Another year of the Salmon Arm Rootsand Blues Festival, about my 12th to date I think. It's
always a lot of fun and always has tonnes of great music.
My experience began about 3:30 PM on
Saturday. The first concert of the day was Ostwelve, a young First
Nations rapper from the coast. His set was quite simple, just rapping
over files he had saved on a laptop. His work is a fascinating look
at how hip-hop, a genre always known for highlighting issues of
social injustice, has been adopted by First Nations youth to address
reconciliation and poverty in the First Nations community. He had a full
dance floor going in front of the stage by the time he was done.
Luke Wallace was up next at the Shade
Stage. Wallace is a hard-touring musician rooted in the protest folk
of the 60s, with a modern indy rock sensibility to the music. Wallace
played a fun, high energy set of folk rock with a lot of social
commentary, and a lot of really catchy tunes. He had a lot of great
stories about living in the Gulf Islands and a few energetic
singalongs took place.
I took in a few songs from Jack Semple
at the Barn Stage, who played a rock-based style of blues, complete
with guitar heroics and long solos. Then off to the Main Stage for
the night's headliners.
Ireland's Dervish have more than 30
years together as a band, and their live show certainly shows their
experience. Dervish play traditional Celtic and Irish folk. The band
is made up of a guitar, mandolin, flute, hornpipe, accordion plus
harmonies and percussion. The band mixed high energy instrumentals
with spirited vocal based songs. This band is fun and extremely
musically tight, and a rare time to hear authentic Irish music live
here in Canada.
A legend in Canadian blues, Sue Foley,
lit up the stage next. Foley is a stellar blues guitarist, with a
no-nonsense approach to playing. She's a consummate musician, soloing
effortlessly and flawlessly, treating the guitar as an extension of
herself. As just a trio, her band had a full sound. Foley also played some instrumental flamenco style acoustic guitar during her set. Foley has
a classic blues growler voice and a driving, gritty blues sound. Her
hour long set went by in a blink of an eye.
Finishing up the Main Stage line up
for Saturday was Jamaica's Third World, a legendary reggae band
active since the early 70s. This band played a laid back style of
reggae, steeped in the long history of the genre. They played a mix
of classic hits along with quite a bit of new material from their
latest album. The guitarist was amazingly versatile, playing electric
and acoustic guitar, along with an instrumental set with an electric
cello, as well as singing. There was a nice set of dancehall rapping
too.
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Sunday morning brought two workshops
at the Barn Stage. First, a Celtic set with Dervish hosting the
session, along with BC's Quinn and Qristina Bachand and Toronto's
Anne Lindsay. The workshops always have the most interesting bits of
music, with musicians playing off of each other, each one not knowing
what they other has planned. The Bachands, a brother/sister duo of
guitar and fiddle, played some French Canadian folk, which played
seamlessly into Dervish's Celtic folk. Anne Lindsay's fiddle playing,
of course, worked well with Dervish's style, and she also played some
fast bluegrass styles.
Workshop #2 saw the Birds of Chicago
lead a singer/songwriter showcase with Alberta's John Wort Hannam,
Sue Foley and Toronto's Danny Michel. Overall, this was mostly
individual songs with an occasional jump in from other musicians. Sue
Foley's two songs were joined in by Steve Dawson, a stalwart
guitarist who was playing with Birds of Chicago, who played acoustic
lap steel, playing off of Foley's acoustic guitar. John Wort Hannam's
three songs were earnest, sparce and lyrically deep, earning him two
standing ovations.
Off to the Blues Stage for Toronto's
Al Lerman. The Blues Stage was especially packed, with little space
to settle into in the crowd. Lerman played the guitar and blues harp.
Lerman's style borrowed heavily from the Southern US style, with
gritty guitar and hard-loving, hard-working themes.
Steve Pineo, from Calgary, brought a
four piece blues band to the stage next. His style was a basic,
no-nonsense style of blues. Nothing fancy, just straight ahead
classic blues with classic lyric themes, refreshing in a time where
artists try to do a little too much with their music. This was a
great set.
To the Shade Stage for a solo set with
fiddler Anne Lindsay. Lindsay played a wide variety of fiddle tunes
and sang, the music ranged from country to bluegrass to Celtic. She
also played a couple of tracks on piano, including a Gershwin tune.
She also had an instrument called a nyckelharpa, a traditional
Swedish folk instrument sort of like a fiddle. It had four strings,
along with several sympathetic strings, and was held like a guitar,
but played with a bow. The notes were changed by pressing buttons on
the neck of the instrument, which caused a clacking sound when they
were pushed. She played two songs on the nyckelharpa, a unique
experience to hear for sure.
Greg Blake returned this year as a
member of a different band, Tracy Lynn and the Savage Hearts, a trio
made of Blake on guitar, Tracy Lynn on guitar and Annie Savage on
fiddle. They played a set of traditional country, American folk and
bluegrass. Blake was just as good as he was last year, and the whole
band were very tight, playing a nice mix of originals and covers.
The Main Stage's entertainment for
Sunday was hosted by legendary BC folk musician Valdy, who,
surprisingly, was attending his very first Roots and Blues festival.
First up were one of the big international bands at this year's
festival, The Garifuna Collective from Belize. Canadian Danny Michel
invited this band to the Festival, and he had recorded an album with
them a couple of year ago. Michel started with a few of his original
songs, then slowly brought out the Collective during his set. By the
fifth song, the entire band were on stage, which was made up of two
guitars, three drummers and two vocalists. They played a ramshackle
style of rock and roll combined with traditional Central African
folk, with Michel providing extra guitar work. They were engaging and
incredibly high energy. Another great opportunity to hear a style of
music usually not heard in Canada.
Birds of Chicago are a cross-border
collaboration between Canada's Allison Russell, former member of Po'
Girl and current member of Our Native Daughters, and her husband,
American JT Nero. Their style is Americana, roots and folk, with
Russell on banjo, clarinet and saxophone, and Nero on guitar, and
both on vocals. They also brought along Vancouver's guitar legend
Steve Dawson, who played guitar and lap steel. Their music was
earnest, soulful and reflective and they put in a solid set of folk
and roots.
Ending the festival was Irish/Canadian
Irish Mythen, who was a standout at 2017's Roots and Blues Festival.
Irish was immediately engaging, cracking jokes and interacting with
the crowd. She told stories inbetween her high emotion folk rock, and
called up many guest stars throughout her set, from American soul
band The Hamiltones, fiddler Anne Lindsay, Luke Wallace and Valdy.
She had the Hamiltones play an original track, along with backing her
up on one of her songs. Lindsay played about three songs, all with
stellar fiddle solos. They encored with a huge singalong, doing a
cover of Scott Wood's “Pass it Along”. She was a great
entertainer and excellent choice for finishing off a great 2019
festival.
