybe we could lighten up on worrying about what goes into this weird little roped off area at the back of a tent...

We wandered off to visit the food vendors and check out the site for a while, before heading back for Carolyn Mark's set at 10 pm. By then, the weather was definitely turning for the worse, and around the time she started it, really started to rain. It started off not too bad, but quickly progressed to being one of the worst storms I've sat through. Thank God for the tent we were under, otherwise it would have been a disaster. As the rains and the winds picked up, we started to get a little worried about how dry our tent and the rest of our weekend would be.

Carolyn's set was, as usual, entertaining and silly and fun. She was joined by Kris Demeanor for a while (she even walked on his back during their Lee Hazlewood tribute, their cover of "These Boots Were Made for Walking") and of course Neville came up to join his good friend for a while. I was really surprised that they didn't do "Fireworks," the amazing duet they recorded on Carolyn's duets record last year, "Just Married," especially since the songwriter, Carolyn's best friend from Victoria, J. McLaughlin was at the festival.

I can't remember much of the setlist and didn't take any pictures because I was ill-prepared and there was a biblical storm raging outside. Carolyn improvised a chant of a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e (with only a few failed attempts at the spelling.) As the volunteers ran busily burping the tent roof and making sure the tent was going to stay standing, I started to wonder how long they'd keep things running. The rain started to come in the tent SIDEWAYS and even in the middle of the tent next to the sound board, we were getting a bit wet. Now, I don't know exactly how much a sound board costs, but I know you don't want to get one wet, so they were covering up the board and the speakers with tarps, even though we were under a tent. Right after Carolyn finished, Aaron Goss of the D. Rangers had to be the bearer of bad news: the night was to be shut down before the last act of the night. (actually, I didn't think it was bad news at all. I won't slag the guy because he's pretty big and would probably kill me in a heartbeat, but I'm not a fan. At all.)

We ran back to the tent trying not to get too soaked in the process (which was impossible.) The ground was already a swamp, and my shoes became totally waterlogged and useless, and my one pair of warm socks was wet for the rest of the weekend. From then on, I had to stick with the sandals, which the suck in me doesn't really like, but it turned out to be the only way to go with the wet ground.

Before the festival, I'd been warned about how cold it got at night and how I'd better bring a lot of warm clothes to sleep in. The next day I considered going to laugh at the listener who'd emailed to tell me that, because it was really, really warm on Friday night. Because I'm kind of dumb, the tent ended up getting a little wet in spots, but for the most part, it was pretty comfortable, and because it was so miserable out, most folks I guess went to their tents and went to bed. Almost all of this would change the next night...

SATURDAY

The skies were gloomy and the outlook for the day didn't seem all that promising, but we crossed our fingers and headed out for some music in the morning. First up was a workshop of duos called "Double Trouble." Not much that I was terribly interested in there, but Duo-Twang was decent (with a better band name I'm sure I'd pick a more flattering adjective.)

Next up was a bit of a dilemma as Frank's Tavern started serving up the music at 11, and there were workshops that seemed mildly interesting there and main stage. Laziness almost always wins out with me, so we stuck tight for "Frickin' Pickin' Madness," featuring Dan Frechette, the D. Rangers, Joel Fafard, and Jeremy and Tim (UMFM's own "Bluegrass Guy") from the Doug & Jess Band. It was indeed a good choice, as fun, loose jamming was the order of the day with almost all of the performers jamming along to every tune. Except for Joel Fafard, that is, who, despite being one of Canada's finest guitar players I guess he isn't much of a team player, because he sat out just about everything and couldn't really get anyone else involved in his complex tunes. He's great and everything, but he didn't really fit into the workshop and broke up the flow a bit. Oh well, everybody was great and the session was a lot of fun.

The first real session I was excited about was at noon called "Sounds of Canada," with Keri & Shelly from Nathan, Jay Churko of Chords of Canada, Serena Postal, and a group of ladies from Winnipeg known as Little Black Dress. I'd never heard of the group before, although I was somewhat familiar with a couple of the members, but I was pretty impressed. They seemed like a fun group that like so many of these singer/songwriter collectives is definitely better than the sum of its parts. Jay Churko started things off by doing a rousing cover of one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite Canadian pop/rock songwriters, Moe Berg. He played TPOH's "She's So Young," and Keri and Shelly chimed in perfectly with the background vocals. Little Black Dress got in on the action with a great cover, and then Serena Postal did The Tragically Hip's "Wheat Kings," and before you knew it, a great looking workshop became even greater as the artists challenged themselves to play covers by Canadian songwriters. That was a lot of fun and it was workshop magic.

