Before the music starts out in Birds Hill Park, the Winnipeg Folk Festival offers a free taste of the music to come at the Festival launch event in Old Market Square, 12 noon, Thursday, July 10.
The event includes opening remarks by the Festival President, Executive Director and Artistic Director, plus other dignitaries. Some lucky spectators will win day passes to the Folk Festival. A special feature of the launch will be the Festival’s signing of the Manitoba Food Charter.
But the highlight of the event is a free outdoor concert by Outlaw Social. After the concert, they’ll be heading out to Birds Hill to entertain Festival-goers Outlaw Social was formed by five friends with a love of traditional stringband music. Did they stay strictly trad? That electric guitar and unmistakable rock’n’roll appeal says otherwise. Featuring the talents of veteran roots musicians Catherine Black, Kendel Carson, Adam Dobres, Pharis Romero, and Oliver Swain, the Victoria-based quintet took the roots world by storm with the release of their 2007 debut, Dry Bones. Led by vibrant three-part harmonies and noodling through old-fashioned stringband songs, fresh originals and contemporary covers with equal fl air, Outlaw Social has earned raves as Victoria’s favourite band (Monday Magazine Awards) and one of the West Coast’s most exciting roots acts (Penguin Eggs).
“I have performed at many festivals throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe and I can say, I’ve never come across a festival like the Winnipeg Folk Festival,” says singer Andrina Turenne.
Turenne should know. With her last group, the acclaimed a cappella world music outfit Madrigaïa, she’s performed at a lot festivals. Between Madrigaia, funk act Rudimental and a gospel duo with The Duhks’ singer Sarah Dugas, Turenne has also played Folk Fest five times in the last eight years. This year, she comes to Birds Hill with a new band – soulful and percussive vocal ensemble Chic Gamine.
Chic Gamine began formed a year ago with fellow former-Madrigaïans (the group disbanded last year) Ariane Jean and Annick Brémault, along with Alexa Dirks and Sacha Daoud. And while the band definitely shares the otherworldly vocal harmonies and world music influences of Madrigaïa, it’s an entirely new musical entity. The quintet’s debut self-titled album, released in June, is completely original material with sparse instrumentation, relying on the four vocalists’ incredible talents as well as Daoud’s inventive percussion. Continue reading ‘Manitoba Music at the 2008 Fest’
On this podcast, Tell The Band To Home’s Jeff Robson interviews the talented and amazing Eliza Gilkyson about making her debut at this year’s Winnipeg Folk Festival.
The Fugitives - Intro & Outro music (portions of “Graffiti Sex”)
Eliza Gilkyson - The Party’s Over (taken from Beautiful World)
Eliza Gilkyson - Emerald Street (taken from Beautiful World)
After over forty years in the music biz, Ray Davies is still working the Kinks out. Okay, so the London native no longer fronts that seminal ‘60s proto-punk act; but his defiant songwriting voice has only gotten stronger in the current millennium. On his second post-Kinks solo release, Working Man’s Café (which was released a mere year after its predecessor, Other People’s Lives) Davies trots out his rootsy side with lots of boozy rhythms and rolling riffs, then twists it all up with his legendarily iconoclastic take on politics and personal crises. He even wrote a song lambasting the Louisiana authorities who dropped charges against the man who allegedly shot him in 2004; we think it’s safe to say that Davies hasn’t mellowed with age.
Flashback to the heady days of 1960s funk: Charles Walker was there, driving the new sound sensation with a cookin’ band (Little Charles & The Sidewinders), some scorching albums (including recordings for Decca), and a shout that shook the skies. Flash forward 40 years later, and those points haven’t changed: the Nashville native still has a blazing funk band (The Dynamites), a killer new album (Kaboom!), and… oh right, that voice. Often compared to James Brown and lauded for his vocal nods to gospel, Walker is proudly taking old-school funk into the new frontier. He isn’t doing it alone: led by guitarist Bill Elder, the Dynamites have earned renown in their own right for their deftly composed and incendiary funk originals.
