Joan in her 'zone'
By MIKE ROSS -- Edmonton Sun
EDMONTON -- It was a matter of keeping up
with the Joans - the one last night was keeping
pretty busy.
Joan Baez was the star of the folk fest before she
even hit the stage.
As Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies kicked off the
20th annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival last night,
the first lady of folk staged an impromptu press
conference in the backyard of Cloverdale resident
Rod Wacowich. He's lived right across the street
from the action for the last eight years (is he a folk
fest fan? He replies, "Do we have a choice?").
Lilting English melodies floated across the house as
Baez talked about previous folk fests ("more
mosquitos than last time"), politics in music ("music
by itself isn't enough"), the environment ("there's so
much to be done") and so on for the assembled
media. (Hey, Rod: Sorry about the flowers.)
Baez had a somewhat larger audience later on. An
estimated 18,000 people gathered on the hill on a
beautiful night (the weather gods must've already
used up their fury on Rockfest) to relive the real
Woodstock experience, where she performed 30
years ago.
Baez made her entrance to cheers, and after an
inspirational high-five with her band members,
launched into the uptempo Lily of the West in her
soft, earnest vocal tone. She played a pair of new
songs which fall into her "comfort zone" as she put it,
before a stripped down version of The NightThey
Drove Old Dixie Down. It was a mellow night at the
folk fest.
The Drummers of Burundi pounded out the sun to
set the stage for the star of the show. It was actually
very stirring - for about three minutes. After an
impressive opening - 13 colourfully-clad drummers
dancing in a circle while balancing and beating
barrel-sized drums on their heads - it got pretty
tedious, even with a little singing and dancing to
break it up. If only they'd change the tempo once in
a while. It was fun to watch, however, as they leapt
about and shouted, beating their drums. Drums stop,
very bad - bass solo! Just a joke. There was no bass
solo. Just drums, lots of drums.
The Irish ruled the evening earlier on as Kavana,
McNeill, Lynch and Lupari turned the stage into a
Celtic party. With equal parts merry jigs and
sobering, socially conscious ballads, this group was
so traditional, so hard-core Celtic they make Great
Big Sea look like the Backstreet Boys. The highlight
was the the set-ending song written especially for
the occasion. It was called Take Me Onto Edmonton
Please (I think), sung to the tune of Me and Bobby
McGee (sort of) and featured guests like Dick
Gaughan and Rory McLeod - a casting call for
Braveheart all on one stage. The song had the
crowd cheering, especially the line, "folk fest time in
Edmonton is the best of all." Way to pump the
crowd, lads.
Willie and Lobo set the tone perfectly early in the
evening with one trippy Latin groove after another -
kind of a non-stop "Celtic rumba," for lack of a
better term. It's an odd little duo: Lobo, a German
flamenco guitarist who lives in Mexico and Willie,
the Jimi Hendrix of the fiddle from Florida. They met
in a bar. While the pair displayed impressive chops,
their music was best enjoyed with the eyes closed.
Back to our starting act - largely missed by members
of the press attending Joan Baez - Jez Lowe and the
Bad Pennies were as traditional as it gets. They
sang in clear, high voices, accompanied by flute,
guitar and the bodhran (you know, "that funny hand
drum"). Things didn't really get going till that
round-the-neck harmonica holder came out. It sure
sounded like folk. Check. That's what we're here
for.
THE ARC OF JOAN:
A brief political history of folk singer Joan Baez,
who headlined at Gallagher Park last night:
1941: Joan Chandos Baez is born in Staten Island,
New York.
1956: Attends a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.
1957: Refuses to leave high school for an air-raid
drill.
1960: Releases self-titled breakthrough album.
1962: Becomes involved with the civil rights
movement; is subject of Time magazine cover story.
1963: Leads a boycott of ABC's Hootenanny due to
the show's banning of Pete Seeger.
1964: Protests U.S. involvement in Vietnam by
withholding 60% of her income taxes.
1965: Civil rights march in Alabama; anti-war
demonstration outside the White House.
1966: Anti-war march in West Germany; march
with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Mississippi; banned
from a segregated school after attempting to enrol
five black children; benefit for striking farm workers;
anti-death penalty vigil at San Quentin.
1967: Fracas with CIA after comments in Japan
are mistranslated; performs free concert at the base
of the Washington Monument; sues federal
government to reclaim portions of income taxes used
for military purposes; arrested twice for blocking the
entrance to the armed forces induction centre in
Oakland, California; serves one month in jail.
1968: Recordings banned in Army PXs; marries
draft resister David Harris; advocates draft
resistance with national tour.
1969: Remarks about draft resistance are censored
on an episode of The Smothers Brothers; husband is
sentenced to three years in jail for draft resistance;
performs at Woodstock.
1972: Helps establish West Coast office of
Amnesty International; travels to Hanoi to distribute
Christmas presents to American prisoners of war
while the city is being bombed.
1975: Appears at "The War Is Over!" rally in New
York's Central Park; Aug. 2 declared "Joan Baez
Day" in Atlanta.
1978: Appears at anti-nuke rallies; performs benefit
protesting discrimination against gays.
1979: Founds Humanitas International Human
Rights Committee; asks U.S. President Jimmy
Carter to rescue large numbers of "boat people."
1981: Mounts Latin American tour; banned from
Argentina.
1983: Presents free concert in France dedicated to
non-violence.
1986: Performs on Amnesty International tour.
1987: Travels to the Middle East; co-produces a
benefit concert for the AIDS Emergency Fund.
1988: Leads a candlelight march in Rome seeking
repeal of a death sentence against a U.S. teenager.
1993: Travels to Bosnia-Herzegovina to help spread
awareness of the suffering there.
1994: Performs for the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force's "Fight the Right" event in San
Francisco.
1997: Gone From Danger released.
1998: Appears at a fund-raising event to benefit the
legal defence fund for her cousin, Peter Baez,
fighting charges stemming from his operating a
medicinal marijuana clinic.
- Source: Joan Baez Web page: www.baez.woz.org
--
gender is just an excuse, relationship shouldn't just be an excuse,
love is often an excuse, although sometimes these excuses are all
we have to hold onto,
death is the reason and living is the celebration
- Beth Orton
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.twbbs.org)
◆ From: 192.192.50.113