Keri and Shelly did a great cover of the Canadian classic, "Echo Beach," originally by Martha & The Muffins. Watch a clip of it here!

Churko also got Keri to do her best Mel C impersonation when he did a song by Bryan Adams.

The session ended with Little Black Dress leading the participants (and the crowd) in a rousing version of The Log Driver's Waltz, which was just about the most fitting and fun ending imagineable. This was a really fun workshop, and although there wasn't a lot of high-profile star-power on stage, it was better than any workshop I saw at Winnipeg Folk Festival this year (or perhaps in many years.) I've said it before and I'll say it again; there's something so much more loose and relaxed and fun about a tiny festival, and after two stellar sessions in a row, this festival which at first seemed like a bit of a bust, was quickly winning me over.

I had to take over MC duties on the main stage after 1:00, which was great, because it meant that I didn't really have to make the tough choice that was presented. There was an interesting looking session at Frank's called "Sirens of Winnipeg", and I really wanted to see how Kris Demeanor's "Songwriting for Kids" workshop turned out over at the Family Stage, but I opted to sit tight for a concert by one of Winnipeg's most promising young bands, The Western States.

I did wander over to see a bit of Kris' thing. There were a few kids up front and a few ambivalent parents at the back. Kris was trying to coax song ideas out of the kids and turn them into something interesting, but the kids kept coming up with weird ideas that were making it difficult. The fact that there weren't very many kids there or participating made it especially difficult, and I kind of chuckled about the weird gigs musicians sometimes have to do and shuffled back to main stage.

Western States singer and songwriter Sean Buchanan is obviously heavily influenced by Gram Parsons, and he covers great songs from Merle Haggard and other great songwriters, so you know he's grounded in the right places. With a band including some of Winnipeg's best (including Winnipeg's most valuable, and hardest working, drummer Joanna Miller and Chris Charmichael on guitar,) you can't go wrong. Their debut album impressed me last year, and it'll be great to watch where this band goes in the future. For now, it was a great place to hang out and enjoy an hour of an increasingly nice-looking afternoon.

The skies continued to clear, and it turned out to be a really hot, sunny day and evening. I even managed to get perhaps my last sunburn of the year, because I foolishly thought it wouldn't be hot & sunny so I didn't even bother to bring sunscreen. Sometimes I'm really dumb.

Next up was perhaps the one workshop that I knew I could not miss, "Sent from Texas." The funny thing is that it was I guess based around the only Texan at the festival, Hayes Carll, who didn't even come. It did feature some guys who were bound to know a bunch of great Texas music, Nandrew Neville, Adrian Sala, and the D. Rangers. NQ Arbuckle, being Hayes' fill-in also was along, and I kind of wondered how he'd fit in with those other guys, but darn it, the guy did a more than admirable job.

Covers of songs by Texas songwriters was the order of the day, and Neville did his best. He started off with a cover that I didn't recognize, but now that I've done a bit of research I think (and I could be wrong), it's a song called "Slow Dancing" by a band called Lucero. That band's not from Texas, but damn it was a good song. He also covered an amazing song called "Tornadoes" by The Drive-By Truckers, who aren't from Texas either, but again, a great choice. His last song was by Richard Buckner, who, you guessed it, isn't from Texas, but, according to NQ, apparently he is a habitual marrier of breakfast joint waitresses.

Although he didn't really play any truly Texas songs, and apparently he can't jam along on the guitar on everybody else's songs like everybody else on stage (he chose to dance during other people's turns, because as NQ said, "I'm a better dancer than a guitar player," NQ more than held his own and I thought he was really impressive (although he could just stand there and I'd probably be impressed.)

Andrew Neville chimed in with Steve Earle's "Mercenary Song," a funny song by Dale Watson, and he ended off the session by leading a rousing version of Robert Earl Keen's "The Road Goes on Forever."

Now, I think Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter there ever was or ever will be, but I've always thought that Adrian Sala takes his admiration of Townes a bit too far, and he sounds a bit like a Townes tribute act much of the time. That having been said, he did a fine version of "Lungs," and a cover of Kinky Friedman's "Sold American."

If you want to have a sure-fire fun, energetic workshop, just put the D. Rangers in it. I don't care if it's a spoken word workshop, the D. Rangers would find some way to rock things up and make everybody join along and have fun. They're the perfect hosts (Jaxon hosted every workshop he was anywhere near), and they find a way to have fun with whoever's on stage. At this fine workshop, they stuck with a Flatlanders theme, and featured songs by the three songwriters in that band. They did Jimmie Dale Gilmore's "Dallas," Joe Ely's "Because of the Wind," and a Butch Hancock song which I wasn't quick enough to write down. It served to prove a) what amazing songwriters the Flatlanders are, and b) what a great band The D. Rangers are.

