DubMC

Self-Management Just Got a Whole Lot Easier

Musicians who manage their own bands have a tool box of new software applications at their disposal. Here is a round-up of some of the offerings available these days.

ArtistForce gives musicians a variety of internet-based tools: a booking widget, an interactive press kit, built in eMarketing tools, and career and performance feedback from the experts.

Nimbit is a site used by bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Los Straitjackets, London Symphony Orchestra and Blind Boys of Alabama.  Here you can keep track of your sales and distribution, and connect to fans all on one site.

BandCentral hopes to keep you organized with the diversity of tasks and information a band manager has: expenses, gigs, merchandise, and fans.  This site includes the ability for multi-login for band management multi-tasking.

With Bandize you can manage everything from tour dates, accounting, contacts, tasks, and product management on one easy page.  They offer a free 30 day trial. 

No internet connection while you’re on tour?  No problem.  With Indie Band Manager, you can download the program and go, no internet needed.  You get the tools to manage your tour and distribution as well as resources to find new gigs and contacts.

WOMEX Award for Professional Excellence Goes to fRoots’ Ian Anderson

The founder and editor-in-chief of the independent folk music magazine, fRoots, will receive the WOMEX award this October.  This is the first time WOMEX has given this award to anyone in the media. WOMEX felt that this, more than ever, is the time to recognize those that help to promote the independent music industry.  Anderson helped to revitalize the folk music scene in the late ’70’s with his fanzine, The Southern Rag, when post-punk and disco were taking over the airwaves.  Read more about Anderson and the award here

How a Detroit World Music Festival Unites Local Communities: A Q & A with Concert of Colors Co-Curator Ismael Ahmed

From July 16-18, 2010, Detroit's Concert of Colors' 18th edition will take place. DubMC took this opportunity to interview CoC's co-curator and spiritual leader Ismael Ahmed about the festival's history and the role it plays in uniting the communities who organize it. Ahmed is currently the director of Michigan's Department of Human Services. He is a co-founder of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) where he held the title of executive director for many years.

1. Why did you start the Concert of Colors (CoC)?  

There had been several incidents in the Detroit area that showed the need for this kind of event. African Americans and Arab store owners had some incidents. Some Japanese business owners had been attacked during a period of anti-Japanese sentiment. Those are just two of many examples. There was a sense in all of these communities that we needed to work together. So there was an opportunity.  

It was a great way to pull people together form different ethnic communities. Detroit didn’t have an ethnic coalition at the time. It was an attempt at first to pull the communities of color together. Then as it grew It became broader and brought in the different ethnic communities. The idea was to accentuate the positive. All of us come from generally positive cultures and that is something people can share with each other, as well as the problems. That was the idea. It started out as a single day festival that had a performer from the Asian community, African or African America, Latin community, Arab community, and Native American community. And obviously those communities all had a lot of sub-sets. And those were done in ethnic neighborhoods and took place before Concert of Colors officially started. After five years we moved to a central location called Shane Park, which holds about 15,000 people. The City was very supportive and provided security, facilities, and sound. It was the community’s job to bring forth talent and make it a real festival and to keep it about something. The choices about who performed reflected ideals of the community.  

People from ACCESS and New Detroit (the other partner) went to Korean picnics… performances in Indian doctor’s houses. There was a lot of street organizing to build an ongoing coalition. Few of the people were “promoters” or music experts. They were everyday people who wanted to integrate their communities into larger activities and build alliances. In this case, we did it through music.  

2. How does the original mission of the festival manifest these days?

It continues to do so, maybe even more so. Over the years for instance the City’s Affair Immigration Committee grew out of this effort. It is now a whole separate committee that works on immigration issues. The Chinese and Arab communities helped launch a capital campaign for a new community center. There have been many small offshoots.  

The mission also shines through within the Concert of Colors event itself. For instance, during the height of the Sudanese civil war, the group purposely brought together both communities of Sudan as well as everyone else, to listen to musicians from Sudan call for unity in the country and an end to violence.  

 

It continues to not only bring together people around diverse cultures but also is very insive about what and how it presents those cultures.

3. What is the role of a music festival in addressing social justice, racism, ethnic tensions, and peaceful coexistence? How do you get beyond the token "ethnic food night" at a local school or the culture-of-the-month mentality in a music festival?

