Hush fest Mt. Joy, Band of Horses, Lucinda Williams, Orville Peck among Winnipeg Folk Festival headliners unveiled after months of secrecy By: Alan Small Posted: 6:00 PM CST Friday, Mar. 8, 2024

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The secret’s out.

The lineup of performers at the 2024 Winnipeg Folk Festival is the city’s music scene equivalent of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project; classified information known only to a zip-lipped few.

That is until Friday evening, when folk fest officials made their annual bombshell announcement at the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, finally spilling the beans to begin a four-month promotional buildup for the event, which takes place July 11 to 14 at Birds Hill Provincial Park.

News that Los Angeles indie-rock group Mt. Joy, Seattle’s Band of Horses and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams are scheduled to play earned hollers of approval from the invitation-only crowd and ended months of speculation among those who make the festival a cornerstone of their summers.

“Mt. Joy is a big get for us,” says Chris Frayer, who, as the festival’s artistic director, books the event’s acts.

“They played here in 2019 and they’ve just catapulted in terms of popularity since then, so we’re happy they’re going to return.”

Friday’s announcement also included word that Noah Cyrus, the country-pop singer who sometimes shares online gossip space with her older sister Miley, will be one of the 68 performers at the festival, along with Toronto rock group the Cowboy Junkies and husband-and-wife folk-soul duo the War and Treaty.

It also ended months of badgering Frayer has had to endure from friends and family seeking inside information about who will be at Birds Hill this summer.

“I get it constantly. At every turn, everyone’s asking. Children, adults, the mailman,” says Frayer, who has been with the festival since 2005.

“It’s remarkably inspiring to know how many people the festival reaches and what a big role the festival plays in people’s lives.

“It’s really crazy it all comes down to just four days.”

Predicting who will be at Birds Hill in July is like completing a jigsaw puzzle that’s missing some pieces for music nerds such as Stu Reid, host of the Twang Trust radio show on CKUW 95.9 FM.

Reid devoted his entire program on Wednesday night to artists he thought would be part of folk fest and others he hopes to see there one day.

“Last year was probably my favourite lineup ever, so I’m bound to be disappointed this year,” Reid says with a laugh. “Even if you’re not thrilled with the initial lineup, you’re bound to discover something after you see them live.”

One of his guesses, Canadian alt-country singer Orville Peck, was right on the money. Peck cancelled his 2023 appearance citing his physical and mental health, but has since returned to the road and will play the mainstage in July.

“I always get a few right, but then at the same time, over the last few years, I thought (English singer) Frank Turner was going to play one year — I would have bet money on it — and he ended up not being on the list, so you never know,” says Reid, who also correctly predicted Bonny Light Horsemen, the Grammy-nominated American folk trio of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman, would be at the fest.

Frayer and other key folk fest personnel are ordered to sign non-disclosure agreements every year to ensure the only song they sing in the weeks leading up to Friday’s announcement is Our Lips Are Sealed and the only posts on their social-media accounts are cute pictures of their pets, lest they inadvertently reveal a clue.

Artists and their managers keep a lid on the news too, only adding Winnipeg to their tour itineraries until after the folk festival announces their future arrival.

So when Frayer and Morgan Hamill, the festival’s artistic co-ordinator, sign a popular international act, such as the Tallest Man on Earth from Sweden, who will make his folk-fest debut this year, or Shooglenifty, the Scottish Celtic group that hasn’t played Birds Hill since 2004, there is no celebratory high-fiving nor whooping it up in their office on Bannatyne Avenue.

“I keep the jubilation to myself,” Frayer says.

Guessing which Manitoba acts will play at the folk fest is like forecasting the fickle July weather at the park. So many local acts fit the wide spectrum of music fans of the event enjoy.

Some are naturals: Leith Ross, the Winnipeg folk-pop singer, was a hit in 2022 and returns two years later, joining the likes of blues-rock guitarist Ariel Posen, Ruth Moody of the folk group the Wailin’ Jennys, indie-rocker Roman Clarke, singer-songwriter Madeleine Roger and bluegrass act the Stanley County Cut-Ups.

Zoon, the “moccasin-gaze” project led by Daniel Monkman, will also be at Birds Hill, which isn’t far from home at Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.

Frayer expects the Anishinaabe artist to perform with the Medicine Singers, a New England group of elders that has recorded with Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth to blend Algonquian powwow music with psychedelic rock.

Keeping the folk fest lineup secret isn’t just to honour contracts with artists. The mystery builds the buzz and helps ticket sales; last year the event was so popular, the final day sold out and infrastructure, such as portable toilets, was taxed to the max.

One person who hasn’t bugged Frayer about who’s playing in 2024 is his old boss, Lynne Skromeda, who left the folk fest’s top job last August to become chief executive officer with Manitoba Film and Music.

“Lynne texted me saying she’s so excited for it to come out because this is the first time in 11 years she doesn’t know the lineup.”

2024 lineup

B.C.U.C.

Band of Horses

Jake Blount

Bonny Light Horseman

Choir! Choir! Choir

Roman Clarke

Cowboy Junkies

Noah Cyrus

Libby DeCamp

Helena Deland

Dirtwire

Elisapie

Nadah El-Shazly

Etran De L’Air

Bendigo Fletcher

Neal Francis

The Fretless

Shane Ghostkeeper

Gone Gone Beyond

Shakey Graves

The Grogans

Ibibio Sound Machine

Inn Echo

The James Culleton Superfun Show

Kaia Kater

Tiffany Liu

The Lostines

Wyatt C. Louis

Madame Diva et Micah

Mama Cutsworth’s Family Dancing Party

Mama’s Broke

Medicine Singers

The Messthetics

Miscellany of Folk

Ruth Moody

Moontricks

Mt. Joy

Jon Muq

New Dangerfield

Joy Oladokun

Jerron Paxton

Tom Paxton and the Don Juans

Orville Peck

Polky

Sam Polley and the Old Tomorrows

Ariel Posen

Possessed By Paul James

Grace Potter

Rainbow Girls

Noah Reid

Madeleine Roger

Rosali

Leith Ross

She Returns From War

Shooglenifty

Nick Shoulders

The Stanley County Cut-Ups

Steph Strings

SYML

Tall Tall Trees

The Tallest Man on Earth

Mati Velasquez

The War and Treaty

Caley Watts

Tray Wellington

Lucinda Williams

Tia Wood

Zoon

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com | X: @AlanDSmall