Listener Kurt kept referring to Jaxon as David Suzuki, and I thought that was pretty damn funny. Judge for yourself:

After the session I told the crowd that in 15 years of going to a bunch of different festivals in 5 provinces, that workshop was about as good as it ever gets, anywhere. This festival was turning out to have more stellar workshops in a day than bigger festivals tend to ever have, and I was becoming more and more impressed with the vibe of the whole weekend.

Joel Fafard was up next on mainstage, and my ADD was starting to kick in, so sitting and listening to instrumental guitar just wasn't going to cut it (plus, Joel's rehearsed stories told in his best Fred Eaglesmith imitation voice were getting a bit tired after every song), so I wandered over to Frank's for "Pop Goes the Woods I" featuring Chantal Vitalis, Keri Latimer of Nathan, Mike Marshall (Mike Trike) and his lovely wife, Shelly Marshall from Nathan, and two young kids named Micah Erenberg & Alexander Bonser.

Keri is amazing in whatever she does, so she was typically great. Mike Trike's songs are growing on me, and I was suitably entertained and impressed. Best of all was Chantal Vitalis. I know her best as Kris Demeanor's guitar player, and she's always fun and fantastic with him, but I haven't spent a whole lot of time listening to her solo material, and this workshop (and another one on Sunday) had me wondering what I'd been missing. She's a fine songwriter, a charming performer, and a heck of a guitar player, and she should really be better known. I'll see what I can do to change that.

Then there's Micah & Alexander. Now, they're 14 & 16 years old, and this festival was their very first gig. At first, I kind of rolled my eyes and wondered what they were doing there, but I have to admit that I'm really impressed that they were. Sure, they don't have the material that the pros do, but they're 14 & 16 years old for goodness sake! They showed a lot of confidence and held their own whenever I saw them. Sure, there are a lot of better performers out there, but what other festival, anywhere, is going to give kids a chance like this? Think of how much it has to help young kids to be able to get up there and do their thing and have folks enjoy it, and play alongside folks who have been doing it for much longer. I totally commend Devin for booking these two kids and I really appreciate the fact that they could have such an opportunity. And really, they weren't too bad either.

The last session of the day on main stage was "Ladies Sing the Blues," and it was a fun, powerful way to end off a great day of music. I was definitely ready for the 5-6 pm supper break to change and eat and relax a bit before a nighttime lineup that promised to be one of the most solid evenings of music & entertainment I'd seen at any festival, anywhere.

The evening started off with a great bluegrass band from Winnipeg led by Doug & Jess Reimer. They've been on the show a few times and they never stop getting more entertaining. I guess Jess has taken up the bass-playing duties for the band, and she did so admirably. I'll admit to not being the world's foremost connoisseur of bluegrass music, but they're always fun and enjoyable.

Next up was Nathan. Anyone who knows me at all should know by now that I love Nathan. They can do no wrong, and they are so much fun any time I've ever seen them. I've never seen a bad Nathan show, and I never get tired of them, musically or personally.

Rookie Artistic Director Devin Latimer swears that Nathan was already booked before he got the AD job, but they deserve to be part of this or any other festival regardless of their connections. This is a great, great band, and I'm glad that they were there.

Off to the side of main stage there were always kids fooling around with hoola-hoops, and eventually the performers got into the action too. Chantal Vitalis was pretty good, but Kris Demeanor couldn't seem to get it going, so he passed the hoop off to NQ Arbuckle who proved to be a true natural. He and Carolyn Mark had tons of fun hooping it up during Nathan's performance.

The evening was hosted by Carolyn Mark, and you really can't ask for a more fun hostess than she. I've seen her work her MC magic in Regina and Calgary, so she had the job experience, and with her songs and sense of humour, we were set up for a really fun night.

The always photogenic Kris Demeanor was up next with his talented Crack Band. Kris is one of those guys who has so much talent and is so entertaining and intelligent that it makes me wonder why he's not way more famous than he is. He should be playing every festival in Canada. Now that he's got a couple of great new albums, hopefully word will spread and his star will rise.

I happened to get my hands on a set list (I'm not a stalker, thank you very much, I prefer the term, "devoted fan.") It included:

Dr. Meat
Soul Food
Save the Panda
Chocolate & Lust (what a great song that is!)
Princess with a Big Heart
I Hate Love
Backstage in St. Petersburg (with Keri Latimer)
Perfect Buzz
Girls! Girls! Girls! (Elvis cover) (with Carolyn Mark) watch a clip here!
You're You

Now, I understand that NQ Arbuckle isn't exactly a household name, but that's a crying shame. I study songwriters, and this guy is one of the best. I'd venture to say that he's one of the 5 best songwriters in Canada, perhaps the world, today. I mean it. His songs are absolutely brilliant, and listening to him in solo acoustic mode only proved that to me.

