By Emily Senger
The Wailin’ Jennys are the quintessential folk-group–their vocal talents blend in beautiful three-part harmonies without overshadowing one another. Accompanied by acoustic guitar, violin, mandolin and banjo, the Wailin’ Jennys comprises soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo Nicky Mehta and alto Annabelle Chvostek, perfectly showcasing classically trained voices in a blend of country-folk at home on any Calgary… Continue reading Folk Fest: Winnipeg inspiration
One of the first things most people notice when they walk in the gates of Calgary’s folk fest is the scale of the event. Six side stages, restaurants, markets, thousands of people. It sometimes seems more like a small city than a concert. When local favorites No Guff took the stage this year, the field… Continue reading Folk Fest: No Guff untraditionally traditional
By Emily Senger
Few things are as great as a folk festival. When you get to attend these folk festivals for free it just sweetens the already saccharine-laced deal. After a hectic week of trying to arrange our media passes for the Gauntlet after they were already supposed to be in. I showed up at Prince’s Island Park… Continue reading Folk Fest Journals: Tired at the folk fest, not tired of the folk fest
I arrived at the Folk Fest later than Garth and Ken, though the people in the press tent said they still haven’t made it here. I called Garth and he says they’re in the beer gardens. I figure it shouldn’t be too hard to find a tall skinny guy with big blonde curly hair, then… Continue reading Folk Fest Journals: Two days of folk
Arriving at the Friday portion of this year’s Calgary Folk Fest, I immediately realized the festival was already ten times better than the Tim McGraw concert a week earlier. The overall mood was quietly exuberant, if not somewhat laidback, but the atmosphere shifted the minute Australian Xavier Rudd took the stage. His multiple didgeridoos sent… Continue reading Folk Fest Journals: Friday nights, hippie drugs and folk music
Waking up to the jarring blare of your alarm clock, you look over and realize you’re late. No time for coffee, barely enough time to throw on yesterday’s clothes and run out the door. You catch the 8:05 am bus within seconds and start to think you may make it to work on time, just… Continue reading London’s war on backpacks
Many years ago, along the misty river banks of England, the words of Shakespeare would resonate across the water. Once again it is possible to hear those classic lines in iambic pentameter from a distance, yet this time the distance is from our own Prince’s Island Park. Though flooding earlier this summer caused the annual… Continue reading Theatre Preview: Bringing the bard outdoors
The invention of the poster dates back to the 15th century, where it introduced a new method of providing news, government proclamations and other information to the public. As time progressed, they were used to advertise events, like productions of Shakespeare plays. Soon they became an essential tool of advertisers, protestors and propagandists. In the… Continue reading Art Preview: A poster named Sue
A band with strong roots in punk rock, odd literary references and revolutionary politics isn’t your typical performer at an Albertan folk festival. In fact, Winnipeg’s Weakerthans might fit in better on the annual Vans Warped Tour than the Calgary Folk Festival in Prince’s Island Park. Yet, the band was one of very few to… Continue reading Folk Fest: Weakerthans talk power