File Under: Folk Festival Fever (Part 1 -- Robin Holcomb And Friends)

The irony is that recently I've been listening to more music than ever.  I know, I know.  As far as you're concerned I may as well be talking out of my ass.  I mean, the proof is in the pudding, as my grandfather used to say.  And, granted, of late there's been very little pudding around here.  The fact remains, however, that not only have I been listening to more music than ever, but also I have been experiencing more music than ever.

But then it's that time of year, isn't it?  Come July and August, Folk Festival Fever blazes through the granola-fed, the hemp swathed, and the bushy bearded sets.  Hankering for a Che Guevera shirt to wear to the next family picnic?  Come on down to the folk festival, where an assortment of revolutionary iconography emblazons outerwear of all kinds.*  Eager to listen to shambling twenty-somethings busk their way through the Dylan discography with only a penny whistle and washboard?  Well, you've come to the right place, sister!

Three weeks ago: Calgary.  Last week: Regina.  Two folk festivals, two vastly different musical and cultural experiences.  Calgary is huge.  Like, huge.  Gorgeous location.  Crowded as fuck.  And the atmosphere at times leaves something to be desired, especially on the main stage where I was often left watching the show on two jumbo screens erected about 100 meters from the performers.  One amongst ten thousand plus, my experience was often more like that of a stadium concert than an intimate community gathering of like minded souls.  Regina, on the other hand...

Well, I love the Regina Folk Festival.  The musical line-up is favorably comparable to the larger festivals, but it maintains a lovely vibe.  Let me put it this way: there's not a chance in hell that I might reverse haggle for a piece of Marxist clothing with anyone in Calgary, but in Regina it's almost par for the course.  There are still thousands of people at the main stage, but even arriving later in the evening, as I did, I was able to find an open patch of grass with an excellent view.

As an aside, did you know that folk festivals nowadays are not really "folk" festivals?  There are lots of folky type performers, for sure, but there are equal numbers of what might be considered "alternative" artists and young up and coming rock/pop bands on the docket as well.  In other words, if you're at all interested in new music, find your way to the nearest folk festival.  You won't be sorry.

I wanted to attend Calgary mostly to hear one of my musical icons, the New York folk/classical/experimental jazz oriented Robin Holcomb.  Holcomb is about as obscure a performer as you'll find, but I've listened to, and felt a deep affinity for, her music for over two decades.  Imagine Sam Phillips bathed in luxurious dissonance.  Or a magisterial, abstract expressionist Sarah Harmer.

I purchased her eponymous debut album on a whim.  It was in a discount bin jumbled amongst eleventy-three Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer discs, on sale for a song due to a small manufacturer's defect in the casing.  And she sure looked purty.  And she had me by the very first track of that remarkable CD.

It must be said that at times Holcomb looked a little out of place in Calgary.  She is now in her 50s and might best be described as matronly, and she was surrounded for the most part by lithesome youngsters. Nevertheless she is a regal presence, and I still found her crazy beautiful, even compared to the hipster set.  Especially compared to the hipster set.  She first hosted a workshop entitled "Some Fine Lines" which included another of my long-time faves Joe Henry** and one of the biggest draws of the festival, Oscar winning musicians (and actors!) The Swell Season, both of whom are characterized by relatively conventional story telling and relatively straight forward music.  Not really Holbomb's oeuvre, and her smaller, haunting Apallachian-inflected tunes got a little lost amidst the bombast.  But her second workshop the following day, aptly titled "The Abstract Expressionists," gave her ample opportunity to shine.  She performed three of my favorite songs, and I was lucky enough to record the entirety of one of the gems from her debut record.  The song is called "So Straight And Slow":



I will never forget that tiny slice of my life.

There were many other interesting performers in Calgary.  I really liked the Billy Bragg-esque solo work of former punk, Frank Turner (skip ahead to 1:40 for the start of the set).  Burning Hell, spectacularly unpretentious, kicked ass live.  Vancouver band E.S.L. was the bee's knees (good luck finding any info about them online; no, they are not that shitty Japanese band).  Also of note were Thea Gilmore, Timber Timbre and Ghostkeeper.  And yeah, the big name acts like Stars and Michael Franti also performed, but in my opinion were almost incidental to my festival experience.

Phew! Alright, enough for today. I'll continue with more from the Regina Folk Festival tomorrow.

*  I engaged in a fun little bit of reverse haggling with my socialist-inclined vendor.  I asked him how much he wanted for a khaki colored Che print shirt, and he replied in mock seriousness, "Five bucks.  What'll you give me?!"  I laughed and told him I'd give him twenty, at which he looked me up and down and said with a wry smile, "Three for ten!"  Viva la Revolucion!

** Guilt by association trivia: Joe Henry is Madonna's brother in law.  Heh.

Harper And Big Oil

Midnight Oil
Album: 10,9,8,7,6...
Song: Power And The Passion

Back from hiatus. Immersing myself in music at the moment, digging most of it. Lots of blog posts to come in the near future. Thanks for your patience.*

But before we explore more of the good new stuff...

