Folk music’s its own world, so it seems appropriate that this annual winter festival sets up camp east of Yonge, where roots music fans and musicians crisscross the Danforth through wind and snow. A multi-generational, volunteer-driven, pay-what-you-can affair, Winterfolk offers up-and-comers like a cappella duo the Blackest Crow the opportunity to play alongside veterans like Mose Scarlett, Melwood Cutlery and David Essig

JACK MARKS AND THE LOST WAGES PLAYED A GREAT ROOTSY SET AT EASTMINSTER UNITED CHURCH SATURDAY AS PART OF WINTERFOLK

The fest tried something edgy (by folk standards) this year with Brass Roots: Big Bands For Your Buck, a ticketed event at Eastminster United Church. It’s a shame that more of Winterfolk’s regulars didn’t make the three-block trek from the Black Swan to take in some of the best roots rock Toronto has to offer.

Openers Jack Marks and the Lost Wages played a great set, including Michigan Love, Sweet Patricia and New Girl Now (harmonica stood in for the horns) from the recent Lost Wages release. Cousins-fronted quintessentially Canadian act the Warped 45s impressed with a warm, cohesive showcase highlighting their musicianship, working-class experiences and catchy choruses. Freeman Dre and the Kitchen Party sprawled across the stage like a travelling Parkdale carnival, with Michael Louis Johnson providing smoky trumpet solos from the dais. Finally, 11-piece Afrobeat closers Minotaurs joyfully rocked, inspiring at least a few people to get up and dance.

The venue seemed to move the road-hardened musicians to an unusual intimacy: Marks talked about his time in Princess Margaret Hospital; Dave McEathron (Warped 45s) joked about his mom’s sleepy Unitarian Church congregation; Andre Flak referenced his Catholic upbringing; and Nathan Lawr got the crowd to holler some enthusiastic amens.

Meanwhile, Winterfolk proper raged on, with good crowds at the Black Swan, Mambo Lounge, Dora Keogh and Terri O’s. I caught some great moments, including Collette Savard’s timeless vocals and zither at the Songwriters Unite showcase, Joanne Crabtree and Margaret Stowe having a great time playing the blues together, and Eve Goldberg’s Watermelon Sorbet (the intro to Richardson’s Roundup for six years).

Other highlights were Rosemary Phelan’s intimate Story Behind The Song workshop in the basement of Danforth Baptist Church, kids dancing in a circle at the end of Nonie Crete’s Dora Keogh set, Tannis Slimmon’s gospel singalong, Betty Supple’s The Moon, and funky/fun roots pop group the Donefors.

I thought it was a typo, but Parkdale’s Saturday Saints proved me wrong when they threw Armenian folk music into their usual Appalachian-inspired repertoire. Finally, Erin Hill (in town performing in South Pacific) and Her Psychedelic Harp went completely over the top with sci-fi songs that would fit right into 70s musical theatre.

SARAH GREENE

Canadians boast of our winter heartiness, our perseverance through sleet and slush, teeth bared and shovels brandished. We’re proud of how we brave the elements and celebrate the snowy season with outdoor sports and activities.

But there’s another side to the winter experience that we do so well—we know how to build the most warm, welcoming spaces to come home to. We excel at creating comfort and coziness. We are experts at mid-winter interior design, with cottages and chalets, hot drinks and thick socks, unafraid of snuggling in close to each other.

It’s this sense of huddling together, of coming in from the cold to brightness and cheer, that establishes the Winterfolk Blues & Roots Festival.

The festival, now in its ninth year, ran February 18 – 21, filling rooms along the Danforth in Toronto with music and merriment. The event takes the folk festival construct, sticks it in the middle of February and brings it indoors in the middle of the city.

It’s a welcome opportunity for performers to play multiple stages over the course of a weekend at a time when such bookings are slow. The festival generates business for local bars and restaurants when there would usually be less walk up traffic. Unlike many summer festivals that take place at secluded campsites and country farms, the strip of venues in Greektown is easily accessible by public transit, encouraging locals to head east of the Don Valley.

The seven stages range from restaurants to sports bars to pubs to martini lounges. Most do not regularly present live music. While this poses some challenges in terms of live sound quality and good sightlines, the performers are adaptable and resilient, capturing audiences where the setting might not be entirely ideal. With music running from early afternoon until late night, there’s a noticeable shift in the crowd during different timeslots. The daytime audience is more sparse and attentive, while the nighttime revelers can get loud and rowdy. This may suit a rollicking party band, but is less favourable for the quiet singer-songwriter types, which make up much of Winterfolk’s programming. However, there is something enchanting about claiming a space and filling it with song, when the music overtakes a bar crowd and has them joining in on the sing-along chorus.

The festival is a gathering spot for the neighbourhood, the audience, and the performers, comfortably housed away from the wind and the weather, with central heat and indoor plumbing. Outdoor festivals invite sprawling blankets and quiet downtime to laze about under the sky, while the multiple indoor venue format of Winterfolk makes for some awkward seating situations, and the practice of catching several stages over a short time period isn’t as conducive to settling down with dinner and a drink.

Largely a showcase of talented local acts, the festival represents the Toronto folk scene well and many of the performers already know each other. Winterfolk is an opportunity for reunions and collaborations with old friends who might not get to see each other very often, with their touring commitments and gigs. It’s a chance for folks to network, catch up, and play on each others’ tunes. Several stages are structured as workshops, resulting in some very magical interactions between acts.

The programming is, however, uneven at times and could offer more variety year to year, especially when drawing from the local talent pool.

Tony Quarrington, James Gordon, and David Hein
In the end, Winterfolk is packed with four days of music and it’s completely free. The festival is supported by numerous sponsors and funders, donations from the audience, and the commendable work of dedicated volunteers. The Family Day programming is kid-friendly and community collectives like the Moonshine Café open stage and the Corktown Ukulele Jam get their showcase spotlights. In recent years, Winterfolk has also held auditions in nearby towns such as Stouffville and Peterborough to seek out new talent. There is a true sense of community and kindliness throughout.

As James Gordon said, when introducing a most beautiful and heartbreaking song about a refrigerator: “The neighbourhood just felt more alive”.

Tagged as: corktown ukulele jame, danforth, david hein, eve goldberg, folk, folk festival, james gordon, lewis melville, michael jerome brown, Moonshine Cafe, tannis slimmon, tony quarrington, winterfolk

WINTERFOLK: It has certainly been a miserable winter to date, but Toronto folk and roots music fans will be warmed by the return of this popular and mostly free festival. Now in its ninth year, it runs from Feb. 18 to 20, and is held in six venues all in close proximity in the Danforth and Broadview area (Black Swan Tavern, Mambo Lounge, Eastminster United Church, Danforth Café, Dora Keogh, and Terry O’s Sports Bar. It’s a real talent-heavy list of performers this year, and those artists we can heartily recommend include BROCK ZEMAN, LAURA FERNANDEZ, DAVID ESSIG, TONY QUARRINGTON, BETH ANN COLE, HOTCHA!, DAVID CELIA AND JOAN BESEN, FREEMAN DRE AND THE KITCHEN PARTY, NOAH ZACHARIN, JAMES GORDON, ace blues guitarist JIMMY BOWSKILL, THE WARPED 45s, JACK MARKS, ROSEMARY PHELAN, THE MINOTAURS, BIG RUDE JAKE, JACK MARKS, MOSE SCARLETT, and ERIN HILL. A visiting artist from Montreal we’ve heard good things about is singer/songwriter JON DAVIS, who has drawn JAMES TAYLOR comparisons. For a full lineup, go to www.winterfolk.ca

w/ Freeman Dre & the Kitchen Party, Minotaurs, Jack Marks and more

Various venues, tonight (Thursday, February 17) to Monday (February 21)

Entering its ninth year, the folk, roots and blues festival takes over the Danforth February 17 to 21, with 150 artists playing at six local venues. All of the gigs are free except for Saturday night’s talent-stacked bash at Eastminster United Church (310 Danforth), where you can catch the Warped 45s (pictured), the Minotaurs, Freeman Dre & the Kitchen Party and many more for $15, or $12 in advance. winterfolk.com.

WINTERFOLK: This fine (and mostly free) folk and roots festival continues to grow. OTB was pleased to hear of strong attendance, and we enjoyed the one event we were able to catch. It was a workshop at The Black Swan entitled “Music For The Good Times And Bad,” and it featured two duos and two solo singer/songwriters alternating on tunes with that theme.

Popular duo HOTCHA! hosted and performed. With guitar, percussion and vocal harmonies, they have a big sound for a duo. The other twosome was young bluegrass/old time country act THE SATURDAY SAINTS, and they excelled on STEPHEN FOSTER classic “Hard Times.”

PETER VERITY has a warm voice and traditional folk approach, while MICHAEL BRENNAN again impressed with his rich strong vocals and skilled songwriting. His Sunday afternoon residency at Graffiti’s is warmly reccommended.

The ninth annual Winterfolk music festival on tap throughout this Family Day holiday weekend will feature more than 150 musicians on seven stages in six venues, on the west Danforth between Broadview and Chester subway stations.

It kicks off early evening this Friday, Feb. 18 and runs right through until early evening Monday, Feb. 21.

Venues include the Black Swan Tavern (two stages), Mambo Lounge, Dora Keogh, Terri O's Sports Bar, Danforth Baptist Church (except Sunday) and Eastminster United Church (Saturday night only).

The information is available on the Winterfolk website.

Admission is mostly free – there's only one special presentation requiring admission ($15 at the door) on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) at Eastminster Church. Titled Big Bands for your Buck, it features Jack Marks&The Lost Wages; The Warped 45s; Freeman Dre&the Kitchen Party; and The Minotaurs.

The festival is the brainchild of Toronto's Brian Gladstone, himself a noted roots/folk player who, besides still heading up the ever-growing, all-volunteer festival, also plays in the festival.

His idea was to bring a roots festival, normally set in a rural area in the summer, to the heart of the city in the middle of winter. Not only would it allow Toronto residents a chance to take in a huge roots festival literally seconds from the subway, but is also convenient for the top players in Toronto and throughout the province and country who are less busy this time of year.

Local roots music fans will be familiar with numerous artists and bands such as the Porkbelly Futures, which have carried on after the death of their leader Paul Quarrington, the Gary Kendall Band, Hotcha, Joanne Crabtree, the DoneFors and Tony Quarrington, just to name a few.

For those not so familiar, think variety. The roots umbrella is about as wide as you can get, flavoured by folk, jazz, blues, pop and country.

One highlight is An Evening With Borealis Records with some of the label's finest, including Eve Goldberg, James Gordon, Melwood Cutlery (with Dan Whiteley), Michael Jerome Browne and the legendary Mose Scarlett.

In keeping with the spirit of a typical roots festival, Winterfolk also provides some creative on-stage workshops led by the musicians. A few examples include the art of improvisation; blues songwriting; women with words; Irish song circle; and writing music for theatre.

It also shines the spotlight on the local music scene, promoting both well established musical institutions as well as up-and-coming musicians, through such presentations as:

* Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar with host Dunstan Morey, presenting artists from its bi-weekly open stage at Ten Feet Tall on the Danforth;

* Seneca College independent music program with host and instructor John Switzer;

* Ukulele Speakeasy with host Bob Cutler and members of the Corktown Ukulele Jam;

* Stouffville Artists Showcase with host Jim Priebe;

* and Best of Ten Feet Tall Open Stage with host Gary 17.

Visit the Winterfolk website at https://abetterworld.ca (click on winterfolk).

By: Marie-Lynn Hammond

Four musicians from the region will be showcased at Winterfolk, the roots/folk/blues fest in downtown TO, on Sunday, 20 February, at 1 p.m. at the Black Swan pub, 154 Danforth. Details here. It’s a FREE, not-for-profit festival, happening all week long in various venues on the Danforth, though donations are certainly welcome to help pay the musicians.

The Performers

And yes, I’m one of the four performers showcasing, so as a typically modest, self-effacing Canadian (other than Don Cherry, that is), I sincerely apologize for what may seem like shameless self-promotion, something we really just don’t approve of, do we?!

So forget about me (though I should mention I’ll be accompanied by D’Arcy Wickham, a great singer and guitarist; and we do sound great together, and I’ll be doing five original songs) and just consider the other three: terrific guitarist Erwin Shack from Stouffville, singer-songwriter-instrumentalist Glenn Marais from Newmarket and composer/fingerstyle-guitar-champion Ewan Dobson from Markham. And we have music-aficionado Jim Priebe of Stouffville, who’ll be hosting the showcase, to thank for making this happen.

Lots More Great Music

We’ll each play for about 25 minutes each – but there’s lots more music happening after us at five other venues, and it goes on till late at night. A real musical feast, ranging from blues to gospel to original songs to fingerstyle guitar and more, featuring Canadian notables such as James Gordon, Michael Jerome Brown, Eve Goldberg, Mose Scarlett, and many others.

So, all you York-Region music lovers, jump on the GO bus and head to the Danforth this Sunday for a free day/evening of great music. Get there for 1 p.m. and support your local representatives – let’s show those Torontonians that there is indeed life and culture in the 905!

