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Vancouver Folk Music Festival Scrapbook



Utah Phillips

On the evening of May 23, 2008, the VFMF family lost a brother and mentor to heart failure, at the age of 73.


Throughout the history of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Utah has had a profound effect on how the Festival has evolved through the years and his philosophies and wisdom will continue to live through the many creative minds of the next generation of 'hell-raisers' singing good songs and sharing bad jokes.


Montage
When I discovered that Dugg Simpson had left the Festival I struggled to find the words to let Dugg know how much he had enriched my musical sense . I'm not as good with the spoken word as I am with my visual memories. Dugg, this one is for you!




Give the Festival For the Holidays


Welcome!

Introduction

When I first discovered the Vancouver Folk Music Festival during 2000, which marked the 23rd year of the celebration of music and dance at Vancouver's Jericho beach. This Vancouver Folk Music Scrapbook features my personal images and memories of the past seven years at the festival.

Enjoy!

Be sure to stop back often as this is an ongoing project.

Photos Copywrite Gayle Olson 2000-2007 unless indicated otherwise.
Commentaries courtesy of the VFMF artist mini-bios which were researched and written by Dugg Simpson and Sarah Kim, with editing by Julia Markus and Anna Nobile, and proofing by Renée Doruyter.

More photos available at the Flickr Vancouver Folk Festival Group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/folkfest/

Stop by and share your Festival views. New members welcome!

Visit the Official Festival site
Keep The Music Playing - Support Your Festival!
Become a Member


Become involved with YOUR Festival.

Here's to our future - Discover how you can help ensure a sustainable future for the Festival:

  • Membership - Become a member of the Festival society or renew your existing membership. For $30 you can stake your claim in the Festival, attend the AGM and vote for the Board of Director. Memberships and donations of $30 or more receive tax receipts.
  • Sustaining Membership - Become a Sustaining Member of the Festival. A monthly donation of any amount keeps our cash flowing throughout the year.
  • Drink Your Blend - Drink Ethical Bean's Folk Music Festival Blend coffee all year. With partial proceeds going to support the Festival, this is one of the tastiest ways of helping us while also supporting fiar trade coffee growers. Give it as gifts to family and friends or make it your workplace coffee. Every bean counts.
  • Fundraise With Friends - Think of having a house concert, a clothes swap, a Folk Music Festival reunion in winter - just use your imagination, raise good old money and have fun. There will be special acknowledgements next year for those who go the extra mile.
  • Create New Partnerships - Encourage your company or organization to become a Festival Partner and contribute to the Festival as part of its outreach and community-building. From donating goods we might need in the Park or office, to services, or cash, there are lots of ways to help. Partnership guideline information is available here. (PDF file)

Click Here to contact your Festival

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Next...

The Collaboratory brought artists together before the Festival weekend to get to know each other, learn about each other's music and develop new music together for the weekend. The response from artists and audiences was so strong and so positive that the anniversary project has been remixed every year since 2002.


This year's Collaboratory, Next..., was the first Collaboratory to be presented on the Evening Concert Stage. It's based in the Festivals' growing creative community and in the neighbourhoods and nightclubs of Vancouver. Like past collaborations, it's based in music but from the earliest discussions, everyone involved wanted this version to go further. Dance, performance art and video were all included in this this special event. Beyond increasing the fear factor, complexity and resulting flow of adrenalin, everyone felt more voices was the right step.

 Full biography at VFMF
Music Available at Amazon
Paul Belen (no luck club)
• Prosperity
• Happiness

Allison Russel (Po' Girl)
• Home To You
• Po' Girl
• Vagabond Lullabies

Adham Shaikh
• Collectivity
• Journey To the Sun
• Essence
• Drift

Anupam Shobhakar
• Mysterious Awakening

Tanya Tagaq
 • Sinaa
• Tradition

Learn More About Featured Artists




Video by Tarun Nayar


A Walkabout with the POV Cam and the Folks during Next...





