A New Folk Fest Favourite (Johnny Flynn)

After today's workshops and main stage performances I must say that I have a new favourite from the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. His name is Johnny Flynn and he's performing with his band the Sussex Wit. I saw him in the workshop that I wrote about earlier, and I saw him on the main stage this evening.

I also got a spur of the moment interview with Johnny Flynn which sent me scrambling to think up some questions to ask him in 10 minutes. I figured out some questions and I think the interview went rather well. Here is a preview of the interview that I will be putting in my July/August issue of Die Zeitung.


Johnny Flynn's first instrument was the violin but he can now play the guitar, mandolin, banjo and even more! Before he was a musician, he was a stage actor, and a lot of his songs are inspired by literature, especially that of Shakespeare.



Johnny Flynn singing on the main stage, his voice was also great and unique.


"Sometimes Shakespeare feels to me like an extremely complex and metaphorical poem," Flynn said in the interview. As for how his previous life as an actor has effected his songwriting, "Sometimes I try and use the same things to write as songs as we would to work on a play," he replied.



The Sussex Wit's great keyboard player!

I wondered what he thought about the use of classifying music by genre, as his music is very unique, and doesn't really have a distinct genre, "I really only think the use of classifying music by genre is if you're going to try and find a band in a record store. I really don't like it when someone says 'oh you should quit this for that'".



Cello player for the Sussex Wit.


If you want to read more about Johnny Flynn and hear about the rest of the interview, subscribe or buy the July/August issue of my newspaper, Die Zeitung if you haven't already.

Still coming this night is Iron and Wine, which will probably be a fantastic performance. So stay tuned if you're not here at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, but if you are here at the folk fest, I'll see you on the hill!

13 Year Old Quinn Bachand Rocks the Stage With Fiddler Ashley MacIsaac

Earlier today Ashley MacIsaac played his concert with 13 year old guitar accompanist Quinn Bachand. The followings are highlights from an interview I did with Quinn earlier today.


Quinn grew up as part of a musical family. "I started playing violin because my two sisters were also playing violin", he said. One of those sisters is Qristina Bachand, who is also a great traditional Celtic fiddle player. Qristina and Quinn often play together at Celtic music festivals.

Quinn, a guitar and violin player who started playing music when he was 6 years old, met Ashley MacIsaac this march, and has been playing concerts with him every once and a while ever since. "I've been listening to him all my life" Quinn said about MacIsaac, who mainly plays traditional Celtic music. Quinn also plays Celtic accompaniments on guitar. Celtic may seem like a strange music choice for a teenage but as Quinn told me, "I just get inspired by Celtic music."





Ashley MacIsaac performing at his concert on a side stage on Saturday at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. His fiddle playing is so full of life, and even though I am not usually interested in traditional Celtic music, his fiddle playing was mesmerizing.


"I also like jazz, and some classic rock", Quinn said, so Celtic is not his only music choice. And, as he said, "I can't imagine my life without music" and I guess that means jazz and classic rock, not just traditional Celtic.




Quinn playing guitar was Ashley MacIsaac on Saturday at their concert on a side stage at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. I also play guitar, so I feel like I can truly appreciate Quinn's ability on the guitar, and he is amazing. His guitar playing is also very rhythmic, so it almost seems to serve as the rhythmic section for their songs aswell.


I will be putting my full interview with Quinn Bachand in my next issue of Die Zeitung, which will be coming out at the end of August/beginning of September. If you have not bought the single copy of the issue or the full subscription of Die Zeitung, please do so.

In other news, I got a very spur of the moment interview with Johnny Flynn, who played at the workshop I wrote about this morning. Johnny Flynn is also playing main stage tonight, so I will put some more pictures up and a review later tonight. Playing main stage tonight will also be Iron and Wine, so stay tuned for that too.

So stay tuned for more live updates if you weren't able to make it to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival this year, but if you were able to make it, I'll see on on the hill!

"Talkin' Bout Our Generation"

I just got back from what I must say was one of the best workshops at any folk festival I have ever been to. The workshop was called "Talkin' Bout Out Generation" and featured Joel Plaskett, Johnny Flynn, Jill Barber and Ben Sures. I really enjoyed Johnny Flynn, Jill Barber, and of course one of my already favourites Joel Plaskett.

I thought that this workshop was really great because it combined the artists performing there own songs alone, and them performing together. Joel Plaskett and Jill Barber, both coming from Nova Scotia, were great together and played many of each others songs together.


Jill Barber singer on stage. She had a great and unique voice. Her music is kind of hard to describe. I guess you could say it was folk rock, but whatever it was, it was excellent!



Joel Plaskett playing a tiny keyboard that he bought at Value Village during his song Rewind, Rewind, Rewind from his triple album 3. Jill Barber joined Joel in this song and it sounded amazing!



Johnny Flynn, joined by his band the Sussex Wit, was also very good! His music was also very unique, mixing folk, country, blues and rock. It was an amazing fusion of genres and it all came out into excellent music.