I think what happens is if the people in the communities being featured are at the table in a meaningful way, not only do the great things about their community come forward, but their struggles and needs come forward too. The question is do you address that in the program, in the information available, in the process as well as the programming? This is not a format where you do giant rhetorical speeches, but you can deliver those messages in the music. Or you can deliver them through having vendors and tables that talk about it. You can deliver it by having food banks. This year, for instance, we’re having several alternative food activities and by that I don’t mean a mix of vendors. I mean people who are running free vegetable trucks, trying to get fresh foods into the city. If you are open to it and the people reflect the cultures and ideas, it can be done naturally and directly.

4. What artists are you personally most excited to see and hear at this year's CoC?

Kelvin Cook, who is going to be playing at a second stage. He is a sacred steel guitar player, and is as rockin’ as anything I have seen. He takes church music and really rocks it out. Another group that I’m looking forward to is Kenge Kenge. They are a Kenyan benga group that seem to maintain the basic folk culture yet have the energy that will move people; just about anyone. 

5. What are a few of your favorite highlights from years past?

Sometimes the highlights are in little interactions you witness. One of them was when Amadou and Mariam had asked to be introduced to Ray Charles. We introduced them. I watched as they felt Ray Charles’ face and talked to him about how he had inspired them and so forth and so forth. We were watching cultures being crosses right there, right then. For me it was a very poignant moment. I don’t know if it was earth shaking. But these are kernels of what you want to happen.  

Another case is the Don Was All-Star Revue that we do each year at Concert of Colors. Don Was is a musician who grew up in Detroit and has always cared about Detroit and watched Detroit go through so many difficult times. We met at a Concert of Colors show where he played bass for Cheb Khaled, whose record he produced a while back. He is among one of the biggest record producers in the world. Yet for the last three years he has come to Detroit every year to do a revue of Detroit musicians (kind of like the Motown Revue). And he does it for free because he believes that Detroit is a great place and has produced great things and continues to do that and he wants to highlight that. So he comes here and talks to every media outlet that will talk to him, to talk about the resilience of the people of Detroit and how they deserve a better shake. And he has also done several other related projects. He is working on a fundraising project along with me on helping to benefit children’s agencies. Half of the children in Detroit now are in poverty. We are bringing in some very big Detroit stars to take part in that effort. He has also been working on a studio project in which young musicians can record for free but at a highly professional level and get some national notice.  

Another example really has to do with the people that come to the Concert of Colors. There was a point where Los Lobos was playing and I was on stage announcing them. And I looked into the audience and there was literally every kind of people you can think of. People wearing turbans. Really hip looking Asian kids. You name it. The point isn’t just about bringing in the big stars and having everybody come. But that it continues to be something that reflects those diverse communities. 

DubMC.com is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm. Contact rock paper scissors, inc. about publicity campaigns for your album release, tour, festival, or other global music project.

A Sweet Spot in San Francisco: A Q&A with Stern Grove Festival's Executive Director Steven Haines

As summer festival season continues, DubMC interviewed Steven Haines, executive director of Stern Grove Festival (San Francisco, CA), about what makes the festival and site one of San Francisco's best kept secrets.

1. What makes Stern Grove physically unique from other venues?

The venue is one of the most amazing things about Stern Grove Festival. The concert meadow is in a 33-acre park in San Francisco, hundreds of feet below street level. It’s in the heart of the city, but feels miles away.  It’s this beautiful storybook kind of space with birds and dragonflies and eucalyptus and redwood trees; there’s nothing quite like it that I’ve ever seen.

2. Describe the typical experience for the audience member of a Stern Grove concert.

Every show is a little different, but audiences always arrive early to claim their spot in the concert meadow; our crew setting up in the morning sees folks there as early as 6 a.m.! Once you’ve got your spot in the meadow, you spend the day relaxing, eating, drinking, hanging out with other people…mostly just enjoying the fresh air and scenery with friends and family. When the show starts, the place comes to life…everyone dancing and singing along. It’s hard to describe, but people always say there’s a special vibe at Stern Grove Festival.

