Spreading the jam Free Press team spills the tea on folk fest workshops promising tasty licks and sweet harmonies By: Eva Wasney, Rob Williams and Jen Zoratti Posted: 4:09 PM CDT Wednesday, Jul. 10, 2024 Last Modified: 5:04 PM CDT Wednesday, Jul. 10, 2024 Updates

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The Winnipeg Folk Festival’s daytime workshops offer audiences an opportunity to take in one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated concerts and storytelling conferences. The best ones feel like eavesdropping on a jam session between newfound musical friends.

But how do you know which of the 29 workshops running this weekend at Birds Hill Park will strike a chord? Free Press staffers Eva Wasney, Rob Williams and Jen Zoratti have perused the program and picked a handful of daily events with promising lineups.

Workshops run Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. The folk fest mainstage gets underway Thursday at 6:15 p.m. with performances by Ruth Moody, Lucinda Williams and Shakey Graves, and winds up Sunday night with Orville Peck at 9 p.m.

For ticket information and full schedules, see winnipegfolkfestival.ca.

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Friday

My Indie Heart, Snowberry Field, 11 a.m.

Good songwriting can be a cathartic, transcendent experience for music-makers and listeners alike.

Hosted by Ottawa-born, Winnipeg-embraced artist Leith Ross, this workshop brings together four seasoned and searching solo acts for a concert of collective vulnerability.

Ross will be joined on stage by poetic “Swamp Witch” Hunter Park, who performs as She Returns From War; as well as melancholic singer-songwriter Mali Velasquez and breezy folk rocker ​​Joy Oladokun. If you miss the workshop, you can catch Park and Oladokun on the mainstage Thursday and Friday night, respectively.

— Eva Wasney

Strangers on a Plain, Spruce Hollow, 12:15 p.m.

Hosted by the honey-throated singer/songwriter (and Wailin’ Jenny) Ruth Moody, this workshop is all about those big, plains-sweeping voices.

Moody is joined by Winnipeg folk phenom Madeleine Roger, SYML, the atmospheric solo project from Washington musician Brian Fennell, and Bonny Light Horseman, an American alt-country trio composed of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats, the Shins) and Josh Kaufman, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, composer, arranger and engineer who has collaborated with everyone from the Hold Steady to Taylor Swift to… Madeleine Roger.

Turns out these two aren’t such strangers on a plain after all: Kaufman produced Roger’s forthcoming album, Nerve, which is out next month.

— Jen Zoratti

Follow the Leader, Green Ash, 2:45 p.m.

Legendary punk act Fugazi’s rhythm section, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, have joined forces with guitarist Anthony Pirog to form instrumental jazz-adjacent group the Messthetics, who will share the stage with Australian garage/surf folk-rock power trio the Grogans and American indie-rock singer-songwriter Rosali for a diverse showcase of sounds and styles.

— Rob Williams

Saturday

I’ve Been Everywhere, Bur Oak, 11:30 a.m.

Four different acts from four different geographical locations will take you on a journey hosted by Ontario’s Sam Polley and the Old Tomorrows.

Polley has a CanRock lineage — his dad is Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy and his brother is singer-songwriter Devin Cuddy — but his rockabilly and Motown-inflected music owes a debt to the American Midwest and South. His band will be joined by Arkansas country rebel Nick Shoulders, South Carolina Americana artist She Returns From War and Washington’s SYML for a workshop all about wanderlust and homecoming.

— Jen Zoratti

Insider Trading, Green Ash, 1 p.m.

Often, we share more similarities than differences with our neighbours. Same goes for distant but kindred music genres.

Insider Trading seeks to tease out the musical and personal connections between a global cast of artists, including Inuk pop singer-songwriter Elisapie, California swamptronica duo Dirtwire, Nigerien desert blues band Etran de L’Aïr and Egyptian electronica artist Nadah El Shazly.

Groove-worthy jams will likely ensue.

— Eva Wasney

Delusions of Banjer, Snowberry Field, 4 p.m.

A celebration of the banjo and an exploratory happening hootenanny featuring Kentucky storytelling-songwriter Bendigo Fletcher, Michigan old-time folkie Libby DeCamp, North Carolina psychedelic-indie artist Tall Tall Tress, who will showcase his electrified banjotron 6500, and experimental British Columbia duo Moontricks, whose music is based on the world’s natural cycles.

— Rob Williams

Sunday

That Old Time, New Time Religion, Big Bluestem, 11 a.m.

Start your Sunday morning off right with a soul-stirring gospel hour featuring the golden-voiced husband and wife duo the War and Treaty (a.k.a. Tanya Trotter and Michael Trotter Jr.) — who you can also catch on the mainstage Sunday evening — along with Winnipeg bluegrass quintet the Stanley County Cut-Ups and New York multi-instrumentalist Jerron Paxton.

This one will be worth dragging yourself out of the campground early for: Paxton is a bluesman born in 1989 but sounds like he time-travelled from 1929, while the Stanley County Cut-Ups will have your toes tapping with the blistering banjo and four-part harmonies. And as for the Trotters’ rich, golden vocal interplay? You’ll feel reborn.

— Jen Zoratti

Good for What Ails Ya!, Bur Oak, 1:15 p.m.

It’s the last day of the festival. While all good things must come to an end, goodbye never comes easy. Bring your anticipatory grief to Bur Oak for an afternoon communion with some deep-feeling musicians.

Gone Gone Beyond is a quartet of artists with a moody future folk catalogue that blends acoustic instrumentation with electronic sounds. Also taking the stage are the Medicine Singers, a multicultural collective fusing a wide array of genres with Native American powwow music. Polaris Music Prize shortlister Zoon, a.k.a. Daniel Monkman, rounds out the lineup with a dose of dreamy introspection.

— Eva Wasney

Songs I Wrote and Some I Wish I Did, Shady Grove, 4:30 p.m.

A session of original songs and covers of classic alt-folk, roots and Americana by Texas singer-songwriter Possessed by Paul James, Ontario swing-rockabilly outfit Sam Polley and the Old Tomorrows and Louisiana harmony-loving duo Lostines, who combine a classic high and lonesome sound with doo-wop and girl group vibes.

— Rob Williams