One of the highlights of the BC festival season, the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival never fails to impress. This year, I got a chance to get out for part of Saturday as well as Sunday. Of course, it's impossible to cover all the festival, given there are three stages of music going on all day until the Main Stage opens up, then it's two stages for the rest of the night. I can at least talk about the acts I got to see.
The first show of the day was at the Shade stage, a jam session between Tom Landa and his Latin/folk fusion band The Paperboys, and Mexican folk band Son de Madera. They spent most of the time simply trading songs, but by the end of the session, they were playing off of each other's songs like pros. Son de Madera were one of the standouts of the festival, playing a very traditional style of Mexican folk, with two guitars, an small stand-up bass guitar on a stand, and two of the three members dancing tap like a percussion instrument. They played extremely fast at times, with one guitarist strumming so fast, he was hitting several notes a second, plus hitting a note with every single finger he strummed down with. Intriguing band and a style of music rarely heard live outside of Mexico.
The rest of the festival was spent at the Main Stage, with legendary blues performer Lil Jimmy Reed taking the stage with some classic Louisiana blues. Very little banter here, just classic blues. Reed even did a Buddy Guy style solo, wandering out into the crowd for "Hoochie Coochie Man".
Horsefly, BC old time folksters and instrument makers Pharis and Jason Romero were up next, performing stripped down old time folk, country and bluegrass. They brought out world-class mandolin player (and fellow Canadian) John Reischman for several songs as well.
Vancouver's Harry Manx put on a spectacular set of rootsy blues. Manx's guitar style comes from playing it lap style, and his music has a distinct drony Indian style to it. He also played banjo for several songs. Mostly interestingly, he played with a classical string quartet, The Yaletown Sting Quartet, for his entire set.
The Family Stone finished up the Main Stage set, featuring two original members of Sly Stone's band, and Sly's daughter Phunne Stone on vocals. They did a high-energy set of classic rock and funk that the crowd really enjoyed.
Day two coming soon!
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