3. I hear there is an interesting story about how the stage location was chosen. Tell us about that.

The woman who founded Stern Grove Festival, Rosalie Meyer Stern, brought her friend, who was an opera singer, to help her figure out the best location for the stage. The two walked through the Grove singing, until they found the amphitheater’s “sweet spot.” Even after we had an acoustical engineer out there when the venue was renovated in 2005, the stage remains in that same location to this day.  She was right…it was the best spot.

4. In what ways is Stern Grove similar to and different from other festivals?

Aside from the fact that Stern Grove Festival is admission free, what really makes us special is our history. The Festival has been around for over seven decades…we’re one of the longest running admission-free festivals in the country. And, of course, the park is a one-of-a-kind place; a lot of artists have commented on the beauty of the venue; they’re always amazed by the intimacy of the space and how connected they feel to the audience, in spite of the fact that they’re performing in front of thousands of people. Being free and outdoors, Stern Grove Festival has a special kind of accessibility; people mix and mingle, which creates a different experience for the audience and the artists.

5. What are the highlights of this summer’s schedule at Stern Grove Festival?

This summer, aside from the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet, I’m really looking forward to Maceo Parker, Angélique Kidjo, Caravan Palace, and our season finale with They Might Be Giants. But, really, I look forward to every Sunday at Stern Grove Festival!

DubMC.com is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm. Contact rock paper scissors, inc. about publicity campaigns for your album release, tour, festival, or other global music project.

Of Global Positioning and Grit: What World Music Artists Can Learn from M.I.A.

M.I.A. dominates a peculiar corner on the pop market, occupying an evolving niche chipped from transcultural hip hop, visions of the Global South (or the developing world, if you will), and the parallel universe of high-rolling hipster fashionistas and ironic controversy-courters from Madonna to Lady Gaga.

It’s a place few global musicians go, and yet M.I.A.’s experience speaks to new possibilities for artists who lie a bit further off the beaten path musically and culturally. And it all lies in the story.

In fact, it’s nearly impossible to imagine M.I.A.’s swift rise to pop prominence without her story. She’s the proud, outspoken daughter of a Tamil insurgent/freedom fighter (her father’s political moniker became the title of her 2005 debut, Arular).

She weaves this story visually into her videos, into interviews, and into her lyrics, when not explicitly speaking up about the beleaguered Tamil community in Sri Lanka. M.I.A.’s claims about her dad have been questioned, as have her views of Sri Lankan politics, yet her rebel pedigree has quietly shifted the conversation about what global music, in particular music from Africa and Southeast Asia, can be. It can be rebellious, countercultural, revolutionary, angry, hot, cool.

Her recent aggressive and somewhat shady move to distribute to her Twitter followers the personal number of a journalist who penned a less-than-flattering piece for the New York Times Magazine proves how central the story—and her control of it—is. The story is a major asset, and M.I.A. won’t let it get reshaped without a fight.

Her story, and the context it creates for her music, is one of grit.

“Grit"—where cultural authenticity meets street cred—is not generally associated with "world music" projects, which still tend to get pigeonholed as liberal, feel-good joints, or folkloric frolics of purely educational value. International music has often been discussed, distributed, and marketed in the U.S. in a way that encourages a soft-focus peace-and-understanding vibe. And, for some, this has become a barrier to be broken down, leaped, blasted through.

Grit gives global musicians an opportunity to do just that. They can position themselves radically. They can draw on a new kind of authenticity, one with potentially broad appeal and accessibility, woven from two important strategies.

One, successful artists like M.I.A. sit squarely in a popular genre but still manage to push the envelope slightly. In M.I.A.’s case, this happens thanks to edgy and eclectic production aesthetics. Pop artists like M.I.A. aren't playing Uruguayan rock or Ugandan soul. They are masters and minor innovators of their genres, not exotic variations on them (i.e. not "Rwanda's answer to Paul McCartney" or "the Madonna of Turkey"). That strategy—the exotic variation on a Western household name—seems to only garner temporary curiosity, not long-term interest. M.I.A. is a hip hop artist that can go head to head with any other hip hop artist.

She accomplishes this feat, in part, by sticking to English as her primary language of expression, something not all artists will want or be able to do. But it is worth noting: Almost all the global icons who’ve broken into the mainstream—from Bob Marley and Fela Kuti to Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte—use English, in some form. Naturally, understanding the lyrics helps listeners identify with the musician as a person, not a representative of a culture or nation. Yet it also helps them put the artist into a familiar framework of genre.

