Concert review: Eclectic lineup livens soggy Saturday at the Calgary Folk Music Festival
'It's not a folk festival until someone comes along with an electric guitar and (expletive) it all up' said Steve Earle on Saturday night at the Calgary Folk Music Festival before launching into a lively version of The Week of Living Dangerously, his scorching 1987 honky-tonk cautionary tale.
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It was nice reminder of Earle's wild youth and his 50-year genre-fuzzy career that has always placed him on outer limits of country music. It was also, presumably, a reference to one of the most infamous folk-fest moments in music history: Bob Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where he went 'electric' and received boos and hostility from the folk purists in the crowd.
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After 46 years of adventurous music, it should be clear to anyone who has been paying attention that the Calgary Folk Fest has never been a festival for folk purists. Saturday's festivities at Prince's Island Park nevertheless offered a nice mix of what we have come to expect from a folk fest lineup: There was some straight-ahead folk from Scotland's Langan Band, some progressive politics and jazz-folk from U.S. singer-songwriter Madeleine Peyroux, some world-music from the lively Les Mamans du Congo X Rrobin and two roots-rock icons in Earle and veteran genre-hoppers Los Lobos.
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Earle, who recently celebrated a half-century in the music industry, offered a good deal of nostalgia for long-term fans. He didn't leave the 1980s for his first five songs. Backed by Austin, Tx. country-rock act Reckless Kelly, Earle kicked things off with three songs from his 1986 debut Guitar Town that included the title track, the yearning Someday and haunting My Old Friend the Blues. It was followed by the singalong gem I Ain't Ever Satisfied from his 1987 sophomore record Exit 0 and the Devil's Right Hand from his 1989 breakthrough Copperhead Road. There were a few surprises. It was nice to hear his 1995 ballad Goodbye. It is one of his most beautiful and mournful melodies and the first song Earle penned when kicking a nasty drug habit. Bad Girls, a song literally released last week as a duet between Earle and Reckless Kelly, fit in nicely, as did the stinging title track and howling Fixin' To Die from 2017's So You Wanna Be An Outlaw. One of the highlights was It's About Blood, a harrowing obscurity from Earle's 2020 album Ghosts of West Virginia and the off-Broadway musical Coal Country, which is about the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster that killed 29 people.
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But, for the most part, Saturday's closing set offered a handful of crowd-pleasing favourites, including suitably charged takes on Copperhead Road, Hard-Core Troubadour, The Galway Girl and the Celtic-flavoured encore Johnny Come Lately, which Earle recorded with The Pogues in London in the 1980s (He dedicated the song to that band's late frontman Shane MacGowan, who died in 2023.)
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These days, the bearded 70-year-old Earle has a stage presence that suggests a somewhat weary elder statesmen, but having a band like Reckless Kelly behind him gave the songs an extra kick to end the evening.
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The day was not without its speed bumps. A thunder storm and early evening downpour temporarily halted the music few minutes after the Langan Band finished their opening set, topping off a day of grey clouds on Prince's Island Park. The weather teetered on the edge of uncooperative on both Friday and Saturday afternoon during the four-day festival, with rain and unusually cold temperatures putting a damper on things and turning the park into a soggy, muddy mess. Just before Peyroux was about the hit the stage, the crowd was told that the performances would halt in hopes it would blow over. It delayed things for about an hour before the sun broke through the clouds, which may have gotten the loudest cheer from the soaked audience up until that point in the day.
