The announcement in Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press, about Jeff Tweedy closing the Winnipeg Folk Festival has now convinced me I must attend the Festival this year. I've already committed (in my mind, anyways) I would at least attend the opening Wednesday night, headlined by Blue Rodeo and one of my all-time favourite bands, The Jayhawks. The news of Tweedy performing a solo set on the Sunday night mainstage has me thinking I might even buy an early bird full festival pass. I don't think I've gotten the weekend (now includes many non-weekend days) pass since the early 90's, but it might make sense financially if I go more than 2 days.
Anyways, I'm kind of fired up! There are some interesting acts, though I'm not super excited about the rest of the line-up. Please look over the list of performers and recommend who would be worth seeing live. I'm sure I'm overlooking some gems and folk fests are a good way to discover talent you haven't heard of previously. That's how I discovered the Jayhawks when they played the festival in 1988 (?).
Jeff Tweedy performing, Open Mind on The Hour (CBC TV)
(sorry for all the damn commercials...can't be helped.)
5 comments:
Dude, you need to see Chuck Prophet. Blue Rodeo, Jayhawks, and Tweedy are cool, yeah, but Chuck's worth the price of a pass alone. And how can you love those bands and not be revved up about Blackie & The Rodeo Kings? Dan Mangan! Matt Andersen! Secret Sisters! There are a few gems to be seen, so get out there
It's funny, I loved Green On Red (Gas Food Lodging and No Free Lunch are favs), but for whatever reason I've never listened to a Chuck Prophet album. I guess I should eh...and I will seek out some! I am looking forward to the Secret Sisters and of course Blackie..
Thanks!
Blackie is going to be there? I didn't know. Sandy has her heart set on the opening night show but given my druthers, I wouldn't rather see B&RK (hey... I just figured out why they named that cd Bark!)
I'm a big fan of Minotaurs, who really bring it live. The notion of a guy who was basically a folk-rocker (Nathan Lawr was originally the drummer in Royal City) fronting an afrobeat band could go very wrong, but these guys handle it superbly.
Tinariwen are incredible to see (though you have to like your guitar rock a little drone-y to really get into 'em) and if you want something completely off the map, Omar Souleyman is pretty fantastic.
Amusing bit: I've got a Golden Smog show on disc where some dude in the audience does the "Tweeeeedy!!!!" yell and Kraig Johnson goes off on an aside about it's the same guy at every show that Jeff buys a bus ticket for so he can follow them around and boost his ego when they go on stage. Then, if I remember right Kraig precedes to introduce the next song as "here's one of our new ones. Sounds a lot like most of the old ones." Kraig Johnson, stand-up comedian.
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