FestivalMusic

CFMF at Home: Top 5 things Copperhead’s Liz Stevens will miss about an in-person folk fest this year

It’s a gorgeous Monday afternoon and Liz Stevens is looking radiant sitting in a dock chair on the patio of Citizen Brewery.

She’s gussied up in a breezy sun dress — not for comfort or as any kind of show of respect for the jackass she’s sitting with, she explains. Rather because no matter how nice it looks, it’s also the easiest thing, takes the least amount of time to put on.

And time is not something she has a great deal of these days.

Not only is she back to work and back in school full time — she only has 45 minutes to spare before she has to get back to homework — but the artist is also currently working on a solo project, which she reveals is in a more organic meets electronica vein.

But that’s not why we’re chatting on this day, rather it’s to promote the smoke-show vocalist’s bluezy roots-rock band Copperhead’s appearance this Sunday afternoon as part of this year’s Calgary Folk Music Festival at Home.

Thanks to the production skills of her songwriting partner, guitarist Kirill Telichev, it should be a pretty slick streaming experience for those tuned in enough to, er, tune in.

But as impressive as it might be, as close to the folk fest experience it aims to recreate, it won’t be the same. Like most local music-lovers, Stevens will be missing the real thing this weekend, missing being outside on Prince’s Island hopping from stage to stage, taking in all of the sounds, sights and suds.

What will she miss the most?

Here are the Top 5 things Stevens will be pining for come July 23-26.

5. AFTER-PARTIES

“I love the after-parties,” she says of the often raucous and drunken artist bashes that happen when the island shuts down for the evening. “But that one comes with a double-edged sword, because you have to pace yourself … otherwise you won’t make it to the last after-party.”

4 & 3. CONCERTS AND COMMUNITY 

“I think being a musician, and maybe just busy, I don’t go to enough shows all year so it’s nice to pack it in and see a ton of music all in a short period of time. And see all your homies. Every single person in the local scene is at the Calgary folk fest. You see everybody and you catch up with everyone in one weekend. So I’ll really miss that, because there are so many people you want to look up all year and you don’t, but you know you’ll see them there in the beer garden, you inevitably have a couple of beers with this person and a drink with this person or go catch one set with this person or go to another set solo and then see more people you know, so I’m gonna miss that part.

2. ARTISTS’ LOUNGE

“I love — and this is kind of a spoiled brat thing to love — but I love standing sidestage on Mainstage. If we play the festival, I’ll have access to backstage, and last year I caught Nathaniel Rateliff (and the Night Sweats’) set sidestage right behind the … speaker of their organ-piano player and, oh my god, I was just blown away. And on mushrooms, so it was just wonderful.”

1. THE LINEUP

“Just the lineup in general always has a sprinkling of people I know, and I always come away with musicians that I follow for the rest of my life. I didn’t know much about Thievery Corporation before they played years ago and then I went down a rabbit hole for the next six months of Thievery Corporation. There’s always like little sidestage artists, too. I think the folk fest always does an excellent job with the lineup.”

Copperhead perform Sunday, July 26 at 3:40 p.m. as part of the Calgary Folk Music Festival at Home. For tickets and the full lineup go to calgaryfolkfest.com.

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