I was especially impressed with the wealth of great new songs that he did. There was the amazing one with the refrain "Where are you now/ Marco/ Polo." There was his one night stand song, "Don't Remember Me," written so that he could fit in with the long legacy of one night stand songs, and one of the most powerful love songs I've heard, "Sun's Hanging Low," which apparently was written when Neville got the call to compose a song for a movie called "Twist". The movie is about a homosexual love affair, and the job of writing the love song was originally given to Neko Case, but reportedly when she saw the movie she thought it was too raunchy to be part of, so NQ knew it must be good and he watched it, only to find that it wasn't raunchy at all. He wrote a song that he thought was great and was going to make him famous, and the filmmakers hated it and didn't use it! Too bad, because it is one amazing song.

He also remembered that he actually knew a song by a Texas songwriter, which would have been perfect earlier in the day. He said, "I don't know what went wrong in my life, but somehow, nobody told me about Guy Clark until just recently," and then did a stunning version of a stunning song, "Anyhow, I Love You." Watch a clip here!

And at last I got to hear NQ and Carolyn duet on Fireworks. watch a clip here!

Next up, the always amazing D. Rangers, who are about the most fun band you can have at a festival. They were joined by Keri Latimer for their cover of "Runaway" but these guys don't need Keri to make them great, they do just fine on their own. Fun, fun, fun.

Last up on main stage was my favourite live band, Elliott BROOD. When introducing them on Sunday I called them the best live band in Canada, and I meant it. Although they sing about death and depressing things, they are the most fun band I can think of. You absolutely cannot help but tap your foot and dance along to this band, and the spirit quickly hit the crowd, as the area in front of the stage filled up with dancers, leaving us lazy asses to sit and listen. The BROOD brought their own homemade lights to create the mood they were looking for, and even passed a candle lantern throughout the crowd. They did all of the favourites and a few great new songs that leave me aching to see them again in Winnipeg in October. Don't miss these guys if you get a chance.

After the BROOD, it was time to head to the tent. I don't understand weather. The night before, it was rainy and miserable out, and I was sweating all night in the tent, but on this night, when it was hot and sunny and beautiful all afternoon, it cooled off really quickly and really dramatically over the course of the evening, so much so that by the end of Elliott BROOD, we were wearing all of our warm clothes and wishing for more. It was indeed a cold night, but with all of the warm clothes on and two sleeping bags on top, it wasn't so bad.

The night, however, was rather noisy. After midnight, the loud band that I was excited to miss on Friday night got to make up their set, and I had to listen to them butcher great songs (and butcher some really horrible originals) while I was trying to get to sleep. After them, the party got started and folks were gathered around fires & campsites talking and laughing and making it hard to sleep. To top it all off, just across the lake from the festival site, there's a huge construction site where they're building a hydro electric dam or something, and they have huge equipment working all the time, and the brightest lights I've ever seen on all night! I got up to go to the bathroom and I thought it was daytime outside, I was so blinded by the damn lights all the way across the lake! I sure hope the major construction is done before next year's festival!

SUNDAY

I had to host the mainstage at 10 am, so I had to head over there long before most festival goers were out of bed. You can't have a festival without a Sunday morning gospel workshop, and the one at Trout Forest was a fine one, featuring Doug & Jess, Katie Murphy, Shy-Anne Hovorka, and strangely enough, The D. Rangers. They proved once again that they can fit in just about anywhere, because if anyone knows about sin, it's them. Their souls probably needed a little saving after the wild partying I heard went on Saturday night, but they fit in nicely with some great gospel numbers. Shy-Anne Hovorka didn't really seem to fit in on that stage at all. Not that she was bad, but she just didn't fit in well with the music or people up there.

A sparse crowd makes it up in time for the first workshop of the day.

I just had to stroll over and see poor Kris Demeanor. He had another of his songwriting for kids workshops booked at 10 am. In musician terms, that's like getting sent to jail, and I can imagine that it wasn't Kris' favourite gig ever, especially considering that there were so few kids in attendance, and very little for him to work with. He did an admirable job under the circumstances.

Natural beauty.

Kris Demeanor had to go from his low-key songwriting workshop at the Family Stage, to Frank's Tavern for an energetic pop performance led by his drummer, Peter Moller. He put out a CD a while back called "Shrine of Impossible Love," and the Crack Band and guests Keri Latimer and Carolyn Mark recreated much of that CD and some new songs from a forthcoming CD. It was a fun session of high-energy pop songs, and showed that Peter is more than just an entertaining and capable drummer.