Take a peek at the great acts from last year’s Winterfolk:

Marie-Lynn Hammond is a co-founder of Stringband, a seminal Canadian folk group, and a critically acclaimed songwriter living in York Region. In past lives she’s written plays and magazine articles and hosted national CBC radio shows. In between working on two new CDs, she freelances as an editor of both fiction and nonfiction. www.marielynnhammond.com

Written by Ori Dagan

AS THE WINTER WEEKS DWINDLE down to a precious few, here are some good excuses to head straight to the clubs:

Who knew Toronto was such a hotbed of folk, roots and blues talent? Meet The Association of Artists for a Better World, organizers of Winterfolk.This entirely volunteer-run, all-ages festival is now in its 9th season of emulating multi-stage rural summer festivals, right here in the city. The 2011 edition will showcase 150 artists over four days (February 18-21) at six venues in the Broadview and Danforth vicinity. Ranging from sports bar to church, the venues this year are: Black Swan Tavern, Mambo Lounge, Eastminster United Church, Danforth Café, Dora Keogh and Terry O’s Sports Bar. All shows will be free of charge with the exception of Saturday night’s “Brass Roots: Big Bands for Your Buck” at Eastminster United Church, a quadruple bill of multi-genre big bands for only $15 ($12adv).

Jazzers will notice guitarist Tony Quarrington’s name all over the performance schedule – he is well-known in the folk scene as both a performer and songwriter. Popular blues acts also appear on the bill, including Gary Kendall of the Downchild Blues Band fame, charismatic Danny Marks and breathtaking multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Bowskill; other promising billings include veteran jazzman Big Rude Jake, Latin chanteuse Laura Fernandez and acclaimed singer-songwriter Noah Zacharin.

Budding musicians should take advantage of the free workshops offered, which cover everything from blues songwriting and improvisation to songs of social justice and fingerstyle guitar.

The fourth and final Family Day is highlighted by two sets with Beth Anne Cole, familiar to many from her 22 years on Mr. Dressup and Sesame Street. The Winterfolk venues can all be found in our “In The Clubs” listings.

To find out more details about this exciting festival, visit

www.winterfolk.com.

Winterfolk IX Preview

Artists who performed at the Winterfolk IX Stouffville Preview last month will be on stage on Sunday Feb 20th, 1-3 pm, at the Black Swan Tavern on the Danforth.

Here are videos of two performances from Ewan Dobson, an instrumental guitarist, and HOTCHA!, a hillbilly swing band.

Video Collage from the Winterfolk IX Preview

Toronto's Winterfolk Preview Rocks Stouffville on Saturday Night

Over 50 people were packed into the second floor of the Earl of Whitchurch on Saturday night to hear seven performers in a Winterfest IX Preview. Stouffville Connects was there and took video that will be made available at a later date. For those who were at the event and wanted to buy a CD from one of the artists, you can find more about each performer at his/her website:

The Winterfolk IX Preview concert was held to promote the upcoming Winterfolk IX Festival, which will be held in Toronto, Ontario from February 18 – 21, 2011.

Winterfolk IX will see over 150 artists perform on six stages over four days and the festival is FREE, with all ages welcome. For more information on Winterfolk IX, visitwww.abetterworld.ca.

Profile of Winterfolk IX Preview Artists

An impressive group of artists came out to perform at The Earl on Saturday, January 15th to promote the upcoming Winterfolk IX festival that will take place in Toronto from February 18 – 21, 2011.

GLEN MARAIS

Glenn Marais is a singer/songwriter who uses his music for healing and hope through his company, Music in Mind.  He teaches character education through music, motivational speaking, curriculum kits, workshops, activities and school assemblies to thousands of students inspiring them to get involved locally and globally with his universal motto, "Give to Live".  His groundbreaking educational kit, Songs in the Key of Character, teaches character traits through ten songs and activities.  Glenn traveled to Africa to film a video for his song, "Like a Child" that went to number one on Much More Music, and a documentary on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.  The CD/DVD of Like a Child raises money and awareness for the children of Africa.  The song and video were featured at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006 and Glenn closed the conference with a live performance in front of 7000 people that was broadcast around the world.  He is currently raising funds for the Cotlands Orphanage in Cape Town South Africa, under the Kids for Cotlands campaign.  $75 000 has been raised to date.  He orchestrated the One Candle campaign in Dec.2007 to raise money for families of Canadian Military personal in the Afghanistan War, www.onecandle.ca.  He recently composed a song, "On the Shoulders of Giants" that was selected by the Nelson Mandela Children's Foundation to commemorate Nelson Mandela's upcoming 90th birthday.

Glenn has been nominated for a Juno award for the song, "Everybody Wants to be like You", by the artist Snow. The song is the 5th most played song in Canadian History. 

ERWIN SCHACK

Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist

Member of the Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar Association, York Region Fingerstyle Guitar Association, Durham Region Music Society. 

Repertoire includes various instrumental Guitar pieces spanning the Blues, Jazz, Celtic, Folk and Classical genres by artists like Bruce Cockburn, Don Ross, Preston Reed, Leo Kottke and Bob Evans.

Previous engagements include:

The Foster Memorial , Art in the Park,

Port Perry Music Festival, Unionville Jazz Festival, Bluebridge Festival as well as volunteering at Markham Stouffville Hospital and local Seniors Facilities

MARIE-LYNN HAMMOND

Marie-Lynn Hammond is a veteran of the Canadian music scene. Co-founder of the pioneering Canadian folk group Stringband, she's played every major Canadian folk festival and recorded five solo CDs. She's also a playwright and former CBC radio host. She's known especially for her finely crafted lyrics, that can range from personal and moving to wickedly hilarious. Five years ago she happily escaped from Toronto to Stouffville.

CAROL TEAL AND DAVID JOYCE

Carol Teal and David Joyce joined forces in 1997 and perform mainly original songs of life's delights and dilemmas as well as fulfilling the troubadour's role of critical commentary on society today!  They delight and engage audiences with their thoughtful and witty lyrics, tight harmonies and wide variety of instrumentation (guitars, mandolin, banjo, washboard, harmonica & feather boa!)  Serious, sensitive and audaciously funny with a side of vaudeville thrown in for fun- check them out!

David's songwriting reflects his love of the guitar as his first instrument. He also adds skills on harmonica and banjo to the duo's performances.     

Carol – passion for songwriting has won her two Honor Awards in the Great American Songwriting Competition.  Carol plays guitar, mandolin (and feather boa) in performance.

Ewan Dobson

Ewan has performed at the 2010 Montreal Jazz Festival alongside Gareth Pearson, Craig D'Andrea and Don Ross.  He also demonstrated guitars at the 2010 Montreal Guitar Show.

In September and October 2010 Ewan hit the road with fellow guitar virtuoso Antoine Dufour for his first Canadian tour that featured performance dates with the legendary Don Ross. This eastern tour brought Ewan to several cities including Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Fredericton, Halifax, Charlottetown, New Glasgow, and more. The impression he left behind has already warranted a return trip within the year. 

Ewan Dobson II, the new self-titled album released by Candyrat Records, brings with it 18 new recordings.  As generous as his last album, Ewan continues to deliver his unique style that has proven to be a force to be reckoned with.

HOTCHA!

High-energy hillbilly swing duo blends old-time Western, bluegrass, early swing and country gospel delivered with the energy of a runaway train. Soaring vocals, lively accordion, gritty guitar, wailing harmonica and big-beat bodhran. Debut CD Dust Bowl Roots: Songs for the New Depression, intended as a true tonic for the times we live in.

• Top 40 CBC Galaxie Folk/Roots Year end Chart 2009!
• 4 features in the Toronto Sun
• 4 star (out of 5) review in SING OUT! Magazine
• 4 star (out of 5) review on Amazon.com

BRIAN GLADSTONE

Brian Gladstone is a fingerstyle guitar player, an insightful lyricist, a colourful story-teller, and a dynamic performer. His four albums have all attained global airplay, and he has been reviewed in over 100 publications all over the world including an article in "Review on Pop Culture". Founder of "A Better World", and Toronto's "Winterfolk" festival, Brian remains active on the music scene touring in the summer, and playing locally the rest of the time. "Brian's particular way of seeing things through irony and old time approach reminds me of great artists as John Prine, Dave Van Ronk, and Mississippi John Hurt. He is their own true son and he continues their great sounds."  ~ Susa Onda Radio, Italy

Reprinted from York Scene, Jan 14, 2011   

Stouffville radio personality Jim Priebe and the Winterfolk Festival proudly present a sneak preview of what's in store at this year's NINTH ANNUAL WINTERFOLK FESTIVAL. Hot local artists from Stouffville and surrounding area will perform at The Earl of Whitchurch Pub , Saturday, January 15 @ 8:00 pm. For more information and updates please visit https://abetterworld.ca

Toronto's Winterfolk IX festival – which runs from February 18 – 21, 2011, in various venues on the Danforth, will present a night of local entertainment as a teaser to the upcoming free, all-ages, mid-winter, weatherproof urban roots and blues festival. To add to this sneak preview, co-presenter and host Jim Priebe will also be organizing a local Stouffville artist showcase at the festival in February. Please stay tuned for more information and details on that in the coming weeks.

This preview concert will highlight some of the upcoming festival performers including singer-songwriter and Juno nominee Glen Marais, serio-comic folksingers Carol Teal & David Joyce, guitar virtuoso Ewan Dobson, vintage swing duo HOTCHA!, veteran singer-songwriter Marie-Lynn Hammond, and expert guitar-tamers Brian Gladstone (also the festival director) and Stouffville fave, Erwin Schack.

ARTIST LINEUP:

ERWIN SHACK
http://www.reverbnation.com/erwinschack

CAROL TEAL & DAVID JOYCE
http://www.carolanddavid.ca/

BRIAN GLADSTONE
http://www.briangladstone.ca

MARIE-LYNN HAMMOND

http://www.marielynnhammond.com/

HOTCHA!
http://www.HOTCHA.ca

GLENN MARAIS
http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/GLENN-MARAIS

EWAN DOBSON
http://www.myspace.com/ewanguitar

MORE ABOUT WINTERFOLK
Winterfolk was formed to entertain, educate, enlighten, engage and encourage the community about various folk music styles including roots, blues, folk and more. Founded by Festival Director Brian Gladstone, it is run as a division of The Association of Artists for a Better World, a registered non-profit organization in the Province of Ontario, Canada. www.abetterworld.ca

"I SUPPORT ROOTS MUSIC IN TORONTO" badges will also be available again at the festival by donation and they'll be large enough for artists to autograph them!

Reprinted from York Region Jan 11, 2010

One night only. Hotcha! and others preview a Toronto folk music festival at The Earl of Whitchurch in downtown Stouffville Saturday night. A handful of Stouffville-area folk musicians will be together for one night only to provide people with a sneak peak of what they will hear during this year’s Winterfolk IX event.

The Jan. 15 preview concert features Stouffville faves Erwin Shack, Marie-Lynn Hammond and Hotcha! as well as Aurora-based singer-songwriter and Juno nominee Glen Marais, Newmarket’s serio-comic folksingers Carol Teal and David Joyce and Toronto-based guitar tamers Brian Gladstone and Ewan Dobson.

“He is just at the top of his game right now,” said sneak peak event organizer Jim Priebe of Mr. Dobson.
Mr. Priebe, along with Hotcha!’s Beverly Kreller, who is also head of the artistic committee for Winterfolk, put the sneak preview show together at The Earl of Whitchurch Pub, 6204 Main St., in a matter of weeks.

“I think it’s going to be a fantastic night. I’m really looking forward to it,” Ms Kreller said. Carol Teal and David Joyce, along with Hotcha! and Mr. Gladstone are all performing during Winterfolk, which is an all-ages folk festival in Toronto from Feb. 18 to 21.

But Mr. Priebe knew there were many more area artists who should be showcased, which is why he created the sneak preview.
“I hope that it actually generates more interest in sneak previews … (and) folk music in Stouffville and York Region,” he said.
 

The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 each with all funds going to support the artists of Winterfolk IX.

For more details, go to www.abetterworld.ca

 Winterfolk IX Sneak Preview

Reprinted From Snap, Jan 15, 2011 - Stouffville radio personality Jim Priebe & the Winterfolk Festival proudly presented a sneak preview of what's in store at this year's NINTH ANNUAL WINTERFOLK FESTIVAL. Hot local artists from Stouffville & surrounding area put on a great show at The Earl of Whitchurch Pub. Winterfolk was formed to entertain, educate, enlighten, engage & encourage the community about various folk music styles including roots, blues, folk & more. Founded by Festival Director Brian Gladstone, it is run as a division of The Association of Artists for a Better World, a registered non-profit organization in the Province of Ontario, Canada. For more information & updates please visit www.abetterworld.ca

Four-day music festival will feature more than 100 musicians

The ninth annual festival will once again take over the west end of Danforth Avenue over the Family Day weekend in February (Feb. 17 to 21).

More than 100 musicians, including an always strong turn-out from Toronto's own substantial roots community, will play on seven stages in six Danforth venues including: Black Swan Tavern (two stages), Mambo Lounge, Dora Keogh, Terry O's Sports Bar, Eastminster United Church and Danforth Baptist Church.

As is traditional, only a couple of the shows have a relatively modest cover charge while most of the four-day festival remains free.

For those who are a fan of home brewed folk/blues/roots, the line-up is absolutely packed with the best of the roots community including such stalwarts as Tony Quarrington, Eve Goldberg, the Gary Kendall Band and Joanne Crabtree. But that list only scratches the service.

The festival is the brainchild of North York-born and raised Brian Gladstone, also a prominent player in the local roots scene who will also be performing at the festival.

He thought it would be a great idea to transpose a folk festival, normally held in the summer in more rural areas, to the city in February.

Check out the website at www.abetterworld.ca and click on winterfolk 9 which is prominently displayed.

There you can check out the dozens of confirmed artists and even a tentative schedule.

With the festival run on a not-for-profit basis, volunteers and sponsors are also always welcome.

- Norm Nelson

The ninth annual Winterfolk Festival will again take place in Toronto this February.

But before then, its organizers and musicians are offering people a sneak peak at what’s to come with a fundraising concert right here in Oakville.

The Winterfolk IX Preview Show will take place at the Moonshine Café on Saturday, Dec. 11.

