Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody

Well, it's been a completely, crazy jam packed weekend within adventures and in-laws and butter chicken. So, I thought I'd stop by and drop some notes and let people know what's what in the (not really that) exciting world of Mike.

Rachel's parents arrived on Friday afternoon some time Rachel and I had a wedding to go to, so we all ate supper together then went our separate ways. Let's be honest here: I like weddings a lot more than funerals - I'm tired of funerals. And this wedding was very nice and a lot of fun. The bridesmaids weren't dressed hideously, the bride sang a surprise song, and the reception was relaxed and social. Saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice; ate, chatted... and left before the dancing, but that's probably the best thing for everyone as I likely would have injured myself or someone else.

On Sunday we drove up to Bird's Hill Park to enjoy the wonder that is Folk Festival. After returning to the house a few times to pick up extra sweaters (it was a bit chilly in the morning) we finally made it to the park by 11 or so. The first thing we caught was a workshop of Celtic Franco-phone bands - a little odd a combination, but the two bands were great and played together with gusto. I was a little surprised to learn to one of the bands is from Regina. Didn't realize that Regina had any French people... maybe they keep them hidden away with the Aboriginals?

Next, we caught a set with Doug Frechette, the Wailing Jennies and the Doug and Jess Band. I wanted to see this set, as the "Doug" of "the Doug and Jess Band" was the first professor I TA'd for here at the University of Manitoba. He's retired now and has devoted himself to playing and performing music, mainly bluegrass. This was a brilliant set, with a steady mix of alt-country, bluegrass and folk. The only problem was the workshop was called "Getting Hairy on the Prairie" (seriously, who thinks up shit like that?), which host Frechette repeated every time he took the mic. Note to future hosts: if your workshop name is stupid, you are not obligated to repeat it over and over. In fact, it's best to just never mention it.

Luckily, it had warmed up considerably by this point. My mother-in-law, however, remained wrapped in a blanket for most of the day. Cue menopause jokes.

After this we headed over to a spoken word workshop with Ridley Brent, Belieze dub-poet Leroy Young, the aptly named Tons of Fun University (T.O.F.U.) and the incredible, must-be-seen-to-be-believed That 1 Guy. This might have been my favourite workshop, even though I'm not a huge poetry slam-fan. The groups mixed well, helped each other out. Young's poetry was lyrical and more obvious serious, Brent's more narrative driven. One of the guys from T.O.F.U. brought the house down with an angry, ironic, and topical poem - the line "Oh say, can you see... who fuckin' jacked me" got a loud cheer and the poem itself got a 3 minute standing ovation. That 1 Guy closed the show with a demonstration of the incredible range of his "wacky instrument, the 7-foot-high Magic Pipe (a homemade, two string contraption that serves both rhythmic and melodic duties)." As his closer he played something akin to Stomp-y techno, with beat-box backing and odd percussive sounds that you might hear on a club-mix. All of a sudden he breaks into a rocking cover of "Smoke on the Water." The audience went nuts. After playing "Smoke" for a while (during which the Magic Pipe started spewing smoke) he switched seamlessly to twangy bluegrass. Incredible.

After an informative workshop on "Appalachian Education" by Tony Trischka and Mike Seeger (Pete's younger brother), which was noteworthy because of a song about a horse race and the copious amount of pot smoked by the group next to us, I went to check out the shops while listening to Afrodizz play a few dozen yards away. Afrodizz is a fun band, reminiscent of the old Shuffledemons, but thankfully without the gimmicky wardrobe. Were I prone to dance, this would have been the band I danced to.

The Main Stage concert that evening was Richard Thompson, Ferron, Rickie Lee Jones, Mike Seeger and Bruce Cockburn. Thompson was great, an incredible musician and lyricist; Jones was solid (except when she spoke - she sounded like an airhead, which I know she's not), but Bruce Cockburn was incredible live. His set was worth the price of admission alone. I think I've dismissed most of Cockburn's material because of his heavy-handed use of synthesizers on his studio albums. I knew "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" was an important song, I appreciated the politics of "If I Had a Rocket launcher"... but, I haven't paid attention to most of his work. Last night, with the songs stripped down to acoustic guitar and voice, I heard them for what they are.

Of course, the best and worst part of Folk Festival is the audience. How such an eclectic group of people manages to get along for so long is beyond me. Why so many people feel the need to sit down next to you and talk all the way through an act, usually telling the person they’re talking to how much they love music and how they’ve been coming to Folk Fest for so many years….

And then there are the freaks. The neo-hippies, the throwback hippies, the dudes in kilts, the women showing way too much skin, the guys showing even more skin… I am a little curious to know how some of those people operate in the real world. I mean, you know some/most of them are playing the weird up for the weekend, because Folk Fest is one of the accepting places in the world: the young guys likely only wear their sarongs for this one weekend; older guys drag out their beads and walking sticks for Folk Fest... but not all of them can be playing. There was one older guy in all tie-dye dancing away. I don't know if he was on something, but he was feeling the music. He didn't look like this was an act. So where does he go the rest of the year?