KALEO makes an Incredible Return to Canada at CityFolk Music Festival After Five Years

Day 4’s lineup for CityFolk Music Festival sure didn’t disappoint, so much that fans were lined up to get inside before gates opened and the entire front of the stage was packed with screaming teenage fans anxiously awaiting the artists as of 5:00 p.m.

Being a 5-time nominee for the Country Music Association of Ontario Francophone Artist of the Year, no doubt folk-roots musician Kristine St-Pierre earned her spot at CityFolk this year. Kicking off day 3 on the Courtside Stage at 5:30 p.m., St-Pierre from Ottawa took to the stage performing a mixture of French and English songs. She has been nominated once in 2018 for a Canadian Folk Music Award and has a fourth album in the works that she hopes will be released this coming fall, 2023. St-Pierre took the stage authentically, just the raw sound of her and her guitar and opened her set with her song “If I Were a Love Song” which hasn’t been released yet. Her band then joined her on the stage to support her throughout the rest of her set. She is well known for her 2012 album, “Call Me Crazy”, especially her song “Lake Superior”. St-Pierre was super thrilled to have two females on stage with her, one playing bass and one on keyboard. Her entire band was composed of all local Ottawa artists including Dean Watson, which made this hometown show even more special. I couldn’t help but notice that a sweet older lady was smiling and dancing the entire time to St-Pierre, which was such a heartwarming thing to see. Kristine had an incredible balance of French and English songs and also shared a song called “L’alphabet” where she challenged herself to write a song with all the letters of the alphabet in French. She also threw in a tribute to Canadian songwriter Shirley Eikhard who recently passed away, by singing her song “Something to Talk About”. She spoke both languages during her show, presenting a very impressive and inclusive set. 

 

An Indigenous man from way down under, who was raised in Queensland, Australia in the remote rainforest, who goes by the name Mikhail Laxton took the TD Main Stage at 6 pm. Laxton, who is now a resident of Canada, recently released his self-titled, debut album which was full length, and told the story of his upbringing in August. It shared stories of heartbreak, of losing himself, of feeling lost, but most importantly it shares the story of how he fell in love, became happy again, and is now living in the richest soil anyone could live in fatherhood. This album has 12 songs that share such a strong and deep story which is so inspiring and has something everyone could find potential to relate to. As Mikhaïl took to the stage, the audience was screaming in excitement. From the first beat, you can sense how the music fuels him. He has some of the cleanest vocal runs and registers switches I’ve ever heard, which he demonstrated in his opening song “Slow Motion” from his 2023 album titled “Mikhaïl Laxton”. He shared the first song he ever wrote in Canada in 2016, titled “Streams” about his beautiful wife to whom he is so grateful. He shared such personable and beautiful stories about his family that drew the crowd in, as his life story is truly impeccable and one everyone should hear. His tone and vibrato tied the entire performance together, and his down-to-earth personality made this performance feel so personable for everyone in attendance. During his set, he disclosed that his band members were teachers and that their students were here, telling them to say hi. He had a small little group in the middle which was his family, who were cheering him on with their entire heart. Ottawa sure showed him some incredible love tonight and he was such a great addition to an already great festival. 

 

6:30 p.m. saw multiple Canadian Folk Music Award nominee Andrea Ramolo take the courtside stage. Ramolo has been doing international and national tours for over 15 years and won the 2022 Canadian Independent Music Video Award for her music video for her song titled “Free”. She has shared that stage with many inspirational artists, an example being Gordon Lightfoot and she used to belong to a folk duo titled Scarlett Jane. Her most recent musical adventure has been a project she’s working on that examines cultural collaboration and her ancestral Italian folk dance and music. Recently this past summer she released her eighth album titled “THE SOUTH” and her very first documentary film her ninth album is in the works as she continues to tour all around the world. She took to the stage with four guys in her band and this was their first time all playing together. She started by singing a song dedicated to those who make art for a living, called “Road Kill” from her 2021 album titled “Quarantine Dream”. One thing I deeply admired about her performance was how her bandmates looked at her in total admiration when she sang. She had a keyboardist, a percussionist, and an electric guitarist, and she played electric guitar. She recalled how she just wrapped up the best tour of her life in July with a band from Italy. She told the crowd how she thrifted her outfit and encouraged them to thrift too. She performed a song she wrote with Madison Violet the band, titled “Till the End of Time”. Uniquely too, instead of having backup vocalists, she used a harmony pedal attached to her guitar pedal which adds second and third part harmonies when she taps it with her foot. Her keyboardist also played an organ alongside a keyboard side by side. Ramolo shared countless stories about her tour and talked more in-depth about her recent album, which is multilingual. She put on a great show demonstrating such incredible chemistry with her band, despite it being their first on-stage experience together. 

