EMMYLOU and BAND
Saturday night was the highlight for me. First up were The Shuffle Demons, who paraded through the crowd in their amazing costumes before hitting the stage in a triple saxophone frenzy. The crowd loved the band and their set.
SHAKURA S’AIDA
Next up was Shakura S’Aida whom I had not heard of before. The Toronto native fronted a hot funky band which showcased her incredibly strong gospel influenced voice.
Then it was time for EmmyLou Harris and her band to hit the stage. For the first time all weekend, the crowd actually shushed people talking in the crowd as the set began! No one wanted to miss a note. Her wonderful, one-of-a kind voice washed over the crowd, and although she apologized about many of the songs being about “dead friends of hers” (Johnny and June Cash, Kate McGarrigle and Gram Parsons) they were all eagerly applauded by the crowd. The band, “The Red Dirt Boys” containing a keyboard/accordionist, mandolin, bass and percussionist were a perfect backdrop for this special set of songs. They included Red Dirt Girl, The Road, Darlin’ Kate, and I’ll Fly Away.
THE SATURDAY NIGHT AUDIENCE
Commitments prevented me from seeing the Sunday performances of The Be Good Tanyas, Laurie Anderson and Buffy Sainte-Marie, but I am sure the incredible sunny weather made for another perfect Festival day.
Anyone who has not been to this event is really missing something special. Superbly organized with a small army of cheerful volunteers, nothing is left to chance. Every act started on-time, the sound systems (especially the mainstage) were the best I have heard. THe audience was a mature well behaved group, who clearly loved being at this event.
Highly recommended
Saturday, hot and sunny, what a day for the festival. We spent the day moving from stage to stage, seeing a few old favourites and many new discoveries.
We started off with Joe Stanton on one of the small stages. He is a singer songwriter from the Sunshine coast. He is also a great guitarist and did a fine solo performance, mostly original tunes, but the highlight for most people was the Crash Test Dummies’ “Superman Song.”
RICHARD THOMPSON SHOWING THEM HOW IT’S DONE
From there we went to the Bruce Grierson stage for the Songwriter’s Choice stage. Featuring Richard Thompson, Betty Soo, Sam Baker, some of The Sheep Dogs and Tricot Machine, it was quite a contrast in styles and material.
Richard Thompson, several decades older than most of the performers, stole the show. He played “Feel so Good” and set the bar high for everyone else. What a great voice and stage presence – one man and his guitar.
A VERY BUSY WORKSHOP STAGE
We heard selections from the rest of the performers. Tricot Machine from Quebec were fun with keyboards, xylophone, guitar and drums. The Sheepdogs, Betty Soo, and Sam Baker followed, then Richard played “Feel So Good”. Great stuff.
NEW COUNTRY REHAB IN ACTION
We then went to the main stage to catch NCR – New Country Rehab. A great bluegrassy band from Toronto, who began with a few gigs in bars and decided to do a CD (“NCR”) and now are having a great time touring. Featuring great fiddling and a distorted Dobro(!!) playing lead guitarist, the band were a hit with the crowd, getting the best crowd response with old time fiddle tunes despite having lots of great original material.
Next up was a great new blues band from Toronto, the 24th St Wailers. Featuring a female drummer/vocalist and female guitarist accompanied by a bass and sax player they were a hit with the crowd. Great vocals by Lindsay Beaver drove the band through lots of great original material from their first CD “Dirty Little Young’uns” helped along by stunning raw tenor sax solos by Jon Wong, and really fine guitar work by Emily Burgess. The band were having as much fun as we were – a relief for them, having driven across Canada in a van from Toronto. Next stop for them? Yellowknife! Ahh, the life of a touring band.
SOME OF THE 10,000 FESTIVAL CROWD IN THE SUN ENJOYING 24TH ST RAIL BAND
Late afternoon we managed to catch most of Victoria’s Bill Johnson at the Instructional Stage giving a blues guitar workshop which was very well attended. I think lots of the guitar players in attendance learned a few new tricks. These workshops are a real plus for the VIMF.
Next post for Saturday evening’s acts to follow tomorrow, along with pictures.
The 2012 VIMF started out with a bang on Friday night. The sold out festival was packed with keen, well behaved fans.We were treated to perfect sunny weather (and later a full moon), and, of course, great music.
Richard Thompson did a wonderful solo acoustic set – and what a set! A virtual workshop for us guitar aficionados , and lots of favourites including”When the Spell is Broken”, “Vincent Black Lightning” “Twist the Knife”, “Dog Eat Dog” and many more in a 75 minute set.
Then we were treated to a new band from Scotland, “Sketch”. With Ian Coupland from Peatbog Faeries as arranger percussionist, this band really cooked and the crowd got rightinto dance mode. Pulsing beats and great pipes and fiddling – what more could a festival crowd ask for?
That would be K D Lang and the Sis Boom Bang, her new backup band.
She certainly stole the show, playing lots of her hits, including”Big Brown Gal”, “Miss Chatelaine”, “Nevermore”,”Constant Craving”, and, of course “Hallelujah”
The new band is actually better live than on her new release – touring will do that. Great guitar, pedal steel and keyboard playing throughout her performance, and even KD playing banjo (she claims it is a “chick magnet”) on one song.
So that was Friday night at the festival.
Stay tuned for the Saturday blog.
K.D. Lang and band
Richard Thompson and K.D. Lang on the same night. A totally sold out festival. Perfect weather in the forecast Sounds great to me!