The preview will feature urban roots and blues musicians, including Michael Brennan, Danny Marks, Mose Scarlett, Joanne Crabtree  and Margaret Stowe, Noah Zacharin, James Gordon, Hotcha!, Brian Gladstone and D’Arcy Wickham. The Oakville show is a highlight of the festival performers.

The Winterfolk Festival will take place Feb. 18-21 on the Danforth with free, all-ages, performances in an urban surrounding. The money raised at the Oakville show will help support the artists at the festival.

The Oakville show starts at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door if available.

The café is located at 137 Kerr St. For more information, visit www.themoonshinecafe.com or call 905-844-2655 for tickets.

Where Have All the Protest Songs Gone

Back   Interview Portion with Brian Gladstone below.

One after another, the simple yet profoundly affecting songs that moved a generation — a couple of generations, actually — poured forth like some kind of healing sacrament.

“Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” “Turn, Turn, Turn.” “We Shall Not Be Moved.” “Amazing Grace.” “We Shall Overcome.” “Little Boxes.” “Guantanamera.” “If I Had a Hammer.” “Joe Hill.” “Waist Deep In The Big Muddy.” “Bring ‘Em Home.” “Irene Goodnight.” The hymns filled the 3,000-seat auditorium.

Audience voices raised in unison, in harmony, in joyful dissonance, accompanied every one, with Seeger’s energetic encouragement. This was the soundtrack of an era, accompanied with his musical contemporaries Joan Baez, Bob Dylan.

Two hours later, the exhausted but jubilant folk singer made his final exit, waving his instruments above his head. The crowd dispersed into the warm night, still roaring out the songs we were convinced could and would make the world a better place. Maybe they did. For a while.

The protests accompanying this weekend’s G20 summit in Toronto might be remembered for their noise and fury, but probably not for songs.

Protest songs — at least the kind that galvanized thousands at a time during the labour struggles of the 1920s and ’30s, anti-nuclear and civil rights marches in the 1950s, the anti-Vietnam war rallies in the 1960s and the economic upheavals in Britain during the Thatcher years — seem to have disappeared from the landscape.

At least they have from the commercial airwaves. But their spirit drives much of the best contemporary music, Bruce Cockburn says.

“They haven’t disappeared, we just have to hunt them down,” argues Cockburn, who has never wavered in a 40-year career from an almost obsessive devotion to taking on war-mongers, empire builders and environment polluters with narrative-based songs of often brutal outspokenness.

Protest songs are alive and well, he says. They are just hiding in plain sight. “We just don’t hear them. We don’t hear anything worthwhile these days unless we go looking for it.”

The erosion in the Internet age of conventional mass media may have given everyone and everything a chance to shine, adds Cockburn. “But there are so many kinds of exposure, so many formats, and so many different ways to find an audience, so many places you have to look.”

He isn’t keen on reviving protest songs as a niche genre.

“The words ‘protest songs’ give me the willies,” Cockburn says. “They conjure up the worst music of the 1960s – songs like ‘Eve of Destruction,’ which I hated when I first heard it. It’s pretentious posturing, manufactured nonsense, bad songwriting and just plain ignorant, compared to Dylan’s work in the same period. ‘A Hard Rain’ and ‘Masters of War’ are beautifully constructed and artfully created. They hit the right emotional buttons and they nail their targets.

“To have value, a song has to impact its topic. It can’t be propaganda or exploitative pop music.”

Cockburn singles out American songwriter and activist Ani DiFranco for special praise.

“She’s a beautiful singer, a great guitarist and a brilliant lyricist. She doesn’t close her eyes to what’s going on around her, and she’s not afraid to speak up. And I don’t discount punk and reggae as breeding grounds for some of the best politically intense songs ever recorded — from the Clash and Bob Marley right up to the present.

“Some people say songs and politics don’t mix. I don’t agree. It’s an artist’s job to talk about his or her life, unless you live in a place where your neck is on the line. War and politics are part of life. Nothing is taboo.”

Even so, the absence in the public arena of songs of conscience may well be an effect of the wired age, along with so many previously cherished forms of social interaction, suggests guitarist Brian Gladstone, the proudly unreconstructed hippie founder and artistic director of Toronto’s annual Winterfolk Festival and its non-profit offshoot, the Association of Artists for a Better World. The association encourages, compiles and distributes collections of contemporary protest songs to radio stations and activist organizations around the world.

“People concerned about the issues that have always troubled us are more likely to turn to Facebook to find a like-minded community than to sing songs in the streets, the way we did in the 1960s,” he says.

“There are plenty of protest songs out there, but they just aren’t part of the cultural mainstream any more. Radio doesn’t play them, and people don’t seem to do things together, as a community. We’re all connected individually to some kind of device, working alone, amusing ourselves alone, enlightening ourselves alone.”

Gladstone started the association 10 years ago — the effort has since been replicated in half a dozen North American cities — because “not enough young songwriters were using their voices for the common good.

“We’ve issued eight or nine compilations since we began, and the response has been intense and gratifying.”

Neil Young came to the same conclusion after the release of his 2006 album, Living with War, a toxic indictment of George W. Bush’s foreign policy, when he complained publicly about the lack of contemporary songwriters willing to step up to the protest plate. At 64 then, he felt forced to do their work for them.

He was subsequently inundated with recorded proof to the contrary and now runs a page on his web site, Living with War Today, that has links to some 3,280 songs and 630 videos answering his original challenge.

It has been said that Bruce Springsteen’s 2007 album Magic, with its hallucinatory vision of an America gone mad with war lust, consumerism and revenge, was the New Jersey rocker’s response to Young’s challenge.

Three years earlier, American punk rocker’s Green Day’s American Idiot album, now also a hit Broadway musical, was praised by many for its brave, satirical take on modern America and its powerful endorsement of love and humanist ethics.

Long before that, roots rocker Steve Earle forsook his chance at country music’s brass ring by writing songs that skewered America’s version of history, many of its icons and values.

“It’s not that the issues needing attention are more numerous or complex than they were a couple of generations ago,” says Canadian folk music veteran Ken Whiteley. He cut his teeth on the anti-war and union songs of Seeger and Woody Guthrie, and on the plaintive blues of American field workers and gospel singers.

“You can look at 150 different issues and reduce them to just two things: greed and the abuse of power.”

Protest songs still have meaning and cachet, Whiteley adds. Many contemporary songwriters — among his favourites are Welsh composer/activist Martyn Joseph, Kingston’s Sarah Harmer and Vancouver-based James Keelaghan — have the ability to create provocative social commentary from simple narratives “and solid, memorable melodies, the key to the survival of any great song.”

The worst protest songs are “simplistic reductions” of complex ideas,” Whiteley believes.

“The best are personalized stories in which you can see the larger picture unfold. Or sometimes they can be nothing more than a simple, resonant phrase. My friend Pat Humphries (an Ohio social activist, singer and songwriter) composed a classic rally song from three words and an elegant little tune – ‘Peace, Salaam, Shalom’.”

Some rap music contains elements of social consciousness, he points out, part of a continuum of commentary and protest that goes back to the earliest blues forms, “but there’s a disconnect between rap and what went on before.

“If you’re my age, you can probably trace a line between (1950s folk group) the Freedom Singers, (American gospel group) Sweet Honey in the Rock, (American R&B/gospel band) the Blind Boys of Alabama and (Canadian rapper) K’Naan. But I don’t think the young people who are rallying around his song ‘Waving Flag’ are conscious of these connections.”

Toronto songwriter Jon Brooks, a winner in this year’s New Folk competition at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, has earned a devoted following among his peers for soulful, topical narrative songs that invoke powerful feelings about the horrors of war, human greed and the absence of the guiding principles — what we called, in another age, peace, love and understanding.

“The closest thing I heard to protest songs in my adolescence were Roger Waters and Pink Floyd,” says Brooks, who gave up his budding musical career in the 1990s after visiting Bosnia, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

“I saw real politics in action after the wall came down and I felt ashamed to be seeking people’s attention behind a microphone in the middle of all that suffering. So I quit for eight years.”

In those days, folk and protest music of the 1960s “seemed laughable, a cliché, something in the back of the record store to be avoided,” Brooks says. “After I came back from Europe, I was convinced songs would work no better now to benefit humanity than they did back then.

“Now I’ve come full circle. In complicated, distracted times, I’ve learned that timely songs performed in the right manner, accompanied by humour and common language, can really get inside people.”

Brooks has studied the work of his predecessors — Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Canada’s Buffy Sainte-Marie, whose bitter indictment of the patriot warrior, “Universal Soldier,” is a standout feature of his performances — and found many of them wanting.

“I think Ochs represented the best and the worst of that era, and Dylan was just too young to have a fully formed world view, but they were capable of writing powerful social and political commentary,” he says, citing Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” and “A Hard Rain” and Ochs’ “Days of Decision” as favourites.

“The purpose of songwriting, for me, anyway, is to unite people through stories, through empathy. Direct, shouted protest has never worked for me as well as indirect story telling.”

Now, that would put a smile on Pete Seeger’s face.

Ten great protest songs

• “Universal Soldier,” Buffy Sainte Marie: For its bravery in laying the blame for the pain of war at the feet of those who make themselves available as weapons and cannon fodder.

• “Fortunate Son,” Creedence Clearwater Revival: For smacking privileged Americans in the face for avoiding the draft and forcing those less fortunate to be conscripted during the Vietnam war.

• “Blowin’ In The Wind,” Bob Dylan: The mother of 1960s peace anthems.

• “Shipbuilding,” Elvis Costello: For drawing a line between the economic benefits of war and the end result.

• “Beds Are Burning,” Midnight Oil: For pricking the conscience of imperialist interlopers, not just in Australia, over their abuse of the rights of indigenous people.

• “Brothers In Arms,” Dire Straits: For illuminating the folly of the Faulklands war and inflated patriotic urges.

• “Clampdown,” The Clash: For its empathetic portrayal of the poor as a criminal class on Thatcher’s watch.

• “If A Tree Falls,” Bruce Cockburn: For its powerful indictment of the logging industry’s stripping of virgin rainforests.

• “Lives In The Balance,” Jackson Browne: An acidic account of American meddling in the politics of Central America.

• “If I Had A Hammer,” Pete Seeger: For its inclusive, joyful humanity.

— Greg Quill

Record crowds attended the eight annual Winterfolk Roots and Blues festival held in downtown Toronto, over the weekend of February 12-15, 2010. Most of the venues were at, or over capacity. Similar to a summer park festival, schedule-toting attendee’s strolled from stage to stage to see their favorite artists. When Winterfolk joined the OCFF in 2003, folk festivals were customarily rural events, staged in parks scattered throughout Southern Ontario. When campgrounds fell silent, so too did much of Ontario’s folk music.

 Brian Gladstone founded Winterfolk determined not to let Canada’s climate restrict the artform. Winterfolk was conceived to break the mold of a traditional folk festival and bring the music to the people in the city, in the depth of winter. In recent years, Winterfolk has been able to waive admission fees, and provide paid work for its artists. While the task sounds daunting, even more remarkable is that Winterfolk has now delivered its eighth successful run, fueled by a small army of 75 volunteers, all without salaried employees, with fundraising activities year round. “Our ability to survive and grow”, mentions Gladstone “is because we provided a win – win – win – win scenario.” The four wins that continue to bring Winterfolk perennial success are wins for the artists, commerce, community and the artform.

Of  the over 100 artists at Winterfolk this year, about 80 were selected by an Artistic Director Committee. As with most festivals, once the AD committee determines the programming themes, it has a good idea which artists to hire. Winterfolk’s focus is on Southern Ontario talent, especially artists creating a ‘buzz’ and getting their name out there, but artists from across Canada are included.Seeking out emerging talent ‘under the radar’ of the AD committee, Winterfolk held six satellite pre-festival open auditions in several Ontario cities, for which twelve artists were selected. Some of the artists selected though the audition process were Swamp Ward Orchestra, Marc Charron, Rick Taylor, Reverend Max Woolaver, Rosemary Phelan with Jason Laprade, Amy Campbell, Phillip Brown, and more. An additional ten artists were selected from EPK and press kit submissions. “In order for any festival to be successful, money must change hands.” Gladstone accepts this reality while managing to keep the grass roots feel essential to its success. “Parking meters, bank machines, restaurants, and the venues all benefit from the thousands of people we bring into the neighbourhood.” The commerce win is significant at a typically slow time of year for the local merchants, in that it satisfies the bottom line that is required to keep festivals going without giving the festival a corporate 'odour' that clashes with Roots and Blues music. “A strong sense of community involvement is vital to the success, growth, and longevity of an urban festival. Winterfolk reaches out and engages the community,” says Gladstone. Winterfolk works with various music organizations to offer them stages at Winterfolk to increase their public visibility and membership, and overall build a stronger roots community. In exchange, Winterfolk gets top notch showcasing stages. 

Of special note, are the workshops conceived and delivered by the artists themselves. The workshops included The Harmony Workshop, The Davids' (Leask, Gillis and Newland)   Determine Music Commonalities, Acoustic Guitar Aces, Wendell Ferguson’s Guitar Jam, Brian Blain's Colorblind Blues Campfire, Songs of Change, Audience Participation Songwriting, Music and Movement for Kids, The Lighter Side of Life, and Songs of Canada. The artists' workshops were the finest example of music by the people for the people. Roots and Blues music is a dynamic artform that is best viewed live. Before Winterfolk, folk music was presented at a few scattered clubs or remote campgrounds, rarely in the city in concentration, and rarely in the winter.  Winterfolk brings the music within reach of the people and brings home audiences to the artists. Paid work in the neighbourhood is always good for the artists. Accomplishing what once seemed impossible, Winterfolk VIII entertained and excited audiences with acoustic soulful music warming all in attendance spiritually and physically in the otherwise 'blah' and frigid month of February. Winterfolk has truly conceived a fresh template to carry on the roots tradition in harmony with the climate and culture of Canada. 