All of them joined in the end for one song. Together it was mega-amazing, with all their amazing musical powers all blending into one :). It was fantastic.

Johnny Flynn is also playing on the Main Stage tonight at 6:00 PM, so visit this blog for a review and update about that show. Also playing tonight is Iron and Wine, who will probably also have an excellent show.

So for those of you who weren't able to make it to the festival, stayed tuned, but for those of you who are here, I'll see you on the hill!

Neko Case the Star of Friday Night's Performances

Neko Case's performances tonight at the Edmonton folk fest was absolutely amazing. She showed great personality on stage and of course performed a great show. I haven't heard a lot of Neko Case's music, but from what I've heard on CD and live, I can definitely say that she is a performer that is much better live.

Neko Case's voice is also amazing. Cory, a musician and friend of mine (who was also part of our alliance in the colour raffle ), once said, "Neko Case has the best voice that country music has ever seen", and after hearing her live, I might have to agree with him.

Her personality also shone through in her live performance. Before each song she told us what inspired the song, or what the song was about. Usually they were very interesting... and sometimes a bit strange too. For one song, she told us that it was about her first boyfriend that she ever had... and he was invisible. Seeing her live and hearing what she thought that the song was about, really added to the experience, and you could enjoy the music more.



Neko Case singing on stage. As I said, her voice was amazing, possibly one of the best voices in country music...



Neko Case and band performing on stage. I saw her on a side stage earlier, where it was just her and one of her guitar players, and I must say that I enjoyed her music much better with the whole band.



OK, first of all, I am very proud to have taken this photo. Here's what I think is an excellent photo of Neko Case singing and playing guitar, while Neko Case's drum player plays drums in the background.

I think this is going to be my last post of the night. But tune in tomorrow for highlights from my interview with 13 year guitarist Quinn Bachand. I will also be posting highlights from Saturday workshops and one or two posts about the main stage performances.

So tune in tomorrow if you weren't able to make it to the folk fest, but if you are at the folk fest, I'll see you on the hill!

Good night!

Friday Afternoon Workshops (Joel Plaskett, Kathleen Edwards, Neko Case...)

The workshops at the folk fest started today. For those of you who don't know, a workshop is a concert at a smaller stage that usually has 2 - 4 different artists performing at them. It's great to learn and hear about new music, and hear everyone performing together, to create a musical "fusion".

The first workshop I went to today, was with Joel Plaskett, Alex Cuba, Chloe Albert, and David Francey with Dave Swarbrick. I mainly came to this workshop to see Joel Plaskett, but also became to know and enjoy Alex Cuba and Chloe Albert. This workshop was really great in hearing all the artists performing together. At some points during the performance, you could hardly tell who was part of what band!




Joel Plaskett and his father Bill Plaskett. They played lots of songs from Joel Plaskett's newest album 3



The whole stage with Joel and Bill Plaskett, Alex Cuba and band, Chloe Albert and David Francey with Dave Swarbrick and band.

The second workshop, which was right after and at the same stage as the first, had Kathleen Edwards, Neko Case and Chuck Brodsky. I really enjoyed both Neko Case and Kathleen Edwards at this workshop. What was different about this one from the first, though, was that they all played their songs separately, there was no collaborating or "jamming", which was really great too, because we really got to know each artist.



Kathleen Edwards, who played some great tunes including a "child friendly" version of her song the Cheapest Key that she had to write for CBC Kids.


Neko Case with Paul Rigby (I think...). They played some great, soft, country songs that I quite enjoyed.

I also wanted to let everyone know that I did get an interview with Joel Plaskett. The interview will be on Sunday at 1:30 PM, so stay tuned that day for some highlights of the interview.

For those of you who weren't able to make it to the folk fest, stay tuned for more live updates from the festival. And for those who are at the folk fest, I'll see you on the hill!

Thursday Kicks Off What Should be a Great 30th Edmonton Folk Festival

Last night was the first "real" (yes, i know, it was also on Wednesday) day of the 2009 Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Four performers shone last night, including Breabach, Kathleen Edwards, Steve Earle and Boz Scaggs.

Breabach from Scotland kicked off the night with some traditional Scottish folk music. With double bagpipes a fiddle and a guitar, this band really filled up the stage, and the whole festival grounds with their fast rhythms and energy.

Coming from Ontario, Kathleen Edwards was up next. She put on a great show, with a mix of country, rock, and folk. Right from her first tune that she played, you could tell that the crowd was really into it. I think that possibly Kathleen Edwards could have been one of the performers at this years festival that people hadn't really heard of before, but now she might be one of their favourites. She played some great songs from her latest album Asking for Flowers such as The Cheapest Key, I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory, and title track, Asking for Flowers.

Steve Earle from the US took the stage next. In his music you can really tell that he writes from experience. He's a political activist and prison survivor and that really shows in his lyrics. Though his music was technically "country" it seemed like the kind of country that I could deal with and actually like. Earle was all alone on the stage, but his music was very powerful and you could hear it all through the hill.

