As the sun set over Ottawa sinking out of view behind the CityFolk mainstage, Julia and Angus Stone began a magical set for night four of the festival, wowing the crowd with some impressive instrumental work and powerful vocals.
The brother-sister duo known for their signature indie-folk idioms greeted the audience, who had gathered long before they even took the stage, with their song “Losing You.”
The band played just about every type of guitar you can imagine while Julia showed off her multi-faceted musical abilities with one hand on the trumpet and another on the tambourine.
The show included songs from across their now-two-decade run as a band. They introduced fans to songs like “Celestial Bodies” from their new album Karaoke Bar and fan favourites like “Big Jet Plane,” leaving very few gaps in their set. Julia even expressed to the crowd her request to Angus to play their 2007 song “Just a Boy,” saying he hadn’t played it in years and “I’m very happy it was in the set.”
The crowd, which ranged from older couples in lawn chairs to young kids running around, were all entranced by their performance and ready for the headliner, Of Monsters and Men.
But before the Icelandic indie-folk group began, the strum of a six string caught people’s attention on the other side of the grounds.
Vicki Brittle’s soulful twang attracted the newcomers entering the festival grounds drawing quite a large crowd for night two of the TD Busker Series. The music between sets on the mainstage was considerably more muted on Saturday than Friday making it much easier to hear the busker.
Vicki, who is a local artist from the Ottawa Valley, has a playful way of incorporating raw storytelling and somewhat sensitive subjects into very catchy and powerful lyrics. She played her new song “Soul Medicine” which talks about how it’s ok to “slow down” and “take it all in,” touching on how busy life is and learning how to ground herself. It’s a common theme in her music and performance style.
Playing two sets, Vicki said she was pinching herself over the fact that she was on the same line-up as all of the artists at CityFolk this year and that she got to play the same night as Julia and Angus Stone.
Vicki said, “I am just trying to take it all in between my sets.”
Another act of the night melding into the heavy folk line-up of Saturday was Pokey Lafarge, who drew quite the crowd to the Westside Stage with his notably unique repertoire of music. People packed the area around the tent rocking along to his songs, some dancing and others singing along.
He was accompanied by his band on the cello, guitar and drums, and the strength of the music matched his lyricism very well. Songs like “Riot in the Streets,” highlighted the political nature of folk and the push against societal norms.
This continued the themes of a previous artist to rock the Westside Stage, Jobi Riccio, who discussed her unease at the abundance of posters regarding climate change she had seen throughout the city. When introducing her song “Wildfire,” Jobi also said that “If you feel like not enough is being done about this, you’re not crazy.”
The Tennessee based-singer, beyond her powerful remarks on the climate crisis, put on a harrowing show, taking audience members through a rollercoaster of emotions with songs of dejection and heartache. She engaged the audience well, joking with them and inviting them forward closer to the stage.
When all was said and done for the Westside Stage and openers on the main, the moody hum from the Nordic stylings of Of Monsters and Men filled the air at the RA centre. Smoke, lights and a then hush fell over the ever-chatting crowd as a slow song somehow started their set with a bang.
