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Live Folk, Roots & Celtic Music in Vancouver BC

The Rogue Folk Festival Month Rocks on!

Steve's Blog
Shorefest Update, Mission Review, and More!
Friday July 31, 2015

 Jul 24, 2015Aug 7, 2015 

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1. Shorefest Update
The weather was perfect for Shorefest last Wednesday. We had some great music - notably Colin Linden, Steve Dawson (including a duet on a Howlin Wolf song), Dawn Pemberton, Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer (more collaborations!), and kicked it all off with Skye Wallace and her impressive band. What followed was totally stunning and a complete surprise, nay shock, to me! We had a Brazilian carnaval, some capoeira, some samba dancers (with head-dresses that I said "make the Pride parade look like black & white television!") Then some Canadian paratroopers literally dropped in! Then there was even more Brazilian music from Ache Brasil, taking us up to 9:30pm. to the east was a nearly full moon, to the west a magnificient sunset, followed by a stunning pyrotechnic display from Brazil. I've added some photos to commemorate the occasion. 
 
A slight change to the lineup last weekend meant that Paul Pigat played on July 25th and Bros. Landreth now play on August 1st. This suits me well; I saw them - briefly - at Island Musicfest the other week and they were amazing! Such good harmonies.

Tomorrow's Rogue Stage at Sunset Beach kicks off at 2pm with Wes Mackey, followed by Chin Injeti at 3pm, Winnipeg's Brothers Landreth at 4pm, Vancouver's Colleen Rennison at 5pm, and Daniel Wesley at 6pm. Not sure whether there will be a cultural component or not, but Kuba Ohms and BC Classic Rock legends Chilliwack are on the English Bay Stage starting at 8pm. 
 
All the music is FREE, courtesy of our good friends at 104.3fm who have supported us for the past 7 years. Thanks, folks! We hope to continue our relationship for many years to come! 
 
We'll have a Rogue tent near the Sunset Beach stage, where we will be selling artists' CDs and spreading the good word about our concert series, so come along and say Hi!

Don't forget that there is also a beer garden this year, and there are lots of edible freebies to be had around the park, plus an excellent salmon - or pork - BBQ. Good music (free!) good beer, great food, sunshine and fireworks. We reckon it's a pretty good way to spend a Saturday.
 
2. Mission Folk Festival
What a weekend that was!! Pouring rain on Friday, a lovely day on Saturday, scattered showers on Sunday, and heaps of incredible music that you won't hear at any other festival in Canada this summer. I took some photos I'd like to share with you from the event. 
 
Those Galician women - Ialma - were amazing! They just couldn't stop singing! 4 and 5 voices singing in unison - all sorts of songs from drinking songs to traditional Galician and even Quebecois songs - all delivered with the brightest smiles I've ever seen. And they were accompanied by a fubulous accordion and guitar duo.

The Polish string quintet Volosi blew my mind too. Great musicianship - and breathtaking choreography. They twirled around each other on stage and played a remarkable mix of fast tunes from Transylvania and slow airs from the Carpathians.

And then there was Haya from Inner Mongolia, led by the incredibly graceful singer Daqin Tana. At once ancient and modern, they combined exotic stringed instruments with modern beats and some throat singing to add to Daqin's incredible soprano. 

Ialma's collaborative workshop with Zimbabwe's Black Umfolosi was another highlight. They had never met before, their music has little in common, yet they managed to sing and dance together and delight the slightly damp crowd on Sunday afternoon. 

Lydia Hol, who is also The Rogue's Admin Assistant nowadays, gave a very accomplished performance on Sunday night, and there were fabulous sets by pipers Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson, and Martin Nolan from Dublin, and fiddlers Jocelyn Pettit from Squamish, Pierre Schryer from Ontario, Kristian Bugge from Denmark, Jamie Foxx from Montana, and Ruthie Dornfeld from Washington State. The Gallus Brothers and Lucas Hicks' Basque music and ragtime ensembles were amazing as well. 
 
It was a fabulous weekend, but it must be noted that the attendance was down due to the weather. This festival is one of my favourites, and I think they really need some financial assistance. Please click here, scroll down a little, and click on the link to Canada Helps on the right hand side of the home page. This will enable you to make a quick and easy donation to help keep the Mission Folk Music Festival alive!
 
3. Oysterband and Finbar Furey reminder

Don't forget the next Rogue shows are coming up in a couple of weeks. We have the pioneers of Anglo-Celtic Folk Rock, Oysterband, at St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue) on Thursday August 13th, then there's a Vancouver Country Dance event on Friday 14th, which was moved from the 15th in order to make way for a unique concert experience with Irish piper, singer, storyteller Finbar Furey and his band. Full details of the concerts is on www.roguefolk.bc.ca
 

 
4. Radio Waves
On tomorrow's Edge On Folk I'll have new music from Scotland's Rachel Hair Trio, Karrnell Sawitsky of The Fretless with ex-Finjan banjo player Daniel Koulack, plus Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal, Leo "Bud" Welch, Debashish Bhattacharya, Terakaft, The Waifs, Scarlett Jane, and a look back at some of the festival highlights of recent weeks. I'll also preview local concerts and festivals and indulge myself in a bit of personal favouritism for my birthday! You can tune in live on CiTR fm 101.9 or listen to the live stream on www.citr.ca from 8am to noon. 
 
Next weekend I'll be at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, so Paul Norton will be filling in on The Edge On Folk. 
 
Then on Tuesday August 11th - from 6am to 8am - I'm hosting Pacific Pickin' on CiTR while Arthur and Andrea Berman are cruising around Europe - the lucky ducks!
 
Radio Rogue runs all day all the time on our website. I'll update the playlist again in the next day or two. You probabkly haven't heard the majority of this music before anyway. There are over 1,100 of my favourite songs in random rotation. Just click on this link and let your media player take you around the world!
 Jul 24, 2015Aug 7, 2015 

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