Folk Fest ends on a high note
That’s it, that’s all, folks. Here we are at the end of another iteration of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, and Sunday certainly closed out the weekend on a high note. There was an undeniable current of excitement resonating throughout the crowd on what turned out to be an ideal summer evening, with not a […]
Folk Fest vs. LRT: A hill to die on
There’s a mild controversy literally surrounding the Edmonton Folk Music Festival this year. Like a lot of Edmonton gripes, it’s over a bridge. Folkies may have noticed they can’t walk over on the Cloverdale footbridge anymore. The City has already started breaking it down to make way for the new LRT Valley Line, to be […]
Session acts upstage main stage at folk fest
Day Two of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival kicked off just in time for the after-work crowd to hustle down to Gallagher Hill and take in a slew of “Session” performances before the main stage acts got underway. The shorter schedule during the first two days of folk fest always feel like a primer for […]
Guitar Night at the Folk Fest
The first four acts of the 37th annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival have set the tone – for rocking out. Opening night contained at least twice the recommended daily dosage of electric guitar, and the folk fans didn’t mind a bit. After all, the folks know this weekend will be filled with fiddles, bouzoukis, dobros […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: What the Folk
Folk music is bleeding into the pop charts in record quantities. At this rate, it’ll be Bob Dylan at Newport all over again. So who is the next Bob Dylan? (Or Joni Mitchell, or Fairport Convention, depending.) The stars of tomorrow may well be found at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival Thursday through Sunday. Headliners […]
The Tragically Hip’s heartbreaking goodbye
Gord Downie is wrong about one thing: Courage does matter, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Without courage, he could never have mounted what may well be the last Tragically Hip tour ever – in the face of a devastating diagnosis of terminal brain cancer. The 52-year-old singer is obviously feeling well enough […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Courage of the Tragically Hip
The Tragically Hip comes to Edmonton for likely the last time Thursday and Saturday – and rave reviews have been pouring in since the tour opened in Vancouver last week. That’s rather unsurprising given the nature of this tour. In May, singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. […]
Women rule at Interstellar Rodeo
The theme for the whole weekend at Interstellar Rodeo has been about broken hearts – or maybe that’s just what indie folk is all about. To paraphrase Donovan Wood during his musical interlude: All the best songs are about a couple mad at each other while coming home from a party. “I ain’t nothin’ but […]
Peter Gabriel and Sting make magic
This was a match made in heaven – and the result was a religious experience. So it works out. Two British rock Gods, Sting and Peter Gabriel, have put their own great music above rock star ego to perform together in what will surely go down as the best collaboration of the decade. At their […]
Chris Cornell unplugs grunge at the Jube
It’s official: Generation X has entered middle age. No better proof could be found than the fact that one of its rock ‘n’ roll heroes was playing the Jubilee Auditorium on Saturday night. The Jube! Where Engelbert Humperdinck played. It turned out to be the perfect venue for Chris Cornell, the 52-year-old former frontman of […]