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Calgary Herald
6 days ago
- Calgary Herald
Concert review: Rain doesn't stop the party as Cake close Calgary Folk Music Festival
The rain returned to Prince's Island Park Sunday evening just as headliners Cake broke into Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle, the 1993 single from the California band that began their journey as unlikely rock stars. Article content Roughly half-a-dozen or more songs into the evening, lead vocalist John McCrea looked out into a sea of bopping, sloshing fans in rain-slicked ponchos and asked 'Is it sorta raining out there?' Article content Article content Three days of wet weather had turned much of Prince's Island Park into a muddy mess on Sunday evening, but it would be hard to find anyone in attendance who wasn't wearing a smile during Cake's set. It might be one of the most entertaining, f finales of any folk festival in recent memory. Thirty years after the band hit the mainstream with its unique brand of 'quirk-rock,' McCrea remains one of the most unusual frontmen since David Byrne. These days, he gives off a vibe that suggests a goofy, near-retirement grade-school science teacher letting his hair down on a field trip. But there is no denying his magnetic appeal. Article content Article content After a comically long and epic intro of piped-in triumphant music, the band appeared on stage and eventually kicked off the set with the clever Frank Sinatra and Sheep Go the Heaven. The latter became the first of many endearingly odd singalongs. It happened again with an extended run through the catchy Sick of You and Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, their 1996 English-language cover of the Cuban favourite. McCrea even managed to turn the 2024 single Billionaire in Space, the first new music Cake has released in more than seven years, into a singalong despite the fact that it likely has not be widely heard yet. Steve Berlin, saxophonist for one of Saturday night's headliners, Los Lobos, joined the band for their 2007 cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs and audience enthusiasm hit a frenzied peak when the band played hits such as The Distance and Short Skirt/Long Jacket. On the surface, the band seems like an unlikely stadium act. But those disco bass lines, blasts of trumpet and catchy hooks remain endlessly endearing. Article content Article content It was a nice send-off for audiences after a mucky few days of inclement weather. Article content The festival survived what artistic director Kerry Clarke called 'the soggiest event we've had in years if not decades,' with a sudden thunder storm and downpour halting the music temporarily on the main stage on Saturday. Article content But the show otherwise went on Saturday, with main stage acts Madeleine Peyroux, Le Mamans du Congo X Rrobin, Los Lobos and Steve Earle shaving five to 10 minutes from their sets to accommodate the delay. In the end, the evening came to an end only half-hour after the planned 11:30 p.m. finish. Article content 'We've had bad rain, but probably the worst was 25 years ago where it poured all day,' says Clarke. 'There's always rumours of rain at our festival. In the afternoon the skies open up for half an hour and then it's clear. It's my fault, last year I was complaining about how dry the site was and how there was no grass.'
Calgary Herald
7 days ago
- Calgary Herald
Concert review: Eclectic lineup livens soggy Saturday at the Calgary Folk Music Festival
Article content 'It's not a folk festival until someone comes along with an electric guitar and (expletive) it all up' said Steve Earle on Saturday night at the Calgary Folk Music Festival before launching into a lively version of The Week of Living Dangerously, his scorching 1987 honky-tonk cautionary tale. Article content It was nice reminder of Earle's wild youth and his 50-year genre-fuzzy career that has always placed him on outer limits of country music. It was also, presumably, a reference to one of the most infamous folk-fest moments in music history: Bob Dylan's performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where he went 'electric' and received boos and hostility from the folk purists in the crowd. Article content Article content After 46 years of adventurous music, it should be clear to anyone who has been paying attention that the Calgary Folk Fest has never been a festival for folk purists. Saturday's festivities at Prince's Island Park nevertheless offered a nice mix of what we have come to expect from a folk fest lineup: There was some straight-ahead folk from Scotland's Langan Band, some progressive politics and jazz-folk from U.S. singer-songwriter Madeleine Peyroux, some world-music from the lively Les Mamans du Congo X Rrobin and two roots-rock icons in Earle and veteran genre-hoppers Los Lobos. Article content Article content Article content Earle, who recently celebrated a half-century in the