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Articles of Section 'Folk Fest'.

Folk Fest

Folk Fest ends on an upbeat note

AFTER A SOGGY start to its 28th season-and some spirit-dampening predictions about its future-the sun is shining once more on the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Good weather on Saturday and Sunday (July 16 and 17) helped the three-day event meet its economic goals, and a newly energized board is working to free it from its accumulated debt.

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Folk Fest

Duo does things naturally

By Alexander Varty

According to Bill Bourne, joining forces with his Faroese counterpart Eivør Pálsdóttir involved a lot of air miles but ended up being the easiest thing in the world. "It was very natural," says the Edmonton-based folksinger, on the line from his home. "A mutual friend of Eivør's and mine in Iceland set up a couple of gigs with the three of us in May of 2004. That was the first time I'd met Eivør, at the sound check.

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Folk Fest

Word delivered from on high at Banff Summit

By Hilary Peach

Sean McGarragle, poet and artistic director of the West Coast Poetry Festival, stands chatting with his colleague, RC Weslowski. Weslowski is directing the migratory Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Vancouver this fall, so the meeting is not at all unusual-except that they are standing ankle-deep in sedge grass in the middle of the Trans-Canada Highway, 60 kilometres west of Calgary. On the hillside above, travellers have formed words by rearranging boulders.

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Folk Fest

Dobro didn't take long to drive Cox crazy

By Tony Montague

The Dobro is a curious-looking beast: an acoustic guitar with a large, mechanically resonated speaker cone in its belly, which gives the instrument a loud, metallic resonance. For Doug Cox, it was love at first sight-and sound-when he heard Dobro master Jerry Douglas play it, lap-style, at a concert back in the late '80s.

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Folk Fest

Songwriting doesn't come easy to grieving Casey

By Tony Montague

Karan Casey sounds sad and reflective on the phone. Frank Harte, her great friend and mentor as an Irish traditional singer, has just died at the age of 72, following a heart attack. Since returning to Ireland from the U.S. five years ago, Casey had been a regular visitor at Harte's home on the banks of the River Liffey. The day after her interview with the Georgia Straight, she's off to Dublin for the funeral and wake.

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Folk Fest

Gilkyson's "Paradise Hotel" takes aim at hypocrisy

By Tony Montague

Eliza Gilkyson may not name any names on "Man of God", from her recently released Paradise Hotel, but the singer-songwriter doesn't mince her words. The bluesy number is a savage denunciation of the current U.S. president and his fondness for quoting scripture to justify reactionary policies and to damn all dissenters.

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Folk Fest

Dòchas on a mission to help keep Gaelic alive

By Tony Montague

Scottish singer Julie Fowlis comes from one of the most remote communities in Europe. The island of North Uist-windswept, sparsely inhabited, and timeless-lies off the northwest coast of Britain. It's part of the Outer Hebrides archipelago, the last remaining stronghold of Scottish Gaelic as a living language and culture.

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