For four days and four nights, Folk Alliance International stormed the Fairmont Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and I was there. You couldn’t help but to experience all the feels; the highs, the lows, ultimately ensconced in a mix of awe, chaos, spirit and crazy.

Imagine music rooms, set up for performances from the Lobby of the hotel through to the fifth floor. Musicians attending from all over the world, playing Official Showcases from 4pm and Private Showcases from 10pm through to until 3:30am. Music for almost twelve hours, non-stop, for four days, nights (and mornings.) Close to two hundred concerts happening at any given time. If your imagination is overwhelmed at the thought, and your heart is palpitating just a little, then you are on the right track.

Last Spring at Canadian Music Week, the seed was planted to attend FAI 2019 in Montreal. This outstanding (if a little overwhelming) music conference is usually held in The United States, so when I found out that Canada would be its 2019 home, I jumped at the chance to be there.

After a lengthy application process, with hopes to be given an opportunity to play an Official Showcase, I would be informed with a polite no. So instead I applied as a First Timer and was even awarded a scholarship to help with the registration fee. I sent out a tonne of emails, filling out more applications for a variety of Non Official/Private Showcases, to which I would recieve a handful of “Yes’s” YES! We music creators/bookers/managers LOVE a Yes. So there it was, a seed sprouted!

I have attended a variety of Music Festivals/Conferences but nothing could ever prepare a person for what could happen. Heading into something like this, you need an open heart, a fierce drive and a thick skin. FAI developed an app so we could attempt at making a schedule, a schedule for your daily workshops, panels, talks, inteviews etc and a schedule for performances. Sticking to the day time plan wasn’t so hard (on very little sleep, I might add) but sticking to the performance choices previously made was, at the best of times, quite difficult! One could very easily be swayed into a room by the sound of a harp, a voice, a familiar face or a fiddle (to name a few.) Great surprises are so rare it seems, but not at Folk Alliance International. There were surprises around every corner.

Here are my TOP SEVENTEEN picks, in no particular order, and please excuse the Ipad photos (I have now learned that snapping shots with an IPAD is SO uncool. Ha!)

1) Sara Ajnnak is a Sami artist from Sweden. I happened upon her in a tiny hotel room, her voice called me in and put a spell on me, taking me across the hills of the North, along cold, fresh rivers into a future of quiet beauty. I was fortunate enough to catch both a Private Showcase and an Official one.

2) Gangstagrass, you really could not have come up with a better name for this American Bluegrass meets Hip Hop combination of sound. Their music beckoned me into a few different rooms, PACKED rooms, touching on all the senses….

3) Harrow Fair is a BOMBPROOF duo based in Toronto, Ontario. I was in complete awe, mesmerized by their musical prowess. Just WOW.

4) Alash Ensemble is a trio of throat singers from The Republic of Tuva. Tuvan Throat Singers who will blow your mind into a million pieces. #icanteven

5) Ordinary Elephant is a country/folk duo out of Texas, now living across The States in a tiny home on wheels with their dogs. This music is brutal honest truth about what it means to be alive in this crazy world. Harmonies, Love and truth, cuts right to the heart.

6) Vishten is a spell binding “make you wanna dance” trio from Prince Edward Island & The Magdalin Islands, an Acadian trio who I fell in Love with.

7) The Way Down Wanderers are a five piece Bluegrass/Pop band out of Illinois. Their subtle playing and sweet, playful stage presence captivated me in such a way that I could not look away (if but for a moment to snap this photo.)

8) Mama Mihirangi & The Mareikura were an outstanding trio of fierce, firey and friendly women from New Zealand. What a distance for this profound trio of Maori women to make, all the way to Montreal, Canada. I was blown away (to tears at some points) with their EPIC performance featuring soulfire, dance and siren sounds.

9) BLISK is a quartet of Balkan singers from Eastern Europe. Their harmonies and traditional songs kept me entranced, their dancing and traditional garb and instruments make this Toronto based band stand out in the best of ways.

Blisk (sorry could not get all four ladies into one shot!)

10) Good Lovelies have been a favourite of mine for some time, but I had not the chance to see them live for many years. How lucky I was to have them perform in a cozy hotel room (right before me in the “Ladies In Waiting” Private Showcase room) Their music reminds me of honey, campfires, Canada and great lakes.

11) The Dardenelles are one of my favourite traditional Irish/Newfoundland bands from Newfoundland, Canada. I have all their records and LOVE their passionate playing and up beat sounds.

12) Vox Sambou is a collective of talented musicians based in Montreal, Canada. Their lively performance had the audience on its feet dancing to the large sounds of this amazing up beat group.

13) Nick Sherman in an Indigenous artist based out of Thunder Bay, Ontario from Sioux Lookout. His crafted songs take you for a ride through the life and times of a Dad on the road, a soul seeking troubadour who sings with a mighty set of vocal cords.

14) Joe Bel is a French Chanteuse who took my breath away. I was so happy to randomly find yet another amazing songstress. My cup runneth over!!! Love!!!