I hope some of you are going to be there too.
Wow, what a relief. We have all been worried about the weather for the festival. Now, it looks like all sun, all weekend and temp in the mid 20’s. Summer may have finally arrived. I will be posting all weekend with reviews, comments and (hopefully) pictures.
Looking forward to the drive up – the old slow highway with lots of tunes.
I am looking forward to next weekend. Hopefully all will be warm and sunny – the weather the people and the music.
Friday night will be really excellent – Richard Thompson and K D Lang are the headliners, along with the Milk Carton Kids and Sketch (A new wave Celtic band featuring ex-Peatbog drummer Iain Copeland).
Stay tuned for more updates as the lead up week rolls on.
Richard Thompson at left
David Crosby was wandering around backstage at VIMF on Saturday night and when I first spotted him I thought a vagrant had slipped past security. The 69-year-old artist was wearing a worn blue t-shirt and grey hoodie, his long white hair was wild under a baseball cap. It wasn’t until I saw his face that I realized he was an award winning artist with a career spanning almost five decades and probably wasn’t backstage to collect empty wine bottles.
Crosby mingled for a little while and based on what I saw was almost as chilled out and sociable as Yes’ Jon Anderson. The day after his main stage performance, Anderson wandered the grounds, checked out the food vendors and seemed generally easy to get along with. Also like Anderson, once Crosby took the stage he showed that he still knew how to put on a good show.
Backed by the Night Train Music Club, a group of seasoned musicians who have worked with some of rock’s biggest names, and with additional vocals by Vonda Shepherd, Crosby opened with “Long Time Gone” from Crosby, Stills & Nash’s 1969 debut album. Rocking the same outfit as Saturday night (I imagine his closet being like Inspector Gadget’s) Crosby tipped his hat to the crowd and his musicians before going on to perform “Tracks in the Dust” from his 1989 solo album Oh Yes I Can & “Carry Me” from Crosby & Nash’s 1975 </I<Wind on the Water
Before his Saturday performance of”I’m Dead (But I Don’t Know It)” Randy Newman lampooned rock stars who have run out of things to say but are too stubborn, stupid or vain to hang up their spurs. Crosby seems intent on not joining those ranks and was in no danger of running low on things to say. Performances by seasoned artists like Crosby are fascinating when they open up to the crowd and talk about their music. It saved Newman’s performance on Sunday night and added an extra dimension to Crosby’s on Sunday.
He complimented Newman by naming him as one of his favorite songwriters and went on to list others including James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and (grudgingly) Bob Dylan. He also joked about Mitchell & Neil Young being “Canadian Scorpios” and asked Canada to “stop sending them south because they really mess things up.”
Performing new tune “A Slice of Time” showed that Crosby can still write an engaging melody even though he claims to once have been told to never play new material at a music festival. “I guess I’ve made a career,” Crosby said, “Out of doing things I’ve been told not to.”
In an age of processed pop that’s refreshing.
Dusk is settling on VIMF as Holly Cole wraps her wonderfully smoky voice around “Que Sera Sera”. In front of me a man in a long woolen cap that resembles a lion’s mane dances with a blonde girl in a gypsy skirt, the bangles at her hips clinking in rhythm with her movements.
Cole is playing to an appreciative audience that is giving back as much as they can after 3 days in the sun. Backed by a four-piece band, she has worked her jazzy magic on classics old and new such as “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” and “Bright Sunshiny Day”.
The Vancouver Island Music Fest looks to have been a roaring success.
Night Train Music Club is next, followed by final act David Crosby.
Brennan Storr writes the blog Largely the Truth.
“To ‘confabulate’ is to fabricate imaginary experiences: hence [our] fanciful and fearless music” says the bio of David Woodhead’s Confabulation, the worst-named band since Rubicon Hearst & His Donkey-Botherers.
When I arrived at the Grassy Knoll, the Confabulation, who I will henceforth call Fabu, was just about to launch into an original composition by band violinist Jaren Freeman-Fox.
The piece was exhilarating. Imagine Lalo Schifrin and Charlie Daniels collaborating on the score to a chase movie about bootleggers. If none of that made sense to you then go ask your parents. Fabu’s other songs were good but Freeman-Fox’s piece was the highlight.
The “Guitars!” workshop at the Grierson Community Stage drew a crowd and well it should have – Albert Lee & John Jorgenson are virtuoso guitar players and both were in fine form. Seeing their fingers fly across the fretboard was jaw-dropping and their guitar dual at the end was worthy of the standing ovation it received.
Brennan Storr writes the blog Largely the Truth.
Keeping in line with all great trilogies, the weather for the third day of Vancouver Island Music Fest is a disappointment. It’s still warm and prudence dictates that I continue wearing this infernal baseball cap but clouds have crept across the sky.
The last day of a festival is always tinged with melancholy – the heavy drinking is finished and with it all the sweaty campsite indiscretions. Summer dresses have replaced bikinis and the fat men have all come to their senses and put their shirts back on.
At VIMF to promote their new album Grand Isle, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys were just the thing for a morning like this – an invigorating zydeco sound to brighten up the mood like lightning bugs in the backyard on nights when the moon hides away.
Hangovers, if not retreating completely, at least gave some ground as the Playboys picked up speed and soon the dancers in the crowd got to their feet.
The Cajuns always have known how to throw a party.
Brennan Storr writes the blog Largely the Truth.
CFUV @ VIMF 2012 