Cosmic Debris Musicians Magazine / Islands Folk Festival '98/ Vancouver Island Area

ISLANDS FOLK FESTIVAL '98
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BOB SNIDER INTERVIEW
By RICK DENNIS
Collage by Barry Newman

Duncan's Providence Farm hosted the 14th annual Islands Folk Festival during the July 24-26 weekend. The line-up of talent included 140 musicians playing in 39 groups as well as local singer/songwriter emcees whose job it was to fill in the blanks in between set changes with songs and chatter.

None of these acts are on heavy rotation on MuchMusic or CMT but that didn't seem to bother close to three thousand music fans who poured into Duncan from all over the Island, the BC mainland and parts of the U.S.
It was the best Friday night turnout in festival history and Saturday was close behind in attendance figures. Cowichan Folk Guild artistic coordinator Brent Hutchinson was jubilant. "It proves that you don't have to have headliners to put together an excellent artistic program which can also draw in the crowds," he says proudly, adding that " we had a great team of coordinators and volunteers which helped us put it together and made it happen."

NOTES AND QUOTES

KOROBEYNIKI
Hailing from the city of Khabarovsk (in Russia's Far East), this uniquely talented instrumental quartet have toured the US and Japan since their formation in 1991. The Islands Folk Festival marked one of the stops on their debut Canadian tour.
The group's repertoire is a savory blend of lilting Russian folk melodies and intriguing cover choices. After suffering through countless versions of "Somewhere My Love" in cheap piano bars it was a revelation to hear the theme from "Dr. Zhivago" played with delicacy and feeling. The quartet used an intriguing array of instruments - the bayan, a type of button key accordion; the domra, an exotic three-stringed instrument; the domra viola, also with three strings, and a double bass which looked like a balalaika on steroids - to produce its distinctive sound. You didn't need a translator to appreciate the emotion and tradition reflected in the dazzling musicianship and intricate arrangements.
"Music is the best international language," bayan virtuoso Anatoly Zateev said simply. Producer John Ellis of Melodeon Studios has made several trips to Mother Russia and is actively involved in recording and promoting acts from that country. Naturally, he is a big Korobeyniki fan.
"They play in the traditional Russian folk style with their own unique improvisational spin (very original and exciting) on traditional Russian instruments ... The notes just keep coming as fast as you can hear them and sometimes even a little faster than that ... "
Many of the numbers were accompanied by artfully choreographed routines based on traditional folk dances (Russian Steppe dancing) performed with agility and grace by a photogenic young trio recruited from Russia's prestigious 'Daini -Vostok' troupe.

CHRIS CHANDLER
"What Jack Kerouac did with jazz I want to do with my music" Chandler told me in a 1997 interview. He was referring to "The Jack Kerouac Collection", a 3 CD Rhino Records package featuring vintage tracks of the novelist reciting passages from his work to improvised jazz accompaniment.
Listening to "folk/punk poet" Chandler in concert is to hear echoes of Kerouac's rebel spirit, the satiric bite of Lenny Bruce and The Fugs' perversely cheery ditties filtered through a distinctly modern sensibility. Framing his savagely witty wordplay within paradoxically chipper melodies borrowed from cheeseball pop, vintage country and his own twisted fertile imagination, Chandler has created a musical genre all his own. Call it Beat Rap for the New Millenium.

EMBER SWIFT
Comparisons to Ani diFranco abound but this 22 year old Toronto alt/folk wunderkind shines with her own kind of light. Swift possesses a wonderfully supple voice and is absolutely fearless in her quest to find new and innovative ways to use it. Her dynamic guitar attack also earned the admiration of visiting musicians such as local axeman Oliver Mitchell. "She sings with a creative range of expression and ideas, writes lyrics with a particular intention and beautifies them by using melody ... She's also very good at playing guitar as rhythmic accompaniment. By using some quite unusual techniques which combine rhythm and intonation, she is able to mold with the instrument and make it really flow.

The MCDADES
Edmonton's favourite family band ignited the dance area in front of the Islands Main stage with a bracing Celtic-flavored set powered by harpist Terry McDade and the twin violin attack of son Jeremiah McDade and daughter Shannon Johnson (of Bourne and Johnson fame).
Peter Rusland, Arts and Entertainment Reporter, Cowichan News/Leader raves: "Phenomenal fiddling, shimmering harp, hand drums and exotic stringed instruments conjure up an aura of Celtic wonderment blended with Arabic mystery ...
Bass player Solon McDade told me after the show that the band loved the festival's natural setting. "It's nice to have the backdrop of trees behind the stage. It added to the sound quality. It is also nice to have the audience as close to the stage as they are."

BIJOUX du BAYOU
This enterprising and energetic Valley sextet showed why they have quickly become one of the hottest all purpose club acts on the Island with a "dancer friendly" gumbo of "swamp pop /Tex-Mex/zydeco" which proved to be one of the hits of the festival.
Cowichan Folk Guild president Terry Botkin was blown away by the audience's response to the hometowners. "It was incredible ... At one point I looked across the crowd and there was a thousand people moving in unison to Bijoux du Bayou. It just sent shivers up your spine."

