My buddy Buzzard and went to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, the festival I love to hate. I've always have had issues with the folk fest here with their beer tent and tarp rules for the hill at Gallagher Park. But I'm happy to say that they have finally loosened the rules with the beer gardens. This was the 45th year of the festival and it was just last year that they now let you wander the whole festival with a beer. Wow, what a concept, no more lining up for an hour to get into the beer garden and ending up missing the acts you want to see because it took you forever to get in. And once your in, your not going to just have one beer, so with you being able to wander the grounds with a beer is a game changer. So nice to be able to do that, not sure why it took so long, I'm sure there was a whole lot of red tape they had to jump through. Now all they have to do is have more beer stands through out the grounds, but hey baby steps, maybe that will eventually happen, here is hoping.
Now my other issue with this festival is the tarp run. People line up early in the morning of each day of the festival so that they can run to the hill and lay down there 8'X10" tarp and claim their space for that day. This such a bullshit idea, it's not gonna change as it has become part of the 45 year tradition. But laying down a piece of plastic and claiming it your piece of land for the day. This is for the main stage only, so now people wander around all day to the other stages and never sitting on their tarp. Which means those that don't bring a tarp are stuck sitting way the fuck up on the hill watching a screen because they can't get anywhere near the stage. To me the first 50 yards of the hill should be for standing and then have the tarps. Or even better lose the tarps all together, but that won't happen. Enough of my complaining, on with the show.
Here is what the hill looked like full of tarps at noon.
The Folk Festival is a four day event but my buddy Buzzard and I chose just to go to the Sunday finale to see Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. This would be my sixth time seeing Robert Plant in concert having seen him four times solo and once with Jimmy Page. The last time I had seen him live was in 2005. So I was really looking forward to this performance with Alison. And this would be my second time seeing Alison Krauss in concert, having seen her with her own band in Toronto on the Outlaw Festival in 2019.
As Robert Plant and Alison Krauss headlining set started my buddy and I tried making our way to down the hill and getting as close as we could. Of course with all the tarps this wasn't an easy feat. With security stopping is and asking if we had tarps, so of course I lied and said yes, which got us closer and closer, until finally we couldn't get much closer as it was super crowded. The last security guy to stop us asked if we had a tarp, this time I told him nope, and told him I thought this tarp thing was bullshit. To my surprise he agreed with me, he then asked the guy, who's tarp we were standing on if it was ok if we stood there. And lucky for us the guy said yes. So I talked to the guy who's tarp it was, and thanked him very much for letting us stand on his tarp. So we got to within about 30 yards from the stage which beat the hell out of sitting at the top of the hill and having to watch the show on a screen.
When Plant and Krauss came out on stage the audience were on their feet and the applause was deafening. It was so great to hear and see. Backing up Plant and Krauss was JD McPherson on guitar, drummer Jay Bellerose, Dennis Crouch on bass, Viktor Krauss on guitar and keys and string player Stuart Duncan.
Opening the set with the song "Rich Woman" from their Grammy Award winning album Raising Sand. Both Plant and Krauss sounded amazing together. Robert still has adapted his voice over the years to a blue grass music but still able to give that Zeppelin howl, maybe not as strong as back in the day, but at 77 years old he can hold his own. And when they did do some Zeppelin the crowd lost their shit to songs like "Rock And Roll", "Gallows Pole", "The Battle Of Evermore" and "When the Levee Breaks". It was also awesome to hear Plant do some his solo song "In The Mood" from his 1983 album The Principle of Moments.
What a treat it was to see Robert Plant & Alison Krauss headline the Folk Festival on what was a beautiful summer day and evening.
Some pictures from the Plant & Krauss set.
After checking to see what other bands were playing on Sunday we made our way to Gallagher Park early. The first artist I wanted to checkout was New York musician Eric Bibb. I haven't seen Eric in concert since the first time in 2001 at the Jasper Folk Fest. Eric was playing on one of the side stages for what was called the Sing Out Session. During the day they have different sessions or workshops on all the side stages of which there are stages including the main stage. This Sing Out Session was on sage 3 and included not only Eric Bibb, but also Black Umfolosi International, Danielle Ponder and Robert Finley.
These sessions can be hit and miss, and this one was a miss. They just never found a groove and seemed really disorganized. Having said that, it was great to hear Eric Bibb play again and I thought Louisiana born blues soul singer Robert Finley really ripped it up. After about 40 minutes we had heard enough and made the long trek back to the beer tent. They really need to have beer service closer to stages 3,5, and 6.
Pictures from Sing Out Sessions.
Next up it was off to stage 1 which was close to the beer stand to see JD McPherson in concert. This would be my second time seeing JD live. The first time I saw him was at the 2017 Interstellar Rodeo, and he was awesome at that show. It was great to see JD McPherson and his band playing one of the side stages as he was also backing up Plant and Krauss. Mcpherson's who is from Oklahoma plays a 50's rooted style of rock and blues music. and again his set was great.
The last act we caught before finding a bite to eat, some shade and a few beers was Winnipeg band Boy Golden, terrible band name but great artist. I had just recently got into Boy Golden's music, and holy shit am I ever a fan of his stoner/psychedelic, country style music. With two full length albums out 2021's Church Of Better Daze and his most recent album 2024 Eden. His set on stage 3 was packed and so much fun. he had the crowd up and dancing right from the get go. Songs I knew and recognized were mostly from his 2021 album, opening with "Something To Work Towards" and others such as "I Wanna Know", "Smoke On The Breeze", and closing out his set with two songs I love "KD and Lunch Meat" and "Church of Better Daze". A very fun and entertaining show. I'm looking forward to seeong them in concert again.
A very fun day of music, beers and beautiful weather. Good times!!!
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