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They really wanted John Allan Cameron, but it turns out he's dead

You know, I could swear I remember the Edmonton Folk Music Festival as an event that attracted names like Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, K.D. Lang, Billy Bragg, Wilco, the Barenaked Ladies… thank God the Edmonton Journal is here to tell me, and in a mysteriously defensive tone, that the new harder-to-get-to and harder-to-get-into version of the festival, which features Buffy Sainte-Marie (yes, really) as the headliner, is just as wonderful as ever. After all, don’t the organizers deserve bonus points for making sure that the cash registers are solar-powered? (No word on where the kilowatts for all that amplification and stage lighting come from, but it probably doesn’t add up to much. Any connection to that giant power plant just a few blocks away should be underplayed, and please don’t mention the Indian burial ground it’s sitting on top of with Miss Sainte-Marie in earshot…)

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Comments (21)

I felt the same as you before this weekend, but it actually turned out to be a pretty damn good festival. I would have preferred the vampire slaying Buffy, however...

OK, who had 1:57 in the pool?

For which line?

If they held a Folk Fest where the entire bill consisted of you being anally violated onstage by Ralph McTell and Dave Van Ronk, you'd still come home Sunday night saying how great it was.

Since I actually went to the Festival, I'd say my opinion on the matter is 100% better informed than yours. There was lots I disliked, and lots I liked. The lack of mainstream headliners was offset by some solid middling acts, and some excellent to extraordinary sessions. And the rain held off all weekend, which was no small mercy.

The idea of "information" involves some uncertainty relating to the signal. We all could have predicted Andy's Generic Folk Fest Review (some good, some not so good!) before the performers even hit the airport.

That James Hunter character is playing a cool guitar. (The dual-P90 Les Paul Special in Limed Mahogany? That's pretty cool.)

I'm jus' sayin'.

I notice these things, you know.

Jason:

I should have gone if only to see Catherine O'Hara ......... 's sister.

James Kabala:

I'm a little startled that Mr. Grabia and Mr. Cosh both feel so strongly about a pointless little argument. Was it really necessary to introduce the image of anal rape?

Anon:

Yeah, and why is Cosh jumping to the conclusion that second-rate folk performers would be arriving at the airport?

Sean:

"Was it really necessary to introduce the image of anal rape?"

Given that someone named Andy probably wasn't born with a vagina (or has had one installed since), yes.

James Kabala:

Very well, Sean.
Correction: Was it necessary to introduce the imagery of rape of any kind?

We all could have predicted Andy's Generic Folk Fest Review (some good, some not so good!) before the performers even hit the airport.

As we could have predicted your dislike of more things you haven't seen. News alert: Colby Cosh thinks something universally appreciated is overrated.

Jason:

The Folk Festival is not universally appreciated.

Crid:

> a pointless little argument.

Says you. I enjoy every single bitchslap. Folk music is a sexless, witless, motionless form of entertainment and it deserves mockery from the first note. I'm ashamed that it wasn't until a Steyn column in a recent year that I recognized the absurdity of the concept of the "original folk song".

It's amazing that even today theres a new generation of blue-jeaned, sincere, six-stringed gumbleeding artists making money at it. And from that most precious older generation, we're still getting frogwash like this.

> Was it necessary to introduce
> the imagery

It's this fear of amplified, fuzztone communication that makes folk music such a miserable place to find meaning.

Folk sux. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Uh, you know it's been 41 years since that guy shouted "Judas!" at Dylan, right? Pete Seeger lost the Cold War, you can loosen the tie a little.

Richard Ames:

I would visit here if only to read the titles of your posts.

"Play it fucking loud."

Sean:

Crid: "Folk music is a sexless, witless, motionless form of entertainment and it deserves mockery from the first note."

It does have its moments. Stringband's "Show us the length" was one of them.

James: "Was it necessary to introduce the imagery of rape of any kind?"

I'm the wrong person to ask.

Crid: you fucking go, boy.

+1

Crid:

> it's been 41 years

Colby, those little weasels won't go down.

> you can loosen the tie

But it's a skinny one!

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