Folk Alliance International Returns to Canada! FAI at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, February 13-17, 2019

2.13-17.19

Folk Alliance International, February13-17, 2019, Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal.

The scene: a total zoo in a hotel. The animals are all human, everyone’s nice, but there are so many people, constantly moving around, room to room, through the hallways, clogging and jamming the elevators, filling in the staircases like cement, everyone moving to slow to even “mill” about. The very concept seems quaint, milling about, in such a dense atmosphere.

There are hundreds of performers filling dozens of rooms from large ballrooms to single bed units. One can’t possibly see it all. So I make a list of people I think I want to see and ultimately abandon it each night. Sometimes it’s the stuff you bump into by accident that resonates longest.

The Fairmont Queen Elizabeth is famous in music lore as the site for John Lennon’s 1969 bed-in at the hotel. Organizers planned a commemorative bed-in one morning but we gave it a miss. It involved streaming video of oneself singing “Give Peace a Chance” in bed. The hotel has since been renovated, and the windows don’t open, which I think should be illegal, but I digress.

The hallways are decked out, floor to ceiling, along every wall with flyers, posters, and adverts for record companies and artist management. Ostensibly, one was expected to buy drinks at hotel prices, but nobody was looking too hard at where people’s drinks kept coming from. The atmosphere is too busy to be anything but upbeat. Hotel security were busy, but nobody caused any trouble. The biggest, best party in town, but totally self contained. 

A few personal highlights…

Alex Cuba- played a quiet solo set, telling those present he wanted to fire his band anyway. The Juno award winning Cuban Canadian joked with the crowd and shared newer material.

Arctic Song- This Inuit ensemble of drummers and dancers wrapped up my first night at the conference. They perform Inuit drum songs called  piisit.

Shakura S’Aida- played some soulful blues and poured shots of rum to keep people in the spirit of things. The Toronto based singer is veteran of the stage as well as music.

Lennie Gallant- Somewhere along the way, I caught one or two of his showcases. The PEI – based singer is responsible for “Peter’s Dream,” one of the Maritimes’ best loved songs. Gallant’s band played spare arrangements of his songs, which were well received.

Gangstagrass- I saw them at least a couple of times and interviewed them once. Nice bunch of guys, and a quiet female with laryngitis. They combine bluegrass with hip hop, which might sound wince-worthy, but the rappers are good, and the music is solid. Sometimes diverse styles are combined by people who aren’t great at either one, but that isn’t the case with Gangstagrass.

Members have come and gone over the years, but their sound stays true. Producer, co-founder, guitarist and singer Rench has musical roots in both genres. One of their rappers, R Son, The Voice of Reason, freestyled a bit for fellow artist Melissa Laveaux, who was still in the room following her own performance. Their Saturday night showcase was almost an hour, and they put on a danceable to anyone, energetic set.

Melissa Laveaux – This Haitian-Canadian guitarist and singer is now based in Paris. Her style crosses through a slick pop vibe, and others sound very spare. Laveaux plays and records in France, but returns to Canada to perform shows. She played some 1920’s Haitian songs and mentioned the island was occupied by the U.S. at the time. She worked with loops and samples to augment her guitar, and said the songs used to infuriate American soldiers in Haiti. She explained each song’s background, and finished with a short a capela song. In her  Laveaux put on one of the more interesting sets this weekend.

Willie Nile- This Buffalo native started his oft-stalled music career in New York City. He began singing in the late 1970’s, and his debut record came out in 1980. The same year he opened for The Who’s summer tour, and things must have been looking up for Wilie Nile.

Fast forward a few years, his career having been put on hold, multiple times, by personal illness and recording issues alike. Well regarded by critics and peers alike, Nile has shared the stage with Bruce Springsteen among others, and he has enjoyed success in recent years. Nile’s brief 30-minute set consisted mostlyly of songs from the last decade. He started things off with the catchy “Forever Wild” from 2016, and continued with the sing-along “Don’t (Let the Fuckers Kill Your Buzz).”

“Lookin For Someone,” also from 2018 was followed by Nile’s 2009 song “House of a Thousand Guitars.” Only the last song, “On the Road the Calvary” went back to 1999. Nile said he was working on the song in New York City when he learned his friend and popular singer Jeff Buckley died. This was one of several sets Nile played at this year’s F.A.I. He changed his set for at least one other appearance.

L’il Andy - On Thursday, I saw L’il Andy and his band play “Bury Me on the Lone Prairie,” which he sung beautifully. L’il Andy hit one of the Showcase stage again on Friday night, where I saw him play a short set of more Western Swing style country. The Montreal-based singer comes from Wakefield, Quebec, up the Gatineau River. Since relocating to Montreal L’il Andy’s released five albums and carved a prominent place for himself in earthy Canadian country, his style sometimes being assigned the prefix “Alt-.”

Pepino D’Agostino and Carlos Reyes- Sicilian Pepino D’Agostino plays acoustic guitar with Paraguayan multi-instrumentalist Carlos Reyes, who played a harp for this outing. Watching Carlos manoeuvre crowded hallways and packed hotel rooms with his enormous harp was sometimes its own side show.

The two virtuosos complemented each other, playing a mix of traditional Latin and European styles, particularly from Colombia and Venezuela. Reyes led their final tune, another traditional melody, dedicated to coffee, during which he percussively at times on his instrument to mimic the sounds of grinding and percolating coffee.

Mornings featured speakers and discussions. There was a throat singing demonstration hosted by two Inuit females who explained traditional Inuit throat singing is done exclusively by females.

Topics discussed along with throat singing techniques and themes included a history of the devastation brought to the Inuit post-contact. Respect was a recurring theme of this informative presentation.

Slocan Ramblers- This Toronto bluegrass band have been around for the better part of decade. Slocan Ramblers have won Junos and international awards for their traditional style of bluegrass. Lean and stringy style, with guitars, bass, and other instruments staying out of each other’s way.

Saturday’s super-late string jam lasted longer than I did. It seemed the Quebecois musicians sitting together were all familiar with each other. They played traditional sounding instrumentals well past Montreal’s 3 a.m. last call.

There were a couple of klezmeresque bands I recall, including Mostly Kosher, a New York City quartet. Lydia Persaud, formerly of Toronto’s Soul Motivators funk band now performing as a singer-songwriter. There were many other excellent artists I’m familiar with, whom I had to miss while watching others; not to mention great artists I missed whom I will continue not to know- at least for now. It becomes a blur, walking up and down hallways and staircases, packed wall to wall with live music and there is literally far too much to see.

One drawback is with everyone playing literally thousands of slots over the weekend, many people talk through sets, come and go noisily, and there is a constant inevitable din coming from the hallways. One might expect a more empathetic audience, but at least one musician lamented to me that they are as bad as everyone else when it comes to ignoring performances they are attending.

Folk Alliance International is a music convention which basically takes over a hotel in the host city. There are no outside events related to FAI. The showcases happen in banquet halls and on several floors’ worth of hotel rooms which are all used as ad-hoc performance venues. Sometimes beds are available for attendees to sit on, other people prop them against walls to allow more precious floor space. It’s a daze-long musical overdose that leaves heads spinning. Unfortunately, this event rarely comes to Canada. If only we could organize such a roving conference in Canada during he winter when partying in one large indoor space makes more sense.

(Pictures n Video on Nikon D90 card.)