The Salmon Arm Rootsand Blues Festival is one of the highlights of the music festival
season in the BC Interior. 2015's edition was a bit different than
past festivals. The layout was a bit different and there was one less
stage. Nonetheless, it was a great time for me.
As usual, I was only
able to go on Sunday. I got to the festival just after 11 AM and
after checking in, headed to the Barn Stage to see a workshop just
finishing up. I saw the last two songs from Elephant Revival, Cara
Luft, Tim Chaisson, Tony McManus at Colin Savoie-Levac of The Duhks.
Elephant Revival impressed me just in those ten minutes, so I decided
to come back and see them later.
I stuck around the Barn
Stage for the next workshop too. Workshops are one of the hallmarks
of the Salmon Arm Festival, and where the magic usually happens. What
happens is that a few different musicians are put on the stage
together, with one leading the show. They come on with no plan of
what to play, then play off of each other to make music. You get a
nice mix of improvisation and get to see musicians creating music out
of thin air. This workshop was with 2015 Juno World Music Award
winner Quique Escamilla, Canadian Latin band Marco Claveria Project
and Canadian Latin fusion band Tacoy Ryde. What the crowd got was a
high energy fusion of Latin with Tacoy Ryde, 20 year veterans of the
music scene, mixing in hot percussion, reggae rhythms and some blues
licks to boot. Truly amazing stuff, with Tacoy Ryde being the
standouts.
Off to the Blues Stage
for the next workshop. The Blues stage is a bit different with the
workshops, with less improvisation and more showcasing one musician
with the rest acting as the backing band. Usually, a musician will
call out a key, say what song they are playing, then play it with
some members stepping up to solo. This one had some legends, Canadian
legend Amos Garrett, US acoustic blues hallmark Geoff Muldaur, some
members of Canned Heat, along with some younger and lesser known
musicians, two members of the reunited Rockin' Highliners and US
musician Tyrone Vaughn. This was a typical blues stage. Everyone was
good, but nothing special.
I headed over to the
Shade Stage (after grabbing a poutine for lunch) to see Tim Chaisson.
He was on the workshop at the Barn Stage earlier. I was also familiar
with his work from hearing his first two albums, which impressed me
with their maturity. It would be easy to discount Tim Chaisson was
just another “guy with a guitar”, the kind that's all over Top 40
radio now, but his work is much deeper. He's got a country vibe to a
lot of his work, plus he's also a fiddle player in the East Coast
tradition. Of course, he had the women in the crowd swooning, but
he's a great musician and showman on top of that. I was lucky enough
to get one of his fiddle tunes on my phone and onto Youtube:
Later on in his set, he
brought on one of the members of the Duhks on guitar while he played
fiddle for some driving Celtic reels. His last two songs, he showed
off a loop pedal. He plays a bit, recorded it into the pedal and then
set the pedal on loop to act as his backing track. Watching him play
and his familiarity with the technology, updating a very traditional
Canadian style, was very eye-opening and exciting. Definitely a
musician that deserves more exposure.
Back to the Blues Stage
for another workshop. This one was supposed to be led by Josh Hoyer,
but he was held up at the border. The main reason I wanted to check
this one out was to see the Stooges Brass Band. Like I said earlier,
the blues stage tends not to lend itself to wild experimentation, but
I was reminded of seeing Hazmat Modine at a blues stage workshop a
few years ago. Hazmat Modine are an odd mix of blues, rock and brass
band jazz, and the addition of the brass section seemed to add a more
experimental and unpredictable element. The Stooges, a brass band in
the street-walking New Orleans tradition, certainly did that. They
added an energy that's often missing at the blues stage, and blasts
of horn added into some stellar blues playing was a great addition.
After a break for
dinner (food truck donair, a ritual at any festival I go to), The Duhks took the main stage. The Duhks are a long running Canadian folk
band, mostly in the East Coast Celtic style, but they also bring in
rock, bluegrass and country elements. One song was also sung in
French. Great band, put on a good set, if a bit unremarkable.
Over to the Barn Stage
again to see Elephant Revival again, this time by themselves. This
band was probably the highlight of the festival for me. Merging all
sort of American folk styles, this ensemble band did a wide variety
of folk songs. The main singer, Bonnie Paine, had a voice that was
both belting and incredibly fragile. She did two songs acapella that
were incredibly moving. The rest of the band were equally good, with
several of them taking turns at singing and leading the band. Great
band, great set.
The last band of the
night for me was the legendary Canned Heat. And, they were
disappointing. More often than not, I've noticed many of the legends
I've seen in the past few years have been less than stellar. That's
understandable, given age catching up to them and all. But there's
something off about a classic band with no new material playing a
festival, like Canned Heat. With a band like Canned Heat, the last
thing you want to hear from them is “Here's something from our new
album.” There is no new album from them. Everyone just wants to
hear them do their set from Woodstock and not much else. There's no
incentive for the band to be innovative or try something new, and
there's no interest in the crowd to hear something new. So the band
just keeps playing the same set every festival they play. Without new
material and re-invention, then you stagnate. On the other hand,
someone like John Oates (who was also at the festival) has worked
hard to re-invent himself and distance his work from his iconic run
in Hall and Oates, and made some very interesting and great folk
music since going out on his own. Canned Heat were pretty boring and
sloppy. Not bad, but they were never great. By the time they finished
up, the sun had set, the pot smokers came out, and it was time for me
to leave.
As usual, this festival
was great. I've been to years that have been better. All of the bands
were at least listenable, with most of them being great.
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