 CRABTREE & MILLS and emerging powerhouse vocalist LINDSAY FERGUSON. Toronto's free, all-ages, mid-winter, weatherproof urban roots and blues festival will take place on six stages in four downtown venues on the Danforth. The fest will also be spreading the LOVE AT WINTERFOLK, a ticketed event featuring LAURA FERNANDEZ & NOAH ZACHARIN, ARIANA GILLIS BAND, CHOIRGIRLZ and MOSE SCARLETT

COMMUNITY STAGES SHINE @ ROOTS & BLUES FEST – FEB 12-15, 2010 SPREADING THE LOVE AT WINTERFOLK – FEB 14 WHAT: WINTERFOLK VIII ROOTS AND BLUES FESTIVAL An all-ages indoor music festival w/100 artists on 6 stages over 4 days WHEN: FEBRUARY 12-15 WHERE: Venues are @ Danforth and Broadview, including the Black Swan (2 stages), Dora Keogh, The Willow Restaurant (2 stages), Mambo Restaurant  TICKETS: IT'S FREE (with the exception of one ticketed stage. 'Love at Winterfolk' at the Black Swan Tavern Sunday, Feb. 14 which is $5 @ the door w/ a badge, $10 w/out a badge. WEBSITES: www.winterfolk.com As always, Winterfolk, a member of the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals (OCFF), will be keeping the community connection alive by presenting stages for organizations, helping to increase their public visibility and membership and offering exposure for their events.

Showcasing stages include CITY ROOTS PRESENTS, BEST OF CALIFORNIA OPEN STAGE, VOCAL COACH.CA, SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA, BEST OF THE MOONSHINE CAFÉ, SPEAK MUSIC PRESENTS, THE BIG SCHMOOZE!, SONGTOWN, SONGWRITERS UNITE, SENECA COLLEGE and the CORKTOWN UKELELE SPEAKEASY. For more information on the community stages and the artists involved, please visit THIS LINK With a keen desire to reach out to a wider community of artists this year, the Winterfolk team underwent an extensive search for new talent through auditions held in several Ontario cities. Winterfolk is proud to present the winners as part of a total 100 artists performing this year. These artists include the quirky, hurdy gurdy-driven girl-powered SWAMP WARD ORCHESTRA, one-man-band MARC CHARRON, gritty blues guitarist RICK TAYLOR, gotta -see-him-live MAX BUDNICK, the spine-tingling and soulful LINDSAY FERGUSON, roots-rock/Americana band STRINGBONE, dynamite singer-songwriter REVEREND MAX WOOLAVER, impassioned vocalist ROSEMARY PHELAN w/ ace guitarist JASON LAPRADE, the defiant and vulnerable AMY CAMPBELL, insightful singer-songwriter IAN REID, clap-along barnstormin' GRAYDON JAMES & COMPANY, seriously old timey duo WILLIAM & POLLY and the young ERIC FISHER with his sweet heart breakin' songs. "I SUPPORT ROOTS MUSIC IN TORONTO" badges are available at the door of all Winterfolk venues for a voluntary donation and they'll be large enough for artists to autograph them!

WINTERFOLK TIMES: Friday February 12 @ 7:00 pm – 1:00 am Saturday February 13 @ 1:00 pm – 1:00 am Sunday February 14 @ 1:00 pm – 1:00 pm Monday, February 15 @ 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm

WINTERFOLK VENUES: Dora Keogh -141 Danforth Ave. Black Swan – 154 Danforth Ave (2 stages) The Willow -193 Danforth Ave (2 stages) Mambo Restaurant -120 Danforth Ave **All Winterfolk stages are free, with the exception of one ticketed stage… LOVE AT WINTERFOLK (A special Valentine's Day event) Black Swan Tavern Sunday, Feb. 14 @ 7:00 pm Tickets: $5.00 @ door for anyone with a badge, $10 w/out a badge. For more information on performers and times, please visit www.winterfolk.com LOVE AT WINTERFOLK Lineup: LAURA FERNANDEZ Singing in English and Spanish, her sultry voice lends itself well to her musical blend of classical, jazz, pop and world music anchored by intimate and heartfelt lyrics & NOAH ZACHARIN

This stunning guitarist and wonderful singer-songwriter has released six CD's of literate, well-crafted songs that know no barrier of genre. ARIANA GILLIS w/ David Celia, David Gillis Winner of the 2009 Niagara Music Awards Songwriter of the Year and a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award, the young Gillis is redefining the borders of folk and breaking the rules of pop with a musical message that is a fusion of everything between the old and the new, the profound, the sad and the joyful. CHOIRGIRLZ Debbie Fleming, Dorothy McDonall and Mary Ellen Moore have filled their repertoire with country/bluegrass, jazz, R&B, folk, roots, cabaret, comedy and most of all – catchy original songwriting MOSE SCARLETT w/ Tony Quarrington Mose is a fixture on the Canadian scene, playing Hollywood classics to raunchy blues and nearly-forgotten turn-of-the-century gems, breathing new life into old songs and performing only with his voice and acoustic guitar, though you can almost believe a big band or parlour orchestra is playing in the background. FESTIVAL ARTIST LINEUP: Al Lerman * Alan Gerber * Alfie Smith * Amy Campbell * Ariana Gillis * Bob Snider * Brian Blain * Brian Gladstone * Brock Zeman * ChoirGirlz * Chris McKhool * Crabtree & Mills * D'Arcy Wickham * Dan McVeigh * Danny Marks * Darrell Grant * David Celia * David Gillis * David Leask * David Newland * Digging Roots * Eric Fisher * Ewan Dobson * George Meanwell * Graydon James * Howard Gladstone * Ian Reid * Joan Beson * Joe Hall * John Jackson and Steve Paul Simms * Jon Brooks * Julian Fauth * Kim Wempe * Laura Fernandez * Lindsay Ferguson * Lynn Harrison * Margaret Stowe * Marianne Girard * Marc Charron * Max Woolaver * Maxim Budnick * Michael Brennan & Steve Briggs * Michael Jerome Browne * Mose Scarlett * Mr Rick & The Biscuits * Noah Zacharin * Nonie Crete * Peter Verity * Phillip Brown * Related * Rick Hodgson * Rick Taylor * Rosemary Phelan with Jason LaPrade * Russell Leon * Seb Agnello * Shawn Brush * Shawn Sage * Sillken * StringBone * Sue & Dwight * Sultans of String * Suzie Vinnick * Swamp Ward Orchestra * Tim Jackson * Tony Quarrington * Wendell Ferguson * William and Polly Winterfolk gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Long & McQuade Musical Instruments, Canadian Heritage, The SOCAN Foundation, Toronto Arts Council, East-York Riverdale Mirror, The Association of Artists for A Better World and The Clarion Hotel.

More than 100 musicians to performs at four Danforth venues

By Norm Nelson The eighth annual Winterfolk festival is coming back to the Danforth, running all four days over the Family Day holiday weekend, Feb. 12 to 15. More than 100 musicians will perform in four Danforth venues on six stages. The venues are the Willow Restaurant and the Black Swan Tavern, each with two stages, as well as Dora Keogh and the Mambo Lounge.

The Family Day Monday has some specific family-themed entertainment. The festival kicks off Friday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m., and then resumes at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It runs until after midnight the first three nights before closing down on Monday after the 5 p.m. shows. Mostly it's free. There is only a nominal charge for one Sunday night feature called 'Love at Winterfolk'. The venues are all easy walking distance of both Broadview and Chester subway stations. Winterfolk is a non-profit event with no full time staff and run mostly by a group of dedicated volunteers.

One of the biggest expenses is to ensure the musicians are fairly paid for their performances. Brian Gladstone is the founder of the event and still runs it. A noted roots musician, he also performs in it. An easy way to support the event – and to help pay for musicians and sound equipment rental, etc., is to purchase the 'I support roots music in Toronto' buttons.

Besides supporting local artists, the festival also supports and gives a platform to local music organizations. For instance, the City Roots Festival run by Howard Gladstone is showcased as are groups as diverse as California Open Stage, the Songwriters Association of Canada; Speak Music; and the Nashville Songwriters Association of Canada. There are vocal and songwriting forums. As well, Winterfolk ran its own talent competition, awarding two spots (to Ian Reid and Graydon James).

While Winterfolk prides itself on showcasing and providing a venue for up-and-coming artists, it also has a treasure trove of veteran musicians well known in the local music scene. A few of the multi-award winners include: * Digging Roots, picked up best group/duo in November at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. They've been nominated for a Juno, and they'll be playing at the 2010 Olympics; * Julian Fauth won a 2009 Juno Award for Best Blues Album (Ramblin' Son); * Danny Marks won the Toronto Blues Society 'Blues With a Feeling Award' for lifetime achievement in 2007; * Al Lerman is considered one of the top harmonica players in the country and is a two-time Juno award winner with his band Fathead; * Jon Brooks earned a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award (CFMA) nominee for best songwriter in 2009 (and 2006); Marianne Girard earned a 2009 CFMA nomination for best contemporary vocalist; and Kim Wempe was nominated for female solo artist and Rising Star Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards (ECMA); * Ariana Gillis won a 2009 CFMA award for Young Performer of the Year; and the Sultans of String won for Instrumental Group of the Year; * Wendell Ferguson is a seven-time Canadian Country Music Award recipient for guitar player of the year as well as nominee for 2006 CCMA album of the year; * Ewan Dobson is the 2009 Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Champion. Check out the Winterfolk website for full line-up, schedule and artist profiles. Volunteers and sponsors are always most welcome. Visit https://abetterworld.ca/ For more coverage, visit the Music Notes blog at www.insidetoronto.com

WINTERFOLK VIII — FEB 12-15, 2010

TORONTO – Mark it in your calendar! The EIGHTH ANNUAL Winterfolk Festival is back for, not three, but FOUR days of your favourite folk, roots and blues musicians. After an extensive search for new talent through auditions held in several Ontario cities, the Winterfolk festival – which runs from February 12 -15, 2010 – is proud to present the winners as part of a total 100 artists performing this year. Toronto’s free, all-ages, mid-winter, weatherproof urban roots and blues festival, now in its eighth year, will take place in six downtown venues, and for the very first time it will be for four days of music instead of three. Winterfolk Festival is known for showcasing some of the best local talent around, including such artists as Al Lerman, Danny Marks, Ariana Gillis, Bob Snider, David Celia, David Leask and Julian Fauth.

Added to this fine list is a band of new faces including the Swamp Ward Orchestra, the Human Statues, Rick Taylor, Amy Campbell, Rosemary Phelan and more! As always, Winterfolk will be keeping the community connection alive by presenting stages for organizations such as SONGWRITERS UNITE, NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION TORONTO CHAPTER and CITY ROOTS MUSIC FESTIVAL which helps to increase their public visibility and membership and offer exposure for their events. New to this year’s content is the inclusion of family programming on the fourth day of the fest (which is actually a designated “family day” holiday). Workshops, storytelling and exciting interactive performances can be enj

oyed by the whole family. With thousands of people gathering in the area over the weekend, local retailers do a booming business, and for families it’s an ideal opportunity both to spend some quality time together and to expose the youth to the arts. MORE ABOUT WINTERFOLK Winterfolk was formed to entertain, educate, enlighten, engage and encourage the community about various folk music styles including roots, blues, folk and more.

Founded by Festival Director  Brian  Gladstone, it is run as a division of The Association of Artists for a Better World, a registered non-profit organization in the Province of Ontario, Canada. www.abetterworld.ca “I SUPPORT ROOTS MUSIC IN TORONTO” badges will also be available again by donation and they’ll be large enough for artists to autograph them!

News Briefs

Peterborough will host auditions next month for a chance to perform in a Toronto roots and blues festival. The Winterfolk VIII Roots and Blues Festival is set to run Feb. 12 to 15 in Toronto and organizers are holding auditions across Ontario this winter. Interested Peterborough musicians get a chance to audition at The Spill Café on Nov. 11 from 9 p. m. to midnight, a press release states. There is no cost to audition and two artists will be hired at each venue — based on audience voting and a festival jury, the release states. Artists who want to audition should send an email to [email protected] and advise preferred venue, include an EPK, or send a link to website or myspace, etc. Artists will then be updated with the details, and confirmed prior to the audition, the release states. Roughly 80 artists who have submitted will prepare two songs each, to present on the night. Winners of the festival spots will be announced at the end of each event, the release states. Visit www.abetterworld.cafor more information.