Laurel and Hardy. Bonnie and Clyde. Sonny and Cher. Two peas in a pod, all. To that list let me add our very own Stephen Harper and Yo-Yo Ma.  Here the frown prince shows us his -- to this point extremely well hidden -- light hearted and mischievous side.



He gets high with a little help from his friends. Nary an ironic wink to be seen. This guy has some chutzpah.

Alright, enough tomfoolery. Listen to this. A little Aussie band called Midnight Oil with a penchant for social criticism and political activism. Which is cool and all but I like them cos their lead singer is a spastic bald giant. Check out in particular 1:35-1:45 when that great ranging ostrich of a man grabs a bouncer by the collar and tears him a new one for being too rough with an aspiring stage diver. You just can't fake this shit.



What does this have to do with our lovable PM Harper? Well, that spastic bald ostrich is Peter Garrett, who for the last six years has been Australia's Minister for the Environment and Performing Arts. So, while we get a passionless dorky ditty from our political leader, the Aussies get this.  Incidentally, both performances took place within six months of each other.

Dammit.  We already knew that Norwegians are cooler than Canadians.  So are Aussies, it turns out.  We're slipping, folks...

* Incidentally, thanks to everyone who contributed to the discussion during my absence. Some great stuff there. In particular I appreciate the efforts of Scott and GC to get to the heart of Joanna Newsom's tune. Both of you approached the problem from interesting perspectives and frankly I think both of you came closer to the "truth" than I did. Hopefully we can continue to dive into the analytical waters on a regular basis.

ATTN: Guitar Geeks Everywhere

Shugo Tokumaru
Album: No Exit
Song: Parachute

Attention all guitar geeks: if you don't know Shugo Tokumaru you're missing out on something special.  In short, Shugo is the man.  Technically proficient and original.  Great little riff in this tune, perfectly suited to his charming folk pop style.

Incidentally, this is another tune that de-emphasizes the lyrical component of songwriting.  I'm not trying to make a consistent argument in this blog, but the longer I write about these songs the less important text seems to become.  Heh.

Leonard Cohen.  Sigh.  I'm supposed to love him.  He's an icon, internationally loved.  And Canadian.  "Suzanne" and "Hallelujah" regularly appear on "Best Song" lists.  But...  Jeez.  I mean...  Boring.  Boring.  Just...  Boring.  Beautiful poetry.  I guess.  Like, it's okay.  But the music.  God almighty.  Sigh.  Feel like half-traitor for suggesting he's anything less than brilliant.

Hell, give me Shugo every damn day of the week.

Constipation? You Decide.

Joanna Newsom
Album: The Milk-Eyed Mender
Song: The Sprout And The Bean

A friend likens Joanna Newsom's singing voice to someone who has suffered a recent brain injury.  Me, I hear a constipated eleven-year old.  Idiosyncratic, to be sure.  But it is also, in its faux twee glory, well suited to her eccentric folk songs.  Next time a film producer needs a song about the adventures of a candy-coated pink unicorn, Joanna Newsom will be at the very top of the list.

The music's pretty darn good too.  The song lilts along, carving out a space between a-flat minor and B major, using the D#/E flat as an harmonic pivot point and playing liberally with the B flat/B natural tension, when suddenly Newsom springs on us an extended section that alternates between E major and C# major.  It's a lovely little effect.  Notice in particular the symmetry between the harmonic contours of the two major sections: A flat (G#)-B and E-C#, both minor thirds, one rising, one falling.  Really quite beautiful.

Hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to comment on any aspect of the post, especially the analysis which was done relatively quickly and mostly by ear.  That is, mistakes are inevitable.  Let's see if we can suss out the truth together.

Flecks Of Gold

Bela Fleck And The Flecktones
Album: Left Of Cool
Song: Let Me Be The One

Bela Fleck: electric banjo.  Jeff Coffin: electronically altered sax.  Future Man (Roy Wooten): drumitar.  Victor Wooten: bass.

Holy.  Fuck.

Alright, a few things you need to know.  First of all, Bela Fleck has been one of my favorite musicians for almost 20 years.  He gained a measure of notoriety in the late 80s / early 90s for his virtuosic albeit completely atypical playing style.  While a bluegrass element is almost always present, he also incorporates many other genres into the musical mix, in particular jazz, folk, funk, and pop.  In fact, Bela Fleck and his band have received Grammy nominations in more different categories than any other group in history.  Second, Roy Wooten created his own instrument, the drumitar, which is a SynthAxe rigged to play percussion samples.  So he's the drummer and he's out front with the rest of the band.  Pretty cool.  Third, Victor Wooten is a fucking beast.  I mean...wow.  Just...wow.  The best bass player I know.  Lastly, Jeff Coffin is a multi-instrumentalist jazz phenomenon in his own right.  Put 'em all together and you've got something truly magnificent.

The tune itself is good, but perhaps not more than that.  I chose it, however, because it shows off the band's incredible virtuosity and musicianship, two qualities that often do not go hand in hand.  (See Yngwie, yet again.)  Coffin's solo is good.  Wooten's solo is out of this world.  Fleck's solo takes banjo in completely new directions.  Wicked stuff.

Oh, and the band performed at the Regina Folk Festival two years ago.  And I missed it.  Godfuckingdamn.