Utah Phillips

Any analysis of this Festival's DNA would turn up a whole lot of Utah Phillips. His passions, and they are many, for music, history, justice, fun, and his intense curiosity and ability to see connections, have inspired much that is good about this weekend in the Park.

 Full biography at VFMF

Music available from Amazon

Learn More About Utah Phillips




The Wailin' Jennys

The Wailin' Jennys: Two albums, two Juno nominations, three extraordinary voices.


During the last six years, the Jennys have toured the world and offered audiences crystalline solace for broken hearts and life's setbacks. The trio are regular favourites on the National Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion for their meadow-bright harmonies and easy humour.

Full biography at VFMF

Music Available at Amazon

• 40 Days
• Firecracker




Sofia (Salt)

Nothing is more powerful than the human voice. And when it comes to some of the most wide-ranging voices around, Allison Russell and Awna Teixeira have some of the sweetest that this country has seen.
Full biography at VFMF





Old Man Luedecke

Mr. Luedecke (pronounced loo de key) seems too young to be so old school. He is something of an enigma, a rural man who writes of cities, a banjo player in the time of the turntable, and unplugged in extremis during a very wired era.

 Full biography at VFMF

Music Available at Amazon

• Hinterland

  • MySpace
  • Website




    • Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman

    Grit and sensitivity. Percussion and groove. Karen Savoca and partner Pete Heitzman craft and perform duets as "sinuous as two skaters gliding across ice," and they lay their voices across soul, R&B, and world rhythms that conjure a communion between audience and stage.

    Full biography at VFMF

    Music Available from Amazon

    • In the Dirt
    • All My Excuses
    • Here We Go
    • Sunday In Nandua
    • On River Road



    Sarah Jane Morris

    Ms. Morris has been described as: sultry, seismic, provocative, infamous, outspoken, unorthodox, truly independent, her own woman, uncompromising, soaring, swooping, sensual and sophisticated, river deep, mountain high, and as one of the world's great jazz-soul vocalists.

     Full biography at VFMF

    Music Available at Amazon

     • Love and Pain
    • After All These Years
    • Blue Valentine
    • August
    • Fallen Angel
    • Heaven



    Sunset with Sarah Jane Morris

    Add to My Profile | More Videos
    Walkabout with the Point-of-View Cam as the sun sets over the Pacific. Festival Folks dancin', hoopin', playin' and jugglin' as Sarah Jane Morris serenades.


    Tapia eta Leturia

    Their music may seem quintessentially traditional to our ears, but at home Tapia eta Leturia are regarded as The Pogues of Basque music. From their early days in 1984 as a duo of trikitixa (diatonic accordion) and tambourine, their passionate approach has amped up the level of interest in the music at home and abroad.

     Full biography at VFMF


    Music available at Amazon

     • Canada Tour 1996




    The Carolina Chocolate Drops

    The Carolina Chocolate Drops are Rhiannon Giddens (banjo, fiddle, and voice); Justin Robinson, (fiddle and voice); and Dom Flemmons, (guitar, banjo, jug, harmonica, snare, and voice). Their name "is a tribute-or homage, if you will-to a band from the 1920s called The Tennessee Chocolate Drops that was a well-known black string band with Howard Armstrong who was a fantastic fiddler and mandolin player.

     Full biography at VFMF

    Music Available at Amazon

     • Dona Got A Ramblin' Mind

  • MySpace
  • Website




    • Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Stage 6 Heard in the Hills workshop.


    Kellylee Evans

    Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Kurt Elling, Jane Bunnett and Tony Bennett have all been impressed by her voice and the energy she brings to the stage.

    When Kellylee participated in the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition at The Kennedy Centre in Washington, DC she was awarded her second place, a phenomenal showing for a young artist with only a few performances to her name.

    Full biography at VFMF

    Music available at Amazon

    • Fight or Flight?

  • MySpace
  • Website



    • 30 Years in 60 Minutes with Timothy Wisdom

    Timothy has been DJing for over a decade across the country. An engineer at the decks and on the mic, he is known for his crazy scratching, instant remixes and amusing antics, earning him the title of "one of Vancouver's top party DJs."


