Saturday At VIMF

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.