Crankie Festival to honour Mitch Podolak

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This article was published 28/10/2019 (2489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The twang of banjos will ring with distinct resonance at an upcoming folk festival dedicated to the legacy of Mitch Podolak.

The second annual Winnipeg Crankie Festival, put on by Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous, will honour Podolak, the co-founder of the Winnipeg Folk Festival and West End Cultural Centre and founder of the International Children’s Festival, his numerous contributions to the local music scene and his support for musicians across Canada. The festival is set to run Nov. 8 to 10.

“The mentoring he did was really profound,” said Podolak’s son Leonard, founder of the Winnipeg Crankie Festival and executive producer of Home Routes, a company which books house concerts across Canada.

“He was the most generous person you could imagine with his ideas, his experience, his knowledge.

“If you had an idea, if it was a good one, even if there was nothing in it for him, he considered it a win for him, if he helped the person succeed,” he said.

Podolak died on Aug. 25, as Leonard and the Home Routes team were in the midst of preparations for the second edition of the Winnipeg Crankie Festival.

“My dad always said ‘no Holy Joes, no traditional Jewish funeral,’ but he wanted to be buried in a Jewish cemetery,” Leonard said.

“Well, there’s no one without the other.”

A formal memorial and funeral service was held for Podolak but it was not the celebration of his legacy and life — the party — that his father had envisioned, Leonard said.  

“It sort of occurred to us that what would really honour Mitch is what we’re already doing,” he said. “The festival is about collaboration. Bringing together folk music, acoustic music, and visual art, and reaching out to different sectors of the arts community to work with each other and collaborate and to create new work.”

A number of local musicians and organizations have climbed on board to support the event at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church (525 Wardlaw Ave.). The Winnipeg Folk Festival, West End Cultural Centre, and the church’s Art Fest are presenting sponsors of the festival in Podolak’s honour, and dozens of performers — 59 in all — have offered their talents to the event, Leonard said.

Musicians set to perform include some of Podolak’s earliest collaborators: folk singer Rick Neufeld (the writer of Moody Manitoba Morning), and Russ Kelley, who was instrumental in getting Home Routes off the ground. Al Simmons, Peter Paul Van Camp, Andrina Turenne, Big Dave McLean, Casati, D. Rangers, Daniel Koulack and the Knappen Street All Stars, Leaf Rapids, Nathan Rogers, and Red Moon Road are just a few of the names on the bill.

Over 100 volunteers will keep the festival running, a significant bump from the 20 or so who pulled off the first festival in 2018.

It was the support Leonard received in the days and weeks following his father’s death that encouraged him not to cancel the Winnipeg Crankie Festival.

“Afterwards I was in shock and I just couldn’t believe it, and there was a whole part of me that thought running the festival, considering what our resources as an organization are and what’s really important in life, all of a sudden it did seem a little bit daunting and overwhelming,” he said. “Seeing the support from the community and the reaction to his death, and the idea that a celebration of life would happen and I’d have support for it, it seemed that maybe we can do this, and maybe we should do this.”

Among the people who were influenced by Podolak throughout their career is St. James-based singer-songwriter Scott Nolan, who first met Podolak as a young musician in a rock band trying to land a gig.

“He was putting together the World Next Door (music festival) at The Forks, and as a testament to his character, the kind of music I played wouldn’t have been remotely his cup of tea,” Nolan said with a laugh. “What always stood out to me was my brokering of the deal, or pitch, was based on my character, and my integrity. So all we ever did was sit and talk about values and philosophies.

“The fact that he wanted to sit down in his office with some punk kid… I was moved by that. He really made me feel like somebody.”

The two shared meals, records, and conversations over the years, Nolan said, which he chalks up to Podolak’s commitment to a movement beyond just folk music.

“He was always there to share that knowledge,” Nolan said. “That was Mitch’s gift to the whole world really. He was non-discriminate, he didn’t play favourites, there was no hierarchy, and that was special.”

Nolan returns to the Winnipeg Crankie Festival for the second time and will play a concert on Saturday afternoon. He said he’s proud to see a lineup that rings Winnipeg.

“It’s a real quality act,” Nolan said. “As much as it’s about Mitch, it’s also about his city.”

Of course, the Winnipeg Crankie Festival will still feature crankies — moving panoramas consisting of two spools on a frame that are turned to display a series of moving images narrating a story — and the festival is once again bringing in Sue Truman to run workshops on the art form.

Opening the festival on Friday night is Daniel Koulack and the Knappen Street All Stars and special guests; Saturday is filled with daytime workshops and wraps up with a vaudeville show produced by Grant Simpson; and a Prairie Kitchen Party with Emma Cloney will close out the weekend on Sunday.

However, no formal tributes to Podolak have been programmed into the festival.

“That kind of stuff my dad hated anyway,” Leonard said, with a laugh.

“The celebration is the raising of the barn of this new fall community, folk music and arts festival. Creating work and platforms for artists was his main endeavour.”

More information and tickets are available at crankiefestival.com