Winterfolk auditions at The Black Swan

This year's festival expands to four days

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Winterfolk annually attracts more than 100 artists to the Danforth in February, and local music fans can get a chance to help pick two of them Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 9 p.m. to midnight, at The Black Swan Tavern, 154 Danforth Ave. And for that matter, aspiring musicians can audition for one of the two spots, but please note it is not an open audition and hopefuls must pre-apply. As an added perk, organizers promise fans will have input into the selection along with a guest panel of judges. The artists will perform two songs each and the panel is promising to make their decision at the end of the show. The Danforth audition is one of five being held. The other auditions, under the exact same format (for a total of 10 spots at Winterfolk), are set for Oakville Nov. 3, Peterborough Nov. 11 and Guelph Nov. 15. Another 10 artists are being selected through an on-line process. It's a novel way for Winterfolk to fulfill one of its mandates, which is to provide an opportunity for new, undiscovered talent. The 20 lucky audition winners will be joined at the half dozen Danforth venues by some of the Toronto area's top roots musicians, along with some guest musicians, to be named at a later date, from outside the area. This year the festival, in its eighth year, is expanding to four days in February (Feb. 12 to 15), incorporating the new Family Day holiday on the Monday, said festival founder and director Brian Gladstone, who added that he's also hoping the number of venues on the Danforth will be expanded. The festival is mostly free, although traditionally there are a couple of paid events with token admission. In the meantime, music fans wanting to enjoy some new roots talent can head to The Black Swan on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Artists wishing to audition should send an email to [email protected] and advise preferred venue, include an EPK, or send a link to website or myspace, etc. Winterfolk is online at www.abetterworld.ca/winterfolk

GREG QUILL - ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

Brian Gladstone started Winterfolk to help his music career. Now he keeps in the background

In its sixth year, Toronto's annual Winterfolk roots music festival might – just might – make a profit. That's not festival founder and artistic director Brian Gladstone's biggest concern, but a profitable event means the former research engineer and inventor of power transformers might be able to relax a little, get in a little guitar-picking time. "For the first four years we lost money, I lost money," Gladstone says of his creation, the three-day downtown festival that opens again tomorrow night at six venues in the Danforth-Broadview pub strip. More than 100 performers, including a featured Quebec contingent with Michael Jerome Browne, Notre Dame de Grass Bluegrass Band, Neema, Mike Goudreau & the Boppin' Blues Band and Les Tireux d'Roches, constitutes a remarkably liberal roster of traditional folk, blues, country and contemporary roots music that has become Winterfolk's trademark. In Toronto's snow-blasted February landscape, the festival is an oasis of conviviality, musical diversity and invigorating warmth. And for the most part, it's free. That's because last year, when government agencies came to the party with a substantial amount of funding, Winterfolk actually broke even on the strength of a couple of ticketed concerts.   "I had to be willing to lose my own money for a few years before the various government agencies considered us worthy of funding," says Gladstone with a shrug. "Canada Council requires some inter-provincial artistic activity, and then covers the cost of bringing artists to Toronto, paying their fees and accommodation expenses. "The idea is that the out-of-province acts will be able to book other gigs or build a tour around Winterfolk. Last year we featured artists from New Brunswick. This year it's Quebec." With a subsequent increase in attendance and the chance to produce three ticketed concerts (priced from $5 to $12) this weekend at the Eastminster United Church (310 Danforth Ave.), Gladstone predicts his first small fiscal return in six years. Winterfolk kicks off tonight with a ticketed concert at the Eastminster venue titled the "The Blues of Winterfolk Unplugged," featuring Browne in a solo spot, followed by six blues all-stars (Jack de Keyzer, Al Lerman, Tony Quarrington, Maureen Brown, Mr. Rick Z and Suzie Vinnick) performing together as Winterfolk Jug Band. After subtracting his fee as chief organizer, the festival profits, such as they are, will help fund the Association of Artists for a Better World, a not-for-profit organization Gladstone established five years ago promoting environmental awareness, global peace and the spirit of protest through music. The CDs produced by the organization are handed out free to interested activist groups, corporations and sympathetic radio programmers. If all that sounds a bit hippy-dippy, Gladstone isn't fazed. He and his elder brother Howard – who happens to be the producer and artistic director of the annual midsummer Toronto City Roots Festival in the Distillery District – are unashamed folk-era recidivists. "Howard taught me my first guitar chord … we were at Woodstock together in '69, the Woodstock," enthuses Gladstone, 58. "We grew up in the 1960s. The music of that time shaped my mentality. I really do believe songs can generate funds, ideas, consciousness and hope for a better world. The (Better World) motto is, `We can use our voice to change the world and there's magic in our words.'" The brothers have a lot more in common than songwriting, guitar picking and a passion for 1960s folk music. Until Brian quit his job two years ago, he was Howard's partner in Toronto-based Plitron Manufacturing, building unspeakably complicated transformers that are key components in equipment used in scientific, medical, computer, sound recording and military electronics. "I was a tech nerd from the age of 12, and worked in cutting-edge research for 25 years," Gladstone says, flashing a cover-page article in a recent issue of a high-tech electronics magazine extolling the virtues of his latest – and perhaps last – invention, a device that filters a formerly unknown form of electromagnetic pollution from the 150-year-old grids of big-city electrical infrastructures. "We identified it as a health problem and made the filter … the rest is up to legislators." He gave up his not-too-shabby salary and tech-nerd fame – but not the royalties on his and Howard's patents – to live a dream he has nurtured for most of his life: to become another impoverished, underappreciated folk troubadour in an already overcrowded arena of younger, tougher contenders. "I was a late starter," he explains. "I didn't get into playing music till my late 40s. I was the single parent of three kids, and I had a lot of time on my hands at night to write and practice. I didn't want to be 80, wondering why I didn't do this." Dismissed at first by official Canadian folkdom as a pop-up festival run by a self-serving wannabe, Winterfolk has earned its scars and survives largely because Gladstone has kept the faith with the artists he has booked over the years, paying them promptly, delivering well-equipped stages and enthusiastic audiences, and running a virtually wrinkle-free event, even when it hurt. "I got into (Winterfolk) because it was too hard to get booked at other festivals," says Gladstone, whom some former associates describe as a heavy-handed manipulator and calculating self-promoter. Gladstone doesn't disagree. "After 200 rejections, I decided to make my own festival and book myself. It was perhaps not the best reason." His lesson learned, Gladstone stays well behind Winterfolk's curtain these days, watching from the back of rooms, listening to the buzz, wheeling and dealing with venue owners who also contribute a cut of their takings to the festival's coffers. If he performs, it's rarely, and usually in the company of other pickers. "There was a festival void in the city in winter," he says, "nothing from the end of August until May, and so many performers in town were looking for work. There's a craving for roots music in Toronto … and Winterfolk seems to be filling the gap. "It's good for the economy, good for the musicians, good for the venues, good for the community. It's a no-brainer." For all the details on Winterfolk, go to abetterworld.ca

Two fundraisers – held last month at Hugh's Room and another at Moonshine Cafe in December – have helped the cause. Patrons and supporters can also help with what Gladstone feels is an unobtrusive voluntary donation system. Instead of asking people for donations at every performance or having volunteers bug people for repeated requests for donations, people can just make a one-time contribution if it's within their means for a Winterfolk support button. Also down a bit at this point, said Gladstone, is the number of volunteers, something he also thought might be attributed to the recession. Anyone who wishes to help out with this event is more than encouraged to fill out the forms on the Winterfolk website. The Winterfolk website is a good one and easy to navigate.

To volunteer or to just peruse artists, schedules and locations, log on to www.abetterworld.ca The 100 or so performers, mostly local, who will appear at Winterfolk include a Who's Who of the local roots scene, so festival founder and director Brian Gladstone, was understandably hesitant to single out marquee names. He did let on, however, that one combination, which particularly excited him was Mose Scarlett with Tony Quarrington, "a bunch of veterans." At the other end of the spectrum, he said, "we've always sought emerging and new talent." "I'll give you an example. Serena Ryder (who received Juno nominations this week for best artist and alternative adult album) we had her in Winterfolk One. I hired her when she was 17. We've had a number of success stories." This year, he said, Winterfolk is excited to present "a young lady named Ariana Gillis…She's got the talent, she's got the stage energy, the charisma, she has all the pieces in place."

7th Annual Winterfolk Festival February 13-15, 2009, Toronto Published Jan 24, 2009  

‘Love at Winterfolk’ at the Black Swan Tavern Saturday, Feb. 14 which is $5 @ the door w/ a badge, $10 w/out a badge. WEBSITES: www.winterfolk.com / www.abetterworld.ca WINTERFOLK VII ROOTS AND BLUES FESTIVAL IS BACK AND IT’S FREE!! Winterfolk, Toronto’s all-ages, mid-winter, weatherproof urban roots and blues festival, now in its seventh year, will present more than 80 artists for three days of music in four downtown venues on February 13, 14 and15, 2009.

Winterfolk combines themed presentations and workshops during the day with showcase performances in the evenings, all within steps of each other and public transit. As always, the festival presents an eclectic lineup – 80% of the artists involved are local to the Toronto area – including top-notch veterans such as radio blues personality DANNY MARKS, the indisputably unique MOSE SCARLETT, Canadian guitar wizard WENDELL FERGUSON, country rock singer-songwriter MICHAEL BRENNAN, soulful songstress TREASA LEVASSEUR, award-winning artist MELWOOD CUTLERY, local treasure BOB SNIDER, and two-time Juno Award winner AL LERMAN. Along with a raft of up-and-coming talents, Winterfolk also offers stage time and exposure to community music associations including the Songwriters Association of Canada, Seneca College Independent Music Program, Storytelling Toronto, and several more.

Produced by the non-profit Association of Artists for a Better World, a member of the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals, Winterfolk aims to encourage the advancement of various types of roots/folk music and to educate and enlighten the public about the artists who perform them. Members of the Riverdale community, including local businesses and families, are also excited about this year’s festival, which takes place in four licensed venues within a half-football field stretch of Danforth Ave. east of Broadview. With thousands of people gathering in the area over the weekend, local retailers do a booming business, and for families it’s an ideal opportunity both to spend some quality time together and to expose the youth to the arts.

Live: Winterfolk Music Festival 2008

FEBRUARY 8 – 10 - by Carl Gouldson -

By: Chris Category:. The 2009th Winterfolk Festival is a roots/folk/blues festival that is held in the East end of Toronto known as The Danforth, in selected Pubs. This years event will be held from Feb. 13th – 15th. The shows venues are located in one of the greatest neighbourhoods in the city! This congregation of musically like minded individuals, will be gathering at local Pubs located in between Broadview and Chester subway stations. The roots/folk/blues winter festival will provide listeners the opportunity to listen to warm summer music, during the cold blistering time of the calendar. This year’s price of admission is designed to reflect the economics of our times. If your smart, you’ll get tickets in advance at $5.00, it’s cheaper then a pint, $10.00 at the door! The line up is both familiar and new. You have the ones I have heard like Brain Gladstone, Bob Snider and Danny Marks. Now thrown into this years set are some that I’m not all that accustomed to. Like Ariana Gillis, David Leask or Evaristo Machado. The latter one may ring a bell or two with a buddy of mine a Peter Schmidt, I gotta get a hold of him come to think about it! So check out the list of performers at the annual Winterfolk and come on in from out of the cold for some warm cider and blistering music.

 Indie scenester buzzes at Winterfolk. It seems the only people unaware of the growing interest in the new school of folk artists like Devendra Banhart, Espers, Josephine Foster, Vetiver and White Magic are those in charge of booking traditional folk festivals, which could greatly benefit by appealing to a younger audience. But instead of making an effort to broaden their reach, many programmers are content to stick with the same grey-bearded circuit veterans and blame falling attendance figures on lack of media coverage. At least the artistic committee selecting the 100 players participating in the three-day Winterfolk Blues and Roots Festival (February 8-10) have realized it could be advantageous to connect with the under-50 demographic, and invited Deep Dark United’s Alex Lukashevsky to put on the intriguingly named Zigzag & Quack show. Lukashevsky’s freewheeling approach to performance is bound to result in some spontaneous kicks, abetted by resourceful homemade instrument ace Ryan Driver, autoharp-plinking cellist Anna Linda Sidall and fantastic singer/songwriter Jennifer Castle of Castlemusic notoriety. For Castle, who regularly performs at the Tranzac Club, Sneaky Dee’s and the Music Gallery, getting to participate in a folk festival is a new experience.

“Alex asked me to join in the show, and I was happy to participate. It sounds like it’s going to be really nice,” says Castle while kicking up some freshly fallen snow outside her Toronto Island home. “When I read about people performing at folk festivals, it looks like only the established artists get in. For some reason, there’s this huge divide between the people I’d pay to see at a folk festival and the artists I regularly see at downtown clubs. There are really amazing artists my age doing pay-what-you-can shows all the time, but I can no more imagine them sharing a bill with Sylvia Tyson at a festival than seeing someone like Bruce Cockburn in the front room at the Tranzac.” Castle is poised to break out in a big way over the next few months. She’s already getting attention from punk kiddos because of her unlikely collabo with adventurous hardcore crew Fucked Up on their Year Of The Pig joint. But the real career boost will come in March when the new Constantines album, on which she’s singing, appears, followed by a tour with the group in May. It’s a sweet set-up for Castle’s knockout new disc, You Can’t Take Anyone, tentatively planned for June. She delivers on the immense promise shown in Castlemusic: Live At The Music Gallery recorded back in 2005. “I really didn’t know any of those guys in Fucked Up. I just got an e-mail from Mike Haliechuk (aka singer 10,000 Marbles) about recording a song. So I asked a few people I knew if they’d heard of Fucked Up, and it turned out that we had some mutual friends. “I went into the studio to do my vocals, and the backing track just had this guitar softly playing a pretty melody. I thought, ‘This doesn’t sound very hardcore.' But then when I heard the finished mix with everything else added, it was like, ‘Ohhhhh.’ “We’ve played some shows together since Year Of The Pig came out, and they’re actually covering a song of mine called For My Friends from my forthcoming album. I’m wondering what they’re going to do with it. I just got an e-mail from Mike saying they’re recording the drums on the roof and really getting into it. Sounds like they’re having fun.”

 Feb 08, 2008 By Rick Kardonne Tribune Correspondent  TORONTO – Perhaps one of the most openly creative eclectic folk festivals yet to be experienced in Toronto will happen at various venues on Danforth Avenue on from Feb. 8 to 10: the Sixth Annual Winterfolk Blues and Roots Festival. Festival Director Brian Gladstone personifies this feeling of creative openness.