Two, M.I.A. at the same time meticulously maintains a kind of street cred based on personal international experience and draws on popular trends, as well as traditions, from her native land (and elsewhere). This personal experience lends the story M.I.A. has crafted both substance and authority. As she told the New York Times Magazine, discussing her performance at the Grammys last year and her advocacy of Tamils in Sri Lanka, “I wasn’t trying to be like Bono. He’s not from Africa — I’m from there.”

These two approaches allow M.I.A. to come across as instantly recognizable to a mainstream listener, yet instantly believable as exotic spokespeople with an edgy yet just cause. M.I.A.’s work and persona include a global aspect that feels utterly real, yet she never refers to herself as some odd local version of musical genres generally associated with the U.S. or Europe.

So how do other musicians tie into grit and the new possibilities it creates for wider exposure and appeal?

Drop the equivalency. If you are working in an established genre like hip hop or rock, focus on your innovations as a musician, not as a representative of another country. Don’t craft your story around analogies and namedropping. There are, of course, implications for singing in English to pull this off.

Don’t be afraid of a little (well-considered) controversy. Just because you’re a musician doesn’t mean you have to be a spokesperson for international peace, love, and happiness. If your work is political, talk about it. If your society has problems, call them out. Conflict, rebellion, and toughness make sense to people.

Get specific and personal about your story. Draw on your life and your connections to the material that inspires you. While there’s no need to invent or embellish the facts, think carefully about a strong narrative arc, a pathway you can sketch out for people potentially interested in your music, about how you got to where you are now as an artist.

The more concrete detail and human emotion in the story, the stronger the possible connection with others. Your personal revelations, struggles, and triumphs can often lead people where more general cultural context cannot.

This last point can apply even to artists—people performing very traditional music, classical or new music, or feel-good hymns to happiness—who might feel less than gritty. All artists have paths they followed, often difficult, surprising, or moving paths. By carving out and expressing these paths clearly and precisely yet passionately, you can gain more traction with audiences who may not initially find your work appealing or relevant.

The picture shifts a bit when you’re not actually “from there,” when you’re creating music in a style associated with a part of the world you don’t hail from, or when you’re building your own style from global parts. There are some success stories of late in that direction, too, and some similar lessons about the “f” word… global fusion, that is.

DubMC.com is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm. Contact rock paper scissors, inc. about publicity campaigns for your album release, tour, festival, or other global music project.

WOMEX Map of Venues and Hotels

With the deadline for the WOMEX conference Smart Rate approaching (June 18), many DubMC readers are probably starting to think about travel and lodging. So we have put together this handy map so you can compare locations of the hotels available via the WOMEX website. The new daytime venue--Forum Copenhagen--appears as a green house. The nighttime venue DR Koncerthuset (the same as last year) appears as a yellow house. The lodging options are in blue (hotels), green (hostels), and yellow (apartments). Suggested tourist activities if you have some free time are taking a tour of the city by boat, visiting the Rundetaarn (Round Tower), watching the changing of the guard (with marching band), and walking along Stroget (pedestrian zone).

View WOMEX 2010 in a larger map

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

New Generation of Labels: Yoga Organix Q&A

Continuing our series on a new generation of record labels, here is a Q & A with David "Duke Mushroom" Schommer, owner/producer with Yoga Organix™.

1. How do you describe your label in five words or less?

Yoga Lifestyle World Music

2. What’s different today about running a label than running one ten years ago?

Pretty much everything. The greatest difference is there are more potential entry points of exposure for independent music, but then it is more challenging to penetrate the dwindling retail market.

3. What do you offer that artists can’t do themselves?

Yoga Organix gets involved with every aspect of developing and focusing on an artist, and offers an experienced background in the art of recording and packaging albums.  We also offer distribution directly within the yoga community and beyond, through our partnership with White Swan Records.

4. What is your release schedule for the rest of this year?

We are releasing two more titles within "The Yoga Sessions" series: Go-Ray & Duke, and the Dave Eggar Quartet, as well as starting new material with Masood Ali Khan to be released for the Holiday Season. 

