Youthful exuberance, creativity, bilingualism and charm dominated the ninth annual Canadian Folk Music Awards, held last weekend in Calgary.  Event co-hosts Shelagh Rogers (CBC Radio) and musician Benoit Bourque (La Bottine Souriante/Le Vent du Nord) conversed easily in French and English while they introduced the presenters of 19 awards.

Regular performance breaks kept the program lively, with a tantilizing two or three songs from nationally-known performers like string quartet The Fretless, wild-haired comedian Lorne Elliot, and a breathtaking guitar duet reunion of former bandmates James Keelaghan and local guitarist Oscar Lopez.

Winners this years seemed to highlight close harmonies and innovative string instrument combinations. The Good Lovelies, an all-woman trio known for their sweet harmonies, took two awards, Ensemble of the Year, and Vocal Group of the Year, for their latest album, Live at Revolution.  Raucous instrumentalists Jaron [say: Chair-on] Freeman-Fox & The Opposite of Everything also won two awards, for Instrumental Group of the Year and for Pushing the Boundaries.  The album blurb describes the music as, “Tom Waits playing the fiddle, backed up by the Mahavishnu Orchestra.”

Roots and traditional music remain central to the CMFA’s purposes. Alongside Vocal and Instrumental categories are Traditional Singer and Traditional Album. Mind you, diversity can be traditional too. There are also French, English and Aboriginal Songwriter categories. 

But sometimes the magic occurs with non-traditional mixes of instruments. Take the performance by Oh My Darling, four women playing guitar, fiddle, clawhammer banjo and upright bass fiddle (which looks more like a staff). They can deconstruct chamber music if they want, or recombine traditional airs in new forms, all while dancing – especially the upright bass fiddler, who moves like a rooster, with a quiver of bows strapped to her thigh. This is the first upright bass I’ve seen, and it looks like quite a versatile stage instrument.     

The MFA also took time for two special awards, an Unsung Hero Award to Manitoba-based industry stalwart Mitch Podolak, and Folk Music Canada’s Innovator Award to Victoria’s Daniel Lapp for his work as a teacher, leader and song collector. In the ever-changing digital market, the folk music industry’s  familiarity with self-production gives each individual a certain versatility and the whole industry a slight advantage in the ever-changing digital market. These performers are nothing if not nimble.

Flamenco guitarist Jorge Miguel won World Solo Artist of the Year for his “exquisite” album Guitarra Flamenca/Flamenco Guitar.  Middle-East sounding Jaffa Road won World Group of the Year for their album, Where the Light Gets In.

In short, for a brief weekend, Calgary hosted dozens and dozens of dedicated musicians of staggering talent and diversity. The Nominee Showcases held at several venues over two nights, brought music-lovers two or three songs apiece from six or eight groups, for a total of 22 artists over both evenings. 

“Two years ago, I sketched out plans to hold the CFMA in Calgary on a cocktail napkin,” Calgary Folk Club Artistic Director Suze Casey exulted on Saturday night. “And here we are!” 

“Here” was the Calgary Folk Club coffee house, one of three or four concert Showcases the night before the awards ceremony. We nabbed two seats at the centre of the barnlike hall, near the stage, three tables over from Shelagh Rogers. The quarters were so close we couldn’t help overhearing someone compliment an earlier performer who had returned to the crowd to sit behind us.

On one hand, concert goers were fortunate to be able to enjoy so many talented performers from all across Canada in such intimate spaces and at such affordable prices. Calgary Folk Club, for example, charges a flat $27.50 per ticket, for a folding seat at a shared long table, and offers drinks and food at cost. There’s a real family atmosphere.

“Everything’s done by volunteers,” said Casey. “The only people who get paid here are the performers.”

On the other hand, surely there was no reason for empty seats at the awards presentations in a city of 1.2 million, with eight folk music clubs in full swing all winter season, and a summer folk festival that attracts more than 52,000 music lovers annually. Also, some of the award winners were absent because they were attending a similar event on the East Coast, which seemed unfortunate.

Somehow, this low-key alt-culture event managed to slip below the radar of most major media. My guess is that more publicity would have helped. Independent radio station CKUA seemed to have the best handle on what would be happening where.

Organizers Grit Laskin and Bill Garrett said that the CFMAs received 570 submissions, more than twice the number submitted to the folk music category at the Junos. This, they argued, justifies folk music having its own awards. If raising public awareness of the genre is also part of the goal, a little more attention to promotion would help. 

Penney Kome

Penney Kome

Award-winning journalist and author Penney Kome has published six non-fiction books and hundreds of periodical articles, as well as writing a national column for 12 years and a local (Calgary) column...