Born and bred in North York, now part of Toronto, Brian has been a research engineer and designer for Plitron Manufacturing of North York. But his real passion has been as a guitar player, composer and fan immersed in the folk revival of the 1960s. Once his children grew up – Brian is now in his 40s – he bought a studio and recorded an album of his original folk-oriented songs, which sold well. After finding out that “it is difficult to get into the existing festivals,” Gladstone decided to start his own festival. “After getting rejected by hundreds of the existing festivals,

I decided to raise money on my own to have my own festival,” he told the Jewish Tribune. “I formed the non-profit Better World organization.” Its slogan is: “We can use our voices to create a better world.” Yet, to his credit, in contrast to the subtle but present leftist political agendas of many alternative cultural events in both Toronto and Montreal, Winterfolk is non-political, a fact that he hopes will ultimately enhance its success.

The roster of performers include some of Toronto’s best such as Juno winners Jack deKeyzer and Al Lerman, who will present their acoustic guitar techniques at the world debut of the Winterfolk Jugband. Alex Lukashevsky – a cutting-edge artist whose style defies a category but beholds an incomparably soulful, smokey voice, an amorphous approach to guitar-playing and profound lyrical witticisms – will head the Zigzag and Quack group. Gladstone will join the Guitar Boys of Alderon on Saturday night Feb. 9, which will also include Mt. Rick, Noah Zacharin, Tony Quarrington, and Danny Marks, whose Saturday night fourhour program Blues-FM on Jazz FM radio (91.1 FM) is arguably one of North America’s most comprehensively best blues radio shows.

The Women of Words section, hosted by Nancy Dutra, will feature songwriters Looweeze de’Ath, Laura Fernandez and Neema. For the first time, new Quebecois artists will be featured in The Voice of Quebec, featuring the Mike Goudreau Blues Band and Notre Dame de Grass (a play-phrase on the predominantly Anglophone Montreal west-end suburban area Notre Dame de Grace, otherwise known as NDG). The Nashville Songwriters Association International will be featured, together with the British Invasion hosted by Dora Keogh, starring Brit rockers Steve Payne, Max Cann and Tanja Rice. And, to provide a bit of Jewish flavour, the all-girl klezmer band The Sisters of Sheynville will perform Feb. 9 at the Black Swan Tavern on Danforth Avenue at 8 p.m. Gladstone insures that all of the performers will be paid on time, in contrast to other ‘alternative’ festivals, where this was not always the case. He emphasizes that this will be a family-oriented event for everybody. For a complete schedule of the Winterfolk Festival’s all-ages free events, please go to:

Brian Gladstone, a child of the folk revolution of the 60's, was bred on Dylan. Forty years on, he still sports the hippie-long locks as a physical reminder to this seminal time in roots music. Meeting the founder of Winterfolk for a pint, one learns how this former design and research engineer gave up a six-figure day job to pursue his passion. "It's a vision I had," he says. "Its one of those spur-of-the-moment things that came to me and it has taken on a momentum of its own" What Gladstone did with this musical momentum, from the outset, was try to emulate a summer festival. He lined up a bunch of venues in close proximity on the Danforth, in Toronto's East End, so people could walk from stage to stage and venue to venue. "You have to be there to experience it. There is a magic in the air. Everybody on the street is a Winterfolk person … it's quite an energetic time. As a musician with four albums to his credit, Gladstone understood how hard it is for roots musicians to make ends meet, especially in the winter. Now in it's fifth year, Winterfolk does its part by providing a state to some of these struggling artists. This year, over the course of three days (Feb 9-11, 2007), more than 80 artists will hit the stages at half a dozen clubs at that Gladstone now bills as a roots and blues festival. And, borrowing another key mantra from the 60's, the three-day fest this year is free. Gladstone reveals this decision was reached to appease the club owners since they felt many attendees, after spending the money to get into the bar, were not spending any more cash on drinks, so the club owners were losing revenue. "The only way to work in harmony with these venues and not interfere with their business was to make it a free festival. It will be a struggle, but it's something I have to do. I believe it will help the festival expand and increase its longevity"

Winterfolk Roots and Blues Festival   February 9 – 11, 2007 • Broadview and Danforth • Toronto Winterfolk V -

Report and photos by Dougal Bichan Ah, folk festivals. I love them. Summer, sunshine, trees, birds, sunscreen, hormones. Sitting in the outdoors, listening to handpicked guitar tunes waft across the grass on a warm breeze. Then the frigid air slaps me back to reality. Why am I standing at the corner of Danforth and Broadview in February, minus 10-degree weather, while the chilling winter wind howling across the Bloor Viaduct blows up my kilt?

This is the Winterfolk Roots and Blues Festival, a different kind of music event. It happens in the winter, for one thing, but you might already have guessed that. The brainchild of local guitarist and songwriter Brian Gladstone, it was created in 2003 to fill that mid-February void for both audience and performers. Featuring a festival mixture of concerts in the evening and afternoon workshops, Winterfolk brought more than 80 performers to six venues at Broadview and Danforth — two stages at the Black Swan, The Willow, Dora Keogh, Terry O’s and the Prince of Egypt Restaurant this year on February 9, 10 and 11. For the first time, the festival was free. No admission charge. Consider that!   Musically it was a very mixed bag, all in the roots and blues style. Veteran artistic director Randi Fratkin assembled a diverse line-up, including programming themes such as “The spirit of New Brunswick”, which featured Hot Toddy, Brent Mason, Vishten, and Shanklin Road. Performers were young and old, mixing the up-and-coming, Justin Nozuka, Pat Robitaille and Ariana Gillis and the more experienced, Greg Quill, Danny Marks, Steve Payne and Brian Blain. The women Looweeze de’ath, Sarah Moni Mezrin, Julie Long and Laura Fernandez, to name a few, were particularly strong, reaching deep into the wells of emotion for their soulfulness.

Winterfolk drew artists from all over the globe, some from as far away as Australia, the US, England and Vancouver to share their music and bring warmth to the frozen Toronto night. There were lots of local treats as well, some coming from the open stages around the GTA, John Marlett’s Moonshine Cafe, Dr B’s Acoustic Medicine Show, the Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar Association, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International.   Wandering from one club to the next, schedule firmly in hand, the vast smorgasbord of musical delights invited grazing and sampling for the full effect, and all within an easy walk. With all the pedestrians crossing the Danforth, they will need a traffic light there next year.

Although impossible to pick a favourite, some fragments of the programming highlights included Greg Quill rousing a tough Terry O’s crowd with Australian folk songs, Justin Nozuka’s youthful, idealism and exuberance, Looweeze de’Ath singing and playing keyboard as if she would squirm right out of her skin with the intensity of it, the 30, count ‘em, flying fingers of the Guitar Boys of Alderon, Steve Payne in Dora Keogh backlit haloed like an angel and sliiiiiiding Alastiar Artingstall’s delicate British sensibilities and tunings with capoes and half capoes, Wendell Ferguson throwing another fiddle on the file, Sarah Moni Metzer’s sometimes guttural throutings, David Ross Macdonald’s serious demeanour, Shawn Brush, the crooked cowboy and his circle of fans in the back room of the Willow, father and daughter intermingling of David Gillis and Ariana, playing amidst the exotic spicy aromas of the Prince of Egypt cuisine, David Hobbs carefully crafted observations. Too many impressions to write them all down. You will have to come out to see and hear for yourself.   Crowds, crowds, crowds! On Saturday night the Swan and the Willow were turning people away in fear of the liquor police. From out on the windy streets, ChoirGirlz, The Bebop Cowboys and Shanklin Road had the crowd lined all the way up the dingy old stairs of the Swan to the dumpy second floor bar. Amazing!

Back again next year. What could be improved? Well, maybe the weather? Sunshine, warm breezes, hormones?

This 15-track collection of songs from both female and male North American artists (with Australian and Norwegian representation) is a life-affirming musical project humbly shadowing its more famous and forceful predecessor, “Woodstock”. Check out the Bob Dylan-inspired ‘Gift (One Iraqi Child)’ and ‘No One Can Stop Me When I’m Out to be Good’, from Josh White Jr., a latter-day Richie Havens. One of the many things I like about this CD is that it offers a wide exposure to lesser-known female musicians, who, unless they are willing to expose more than their musical talent, are very often overlooked in the higher echelons of the industry. West Coast ladies Christa Couture, Quincy, Elaine Dempsey, Blair Hansen, Adrienne Jones, Margo Hennebach and Toronto’s Laura Fernandez all deserve recognition for their demurely sweet, lilting vocals as well as their thought-provoking lyrics on a peaceful world. Among the renowned Ontario male performers appearing here are Guelph’s James Gordon, Whitby’s Roger Ellis, and the winner of the 2004 Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award, David Gillis, of Vineland – all wonderful musical ambassadors for Canada! The most memorable “hit” track, among these otherwise beautiful ballads, would certainly be the riotously poetic ’60s-pop-rocker ‘Change My World’ (by NY’s Sean Altman and Billy Straus). My other favourite was Norway’s Finn Coren, who offers ‘Riverboatman’, a well-enunciated, musically dramatic piano-and-strings opus that speaks to homesick refugees. It would have been great if Belgium’s Yanah had been included here, particularly for her ‘Girl in the Picture’ tribute to Kim Phuc, a Vietnamese victim of a napalm attack, but there are only so many songs that can fit on one CD. This is a very admirable initiative by humanitarian Brian Gladstone, who also organizes several other socially conscious music endeavours such as Earthday, Winterfolk Festival and the Outrageous Summer Open

Various Artists

Available from IndiePool.com

A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange by Mike Jurkovic ([email protected]) Well you won't find anything close to Blowin' In The Wind or The Times They Are a-Changin' here, but you will find plenty of awareness and the need for vigilance in these unstable times. Produced by Brian Gladstone, Protest Songs For A Better World is a thirteen-track rally cry anthology of original protest songs selected from submissions from around our troubled globe. All the tracks are wake up calls, but my personal highlights include: Southpaw Jones humorously ominous Protest Song, Lenny Solomon's evocative Gettysurg, Maria Dunn's rousing Troublemaker', Joe Dolce's Did You Get Stupid from Being Ugly (Or Ugly from Being Stupid?) and Williams & Williams' Between Iraq & A Hard Place. All proceeds from the sale of this forward looking collection are donated to United Nations Foundation.

Vertrieb-Nr.: 001-2004 Titel: Day 4, Give It Away, Beggar's Audience, Gift (One Iraqi Child), Hollows, Our Love Is Beautiful, Guardians, Change My World, Riverboatman, Too Young To Die, Weapons Of Mass Instruction, Catch The Spirit, A Mouse's Crumb, The Other Side, No One Can Stop Me When I'm Out To Be Good "Peace Songs For A Better World" ist ein Projekt von Sänger Brian Gladstone, der jetzt auch als Producer in Erscheinung getreten ist. Bekannt für seine ausgefallenen Ideen, hat er sich jetzt die Arbeit gemacht und verschiede Künstler zu einem großen Projekt für den Frieden zu versammeln. Mit dabei sind Christa Couture, Qunincy, Big Wide Grin, Joe Dolce und viele weitere. So steuerte Josh White Jr. den Song "No One Can Stop Me When I'm Out To Be Good" bei. "Weapons Of Mass Instruction" kommt von James Gordon. So bunt wie die Zusammensetzung der Künstler ist, so nachdenklich sind die einzelnen Songs. Die 15 Titel fallen nicht unter reinlegen und loslegen. Es sollte sich beim anhören der Titel die Zeit genommen werden genau auf die Texte zu hören. Die Stilrichtungen bei den einzelnen Songs fällt zwischen Folk bis Country. Vertrieb: www.abetterworld.ca
 

1) How many Sonicbids artists did you select?

We selected twelve Sonicbids artists for the compilation CD ‘Protest Songs for a Better World – Volume 1’. Due to the large numbers of high caliber submissions received, we found the evaluation and selection process to be tremendously difficult. However, after much deliberation, our team of judges was able to narrow it down to required twelve tracks

2) What are you looking for in an artist submission?

The motto of A Better World is, ‘We can Use Voice to Change the World, There is magic in our words’. We fulfill our mission by encouraging change in the world through artistic expression. On this project, we are accepting songs on any topic based around a central theme of 'change for improvement'. The tracks we consider cover many related subjects including war, violence, peace, hunger, abuse, violation of rights, injustice, minorities, poverty, prejudice, freedom, homeless, children and more. A portion of our target market is radio and media coverage, so we try to listen through the ears of a program director.

3) What is your review and selection process like? We have a team of judges who are personally selected by me. The only upfront information they get is to ensure they understand the nature of the project, and have a good awareness of the theme. Then they are free to make their own selections. All of our compilation CD’s get good global airplay, so we need to deliver a professional quality album to the media to maintain the high standards of musicality and sonic quality they expect from us. (This is a different criterion than is used to evaluate a festival or performance submission) There are several key stages to our review and selection process.

