Salmon Arm Roots and Blues 2019 Review

Another year of the Salmon Arm Rootsand Blues Festival, about my 12^th 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.

--

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.

Salmon Arm Roots and Blues 2017

This year was the 25^th annual Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival. I've seen some pictures of the first festival, which was held on a single stage in the community hall, and mostly had local acts. Today, the festival is world renowned and attracts musicians from all over the world.

This year's festivals headliners were Booker T and Ricky Skaggs, but I rarely come to the festival with the intent to see the big names. The real action always happens on the smaller stages with the up and coming bands, and with the workshops.

I took my time getting out to Salmon Arm this year, taking the drive slow, and stopping in Chase and Sorrento to take in some of the lake scenery. I got to the festival just after 12 Noon and, after a bit of a mix up at the sign in table, got into the Barn stage for the first act, Vishten.

I should mention that the festival had a different layout this time around. Usually, the Barn stage is open and has a beer garden fenced in behind it. This year, the entire stage was fenced in and the beer garden was open, so you could wander out into the crowd with your beverage if you wanted to. They had security at the one place in too, so people couldn't take their booze out. The big courtyard which was usually kept for the water misters was turned into a huge kids zone, and every stage, save for the Barn stage, had a kids area. They worked really hard at making the festival family friendly this year.

On to the music. Vishten are a French and Celtic folk band, and they were a great act for the middle of the day. Upbeat, friendly and personable, they slid effortlessly through sad Celtic love songs, to rollicking kitchen party bits and boozy French Canadian reels.

I stuck around the Barn stage for my first workshop, led by Alex Cuba, and featuring members of Maqueque (Jane Bunnett's Cuban band), Asani and Talking Dreads. This is where magic usually happens, if the performers are up to jamming with each other. All the performers were up to the task, thankfully. Asani are a First Nations music band, three woman who work in vocal harmonies and hand drums. Their work was surprisingly deep and melodic for the mostly acapella style of music they played. They are top-notch vocalists too, singing both in Cree and in English. Alex Cuba did a bit of Cuban music with Maqueque, and did some reggae-Cuban mix with Mystic Bowie of Talking Dreads (more on them later). Bowie led the ensemble in a afro-Cuban-reggae version of Bob Marley's “One Love”. High energy set, lots of musicians playing off each other. This is what the workshop stages should be like.

I popped over to the Shade stage for my next concert (and some poutine from Smoke's Poutinerie, the bacon poutine is highly recommended from me!), Irish Mythen. I had heard her work before, but she was an entirely different entity live. Originally from Ireland, now living in the Maritimes, she's best described as a blues singer that plays Irish music. Lord, she had some pipes on her. She could sing like Bonnie Raitt and quip like any drunken Nova Scotian sailor. Visciously funny and amazingly talented. She finished up her set with an acapella version of a song called “The Old Triangle” which was totally amazing. See her if you ever get the chance.

I stuck around for Braden Gates, an Edmonton based country and folk musician. Compared to Irish Mythen's brash sense of humour, Braden's self-effacing humour was a nice change of pace. Slow, earnest country mixed with his own fiddle playing, sing alongs with the audience and fun storytelling, this was a nice, laid back concert for late in the afternoon.

Second showcase at the Shade stage again, Canadian Classics II. This one was hosted by Dana Wylie, an Alberta folk singer, and also had Braden Gates, Asani (second time seeing them) and Jay Gilday, a First Nations folk artist originally from Yellowknife. Asani were again standouts here, doing a version of “O Canada” in Cree, and an acapella version of Joni Mitchell's “Big Yellow Taxi”. Jay Gilday was also great, his voice deep and resonant, almost like a more polished Joe Cocker or a grittier Gordon Lightfoot. Not much collaboration here, but solid performances.

The Main Stage performers kicked off after this concert, so it was dinner time and also time to watch April Verch. I was hoping to see her live. She's a fiddler from the Ottawa valley with a broad range of influences. She plays bluegrass, French Canadian, Celtic and lots of other fiddle styles, while singing and step-dancing, sometimes all at the same time. She did one song where she sang and fiddles, then danced and fiddled at the same time. How she does it, I'll never know. She's also cute as a button. Great set of music and dancing from her.

Asani did a short set in between April and the next act, making it the third time I saw them that day.

Stephen Fearing was up next. He's a versatile folk and roots performer, having his own solo career and his work with seminal roots rock band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. Sardonic and earnest, his work is a lot like Bruce Cockburn or Bruce Springsteen. He put on a very entertaining show of blistering roots rockers, and skewered Donald Trump a few times.

Back to the Barn stage for Talking Dreads, who were the big highlight of the day for me. When I saw them in the morning, Alex Cuba explained that they did reggae versions of Talking Heads songs. I rolled that idea around in my head for a while and thought, “That makes perfect sense”. The Talking Heads were early adopters of worldbeat music, and hip-hop and soul, using it with punk and new wave. Their 1980 album Remain in Light is basically a new wave/worldbeat album. “This Must Be the Place” is practically an acoustic reggae song. Then I found out that Mystic Bowie, the lead singer, had worked with Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz in the Tom Tom Club, and everything fell into place. They took lots of popular Heads' songs and a few obscure ones (like “Slippery People” and “Love Goes to a Building on Fire”) and turned the Barn stage into a dance party. They even made more mopey and paranoid songs like “Houses in Motion” and “Psycho Killer” into a party, which is very impressive. I had to get up and dance to them! They said they had an album out, but there was nothing in the merch tent, nor online when I got home to check. (I did find a nice Hasil Atkins album though). I'll be ordering their album as soon as it's available, that's for sure.

As the sun set, so did my time at the festival. Wasps were all over the place during the festival, probably due to the lingering forest fire season (there was a touch of haze in the air), and they came out in force with the sun going down. Driving back to Kamloops, I found I had a tape copy of Remain in Light in the cassette carrier in the backseat, so I listened to that all the way home.