Steve Baylin
Kris Kristofferson and some new surprises at Ottawa’s Folk Festival
In music – as in life – most revelations of note come out of the blue. Consider the Newport Folk Festival circa 1969. The scene was set, or so everyone thought: Carl “Mr. Country” Smith, a honky-tonk legend (and former husband to June Carter), was slated to open for Johnny Cash. It was, however, not to be: The man in black, as was his wont, intervened on behalf of a young songwriter nervously waiting in the wings, one whose tunes had made a sizable dent in the charts, but as a performer in his own right had yet to conquer the stage.
Despite reservations from festival organizers, Cash spoke his piece and held his ground: Smith, though gracious in stepping aside, was out; the green songwriter by the name of Kris Kristofferson (Friday, August 17, 9:15 p.m., Main Stage) was in. The rest, as they say, is history. The lone highwayman – the heart and soul of this year’s 14th annual Ottawa Folk Festival – went on to become the tough talking, uncompromising conscience of country.
And therein lies the lesson of the frenzy that is festival season: Unknown artists can surprise and transition from relative obscurity to buzz-worthy sensations in a matter of minutes. So beware – our own folk fest boasts its fair share of new faces, and few are poised to surprise more than The Carolina Chocolate Drops (Saturday, August 18, 6:15 p.m., Bowie Electrical Hall, and Saturday, August 18, 9:15 p.m., Main Stage). Based in Durham, the trio retrace, revise and modernize the traditional black string band
music endemic to North Carolina’s Piedmont region with a feverish, sweat-soaked passion.
“We all had our own individual interest in folk, independent of knowing that it was a very strong black tradition,” says Dom Flemons, who first met his bandmates two years ago during the four-day Black Banjo gathering in Boone, North Carolina. The threesome fell under the tutelage of fiddler Joe Thompson, one of a few remaining black traditional string band players from the last generation.
“We just enjoyed it. And finding out all this history about it has really opened a lot of doors – it’s showed aspects of American culture that had not been researched well.”
Though still a relative newcomer to the scene, Halifax-based Rose Cousins (Sunday, August 19, 6:15 p.m., Main Stage) has turned some influential heads of late. Her 2006 effort If You Were for Me picked up two East Coast Music Award nominations for songwriter of the year. She also got nominated for the CBC Galaxy Rising Star Recording of the Year – that led to becoming the Canadian regional finalist in New York’s Mountain Stage New Song Contest next month. Her resum? shines, but her songs are the real story, as Cousins, whose voice rings as true as a bell, spins forlorn folk dissertations on fear, desire and love that burn with a quiet, spine-tingling intensity.
“I think the creative well from which I draw is a melancholy place,” says Cousins of her penchant for sorrowful balladry. “I enjoy so much music, but I think that whatever reaches into my chest and squeezes my heart to make me feel something is the stuff that I seek out.”
Moving up the ranks just as fast is Philadelphia’s Hoots & Hellmouth (Saturday, August 18, 5:15 p.m., Main Stage). Formed back in early 2005, the group began as just “a casual collaboration” between fast friends Sean Hoots and Andrew “Hellmouth” Gray. Equally “exasperated by the rock band life – the image, the cliques, the volume,” both were looking for a change of scenery. Together they found it at a local coffee shop’s open stage, where they ditched their electrics in favour of acoustics and gave over their attention to turn-of-the-century American music.
The result? The band (now a quartet) has become a larger-than-life roots revival, as fit to perform under the big tent as in a down and dirty bar.
In a similar kind of spirit, Hoots notes that “the distinction that is often drawn – especially at rock shows – between the audience and performer is really artificial. I would love for our shows to be a place where people can come and check their bullshit at the door and be one with what’s going on. Music can do that like nothing else can.”
All of the show dates above are for evening performances only. Some of the artists will be doing daytime activities. For more info, visit www.ottawafolk.org or call 613-230-8234.
The 14th Annual Ottawa Folk Festival
Thursday, August 16 to Sunday, August 19
Britannia Park