Every song is listened to several times. The first listen through is a cursory sorting process, and unfortunately most of the submissions don’t make it past this stage. Songs that pass to the next level exhibit common characteristics such as high production value; studio quality mixing and engineering; strong vocals and instrumentation; and overall inspiring musical experience in their presentation. We look for songs that are well written, and prefer an original approach to the theme. Regrettably, most of the submissions are rejected at this stage for reasons of weak or off-pitch vocals, poor musicianship or poor writing, sonically inferior recordings, or just the overall low standards used throughout. Songs without recording or musical flaws are elevated to the next level. At this point, all remaining songs are deemed to be of ‘radio play’ quality. The next stages of evaluation become more subjective, and the judges listen with no pre-conceived ideas other than waiting to be ‘moved’ by the song. (Like the first time you hear the Beatles). When they are ‘touched’ by the song, it is put into the ‘favorite’ category. The attraction may be a musical hook, a haunting lyric, an upbeat or unusual tempo, an emotional magnetism, the spontaneous energy of a live recording, some tight harmonies, a bit of studio polish and more – it’s not always easy to define this step in the evaluation process as it relies on artistic selection and personal preference, rather than a predefined rule set. There are about 25 songs left at this stage – all of which are high quality recordings and worthy candidates – and we have to further narrow the selection down to only twelve. This is the most difficult part of the process. Final selection from this stage is based on criteria such as the overall ability of the song to comply with our theme, as well as many other factors. This is the point in time when we closely scrutinize the lyrics for interpretation of the messages and symbolism, and especially to ensure there is nothing objectionable or offensive. We look for a mix and balance at this point, and some selections are made for reasons of cohesion and coherence to the overall album. We like to put an upbeat catchy song as the first track, and a reflective large lasting production as the last track. We try to ensure no two successive tracks are recorded in the same key, nor are in the same style. For example, if there are some acoustic tracks, we will try to spread out and transition them with other styles. We are conscious to continually introduce new sounds as the album progresses, to maintain high listener interest level so they are more likely hear the album in it’s entirety. There is a large challenge to combine rock, blues, roots, pop, and more on the same record, and present a strong coherent album – and not just a collection of assorted songs. So, the last stage of the selection process may be more related to how each track fits into the big picture, rather than the track on its own merits. We have to look at the goals and the mission at all times when assembling a compilation CD, and always upholds a high quality standard and does our best to keep the vision alive. It’s not an easy undertaking.

4) What can artists do to be better prepared to submit to your opportunity?

Simple – Submit a well-written, well-recorded song with good musicianship and high production value. Then you will get our attention. Many of the reasons songs are rejected are totally correctable by the artist prior to submission. We have received many excellent songs, which we regrettably could not consider for very simple flaws, which should have been edited out at the time of recording. Many times artists send us excellent songs bursting with passion and commitment – you can hear the emotion embedded in the recording. Often, very moving lyrics and beautiful melodies are trapped within an amateur musical production. We can’t consider the song for simple reasons such as the vocal is weak, strained or off key; the guitar is out of tune or guitar playing (or instrumentation) is weak; production value is poor, and more. Often it is apparent the artist hasn’t mastered the song yet, and should spend more time practicing prior to recording. Sometimes we get great songs which have obviously recorded with mundane studio musicians playing routine patterns, rendering the product unexciting and lacking inspiration. Basement recording studios are fine when used properly – we are not suggesting that an artist make a large investment in studio time. You are competing with every musician in the world. If your tune stands out it will be noticed – often the production value make the difference. Great musical artists are not necessarily great studio engineers.

To create a track of the required sonic quality, an inexperienced artist should solicit assistance from an audio engineer and producer with a proven record of accomplishment. A poor quality recording masks a good song. There is no substitute for practice – artists must practice their songs until they are fluid and smooth. Prior to recording, a few weeks of rehearsing the vocals and mastering all the guitar licks can make a world of difference. Sometimes artists submit material above their ability to play. We don’t look for intricacy, speed, or complexity. A simple well-played clean accompaniment is always preferable to a sloppily played complex arrangement. 5) What sets this opportunity apart from other events like it? We are a not for profit organization registered in the province of Ontario, Canada. All of the funds raised through our work go directly into the community, and we partner with such agencies as Earthday, and New Songs for peace. We have recognized the power of artistic expression, and encourage artists to make a difference in the world through their artform. We offer our artists worldwide exposure and open new markets. This is accomplished through global contacts in radio and media established by Brian Gladstone through his own albums releases.

6) What is the importance of this opportunity to an artist’s career?

We like to feel that we have made a positive impact to the artist’s career. Following are a few quotes from artists who have appeared on our compilation CDS. The artists’ own words speak for them selves. “Being on this CD reminded me of my original mission.” "Not only did I receive a great deal of positive feedback as a result of my submission, I also felt I was contributing a positive message to the world". “You’ve got me the first airplay in twenty years” “I've received emails from people around the globe who are enjoying my song "Change My World" and thanking me for participating in the project. It feels good to contribute to a worthwhile effort like this. Thanks for the opportunity.” 7) Little Known Fact About the Promoter or Opportunity: After twenty five years working as a self-educated engineering director and mad scientist, Brian Gladstone walked away from a six-figure salary to intentionally become a starving artist, and then founded ‘The Association of Artists for A Better World’. He is a child of the 1960’s, an attendee of Woodstock, an aging hippie, and a perpetual quixotic dreamer, whose lifestyle and belief system was shaped by a mindset and mentality that is somewhat foreign today. He grew up during the roots revolution, and witnessed first-hand how the power of music can alter the course of history, and turn underground ideas into the policy of a nation. There are so many vital causes and injustices in the world today, and we want to create an avenue for the artists of today to be heard and make a difference.

JOE DOLCE

Member Since: 2003 Hometown: Carlton, Victoria, Australia

Complete Story

Featured on the "Protest Songs For a Better World" 2006 CD. What's the coolest show you've ever played? Here are a couple of memorable ones that come to mind – with a thirty-year span between: When I was in my twenties in the 70s, i was invited to back up Muddy Waters on blues harp in a little club in Boston.

LENNY SOLOMON & THE SOLOMON BAND

Member Since: 2004 Hometown: Cambridge, MA, USA

Complete Story

Featured on the "Protest Songs For a Better World" 2006 CD. What's the coolest show you've ever played? I think most of the places I've perfomed in have been cool in their own way… a few weeks ago we played as the open mic feature at a gathering where all of the other performers were spoken word folks, (i.e., writers and poets). That was very cool.

(Copyright (c) 2006 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved. )

The connection with folk music becomes apparent, says Amanda Walther, when she and Sheila Carabine perform live. The former Scarborough high school-hallway harmonizing chums are now professional singing and songwriting partners in the Toronto pop duo DALA. "We play acoustic music, just guitar and voices, and the folk community has been really supportive of us. We have lots of fun with audiences, but I'd have to admit that DALA live and DALA on record are very different beasts." One of the featured acts at this weekend's fourth annual Winterfolk Festival on the Danforth,

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DALA was spotted last summer by Mariposa Folk Festival artistic director Randi Fratkin when the two 20-something women performed at a showcase for hopeful newcomers and won a slot on the Mariposa bill. Fratkin, who knows a thing or two about how to put together crowd- pleasing roots music events, was impressed enough to offer the duo a headlining spot at Winterfolk when she took over programming duties this year from the festival's co-founder, folk-singing fingerpicker Brian Gladstone. Fortunately for Walther and Carabine, the two festival appearances – the biggest shows to date for the young performers, who have been honing their chops for three years at open-mike sessions and pay-what-you-can shows in roots boites such as Graffiti's, the El Mocambo and Holy Joe's – bookend a recording deal with Universal Music Canada and the release a few weeks ago of their debut CD, Angels & Thieves. Produced in his Aurora studio by Walther's and Carabine's novice manager Mike Roth, DALA's first effort is a pretty mix of light, harmonic pop and introspective, post-teen lyricism. It's peppered with unusually diverse covers – Neil Young's "A Man Needs a Maid," The Cure's "Love Song," Donovan's "Catch the Wind" and the cabaret standard "Dream a Little Dream of Me" – that would seem a tad misplaced at a more traditional music gathering. But Winterfolk is hardly that, despite recent changes at its helm.

Late last year founder Gladstone traded his day job – as partner with brother Howard in a electronics component design and manufacturing business – for the life of a gypsy troubadour. (Howard is also a songwriter and, coincidentally, the producer of the summertime City Roots City Wide acoustic music festival in the downtown Distillery District.) Winterfolk was intended from the get-go in 2002 to be an all- inclusive, renegade alternative to folk festivals that Gladstone felt had become too fastidious and clique-ridden. Maintaining a full-time performing and recording career is work aplenty, however, so this year Gladstone handed programming responsibilities over to Fratkin, a seasoned professional. There was one proviso that this successful addition to Toronto's cultural life maintain its local flavour and continue to reflect the diversity of styles and genres of the city's countless independent country, folk and blues musicians. Hence DALA appears on an eclectic and adventurous Winterfolk bill among 100 better known local roots artists, including Bebop Cowboys, Cindy Church, Digging Roots, Gregg Lawless, Heather Dale, Jason Fowler, Jory Nash, Lynn Harrison, Marigolds, Steve Payne and Wendell Ferguson. Winterfolk takes place through tomorrow evening at five venues on Danforth Ave. east of Broadview – the Bad Dog Theatre, Dora Keogh, the Danforth Cafe in the Danforth Baptist Church, The Black Swan and The Willow. For details, see www.winterfolk.com.

DALA's Walther and Carabine, who opened recently for Jann Arden at Massey Hall, say they're not fazed by their relative lack of experience. In fact, it seems to have worked in their favour. "When we started performing, our friends and families encouraged us to keep it up, so when we heard the Trebas Institute was looking for guinea-pig bands for its recording engineering students to work with, we offered our services," says Carabine. Carabine had studied piano at the Royal Conservatory but never considered herself a singer till she started writing songs with Walther, a naturally gifted vocalist from an intensely musical family. "That's how we met our producer, who started recording us whenever we wrote something we liked, or had a new idea for a cover tune that would help introduce our style of music to audiences." The video for the duo's first single, "20 Something," has landed on both CMT and Bravo! play lists. It was shot in a single day by a self-taught videographer and friend who flew in from Vancouver with just one camera and blocked an outdoor ad-hoc scenario on the fly. "This has all been our own doing," Walther adds. "The rest has been good luck."Who DALA When Today at 10 p.m. Where 285 Danforth Ave., in Danforth Baptist Church Tickets $50 for weekend passes at www.winterfolk.com, and $20 for day passes at all five Winterfolk venues

North York roots musician Brian Gladstone is bringing a huge roots festival, called Winterfolk, with more than 80 artists to the Danforth area of Toronto this weekend. But for his next major endeavour, the former student at William L. Mackenzie Collegiate Institute is promising to stay right at home in North York where he was born, raised and still lives. He said the first annual Brian Gladstone picnic for peace will be held July 19 in Mel Lastman Square. "I'm having a good old-fashioned peace rally," he said in a recent interview. This weekend, however, all his energies will be on his huge Winterfolk festival, which is now in its fourth year, having started at College and Spadina but is now in its second year at the Danforth location. Winterfolk is billed as a blues and roots festival, "which basically leaves it wide open", said Gladstone. "Roots music, to me, what that means is music that evolved or is indigenous to Canada or North America, which is all the folk styles, country music, bluegrass – those things evolved here. And that's mainly what we're focusing on."

Perhaps the most recognizable name to mainstream audiences is Russell DeCarle, founding member and stalwart of Prairie Oyster. He's on tap tonight. Gladstone, this year, has brought in Randi Fratkin as artistic director. "She's also the artistic director for the Mariposa Festival so she's very well connected. She brings a great amount of expertise to us." Besides the performances, workshops are also scheduled. Any guitar picker or roots music fan will want to check their web site out at www.winterfolk.com. Gladstone, a singer-songwriter with a unique finger picking style, will also perform at Winterfolk. He has four CDs to his credit, including his latest, A Time For New Beginnings. For anyone who enjoyed '60s folk, this CD could catch you by surprise. But it's no throwback. It's completely relevant to today, commenting on a variety of issues, ranging from the Iraq invasion (Flags of Freedom) and the nine-to-five rut (Office Tower Blues) and is presented in a variety of moods. Also of note is a compilation CD he has produced called Protest Songs

For a Better World. Any fan of '60s folk would no doubt be ecstatic to see the protest-song tradition very much alive and relevant. The joke for many aspiring musicians is … don't give up your day job. With Gladstone, the local music scene has obviously benefited from his doing exactly that. He spent the last 25 years as a director of engineering and as a research engineer and has two patents to his name, but since he put out his first CD in 1999, his obvious love and talent for music has taken over. "Just in the last year, I've basically retired from the corporate world, and 100 per cent of my time is devoted towards my creative interests," he said. One of those interests is the registered non-profit Association of Artists for a Better World. It is under that umbrella that he puts on Winterfolk and issues the compilation CDs. Check out that web site at www.abetterworld.ca. For more on his own CDs and performance schedule, check out his web site at www.backtothedirt.com Credit: North York

North York guitarist behind Winterfolk
[Final Edition]

The North York Mirror – North York, Ont.
Author: Norm Nelson
Date: Feb 2, 2006
Start Page: 01
Section: Lifestyle
Text Word Count: 537

Jan. 26, 2006 Winterfolk Brings Roots Music To Danforth

Big city residents who are fans of guitar pickin' and roots music usually have to pencil in a summer folk festival in a rural area to get their fill. Next weekend, however, a festival is coming to you. In its fourth year, Winterfolk will run all next weekend (Feb. 3-5) from Friday night to Sunday. And for the second straight year, it's being held right in our neck of the woods, in a cluster of a half a dozen venues on the Danforth, near Broadview. The festival is the brainchild of Brian Gladstone, born and raised in North York and a noted roots musician himself with four CDs to his credit. He is also one of the more than 80 performers lined up. With Randi Fratkin on board this year as artistic director, Gladstone, the founder and festival director, said it should appeal to an even broader audience."She's also the artistic director for the Mariposa Festival so she's very well connected. She brings a great amount of expertise to us." The festival started out originally at Spadina and College for the first two years but moved to the Danforth last year to allow the festival room to grow. "There's a lot of good venues, all of them walking distance from the subway. Also the Danforth BIA (Business Improvement Association), they've welcomed us, and they're working with us very closely," said Gladstone. Winterfolk is billed as a blues and roots festival "which basically leaves it wide open," said Gladstone. "Roots music, to me, what that means, is music that evolved or is indigenous to Canada or North America, which is all the folk styles, country music, bluegrass – those things evolved here.