 

As popular as the Covid-19 pandemic made social media the app “TikTok” did wonders for many musicians all over the world. You may know him as the singer behind the sound “Miserable Man”, but David Kushner has come a long long way since his song first went viral. This song hit #1 charts all around the world and since then, he released songs titled “Mr. Forgettable” and “Daylight”. Kushner has accumulated over 610 global career streams and 24.5 million monthly listeners across all streaming platforms. He holds the capability to tell stories that not every artist is capable of achieving. Kushner to this day is still viral on TikTok and if you open your app, I’m sure you’ll hear it at some point. He hit the TD Main Stage at 7:20 p.m., and for me, this was such an exciting opportunity to see him live. Upon Kushner making his way to the stage, the crowd was screaming “David Kushner ” at the top of their lungs. He emerged from backstage with the crowd going crazy, and he hit the mic immediately and began singing his song “Dead Man” which is unreleased. Fans could be seen holding signs and almost every phone in the audience was up recording him. All weekend a man has had a bubble machine spraying it in the crowd, and it made the element of his music so much more intense. He also did impeccable guitar switches and countless times interacted with his electric guitarist. One thing I loved was his stage setup. He had his drums diagonally behind him so he had room to move around with his other guitarists and bassist. He performed his song “Mr. Forgettable” dedicated to his grandfather who passed away from Alzheimer’s in which the crowd sang back to him loudly. He shared that he has a new album coming out soon, his first 12-song album at that, and “Dead Man” is coming out next Friday, September 22, 2023. He performed a few unreleased songs for the crowd, including “Georgia Rain ”. Fans were screaming the entire time “I love you” and he responded equally. The crowd didn’t allow him to sing his song “Miserable Man”, which he wrote in 2019 when he was battling his mental health challenges being unsure where he was going in life. Little did he know, sitting down to write that song would take him exactly where he should be in life. His set was very interesting because since he doesn’t have a full album, we got an inside glance into his unreleased songs and also got to firsthand hear the stories and experiences behind them. Kushner recently was in Montreal and Toronto, and his tour continues after tonight. It was a stunning performance that drew in an extremely large crowd of specific teenage girls. My favourite quote of the night from him to end this off is, “I hope you win the battles that nobody sees”. 

 

Closing off the Courtside Stage at 7:30 p.m. is activist, poet, musician, singer and songwriter, the one and only Allison Russell. Reigning from Montreal, Quebec, her debut solo LP “Outside Child” won the 2022 Americana Music Association Album of the Year, two International Folk Awards, Contemporary Roots Album of the Year at the Junos, three Canadian Folk Music Awards, and countless more nationally and internationally. She has been presented on many publicity shows and opportunities such as Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The New York Times, and many many more. She has opened for artists such as Jason Isbell and Brandi Carlile. Ottawa is so lucky to have this inspirational multi-talented act here and the crowd waited excitedly for her to begin. Russell drew her incredible crowd over, despite David Kushner being on the TD Main Stage. She has the most distinct voice that has the coolest rasp tone to it. Her music had a very cool empowering tone to it as well. She also had an all-girl band which is so inspirational and motivational for girls all over. She sang her song “Hy-Brasil” from her 2021 “Outside Child” album and her saxophonist performed an impeccable solo. Her song “Snake Life” which was released recently in 2023 had the audience cheering and moving their bodies all around. Not only is HER tone incredible, but the tone of her background vocalists is also so unbelievable. As incredible as Russell was in all of her previous bands and groups, this performance made her solo show an absolute sell-out and a beautiful experience for all. 

 

And finally, Saturday Nights headliners have accumulated over four BILLION global streams, have sold out countless shows, have played festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo, and are known for their incredible energy and capability to draw the audience in. The crowd willingly welcomed KALEO into the festival tonight as the crowd grew and grew as the time got closer. After their first album was released, they toured for three years straight and that album titled “A/B” has now gone platinum. Their most popular song that they are known by is “Way Down We Go”, and much like Kushner, TikTok kickstarted the re-popularity of that song within the last few years. Spending the last 18+ months in their home country isolated, they are more than thrilled and relieved to be back performing live music for real-life audiences again.

2023 has them touring all down under, with countless shows through New Zealand and Australia, while opening for Greta Van Fleet, AND working on their third album. Consisting of band members Jökull Júlíusson or JJ, Davíð Antonsson, Daníel Kristjánsson, Rubin Pollock, Þorleifur Gaukur Davíðsson all from Iceland, Ottawa made sure to make a warm welcome to our beautiful hometown. They opened their set with “Break My Baby” which was released in 2020 and was a huge fit with the fans. His incredible scream notes had the crowd going crazy and to say the least, the anticipation and excitement were all worth it for this group. This is their first time back to Ottawa in 5 years and the turnout showed how much we all missed them. They had the crowd clap along with them and interact with them countless times, including in their song “Broken Bones” from their 2016 album “A/B”. They played “All the Pretty Girls” and “Way Down We Go”, which were known word for word and sang with such passion.

KALEO was a perfect fit to end off day four of CityFolk Music Festival because of their passion, drive, and pure visual of love on their faces while they’re performing. Tomorrow night, Sunday, September 17, 2023 is the final day of CityFolk with Hozier headlining and X Ambassadors performing before. More information can be found here: https://cityfolkfestival.com/