It’s Canada’s 150th birthday so of course the Calgary Folk Music Festival will be joining in on the festivities this year, with a large percentage of headliners familiar and beloved ones from the Great White North.
Barenaked Ladies, City and Colour, Blue Rodeo, Basia Bulat, Tanya Tagaq, Couer de Pirate, Holy Fuck, Jason Collett, John K. Samson & The Winter Wheat, DJ Shub and BADBADNOTGOOD.
Truly some inspired and pleasing patriotic programming from artistic director Kerry Clarke.
Right?
Pause.
“Sure.”
Actually, the longtime AD of the annual event says our centennial and a half wasn’t the driving force behind the names who’ll be Mainstaging it taking us into Twilight on Prince’s Island Park come July 27 to 30, instead it was just “a happy coincidence.”
“Those artists were really interested in playing and available,” she says. “I chased them and they chased me. It was a happy convergence, really.”
Clarke is convinced that convergence should make for a pretty spectacular weekend and confident that Calgarians will be wooed by the crossover appeal.
Hard to question her, especially when you look at some of the other sensational headliners from around the globe including: pond-bridging team Billy Bragg and Joe Henry; roots-rock bros Dave and Phil Alvin + the Guilty Ones; Boston indie folkies Darlingside; British country-soul singer Yola Carter; L.A. rural-rockers Dawes; and the one returning artist from the 2016 fest, Irish singer-songwriter Foy Vance, who wowed the crowd considerably and earned himself another invite and promotion.
“He did so well last year that we’re bumping him up to Mainstage,” Clarke says.
Other notable artists from around the globe who will be populating the many fest stages — including the one that had been outside of the gates and in Eau Claire the past couple of years, but which is now back on Island time — are those that Clarke describes as “in the pocket folk that’s also really hip that’s coming out of the States,” such as the Cactus Blossoms, Parsonsfield and Birds of Chicago, as well as a collection of “rising Americana stars,” such as Sean Rowe, Langhorne Slim and John Paul White formerly of Grammy-winning duo The Civil Wars.
“There will be lots of opportunities for collaborations,” she says. “The workshops are forming in my head as I speak.”
And filling out, but not just taking up space, on those afternoon sessions as well as having their own showcase concerts over the weekend is a healthy, talented and eclectic contingent of Alberta acts.
“It’s a pretty divergent mix of artists,” Clarke says, noting everyone from #YEG roots act Alice Kos and Goldtop to the funk and hip-hop of Calgary’s Sargeant and Comrade to adopted local country soul Lindi Ortega to veteran city garage ghouls Forbidden Dimension.
“Our favourite folk artists,” she says of the latter and laughs.
And Canadian, to boot.
Happy 150.
Tickets and passes for this year’s folk fest are on sale now from their website, with four-day wristbands running you $180 for adults and $120 for students, seniors and youths, with single-day adult ducats priced at $60, $65, $80 and $75, from Thursday to Sunday, respectively, and the other folks forking out $25, $30, $40 and $40 for the same days. As usual, kids 12 and under are freeloaders.
Here’s the the Mainstage and Twilight (or National Stage) schedule for this year’s Calgary Folk Music Festival, followed by the complete list of artists playing those four days in July:
Thursday, July 27
Mainstage
Dawes
Coeur de Pirate
Billy Bragg and Joe Henry
National Stage
Leif Vollebekk
Son Little
John Paul White
Jason Collett
Friday, July 28
Mainstage
Birds of Chicago
Archie Roach
Michael Kiwanuka
Basia Bulat
City and Colour
National Stage
Melvin Gibbs
Tanya Tagaq
DJ Shub
Saturday, July 29
Mainstage
Mbongwana Star
Sidestepper
John K. Samson & The Winter Wheat
Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin + the Guilty Ones
Barenaked Ladies
National Stage
Betty Bonifassi
Holy Fuck
BADBADNOTGOOD
Sunday, July 30
Mainstage
Yola Carter
Darlingside
Foy Vance
Blue Rodeo
Full folk fest lineup
100 Mile House (AB)
Alice Kos and Goldtop (AB)
AM Static (AB)
Archie Roach
The Ballroom Thieves
Barenaked Ladies
BADBADNOTGOOD
Barney Bentall
Basia Bulat
Bellflower
Benjamin Longman (AB)
Betty Bonifassi
Billy Bragg and Joe Henry
Birds of Chicago
Blind Boy Paxton and Meredith Axelrod
Blue Rodeo
Bones of J.R. Jones
Cactus Blossoms
Carsie Blanton
Charlotte Cornfield & the Provincial Archive (AB)
Choir! Choir! Choir!
Chouk Bwa Libete
City and Colour
Coeur de Pirate
Cris Derksen
Darlingside
Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin + The Guilty Ones
Dawes
DJ Shub
Dione Taylor and the Backsliderz
Donovan Woods
Dustbowl Revival
East Pointers
Faris
Forbidden Dimension (AB)
Foy Vance
Ghostkeeper (AB)
Holy F*ck
Iguanas
Jason Collett
Jeffery Straker
John K. Samson & the Winter Wheat
John Paul White
Langhorne Slim
Leif Vollebekk
Lindi Ortega (AB)
Lucy Dacus
Marvin Etzioni/Thee Holy Brothers
McCrary Sisters
Melvin Gibbs
Mbongwana Stars
Michael Kiwanuka
Mohsin Zaman (AB)
nêhiyawak (AB)
Parsonsfield
River Whyless
Robert B. Jones
Sargeant and Comrade (AB)
Sean Rowe
Sidestepper
Son Little
Sumner Brothers
Tanya Tagaq
Terra Lightfoot
Turkwaz
Whitney Rose
William Prince
Yola Carter