And that's mainly what we're focusing on." Toronto Community News, which publishes The Mirror, is also one of the sponsors There are literally too many artists to mention. Many of the national and internationally renowned artists live in the area, particularly in Riverdale which has a noted arts community, including the Bebop Cowboys. But certainly, the rest of the province and the country will be well represented along with a some key international acts, including Russell deCarle, the lead singer, bass player and a founding member of Prairie Oyster.

DeCarle has been awarded Canadian Country Music Association, Juno and SOCAN awards, has been a guest on the CBC Songwriters' Circle Series, toured with the Bluebird North Series and opened for Merle Haggard. The festival also reserves a handful of coveted spots for new or emerging artists, some of whom have used it as springboard to a performing career. The locations, all within easy walking distance of the Broadview subway stop, include three bars – the Willow, Dora Keogh and the Black Swan (two stages, main floor and upstairs) – as well as the Bad Dog Theatre and the Danforth Cafe in the Danforth Baptist Church. There are plenty of ticket options. You can buy a three-day festival pass, single day pass or single venue admission. The best way to check it out further is to log onto their website located at www.winterfolk.com.

Brian Gladstone Trying To Make  A Better World – One Song At a Time

 You may call him a dreamer, but Brian Gladstone’s not the only one. The self-described ‘psychedelic pholkie’, who’s also the impresario behind the now annual Winterfolk February Folk festival (the third edition takes place this Feb. 4-6 ‘05) has started up yet another new initiative to promote local music and, hopefully, improve the mental environment. The Association of Artists For A Better World is a non-profit organization Gladstone has registered to “advocate artistic activism” by stimulating artists’ “awareness of social, cultural and ecological issues” and encouraging them to express their understanding through their art. To get the ball rolling, Gladstone has assembled a collection of songs from artists across the country whose songs he became aware of through their applications for or performances at Winterfolk. A compilation disc, Peace Songs For A Better World, contains 15 original tunes and is now available for sale at www.abetterworld.ca .  A follow-up disc, 'Songs For A Better Planet', is scheduled for release in January. Gladstone also continues to hold a very successful weekly open stage at artist-friendly Renaissance Café at 1938 Danforth Ave. a block west of Woodbine. He’s bringing is some of Folk’s local superstars as weekly feature guests, including Noah Zacharin (Sept. 9), Michael Laderoute (Sept. 16) and, coming Sept. 30, Suzie Vinnick. In the midst of all that the gifted fingerpicker also finds time to perform — recently he placed fourth in the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Competition. by Gary 17

This was the second year for this indoor folk festival. Held in 5 venues in the Spadina/College area of downtown Toronto. Friday evening at the Thymeless Bar & Grill I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing one of my favourite singer/songwriters David Leask. David is originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, but has been living here in Canada for 12 years now. His latest CD is called Tightrope of Dreams and I highly recommend it. Every River is included on the CD along with Caledonia. You can check out his website at http://www.davidleask.com and hear clips of the songs. The same night we heard Michael Laderoute, Doug Doughty, Michael Troy, and then we had a show titled Guitar Aces – High Speed Pickers which included David Gillisas host (neat man), Shane Simpson, Norman Liota, and Noah Zacharin. If that wasn't enough for one night we went onto a Song Writing Workshop which included the amazing Norm Hacking as host, David Bradstreet, Joe Hall, Tony Turner, Sam Larkin, and Norman Liota, and Michael Laderoute again. This was a neat session as each one talked about where their inspiration comes from to write. Saturday got off to a later start then I would have liked.

I slept in a bit too late, and Jen was joining me for the day as well. The party animal she is didn't get in until 5:30am was it? Anyway lol we started off at the Swallow Lounge and Deli (new place for me!) We managed to catch the end of the Ballad of Phil Ochs. I'm just going to post what it says in my program about this show. Zachary Stevenson as protest singer Phil Ochs – A riveting one-man folk musical set against the backdrop of the political and social unrest of the 1960's. I would have liked to have seen this as it was raved about the entire weekend. What we did see was interesting. Trevor Mills was next up, and very entertaining. I think I'll have to check him out around town more often as he often plays at Hugh's Room, and with other musicians around town. Ron Nigrini who has over 35 years of experience performing and recording, took the stage next. Then there was a break in the schedule so we went for a quick bite to eat before heading over to the Thymeless Bar & Grill to hear Toronto native, Peter Verity belt out tunes, play his guitar and harmonica. We sprinted back over to the Swallow Lounge and Deli for the last few songs from SisterLune. Amazing vocals, harmonies, and beats on the drums. Next was a show I was really looking forward to as it included one of my favourites… (yes another) Wendell Ferguson as host to Master of the Acoustic 6 String. Joining Wendell was the great David Gillis, Manitoba Hal, Normal Liota, Brian Gladstone (director of the festival), and the amazing Tony Quarrington.

There might have a couple more folks in there as well. Lots of instrumentals played during this 2 hour session, but I was kept awake by the few vocals snuck in here and there. Yes it's no secret… I am not a fan of instrumental music. I think I know talent when I see it (hear it) though, and all the musicians were incredible. Next was my favourite of the whole festival… Jory Nash. Some of you have seen him before. His set was cut a bit short when someone in the audience passed out, fell, and hit their head pretty hard on the floor. They were out cold for sometime.. 911 was called and they took him away in the ambulance… or I assume he was taken away. We left before that. So the night didn't end on a very high note. Sunday I was working the door at the Free Times Cafe. It's one of my favourite venues in the city as it's very quaint. First off we had a workshop titled Submitting Successful Showcase Applications which was intended for up and coming artists of course. Tony Quarrington was the host. He's actually the one who goes through all their submissions looking for showcase artists for this festival. It was an interesting hour even for those of us non-artists. If I ever by some miracle become a musician…. I bet I could get a showcase spot for Winterfolk! Next up was Gregg Lawless who was fantastic!!! very funny, talented, and funny.

He had his merchandise person put a CD in front of everyone, and it was pay what you can lol he joked around a lot on stage. It was great. I'm definately going to keep my eye open for future Lawless dates. David Gillis and Jason Fowler took the stage next for many instrumental tunes, stories, ballads, and instrumentals. The crowd was very into which makes a big difference. I found during the other shows you could always hear too many people talking in the background, and it was annoying. You don't have that at Free Times. Last up for the evening was once again Ron Nigrini. My shift was over so I only stayed for half his set before heading back over to the Swallow Lounge and Deli where Ray Materick from Hamilton was playing. He's a singer/songwriter who definately has lots of stories to tell. Well that was Winterfolk for this year. I'm already looking forward to next years. It's only in its second year so it's still growing. I'm sure next year will be even bigger and better. Take care all, Ang .  www.AtlanticSeabreeze.com

Festival takes over five venues this weekend Blues and country acts join varied line-up

(Copyright (c) 2004 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved. ) Jan 2004 Someone out there had a psychic connection to Mother Nature. Between the cold and the snow, we can use a bit of a distraction right about now, and the various events happening under the Wintercity festival umbrella should help do the trick. Among these happenings is Winterfolk which, despite its name, also has a substantial blues and country component. Starting tomorrow night and running to Sunday night, Winterfolk rounds up 70 musicians into five College St.-area venues for music, talk and schmoozing. The organizers are billing it as an indoor winter equivalent to a summer folk festival.

The venues are, from east to west Swallow Deli and Lounge at 292 College St.; Rancho Relaxo, 300 College St.; the Free Times Cafe, 320 College St.; Thymeless Bar & Grill, 355 College St.; and the Silver Dollar Room, 486 Spadina Ave. Here are some highlights (warning tomorrow night's line-up is the hardest to choose from) Hot young Winnipeg multi-keyboard player Michael Johnston is one of the "showcase" acts specially chosen by the organizers. He'll perform at the Silver Dollar tomorrow at 8 p.m. What better way to truly warm up than at the Silver Dollar's 11 p.m. Acoustic Delta Blues program, followed at midnight by Jack de Keyzer and his band. There are two late-night events of interest tomorrow at Thymeless, starting with a program of "high-speed-pickin'" guitar aces at 10 and a song-writing workshop at 11 hosted by Norm Hacking. The Star's own Greg Quill sings and strums with the Usual Suspects at Free Times on Saturday at 9 p.m. Josh White and Michael Pickett share some blues music and stories at the Dollar Saturday at 11 p.m. One of Sunday's highlights is The Ballad Of Phil Ochs, Zachary Stevenson's one-man historical "folk musical" set in the social and political turmoil of the mid-1960s. It starts at 4 p.m. at Rancho Relaxo.

The full schedule is available at www.winterfolk.com Single-day pass tickets are $20, or it's $40 for the weekend. Tickets are available at each club and at Ticketmaster.

There's a movement afoot to keep us from succumbing to the obvious temptations of hibernation this weekend. It's called Winterfolk, an annual festival that brings nearly 70 folky, bluesy and otherwise rootsy artists to five club venues in the College and Spadina area starting tomorrow and running through Sunday. Besides showcases from well-known artists like Ray Materick, Joe Hall, Bill Garrett, Ron Nigrini, Norm Hacking, Jack de Keyzer, Danny Marks and Michael Pickett, Winterfolk also presents the winners of its continent-wide emerging talent showcase, who include New Mexican Kyle Lange, Saskatchewan guitarist Joel Fafard, acclaimed "sentimental soul" pianist Michael Johnston and Ottawa jazz/folk duo Clear.

Festival to Chase Off Winter's Chill

First Winterfest debuts tomorrow Roster includes folksy who's-who

Copyright 2003 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.Jan 30, 2003 "When we did our last CD release concert at Hugh's Room a few months back, Brian Gladstone approached us with this idea about a giant acoustic music festival in downtown Toronto in the middle of winter," says local singer/songwriter Ember Swift."It sounded okay to me. I mean, there are so many roots artists playing in and around Toronto, but the work is scattered and you never really know in advance what's going on. "Besides, everyone's so busy hustling their own acts … you hardly ever get a chance to see other players, or share stages with them." Swift, with seven independent albums to her credit, including the recent Stiltwalking (available at www.emberswift.com), is no stranger to folk festivals. She's about to embark on her fourth tour of Australia in half as many years, playing at several large outdoor events in March and April, and is quickly winning hearts with her punk-tinged jazz-pop songs at festivals across North America. But like others in the folk community, she had doubts that Gladstone, a champion finger-picker and an earnest songwriter, could pull off a 100-act, three-day event in Toronto in January, when most performers are either on the road in warmer climes, or hibernating and woodshedding in preparation for the 100 or more acoustic music festivals that fill the Canadian summer. "He's a really persistent guy," Swift continues. "It looks as if he has pulled it off." In Brian Gladstone's world, there's no such thing as a missed opportunity. Winterfolk, the festival he has been planning for the past two years, kicks off tomorrow night at five clubs within walking distance of each other in the College and Spadina Aves. district- El Mocambo, Rancho Relaxo, The Comfort Zone, Oasis, The Silver Dollar- and will conclude Sunday with an all-day event at UofT's Convocation Hall. The roster is enormous, considering Winterfolk is a new starter on the festival agenda. More than 100 acts have signed on, most of them Canadian artists, most of them local- Swift, Ron Nigrini, Brent Titcomb, Bill Colgate, Bob Snider, Dennis O'Toole, Ian Tamblyn, Jory Nash, Marianne Girard, Melwood Cutlery, Norm Hacking, Terry Tufts among them- with a couple of veteran U.S. folk artists- Tom Rush and Josh White Jr. to round things out. "If no one's knocking, you've got to build a door," is one of many aphorisms that pepper Gladstone's conversation. "Unless you're part of that very close circle of people who make it onto the summer festival circuit every year, it's hard to find decent places to play in Toronto. "And if city folk want to see roots artists in a festival setting, they have to wait for the summer and drive way out into the country. Winterfolk is the first festival to bring so many artists together in one downtown neighbourhood at the time of year when people are going stir crazy." A designer of electrical transformers and sound reinforcement equipment by day- "the work has financed my music for 25 years," he says- Gladstone has recorded three albums since 1999 (check out www.backtothedirt.com). He's particularly proud of the fact that Winterfolk exists without government grants and tax dollar assistance of any kind, and that it's predominantly a celebration of homegrown talent. He expects the event will clear its financial obligations after 1,500 weekend passes are sold at $35 plus tax apiece. Day passes ($15 tomorrow and $20 Saturday and Sunday) are also available at the venues and through Ticketmaster (check local listings or www.winterfolk.com for the schedule). Children under 12 are admitted free, and there's an "all ages" permit at three venues- Comfort Zone, Convocation Hall and, until 9 p.m., Rancho Relaxo- which means no liquor, wine or beer will be sold. "We've had help from other festival organizers, particularly Northern Lights in Sudbury, and from the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals," Gladstone adds. "But basically this thing has come together one brick at a time. "You just keep moving your brush till the picture tells a story." TREVOR MILLS RELEASE Another story worthy of attention is the CD release party tomorrow at Hugh's Room for Trevor Mills's debut solo effort, Karaoke Cowboy. Trevor's the bass-playing, songwriting son of elder folk statesman Paul Mills. A fine picker- he's known in the trade as Curly Boy Stubbs- Paul now runs his own studio, The Millstream, where many fine roots and folk recordings have emerged in the past five years, including his son's. Expect tomorrow's gig to be a gathering of intergenerational folk music families- on stage and off.What: Winterfolk festival When: Tomorrow to Sun., Feb. 2 Where: Oasis, Rancho Relaxo, El Mocambo, Comfort Zone, The Silver Dollar, Convocation Hall Tickets: Weekend pass $35 plus tax @ 416-870-800