Bruce Cockburn and Blue Rodeo headline a sold out day 3 of the Edmonton Folk Festival

The weekend brings the first of 2 full days of music at Edmonton’s Folk Festival.  With the gates opening this morning at 9am to allow for  the Black Friday style dash to the mainstage to secure a spot with tarps, performances are running non-stop across all 8 stages from 11am to midnight!

Another sold out day left people wandering the entrance trying to find people selling extra tickets.

 

Thrown together by accident for a performance for an anniversary show in Winnipeg, the Small Glories brought some powerful harmonies and some humor in between songs to the captivated Stage 7 crowd.

 

Ani DiFranco performed on the opposite end of the festival grounds on Stage 6.  Although it is arguably the next largest space after the mainstage for the audience to attend and even THAT wasn’t enough room for everyone! She not only packed the field, but she also ended up with people lining the sidewalk on the other side of the fencing along the roadside at the top of the hill!

 

 

 

 

Donovan Woods

 

 

Peaks and Valleys songwriters session may have been held on the smallest stage at the Edmonton Folk Festival but it had some of the biggest names … including Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo … who had settled in nicely ready to hear the others thinking he’d go last … nope!  not only did he go first, he missed his own cue for the song and had a good giggle before starting again.  Just goes to show it’s OK to make mistakes and laugh about it, not matter how many years you’ve been in the business.

 

Influencers songwriters session on Stage 6 ran at the same time at the Peaks and Valley session … so people were forced to pick two stages with stacked lineups of performers.   Bruce Cockburn sat quietly and patiently waiting for his turn at playing a song, seemingly lost in himself, not really looking out at the crowd or the others on stage, but in reality he was soaking in the music and more than once was seen starting to noodle along with the others’ performances.

 

 

 

The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer stepped onto the side stage while the mainstage had the set change up for Bruce Cockburn’s upcoming set.  Not having the foot powered percussion as they did during Friday’s Stage 1 performance, one of the volunteers handed up a round plastic bin which Dawn Pemberton bravely held upside down so it could be used as a drum.  I don’t know how willing they would have been in loaning it out if they had known it was being handed back with 2 holes beat into the bottom – all while being handheld during just ONE song.

 

These guys are wildly entertaining on stage and are amazing musicians … definitely leading the weekend with the favorite new artist discovery … and that is pretty much the entire point of having festivals like this that are predominantly or entirely volunteer run … discovering upcoming artists with the talent and not enough exposure.

 

 

Bahamas

 

Bruce Cockburn quietly walked on stage to start his set while J. S. Ondara stepped off the side stage … so unassuming that no one really noticed even until he picked up his guitar and the spotlight was turned on.  The moment he started playing … and sharing some stories in between songs, he had the crowd’s undivided attention and held it for the entire set.

 

Blue Rodeo has somehow managed to be performing – and headlining – not just music festivals but their own tours – and releasing new music, for decades.  I say that jokingly because their frontman Jim Cuddy seems to have some sort of a time machine or teleporter that I need to try to get my hands on, because he seems to be everywhere and all the time … from songwriters sessions to solo performances to collaborations with pretty much anybody and everybody (he was once referred to as the Kevin Bacon of Canada because he seems to know and have worked with EVERYBODY).

Some say he’s the hardest working man in the industry … I say watching him perform, he doesn’t consider it work! …

These guys are a group … and while Jim may be the most recognizable, they’re all equals on stage … all getting solos and a chance to show off their musical talents with music that crosses into almost all genres, from pop/rock to alt country to Americana, and obviously, folk.