Folk Festival 2009, Day 1
Date: August 21, 2009 A Clear Night Sky Despite some scheduling issues, I quite enjoyed taking in the first evening of this year's edition of the Ottawa Folk Festival. After all, it's hard to complain about an event that brings The Sadies and Amy Millan to within walking distance of my house. A late scheduling change moved The Sadies ahead to a 5:30 start time. That shift meant that even with my best scramble to get home from work and over to Britannia Park, I missed the first few minutes of their performance in the festival tent. On the plus side, though, the early start gave the band two hours to work with; and they ultimately wrapped up their set with Dallas Good announcing that they had played thirty-eight songs. The Sadies were their usual unstoppable force, although their stage control was given more of a test, as one presumably inebriated older gentleman maintained a running dialogue with Dallas. The guitarist proved his good judgment, playing off of the man for laughs without giving him too much encouragement. (He did accept a beer from the guy by saying that if he kept it up, he might get his oft-repeated Buck Owens request fulfilled, though.) Despite the distractions, the band was as tight as ever. The sprawling set certainly had some overlap with the last that I heard from the band in November, as I definitely recalled a sequence of "Anna Leigh," "Introduction," "Loved On Look," "Higher Power," and "Uncle Larry's Breakdown." The Sadies are always an exercise in controlled chaos, which I thought was best exemplified by "Loved On Look," which Dallas introduced as an Elvis Presley cover. After his brother Travis concluded a wildly unhinged vocal take, Dallas dryly corrected that it was in fact a Dallas Frazier/Al Owens song that was only popularized by Elvis. Let the record show that The Sadies have the wherewithal to squelch any misinformation that might arise in their two-hour showcases. I was thrilled to hear another cover make the setlist, with the always killer "Astronomy Domine" making its mark near the end. Overall, though, I have to give my standard Sadies recap: the musicianship was impeccable, the stage presence was top-notch, and there was no lull in the proceedings. Now they just need to work on finding a Buck Owens cover. After catching supper and taking in the sunset over the Ottawa River, I moved to the main outdoor stage, where Amy Millan was slated to start soon. However, that stage was lagging, meaning that I ended up settling in well before the preceding artist, Kinnie Starr, even began her performance. The versatile Starr concentrated on guitar-based songs with her solo set, expressing a disillusionment with the state of modern hip hop. However, she did close the set with a few rhymes; and while it first seemed that her request for a beatboxer was in vain, she was joined halfway through that finale by Sheesham, fresh off a very different type of performance earlier in the evening. Finally, Amy Millan took the stage, about thirty minutes behind schedule. Millan opened with a gospel duet, sharing the mic with Dan Whiteley for "Show Me the Cross." The lyrics stayed on the topic of loss, either of life or of love, as Millan and her full band followed up with "Losin' You," "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," "Ruby II," and "Baby I." That might sound like a bleak description, but really it was a stretch of classic, country-tinged hurtin' songs done to perfection. Millan's unpretentious charm and good-natured banter also kept the mood light. She related feeling that she had truly made it when she was accepted by the musical Whiteley family, represented here by Dan's show-stealing mandolin and guitar work and Jenny's vocal and guitar contributions. She also had high praise for the rest of her crack band, singling out various members as being her secret weapon, before announcing that she was renaming the band to Secret Weapon. Half of the set was devoted to songs from Millan's upcoming album, Masters of the Burial,which seemed to be in line with her first release. It was certainly an encouraging sign that unfamiliar songs such as "Towers," "Low Sail," "Finish Line" and the Weeping Tile cover, "Old Perfume" fit in comfortably beside the more road-worn "Come Home Loaded Roadie" and "Skinny Boy." Perhaps due to the late start time, it seemed that the set ended all too soon, although another new number, "Bruised Ghosts" wrapped up the show in fine fashion. While the scheduling wasn't perfect, it was great to see The Sadies and Amy Millan again, two artists that I first saw together at a club show put on by the Folk Festival three years ago. I'm happy to say that they were just as enjoyable in a tent and in the open air, respectively. The Sadies are perhaps the most dependably rock-solid band that I can think of, while Amy Millan and her crack supporting players easily held up their end of the bargain, continuing my string of enjoyable festival shows. Amy Millan setlist Set
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