Full 2008 Lineup Announced

Here. Additional performers include Amadou & Mariam, Broken Social Scene, Cat Power, Joan Osborne, Ron Sexsmith, Johnny Lang and Chris Isaak.

Considering last year's lineup, and the extra revenue that was rumoured to exist, this lineup just doesn't cut it for me.

Dylan to play Folk Festival

It's true! Jakob Dylan is playing this year's Edmonton Folk Festival!

What? Oh, you didn't think I meant Bob Dylan, did you? Silly rabbits.

It also appears that female fan favorites Michael Franti and Spearhead will be back. C is for Cookie!

Ain't Nothing Wrong With That

Robert Randolph and the Family Band are confirmed artists at this year's Winnipeg Folk Festival. That's gonna be one hell of a show. The man plays a mean Sacred Steel. If they play Edmonton, I'm gonna freak. They are on my shortlist of must-see bands. It might be worth a roadie to the Peg if they don't play here.

Brothers Down

Sam Roberts and Charlie Musselwhite have both been confirmed for this year's Calgary Folk Festival. Ooh, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Excellent.

Union Station members flying solo at Folk Fest

Pollstar has listed some more acts for the 2008 Edmonton Folk Festival. It includes a plethora of past performers, including K'Naan, Martha Wainwright, Martyn Joseph, Buckwheat Zydeco, Dar Williams and The Fairfield Four. Interestingly, guitar player Dan Tyminski of Alison Krauss & Union Station (and lead Soggy Bottom Boy) is also listed as a performer. As I noted in an earlier post, Jerry Douglas is also confirmed, which means that two members of Union station will be at the festival performing. Methinks we might get to some some wonderful stuff at one of the sidestages this August. Maybe The Fairfield Four will even join the boys at a "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" session.

Hey Clinton! Hey Yeltsin!

Guess who's coming to Folk Fest!?!?!



Okay, it's only the insufferable Jian Ghomeshi, but I think The Hill Nanny is still going to pee her pants.

Early Confirmations?

It's only January, but Pollstar already has some interesting acts down as playing at the Edmonton Folk Festival this year. They include country-rockers The Sadies, former Men At Work lead singer and Zach Braff favorite Colin Hay, as well as the world's greatest dobro player and member of Union Station, Jerry Douglas. To me, that's so far, so very good.

Here's Hay doing "Overkill" on Scrubs, followed by Jerry Douglas and Alison Krauss performing Paul Simon's "Graceland."

Hasn't Hit Me Yet

Another quintessential Canadian video. Don't it look romantic? Except we all know they probably froze their asses off shooting it.


Ditto for this one.


If this doesn't send shivers up your spine, you are dead inside. Dead!


Here's someone's recording from this year's FF show. The band is playing the first single, "C'mon," off their next album Small Miracles, which hits stores September 25th. I actually prefer the song off the new album that Greg played, which I believe was/is called "Small Miracles."



***Bonus***

A bit of the Jim Cuddy Dance, in the Jim Cuddy pants. And watch for the glass breaking shot. Noo! Not the glass!!!

Martin Sexton

Here's Martin Sexton at a session this year, doing his best Louis Prima. At least that's what it sounds like to me. He's no Mary Margaret O'Hara, mind you, but he ain't half-bad.

Jim Cuddy & Friends

Here's Jim Cuddy and Justin Rutledge doing Blue Rodeo's "Bad Timing" at a show in Ontario. They played together at one of the Saturday sessions as well (Rutledge toured with Cuddy this past year), which was a delight.



And here's a song Cuddy did at that same session, called "Married Again." The only difference is that he didn't have the beautiful and amazing Kathleen Edwards to help him out in Edmonton. Sigh. She's so dreamy. Actually, so is he. Sigh.

The Extruded Plastic Dingus

Van was obsessed with hula-hoops all weekend. This picture of Aaron with Captain Jack Sparrow and his tools in the background made me giggle, and I know it will set her off on another tirade.



Questions: What if you tire before it's done? Does it have rules? Can more than one play? What makes you think it's a game? Is it a game? Will it break? It better break eventually! Is there an object? What if you tire before it's done? Does it come with batteries? We could charge extra for them. Is it safe for toddlers? How can you tell when you're finished? How do you make it stop? Is that a boy's model? Can a parent assemble it? Is there a larger model for the obese? What if you tire before it's done? What the hell is it?

Answer: It's the The Extruded Plastic Dingus. You know, for kids!

Dang

I put together a slideshow of the Folk Fest weekend with music and everything, but it looks stinktastic on both YouTube and Google Video. So I'll have to start from scratch. Actually, I think I'll just put the pics up on Facebook, and maybe do a summary post on here.

***Update*** Pics are up on Facebook.