Another American, Boz Scaggs was up next. And surprisingly, he felt like one of my favourites of the night. His songs were very 70s and kinda cheesy as my mom said, but even she had to admit that he put on a great show. His songs were a bit jazzy and seemed very traditional rock and roll... with a bit of folk mixed in I guess. We had to leave about 10 minutes before the end of his show, and even as we were walking to his car, we could hear his one last, long drawn out encore.

I put some pictures of the performers last night, but here are some pictures of the folk fest in general.



Folk fest goers watching the stage.



The hill full of people.



The full of people at night, lots of people had their candles out already. I was hard to get a good shot of this, as you can see...

Now I gotta go to a traditional Friday morning High Level Diner breakfast, but stay tuned for more updates later, and if you're going to the folk fest today, I'll see you on the hill!

First Confirmed Interview / Final Thursday Night Performances

First off, I have been confirmed an interview with 13 year old guitar accompanist for Ashley MacIsaac, Quinn Bachand. Quinn and his sister Qristina (18) have already put out a CD called Relative Minors and have accompanied many well known musicians such as Ashely MacIsaac at this year's folk festival. I will be doing an interview with Quinn on Saturday at 2:00 PM, so make sure you check Saturday night for parts of the interview.

The last two performances of Thursday night at the Edmonton Folk Festival were country/folk artist Steve Earle and folk/rock artist Boz Scaggs. Here are some pictures of the performances, but remember to check out a full article about Thursday night's performances tomorrow morning.



A close-up of Steve Earle playing guitar. I don't usually like "country" music, but this seemed like the kind of country that I quite liked.



Steve Earle was all alone on the stage, yet his music was still very powerful.



A nice shot of the Edmonton downtown skyline as seen from the Edmonton Folk Fest.



A close-up of Boz Scaggs. Some of his songs sounded quite jazzy, but some sounded more like rock and roll or folk.



A saxophonist that played an amazing solo in one of Boz Scaggs' songs.

So check in tomorrow morning for a full review of tonight's performances, and stay tuned for all my other posts, especially my Saturday interview with 13 year old Quinn Bachand.

Good night everyone but check in the rest of the weekend!

Kathleen Edwards Mainstage Thursday Night

Kathleen Edward's main stage performance at this years folk festival just finished. Still coming tonight is Steve Earle and Boz Scaggs.

I took some pictures of the performance, but I will put a full update and article about Thursday night's main stage performance tomorrow.



The stage and festival goers, we were not that far from the front!She was great as she played many songs from her latest CD, Asking for Flowers.



A close-up of Kathleen rocking the stage. Her personality really shines in her live performances, as well as in her lyrics.



The whole band performing. Though she is listen as "Kathleen Edwards", a band performed with her. Together with the band it was an excellent show!

So stay tuned for more updates tonight, and a full article about today's performances tomorrow morning.

Also, if you're at the festival and like Kathleen Edward's performance tonight, she is playing a working shop with Neko Case tomorrow (friday) on Stage 6 at 7:30 PM.

For those of you at the festival, I hope you're enjoying it so far, and I'll see you on the hill!

Edmonton Folk Fest!

I really did want to post this before now, maybe a week ago, but I guess I found myself busier than I had thought.

Today, tomorrow, and this weekend I will be at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. This year is the 30th anniversary of the festival, and it looks like it will be great. Like last year, I have organized to get a media pass for the festival, so I will be hopefully getting a few interviews for the blog and my next issue of Die Zeitung. I will be posting regular updates throughout the festival from the media tent, for those who were not able to make it to the festival.

For those who are going, I just wanted to let you know some of the artists and workshops that I'm looking forward to this year. I'm really looking forward to Kathleen Edwards, Joel Plaskett, Iron and Wine, Great Lake Swimmers, and Neko Case.

Some of my picks for workshops to go to this year are:

Friday Stage 6 at 7:30 PM, with Kathleen Edwards and Neko Case.
Pretty much all the sessions with Joel Plaskett on Saturday.
Sunday Stage 3 at 11:00 AM with Chumbawamba and Arrested Development.
I'm also really excited to see Kathleen Edwards on Main Stage tonight, Neko Case on Main Stage tomorrow and Iron and Wine on Main Stage on Saturday.

So please, if you were not able to make it this year, or are interested in seeing what's happening at the folk fest this year, please tune in regularly to my blog. If you are going to the folk fest - I'll see you on the hill!

CIBC Run for the Cure 2009

This year my friend Rebecca and I have organized with my school, McKernan Junior High, to do the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure. The walk/run will be on Sunday October 4th. The Run for the Cure is held annually across the country to raise money for breast cancer research.

Please help create a future without breast cancer by making a donation today. Your donation will be directed towards research, education and awareness programs. To donate please visit my fund raising page: https://www.cibcrunforthecure.com/html/personal_page.asp?track=3366766&languageid=1

Thank you. I appreciate your support!