The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker play Friday night on Main Stage and Saturday at 2:15, Bur Oak Stage.
On this podcast, UMFM Board Member Leigh Anne Caron speaks Karla Adolphe, one half of local folk duo Jacob & Lily. As an added bonus, Karla also performs two songs for us live!
On this podcast, UMFM Board Member Leigh Anne Caron speaks with fantastic local songstress Ann Walton.
Music Credits:
The Fugitives - Intro & Outro Music (taken from “Graffiti Sex”)
Ann Walton - Back Porch ( taken from Top Of The Hill)
Ann Walton - Top Of The Hill Waltz (taken from Top Of The Hill)
Powered by Podbean.comOn this podcast, UMFM New Decay host Jeff Friesend speaks to Andrew Whiteman,
the frontman from Arts & Crafts recording artists Apostle of Hustle.
Music Credits:
The Fugitives - Intro & Outro Music (taken from “Graffiti Sex”)
Apostle Of Hustle - Rafaga! (taken from National Anthem Of Nowhere)
Apostle Of Hustle - Justine, Beckoning (taken from National Anthem Of Nowhere)
Apostle of Hustle plays at the Festival on Friday, 2:45 at Big Bluestem; Saturday, 2:00 at Shady Grove (Andrew Whiteman only); and Saturday, 4:00, at Green Ash Stage.
Apostle of Hustle bio
Notably absent from the Last Supper, the Apostle of Hustle prefers to feast on Latin-tinged rock’n’roll. It all started when Broken Social Scene guitarist Andrew Whiteman spent a couple of months plunging himself into Havana’s famously lively musical communities; when he flew back to Toronto, the sounds of Cuba (and the stylings of the tres, a Cuban guitar) were stowed away in his mind. Together with Dean Stone and Julian Brown, Whiteman built a band that could kick out sultry Latin folksongs as convincingly as it could delve into Tom Waits. The resulting musical mélange came into its own on 2004’s debut Folkloric Feel, but really broke big on their smoky sophomore release, National Anthem of Nowhere.
The death of a legend leaves some big shoes to fill, and the tender age of 15, Seun Kuti slid seamlessly into his father’s. An Afrobeat legend, Fela Kuti was flamboyant, often controversial, and brilliant; from him, Seun inherited musical talent, a swaggering onstage presence, and a revolutionary sense of what Afro-jazz could be (though not, perhaps thankfully, some of the elder Kuti’s more outrageous antics). When Fela died in 1997, young saxophonist and singer Seun quickly took the reins of his father’s band, Egypt 80, and continued the original Kuti crusade: to promote political freedom through the love of music, change through a chorus of voices and a host of dancing feet, and pride in Africa’s vibrant musical traditions.
In her 33-year career, Joan Armatrading has made a lot of firsts. She was the first black UK artist to debut in the top spot of the Billboard blues charts, the first to earn a Grammy nomination; she was also the first female UK artist to do so. Born in the West Indies and raised in Birmingham, Armatrading cultivated a style that’s soulful, sensual, and profoundly organic. Pairing her full and flexible voice with tasteful guitar riffs, Armatrading’s low-key and clever take on the blues has wowed fans like Nelson Mandela and earned her a spot as one of Britain’s top music radio hosts. And the acclaim keeps coming: her last CD, Into The Blues, earned a Grammy nod for best contemporary blues disc.
Joan Armatrading plays the Main Stage on Sunday night, July 13.
Fans of seminal indie act Neutral Milk Hotel might look at A Hawk and a Hacksaw’s biography and say, “wow, drummer Jeremy Barnes! I have to see this show.” Well, they do have to see the band, but not because it sounds anything like Barnes’ former project. Instead of indie rock, Barnes and cohort Heather Trost delve into the exotic, mesmerizing depths of klezmer and Hungarian folk music. They return with a unique experiment in modern folk: cantering wedding dances deconstructed with avant-garde production, somber European folk given a dark edge by spooky gang vocals. Their most recent album, The Way The Wind Blows, is their most trad yet; but those scintillating klezmer dances still rock deliciously off-kilter.