Kris must have pissed off Devin somewhere, because he was booked for a third workshop in a row, as he was part of Pop Goes the Woods II featuring Jay Churko, Ashely Roch, and Sean Brown. You can bet that normally I'd be on hand to watch that, but I had to head on back to main stage for another sure fire winner.

In one of the most dramatic changes of pace I've seen at a festival, main stage went from the gorgeous gospel workshop to up-and-coming singer/songwriter Sheena Grobb, who sings like an angel, before the tone went straight into the gutter with "Love, Lust, and Loneliness," up next. It featured Mike Trike, Little Miss Higgins, Brooke Christie & Jesse Matas, and Elliott BROOD.

Sadly, we had to head back to Winnipeg pretty much right after the end of the festival, so we had to find time to tear down the tent and pack up the car. Unfortunately, this meant missing "Strange and Unusual Instruments" with Chantal Vitalis, Guy Gallaway, Keri Latimer, and The D. Rangers. It sounded like a lot of fun from what I heard, but I had to make sure I got a lot done so that I didn't miss the next session.

This was a bit of a weird one. A good workshop topic and lineup can make for absolute magic, but sometimes you get a weird name and a strange lineup and it can either be a total bust or it can surprise you. Luckily, this one worked out in spite of the bad topic and strange lineup. It was called, "Yo... Lighten Up Dude... Yer Harshin' My Buzz..." and it featured NQ, Carolyn, Chantal Vitalis, and, for some really weird reason, the two teenagers, Alexander & Micah.

NQ started off with a brilliant song that I didn't recognize but assume is one of his new ones. He said, "this is the only reggae song I know." It was about demons catching up with you and your lungs collapsing. Micah, in one of those "mouths of babes" moments complimented NQ on the song saying, "If that's the only reggae song you know, it's a good one, and it's not about what you don't know it's that you do know that one, so good job." I started to like the kid more.

Micah & Alexander did a couple of songs, one that seemed to be about Chewbacca and one funny one that had people talking afterward, "My Girlfriend is a Ninja," about a secret supermarket ninja training academy. I gotta admit, it was pretty funny. I was impressed, as were the other performers. Micah actually did a good job of playing guitar along with the other folks on stage, and wasn't shy about taking solos or taking chances. I had to really respect that (although the Eddie Van Halen licks didn't really fit, but he'll figure that out.) Alexander's a more laid-back, shy guy, so he sat back and let the others take the spotlight. He reminded me a lot of me.

This workshop I think belonged to Chantal Vitalis, who was pretty amazing. She had everybody singing along to her big hit "Pigs Makes Ham, Makes Me Happy," and she did this hilarious song called "I Love Bush" (about Dubya and her dream that he and Stephen Harper were driving instructors and she was only allowed to drive backwards and take right turns. Brilliant.)

Time flies, and it was "Last Call at the Tavern" which was a fitting title because we had to go over and use up the last couple of drink tickets (can't let them go to waste!) Good thing there was a good session on featuring Reno Jack & Sunday Wilde, Duo-Twang, Sean & Ashley from The Western States, and a couple of guys from The Hazy Pilgrims. Stu Reid thinks they're Winnipeg's only true rock and roll band, and although I usually agree with Stu, I think they've got a way to go before they really rule the rock in this town, but leader Chris Goertzen's songs are getting better all the time, and there's no doubt there is more to come from this band. I was glad to see them for at least a couple of songs, because they were among the least busy performers all weekend.

And then, all too soon, it was time for the big finale on Main Stage. Jaxon & the D. Rangers led the congregation in a powerful version of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere." I'm not sure why that's a fitting closer, but it certainly was one that most people knew, so it wasn't hard to join in the fun. It was a powerful end to a really enjoyable festival.

Trout Forest presented me with a wide variety of emotions. I was super excited to be coming, but then immediately disappointed when I got there, but completely won over by the end. This was surely one of the best festival experiences I've ever had. The fun and excitement of discovering a little-known, laid-back, small but powerful festival reminded me of the first time I went to another festival happening this same weekend, The Regina Folk Festival. I can only hope that Trout Forest doesn't go the way Regina has, and it stays small and intimate and really fun. Given that this same weekend you can choose between Regina, the mighty Edmonton Folk Festival, or this little festival in the middle of nowhere, for me to say that I hope to return to Trout Forest in the future is saying a lot. I was impressed by the festival all around, and really glad to have been a part of it.