I went away.
And it was mostly very good. But now I'm back. I helped move some furniture and now I need a haircut and to re-validate my student ID and reserve a locker (there's been some shit about registration but I'll put that in another post). Warning: very long entry, this one.
On Friday (July 30th) we stopped by Joyce's to retrieve garage-door opener then on across the open road. Rainy and very, very windy outside Regina. Made it to a motel in Swift Current by nightfall.
In morning car started but refused to get in gear, so cruised downhill to Canadian Tire, where guy said we had no transmission fluid, possibly due to crappy seal. I waited in schoolyard playground with a book, though we were soon on the move again, stopping every 1-200 kliks to top up the leaking fluid. Not a big problem until Calgary, where being stuck in traffic heated up the motor and it started smoking. We retreated to the city limits and after much angsty peaking at car's undercarriage decided to stay at nearby Econo-Lodge and let it cool off completely overnight. Realised after hauling stuff into room that there was a campground up the hill where we could have gone, but too late. Watched horror movies on tv. Missed the first night of Canmore Folk Festival.
Sunday morning set up tent at a small campground nearer the highway than Bow Valley, where we've camped other years, called Willow something. Quite nice. Got into Canmore midway through first workshops of the day. Day started out cold and windy and got colder and windier, our tarp and everything on it (including my nasal passages) were caked with dust. Saw some decent workshops. Missed the Waybacks' mainstage set due to mild hypothermia.
Monday before fest went to Marra's pancake breakfast. Someone please tell lousy free entertainment that joking "I don't wanna sing that "gay" line" everytime he reaches the chorus of an antique blues song is just not funny. Weather at fest site considerably more hospitable, to the point of sweaty. More interesting workshops and a sweet mainstage line-up, opened (according to offical list- Brava had an unoffically-mainstagey solo set immediately before) by Winnipeg alt-country lovelies Nathan and closed by high-energy Vancouver para-celts the Paperboys, and the finale sing-along.
Tuesday moved camp to tent-site in Restwell Trailer Park and hung around Canmore while car in shop. Dad went to cybercafe, I read Adbusters in the Rusticana grocery. Wednesday drove to Randy's house and hauled all stuff down to his basement. Went for late meal at nearby Sicilian restaurant and bitched about Alberta.
Hung around Randy's house watching movies and doing laundry until time for Thursday mainstage at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Good line-up: energetic Malagasi band Jaojoby, gospel outfit the Dixie Hummingbirds (who've been performing for 75 years), indie yonderboy Hawksley Workman, Garnet Rogers, and Rodney Crowell. Stayed almost to the end of Crowell's set, on the bus before the rain started (Edmonton's an urban venue, so there's a park'n'ride service from a nearish mall), got pelted dashing to car.
Friday the EFMF doesn't start until 1800, but runs workshops on four side stages until 2100. I saw a fair workshop with Spirit of the West and musical duos Haugaard and Hoirup from Denmark and Paddy Keenan and Tommy O'Sullivan from Ireland, then something good with Fred Eaglesmith, Rachael Davis and Arlene Bishop. South African reggae set fronted by Lucky Dube started the night well, but I had to leave in disgust when near entire crowd apparently shared in the tragic delusion that Great Big Sea does not suck (I think Doyle at least was shitfaced). Slightly regret not suffering through it until Michael Franti and Spearhead, who sound like they were much better. Fresh beer-battered salmon and home fries with malt vinegar on proper fish'n'chips checkered paper, yum yum.
Saturday morning got my first taste of alt-country weirdos The Handsome Family, and I was hooked. They were in a workshop called "Rites of Passage" with Dick Gaughan, Laura Smith and Susan Crowe. The first tune they played, "Weightless Again", was about suicide and old growth forests- Gaughan was politely (Scottishly) amused and curious, Smith was middle-aged-woman horrified and Crowe didn't know which way to lean. Another good workshop that day featured Lynn Miles, Oh Susanna, Cindy Church and Nathan- a surreptitious gathering of smart women of alt-country (by my definition, country with teeth and an IQ over 95. Limes and cactus juice instead of the sickly refined sugar-syrup of the mainstream).
Mainstage highlight for me was definitely Natalie Merchant's vibrant arc of a set: started out with bunned hair, wrapped in a shawl, interpreting traditional heartbreak ballads, slowly building in energy until she was barefoot, wild-haired, twirling her skirts as she prowled/pranced the stage belting her own solo hits like "Wonder" and "Kind and Generous" (I hear this may have been her modus operandi onstage with 10,000 Maniacs, too, but I was too young to appreciate them when I had the chance). We had to bail during her encores (included "These Are The Days") or freeze to our tarp, so missed genuine Irish celtic band Four Men and a Dog.
Sunday was more non-rainy but cool weather and sweet workshops. Edmonton's a great jam-fest, nearly every workshop has some amount of play-along. SotW had a lively mid-afternoon mainstage set that called the sun out, and the clouds continued to retreat until the sky was completely clear for Ani DiFranco's mainstage appearance. Two acts before Ani, opening the evening, was Wanda Jackson, queen of rockabilly (she's been recording for 50 years, toured with Elvis in her teens. Turned gospel in the '70s but called back to rockabilly in its current revival.) That was a great set, her energy and voice are impressive for her age. Dad and I didn't stay for the finale: David Byrne's first number was pretty good but after that he just got smug and odd, but not in such a fun way.
On Monday Randy took us for a tour of the University of Alberta campus where he works. He showed us his office, the library map collection, the new nanotech lab they're building, the arboretum (we were not favoured with a visit from Sam (if you don't know what that is, I'm not going to tell you)) and the campus mall (now that's scary: a student union office with posters for Buy Nothing Day next to a New York Fries), then took us home and cooked us steaks. He gave me a few Onion print copies from this winter. On Tuesday morn we took our leave and covered over a thousand kilometres on the Yellowhead highway, spending the night just over our home border in Russell, Manitoba. Journey over by mid-afternoon Wednesday.
And now I'm home just long enough to catch my breath and paint my room before I haul across country again with Micaela when she takes her car to Vancouver (she's going to UBC next year).
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