SWAMP MAMA JOHNSON
The Bellingham, Wash. quintet displayed impressive chops on a set of inventively arranged originals. The group's funk-fuelled dance grooves and buoyant stage presence proved irresistible. Geriatric boomers and Gen Xers alike shook their collective bootys in a rare display of musical solidarity. Although the group has a strictly contemporary look and sound their roots were showing in an informal post-show interview.
Guitarist Laurie Miller (who formed the group five years ago) tells me that SMJ has been known to sample from James Brown and lists Albert King, Mike Bloomfield and Jaco Pastorius when asked for other influences. Saxperson Tracy Ferrara has a jones for Junior Walker and Maceo Parker and singer Lisa Mills admits to listening to Tower of Power, Ohio Players "and all that '70s stuff". The band's respect for the spirit and form of vintage R&B and soul is evident in its updating and expanding of the genre for modern audiences.
So what is the best thing about life with an all female touring band?
According to Laurie, it's "the sense of kinship ... we've been together for so long that we can anticipate each other's moods." And what's the worst thing (Don't ask.)

FAVES AND RAVES

The THOMAS HANDY TRIO
Guitarist Handy has played in folk and jazz settings and is a keen student of South Asian music. Ravi Naimpally (tabla/percussion) effortlessly incorporates North Indian, West African and Afro-Cuban rhythms into his playing. Violinist Oliver Schorer has a background in Celtic and classical studies. The group distilled these influences into a dazzling display of pancultural musical fusion during a series of extended instrumental improvisations which cast a hypnotic spell.

PAT TEMPLE
Temple's songs have the honest durable appeal and comfortable fit of a favorite pair of blue jeans. Although I've seen this Ontario folk troubadour in concert many times over the years I never tire of the widescreen imagery of his lyrics, the inventive melodies and those subtle emotional shadings in his vocals which bring the finely crafted originals to full-blooded glorious life.

DEB MAIKE and FRIENDS
Mother, wife and grandmother, Ms. Maike wears her experiences along with her heart on her sleeve as she probes the hopes, dreams, frustrations and joys of womanhood with intimacy and insight. Steve McKinnon and Nikki Nilsson underlined Maike's familiar warm vocals with soothing harmonies which refreshed the spirit like a cool breeze on a hot summer afternoon.

JOE CHARRON
This Valley tunesmith applies the same passion, commitment and artistry to his music that he does to that finely hewn willow furniture that he fashions in his spare time. Strong vivid lyrics. Sturdy melodies. A robust voice to keep away the rain. They're more than just a good place to visit. Joe Charron builds songs you can live in.

CLOSE-UP: BOB SNIDER
Listening to Bob Snider sing confirmed my suspicions. All is not fair in love and war. The Toronto songwriter and performer has earned his stripes on the frontlines and he knows.
That's why his songs strike such a deeply personal chord in his audiences. Because we've all suffered a few flesh wounds along the way.
Following a memorable concert in the Providence chapel I talked to him briefly as part of a feature for Shaw 4's "Mid Island Magazine".
Snider's friendly, open face with it's grizzled beard and hobo smile would not look out of place in a vintage Norman Rockwell painting. Glancing at the longish salt and pepper mop framing his features I'd be willing to bet that this man does not own a blow dryer. That's good. Obviously Snider prefers to spend his time on his music and let his hair look out for itself. That attention to detail is evident in his work.
Listening to a Bob Snider song for the first time is like finding the pearl in the oyster. Each one of his compositions is a perfectly formed little gem glistening with sharply observed lyrics and exactly the right melody to go along with them. And then there's that voice. Honest and true as good whiskey. So he won't make the cover of GQ anytime soon. Who cares? When it comes to his song-writing, Snider doesn't have a word out of place.
I quickly discovered that he is just as sincere and approachable in person as he appears on stage. With Bob Snider what you see is what you get. Hell, he even offered to roll up my microphone cable for me at the completion of the interview.
There's a lot of wry humor in your songs about the ups and down of a musician's life. What made you choose songwriting as a career?
"What spurred the whole thing was the breakup of a major relationship. We had a farm, it wasn't a working farm, just some land and a building in Nova Scotia and we had a daughter. And then the whole scene changed. And I started writing these songs and they were the best thing I had happening at the time so I went with that ... I always loved performing. I just needed a medium for it which I never had until I started writing songs and playing guitar."
A lot of your songs take a sobering look at relationships. You seem to view the end of a relationship with a bemused resignation. Well, she's gone but what can I do about it. Life goes on.
"Bemused resignation! Thank you! A very generous description of how I feel sometimes. Yeah, actually, at that point is when I start writing."
What comes first, the words or the music? I know that it's a hackneyed question but the creative process always interests me and listening to you perform I got the feeling that the words and music come together in your case.
"Yeah, most of the time they do. What really sets me off in a direction is, like, one line of words, one line of music. Sometimes you're just walking along and a little common phrase or something will just fit in, a little detail that you pick up and that gives you all the direction you need. Then comes the melody and words."
Okay, something goes wrong in a relationship and you end up writing a song about it. Does that serve as therapy or is it simply reflection?
"Well, um, it's therapy but I am also a dramatist and a ham. And I take literary license where and whenever possible. I just love to be feeling some emotion out there, whatever it is, so that I can wring some spots onto paper out of it. So there are elements of showbiz. I am very aware I'm writing a song. People think sometimes I'm throwing away an emotion. Well, yeah, but it's a separate intellectual process that goes alongside it when you're putting it all together."
When you're an artist everything is grist for the mill. So, I guess you can say, 'Well, she broke my heart but it's a positive thing in a way because I got this great song out of it'
"Well, yes, but unfortunately managers have caught on to this idea. Keep 'em cold, hungry and, you know, everything else, and they'll start writin' songs for you."

(Thanks to Brent Hutchinson, Peter Rusland, Chas Leckie and John Ellis for their help in the preparation of this article. Cheers!)

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Islands Folk Festival / Cowichan Folk Guild
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