    With access to Festival Artistic Director, Dugg Simpson's vinyl and CD collection of past performers, Timothy has sorted through hundreds of songs and pieced them together like a musical quilt, premiering at the Festival. The performance was an incredible trip through Festival history!



    Dancing Folks celebrate 30 years of real music with DJ/Turntablist wizard Timothy Wisdom, Fiddler Jaron Freeman-Fox, and percussionist Sasha Levin.

    For the 30th anniversary of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Creative Directors Dugg Simpson and Sarah Kim commissioned DJ Timothy Wisdom to put together a DJ mix of music by artists who have played at the Festival in the past 30 years. Timothy went to work digging through old recordings and remixing snippets of audio to create this historical collage. The result is banjo meets breakbeats, fiddle verses flanger and a 60 minute mashup of various styles of folk from traditional to avant-garde and local to global.
    Limited CDs are available at "Drive Organics" on Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
    1045 Commercial Dr. 604-678-9665


    You Are Here: Rae Spoon & Ivan Coyote

    Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon's brand-new multimedia adventure You Are Here is one part family legend, one part hometown lament, and one part commentary on the corporate colonization of our country, flavoured by bluegrass ballads and served with a side of super-8 home movies from the '60s.

    Full biography at VFMF

    DVD by Ivan Coyote

     • Transmission Vol. 2

    Music from Rae Spoon

     • White Hearse Comes Rolling
    • Trucker's Memorial


    Geoff Berner

    While Geoff Berner may be the spirit guide of the Brand, the Wedding Dance of the Widow bride is the work of the ensemble. Diona Davies' fiddle playing wails with a mad joy that scratches at the window and whispers away into the night, while Wayne Adams percussion is primal tribal.


    In recent years, Geoff Berner has been engaged in a passionate pursuit of the roots of klezmer, a music born in Jewish communities in Russia and eastern Europe Klezmer is made by bands of Jewish musicians mixed with Roma, and other players that were the live entertainment at weddings and other celebrations.

     Full biography at VFMF

    Music Available at Amazon

     • The Wedding Dance of the Widow Bride
    • Whisky Rabbi




    Mushfig Ensemble

    The Mushfig Ensemble are mesmerizing in performance with powerful vocals, rich sonic textures and intricate rhythms performed on tabla, violin, tanpura and harmonium.


    Singing in a dozen languages, they play Afghani and Indian traditional folk, devotional songs, audience clap-along qawwalis and more.


    The ensemble is Mushfig Hashimi on vocals and harmonium, Said Moheb Hasimy on tabla, Cindy Babyn on violin and Sujata Verma on tanpura and supporting vocals.

     Complete biography at the VFMF Website



    Liz Carroll and John Doyle

    Although she is from America, Liz Carroll is considered to be one of the finest Irish fiddlers in the world, having won the Junior All-Irelands, the senior All-Irelands, and at home she was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, the highest accolade in America in folk and traditional arts.

    Playing with Liz is John Doyle, a guitarist who has played with own Irish-American band, Solas, with Chanting House, and Susan McKeown. He has toured with Eileen Ivers, Tim O'Brien, Kate Rusby and Linda Thompson, to name a few.

     Complete biography at the VFMF Website

    Music Available at Amazon

     • In Play

    Liz Carroll

     • Lost in the Loop
    • Lake Effect
    • Friend Indeed: Irish Fiddle and Piano
    • Liz Carroll

    John Doyle

    •     Wayward Son




    The Folks dance during the Heard in the Hills Workshop featuring Liz Carroll and John Doyle with Carolina Chocolate Drops and Tapia Eta Leturia.


    Bitch and the Exciting Conclusion

    It was a treat to have Bitch back at the Festival. Since her visit with Animal five years ago she has matured both physically and as an artist. Bitch has a new three-piece ensemble now which includes energetic drummer Lee Free, and the multi-talented Daniela Sea.


