Vancouver Folk Music Fest Offers Something for Every Folk-Roots-World Music Taste
VANCOUVER - This year an exciting mix of contemporary and traditional folk and roots music will ensure another lively weekend at the 31st annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival, held at beautiful Jericho Beach Park on July 18, 19 and 20.
For Celtic music fans, Vancouver-based folk music icons Spirit of the West, will be making their long overdue debut at the Festival.
With the dynamic growth of experimental techniques and multi-ethnic musical fusion, the Festival's programming no longer fits into neat and tidy categories.
Celtic tunes can be played with traditional Indian instruments, Appalachian bluegrass banjos can pick up African beats, and punk stylings can show up along with down-home country. But let's try to pull out a few common threads in this year's amazing lineup.
The Celtic world is close to the heart of the folk-roots musical experience, and LAU is a formidable union of three of the most innovative exponents of traditional music in Scotland today.
Grammy Award winning Maeve Mackinnon brings a diverse Scots and Gaelic repertoire sung in a beautiful and distinctive voice.
April Verch is an Ottawa-valley ace fiddling step dancer with vocals that cut through eras and genres to a timeless place very close to your heart.
From the other side of the globe, Kiran Ahluwalia will represent Punjabi traditions with her lush ghazals and lively folk songs, while Delhi 2 Dublin, an electro-acoustic collaboration between five world fusion artists, blends the traditional folk melodies of North India and Ireland with cutting edge technology.
Bluegrass, with its roots in the music of the British Isles and deep in Appalachia, has inspired many artists, including Juno-winner Jayme Stone, who blurs the lines between time and location with Malian kora player Mansa Sissoko in building a bridge between Africa and America through the unexpected medium of the banjo.
And The Carrivick Sisters, 19-year-old twins Hazel and Charlotte, prove that the bluegrass tradition is safe in the hands of the next generation.
Québec has always been the home of great music and song, and Les Chauffeurs B pieds serve up lively instrumental versions of traditionalunes. The Pascale Picard Band is considered one of this year's hottest discoveries, and Jorane is widely celebrated for playing alternative music on a typically classical instrument, not to mention her unusual ability to sing while playing the cello!
The Festival offers something for every folk-roots-world music taste, on seven outdoor stages over three evenings and two full days of non-stop music, songs of peace, social justice, and human love and joy will bring to life this annual celebration that is Vancouver's signature festival event.
For all the details, visit the Vancouver Folk Music Festival's website at www.thefestival.bc.ca.
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