Grier Coppins opened the festival’s main stage playing a variety of trad tunes on his traditional Scottish bagpipes. It was cool to watch him dancing around the ampitheatre as he played.
Beppe Gambetta was first up for the evening performances, singing in English with a very attractive Italian accent. His songs are poetry set to the music of his guitar. He plays flatpicking style and creates beautiful instrumental interludes between his vocals. He said he was honoured to open the festival and went on to play songs from his new album, Terra Madre.
From Montreal, Little Misty is presented their first Ontario concert. This is a trio: a gorgeous female vocalist on drums, accompanied by guitar and fiddle/mandolin. Their songwriting is lovely and theirs are beautiful, sensitive lyrics. Again, this is poetry set to music, and so beautifully arranged.
The perennial Summerfolk rain arrived in earnest just before Little Misty took the stage. It was so sad for them to have their audience so vastly reduced. This band’s music is truly worth listening to.
Terra Lightfoot was third up on the Friday night main stage. She and her band play an awesome style of rock and roll folk music. It’s loud and bursting with rhythm. Terra’s powerful vocals float right over the drums, guitar and bass.
Terra described tonight’s festival as “Summersoak” just as the rain began to let up. Dancers filled up the lawn and everyone clapped along at the right places.
Between bouts of “metal” rock and roll, Terra actually channeled the best in folk ballads with her song about being alone on a mountaintop in a faraway country. She literally rocks!
David Newland performed his tweener after Terra Lightfoot finished her set.
David gave us a bit of his concert based on finding the trees he planted in northern Ontario as a young man. The stories and the music were a wonderful journey back in time.
What is there to say about the legendary Lennie Gallant?
“Which way does the river run through this town?” were the lines of the song that opened his set. He told a story through song that involved travel and loving this country. Pure poetry from this east coast songsmith.
Lenny appeared here with two incredibly talented musicians from PEI’s Acadian community: a pianist and a percussionist, Lenny’s fiancée and her son. Between them, they created a huge, lush, driving sound to surround each song.
Violinist Trent Freeman joined them for a few tunes. The ballad Sequoia was one gorgeous piece of songwriting that was made even better by Trent’s strings.
Lenny sings about Canada, about the land, the flora, the fauna and even the ghosts. He’s a fantastic musical spokesperson for the idea of undying love for this country.
Torontonian Daniel Schmidt, age 16, part of the Youth Discoveries Program at Summerfolk, sang several of his original songs. The first was about never missing a moment.
“Things are never gonna happen if we don’t start now,” he sang.
His second song was about creating memories. Nostalgia seems alien for a 16-year-old, but here’s Daniel.
His third song, “Before you Go,” spoke to the regrets involved in a breakup. How does he have the maturity for such reflection at only 16, we wonder.
Daniel spoke about writing songs in his basement and never thinking they’d be heard in public, but here he is on the Summerfolk main stage. We look forward to his future output as a singer-songwriter, and kudos to the judges who discovered him.
This Italian dance band combined bagpipes with accordion, bombarde, guitar, bouzouki, saxophones and drums, making an amazing and huge sound.
Changing time signatures and musical keys all over the place, Kaláscima also used the latest in computerized tracks to keep the rhythms going relentlessly. Everyone was soon up bopping to the beats.
These four energetic guys had the crowd transfixed as the sang in Italian throughout. Singer Andrea Ramolo joined the band to add her soprano voice to the mix.
Kaláscima ended on the main stage with one giant folk trad electronica dance party. Thank goodness the rain finished two hours ago!
And on the Down by the Bay stage, more parties were about to begin. Ego Spank in concert, followed by Meteor Heist’s full concert, would take the Summerfolk music into the wee hours of the morning.