    Whether through her singing or spoken word Bitch never fails to get her message across. One writer described their listening experience as "A menage a trois featuring Sandra Bernhard, Laurie Anderson and Che Guevera." Another suggest she is "One part Ani DiFranco, one part Indigo Girls, and one part Laurie Anderson."


    Actor Daniela Sea belonged to a few punk rock bands before her role of Max on the The L Word. At the Festival she proved to be versatile on the keyboard, violin and guitar.


    Dexterous drummer Lee Free completes the trio . Her cutting edge style and energy is a perfect fit for the Exciting Conclusion.

     Full biography at VFMF

    Music Available at Amazon

     • Make This/Break This

    Bitch & Animal

     • Eternally Hard
    • What's That Smell?
    • Sour Juice and Rhyme

  • Bitch's MySpace
  • Bitch's Website
  • Daniela's MySpace
  • Daniela's Website
  • Lee's MySpace
  • Lee's Website




    • 900 Million





    Dancing with Bitch and Ganga Gi



    Tanya Tagaq

    Tanya's music is not like any other singer. She's not even like any other Innu singer, but she is deeply grounded in its tradition.

    It is not so much that she makes the music as she IS the music, making it very clear that throat singing is a very limited label.

    For a number of years Tanya has been collaborating with DJ Michael Red. Through his laptop and a few tools Michael is able to loop and process Tanya's voice and weave in a few samples he has collected in Tanya's home town of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.


     Full biography at VFMF

    Music Available at Amazon

    • Sinaa
    • Tradition

  • MySpace
  • Website




    • Adham Shaikh's Dreamtree Project

    The Dreamtree Project is an Indian dub fusion collective weaving a magic carpet ride of classical Indian raga afloat a dub cloud of swirling tabla, mystical flute, spacey beats and booming bass lines. Beyond notions of East meets West, the Dreamtree Project conjures a space for all who long to be seduced by the power of music and communal enlightenment.


    Mystical! Although not seen during the performance, these golden balls appeared in each of the photos when developed.

    The Dreamtree Project includes Adham Shaikh who has been producing music for 18 years with a keen ear towards world music, weaving the sounds of India, Bali, Australia, Africa, Jamaica, the Middle East, Slovakia, Scandinavia, Turkey, and North America, into all aspects of his production.


    The Dreamtree Project also features sitar virtuoso Uwe Neumann and tabla player Shankar Das. After studying classical and jazz guitar in Germany for 14 years, Uwe moved to India where he lived and studied with sitar Maestro Pandit Indranil Bhattacharya, receiving both bachelor and master degrees on sitar from Indian University in Shantiniketan. Shankar Das studied with the legendary Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain, almost twenty years ago and has since become a master percussion. Flauist Marty Carter completes the quartet.

     Full biography at VFMF


  • Adham Shaikh MySpace
  • Adham Shaikh Website
  • Uwe Neumann MySpace
  • Uwe Neumann Website
  • Shankar Das Bio

    • Music Available at Amazon

    Adham Shaikh

    •     Collectivity
    • Journey To the Sun
    • Essence
    • Drift

    Uwe Neumann

     • Metta Yoga Sound Massage

    We just couldn't stand still during the best 15-minute sound check ever!



    Po' Girl
    Allison Russell, Awna Teixeira, Trish Klein, Diona Davies, and drummer John Raham, are favourites among many generations audiences at the Festival. Where Alison's voice is rich and bluesy, Trish, Diona and Awna offer a smoother tone, creating a quality where you can just sit back and get lost in the song and forget all of your troubles.


    The music of Po' Girl includes the blues, a gypsy fiddle, punk rock street poetry, Cajun love songs, Depression-era jazz, R&B and soul.


    A versatile group, their collection of instruments include banjo, clarinet, slide guitar, piano, accordion, gutbucket bass, harmonica, penny-whistle, mandolin, violin, and more!

     Full biography at VFMF


    Group solidarity before the taping for CBC's radio programme Canada Live.


    Music Available at Amazon

     • Home To You
    • Po' Girl
    • Vagabond Lullabies

  • MySpace
  • Website