15) Red Moon Road has also been a favourite of mine since I heard this soulful trio of talent, from Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada many moons ago…. I Love their harmonies and how they trade off songs, songs which take you to another time and place. Real music.

16) Lisa Canny is an Irish music maker from County Mayo. She plays a plethora of instruments but can really steal you away with her Harp playing. Her voice is also killer. I was very happy to stumble into her performance, a lucky find, indeed!

17) Jackie Venson is a riveting master of music, hailing from Texas. There are no real words to stick on this power force of a musician. I was very lucky to find her on my way to someone else. Sorry to that other person but MAN do I want to do better since hearing her.

So there they are. I could not possibly pare my top picks down any further, as it is, I am missing way more greats on this list. To say I am grateful and honoured to have been privvy to such a MASSIVE event doesn´t cut it. What a whirlwind of sights and sounds, a blast of Musical Chaos that will keep me fueled for quite some time. It was pure excitement and a true please to be among such wonders. Hopefully you can take some time out of your busy schedules and have a listen to some of these new introductions?? Have fun while you are at it, I know I will.

Once upon a time I was very involved in Social Media. Now, I am a dabbler. Years ago, I met a friend who is smarter than most when it comes to computers and the evolution of Social Media (Thank you Jef Harris of Chaos Academy!). He helped me with this website, even before I had recorded my first full length record, "Sound." He helped me set up my Myspace page (now obsolete) and encouraged me to post regularly on Facebook when it first started. He has been sending me links, setting me up with various platforms (Soundcloud, Instagram, Itunes, Twitter etc) and has helped me, immensely, with all things 'computery,' aiding me in getting these links OUT there. He is the one that said "post a blog WEEKLY, do a PODCAST bi-weekly, the people WILL come!" And I was (and have been) trying (all of my previous podcasts are up at Itunes.) However, more and more I am not inspired to continue as fervently. After days, weeks and months of going hard at it, finding things to write about, to talk about... I have finally realized that, for me, it is about the craft of music itself. I enjoy writing, I do, and I like to keep you up to date, but I have to be honest here.. I wonder, what do I have to say that is really so important, that can't be written poetically into a song? I really LOVE LOVE writing three to four minute songs, shedding light on various life issues and experiences, but this 'writing essays' thing can be tough. I understand that the life I have chosen "in the spotlight" so to speak, a person who is in pursuit of a musical life, should be very involved in Social Media. I understand that, which is why I have any platforms at all, but this 'Vanity Vibe' is getting tired. Don't you think?? Perhaps offering up words of wisdom is better coming from place of music, the real Universal Language. I will continue to share my dreams and ideas, I promise! This is a never-ending fight, 'til the end! However, this 'up in your face' thing is not what I would like to do, even if it is something I am supposed to do, it just doesn't feel right to me somehow. I enjoy a lengthy conversation about life, but to me, it seems MOOT if it is just one sided. I suppose it's a conundrum of sorts... One must keep connected to their fans and friends, but how in the world did they do it before the internet? Music has been around a LONG time.

I heard recently by a whack of folks (in the industry) whom I highly respect, that websites are soon to be obsolete! People (festival and venue bookers) are turning more and more to social media sites such as 'Soundcloud' for a listen, rather than perusing all that websites have to offer. The saddest thing of all is that people won't be leaving their house, what with all the live streaming and music available at the click of a button. I remember years ago a venue owner (and friend of mine) saying, you just watch Lindsay, folks aren't going to go out anymore to enjoy Live Music, and boy, was he spot on!!! These are uncertain times for an artist and a venue owner. That 'back and forth' energy between myself and the listener, THAT is what keeps me in this circle of sound. I have to have it. The real feeling between souls connecting. Yes, it might sound 'wishy washy' but it is what it is. There is nothing like a real live and intimate concert setting. Nothing beats the real thing. So, get out there and enjoy that. Long Live LIVE Music.

In the meantime, you can find me in 'push button form' at any of the Social Media sites I have listed earlier on in this essay/blog. Onwards and upwards.... Ho!

p.s Here are the lyrics to my newest song.... Seem kind of fitting to this topic:

ROBOTS

I'd give it all up....

What does any of it really mean? You gotta push, push, push 'til ya push, push, pushed it away! What then, when you're left with not a thing? It makes me nutz thinking how we break it up to start it over again...... I'd give it all up

Tsk, tsk, tsk! You know, you're doing it wrong, see, I'm a pro, pro, pro watch me go, go get outta town! What now, how can I follow you plan, I gotta figure it out on my own to understand..... I'd give it all up

So used to making it all about the show... Teach me something I do not know! Attracted by all things shiny, twisted and strange... these ROBOTS keep me from being the change.........

Touch me, swipe me to the left to the right, I watch the feed, feed, feed see you bleed, bleed into the night, hold still! Look what comes in clear! Magnetized glass, metal finger!

I'd give it all up....

Seventeen WOWS in A Sea of Sound @ Folk Alliance International 2019

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