music industry, offered a good deal of nostalgia for long-term fans. He didn't leave the 1980s for his first five songs. Backed by Austin, Tx. country-rock act Reckless Kelly, Earle kicked things off with three songs from his 1986 debut Guitar Town that included the title track, the yearning Someday and haunting My Old Friend the Blues. It was followed by the singalong gem I Ain't Ever Satisfied from his 1987 sophomore record Exit 0 and the Devil's Right Hand from his 1989 breakthrough Copperhead Road. There were a few surprises. It was nice to hear his 1995 ballad Goodbye. It is one of his most beautiful and mournful melodies and the first song Earle penned when kicking a nasty drug habit. Bad Girls, a song literally released last week as a duet between Earle and Reckless Kelly, fit in nicely, as did the stinging title track and howling Fixin' To Die from 2017's So You Wanna Be An Outlaw. One of the highlights was It's About Blood, a harrowing obscurity from Earle's 2020 album Ghosts of West Virginia and the off-Broadway musical Coal Country, which is about the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster that killed 29 people. Article content Article content But, for the most part, Saturday's closing set offered a handful of crowd-pleasing favourites, including suitably charged takes on Copperhead Road, Hard-Core Troubadour, The Galway Girl and the Celtic-flavoured encore Johnny Come Lately, which Earle recorded with The Pogues in London in the 1980s (He dedicated the song to that band's late frontman Shane MacGowan, who died in 2023.) Article content Article content These days, the bearded 70-year-old Earle has a stage presence that suggests a somewhat weary elder statesmen, but having a band like Reckless Kelly behind him gave the songs an extra kick to end the evening. Article content The day was not without its speed bumps. A thunder storm and early evening downpour temporarily halted the music few minutes after the Langan Band finished their opening set, topping off a day of grey clouds on Prince's Island Park. The weather teetered on the edge of uncooperative on both Friday and Saturday afternoon during the four-day festival, with rain and unusually cold temperatures putting a damper on things and turning the park into a soggy, muddy mess. Just before Peyroux was about the hit the stage, the crowd was told that the performances would halt in hopes it would blow over. It delayed things for about an hour before the sun broke through the clouds, which may have gotten the loudest cheer from the soaked audience up until that point in the day.
Calgary Herald
24-07-2025
- Calgary Herald
CAKE to bring 'more frenetic, louder, messier' show to close Calgary Folk Music Festival
Article content When John McCrea returned to the stage after a lengthy break caused by the pandemic, he felt rare pangs of stage fright. Article content It was a strange development since the lead singer of CAKE has been performing as part of the California band since 1991, often in front of large festival or amphitheatre crowds. Article content 'Weirdly, after playing thousands of shows, I started having a bit of anxiety,' says McCrea, in an interview with Postmedia. 'I think I was just having anxiety about everything, about the world. But getting on the stage when you have anxiety is a tall order.' Article content Article content So, in the tradition of NASCAR races and Nickelback concerts, McCrea began to incorporate the T-shirt cannon into his band's act. Article content Article content 'Having that foil, as it were, this excuse for distance, this powerful T-shirt gun thing that made a nice, satisfying (pop), it actually got me back on stage,' he says. 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'I'm pretty sure our song (Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle) was on the college-radio charts before we got signed. So they were kind of like, 'We don't know what this is, so let's just let them do whatever the hell this is.' That was cool. Mostly that's what they did. Here and there, they messed with us. A lot of bands, when they sign, it's a very unequal relationship and they can dress them up funny, put them with producers that are wrong for them, etc., etc.' Article content Article content As for the live show, we will presumably see some T-shirt cannon action, but beyond that, the band tends to be unpredictable on stage. CAKE never relies on a setlist for concerts, which should give the Sunday night showcase a sense of spontaneity. Article content 'We do that to stay alive inside and not feel like a machine that is being forced to play a certain song at a certain time,' McCrea says. 'That said, we tend to play songs from all of our albums. Most of the time, we remember to play a song that was popular in a country or a town. We remember to play that song sometimes, and sometimes we don't. But it is a more spontaneous, slightly more frenetic, louder, messier than our studio albums.'