5. When it comes to marketing strategies and tools, what are you most excited about these days?

Word of Mouth from first hand experiences--playing for yoga classes, playing shows/festivals, and personalized social media--are still the most valuable. No one particular "new" tech or web based product or site stands out. I think listeners are concerned more with a desire for positive vibes and truth than a slick gimmick--especially within the Yoga community--and listeners from all walks will ultimately embrace something that touches them, so, first and foremost we focus on cultivating and recording great, positive music.

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

New Generation of Labels: National Geographic Q&A

Though National Geographic is not a new entity, their world music record label is. The second installment in our record label Q & A's goes to Jeff Clyburn, director of National Geographic Music. 

1. How do you describe your label in five words or less?

Music that transcends boundaries.
 
2. What’s different today about running a label than running one ten years ago?

There is a lot less money to work with at every level.
 
3. What do you offer that artists can’t do themselves?

Access to a worldwide media company, financing, marketing, PR, and a retail strategy that comes from years of releasing records independently.
 
4. What is your release schedule for the rest of this year?

Roughly 1 album every 6 weeks including "Dunya" by Bibi Tanga & The Selenites on June 1 and "El-Existential" by Grupo Fantasma June 15.
 
5. When it comes to marketing strategies and tools, what are you most excited about these days?

Topspin Media, Facebook and Twitter.

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

New Generation of Labels: Cumbancha Q&A

We are kicking off a short series of Q&A's with the directors of a new generation of world music labels. We start with Jacob Edgar, president of Cumbancha:

1. How do you describe your label in five words or less?

Presenting exceptional music from around the globe (“from” and “the” don’t count as words, right?).
 
2. What’s different today about running a label than running one ten years ago?

Ten years ago there were things called record stores. Ten years ago, when you wanted to let customers know about something, you had to send it to them with bulk mail. Ten years ago, people were just starting to be overwhelmed...now they are completely inundated and can’t handle the information overload. Ten years ago it was possible to spend money on marketing and advertising because you knew that it would likely lead to sales, especially if you partnered with retailers.
 
3. What do you offer that artists can’t do themselves?

Experience, connections, knowledge, financial support, global distribution both physical and digital, a respected brand, knowing who to call and who not to call and how to get calls returned, a partner to brainstorm with, accounting, credit, legal advice, shipping and handling, invoicing, collecting, registering, partners around the world...
 
4. What is your release schedule for the rest of this year?

Luisa Maita, “Lero-Lero” coming out July 27th. Tony Q Rastafara, Indonesian reggae star. Something after August. More in the works, but can’t tell you yet.

5. When it comes to marketing strategies and tools, what are you most excited about these days?

Bandcamp, partnering with NGOs, media junkets to exotic locales, television, massive amounts of touring, digital EPs, Shazam, community outreach, direct to consumer sales, neighboring rights, collaborations with big stars.

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

Collective Sound Salvation: A Q&A with Calgary Folk Festival Artistic Director Kerry Clarke

1. What’s your two sentence description of the Calgary Folk Festival for someone who has never been?

It’s an experience; a collective sound salvation with an incredibly cool vibe in a beautiful urban park that features unique collaborations and concerts. Musically, think Bonaroo in a polygamous marriage with Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Womad and Newport.

2. What’s with the word Folk in the title? How strict are you about that? How diverse is the line up?

Folk is more of an attitude and atmosphere than a musical genre. Canadian folk festivals are usually held in parks and are characterized by a relaxed atmosphere, multi-generational audiences and are safe places for children where people treat each other with respect. Think the world as it should be for 4 days.

To us, folk as a genre comes from two branches: a singer/songwriter history and traditions from around the globe – not just limited to those from western Europe. But songwriting takes many forms so a great song can be delivered in a hip-hop or blues style, sung in Yoruba or by a white guy with a guitar. We explore the roots and evolution of the music we like to call folk; a genre-bending smorgasbord where acoustic, ambient and electric styles combine, including blues, indie-rock, traditional music, roots, world music, cutting-edge sounds, dub, bluegrass, funk, country, reggae, hip-hop, R&B, Celtic, old-time, Norteño, jazz and orchestral pop.

3. We’ve heard you use the term “arranged marriages.” What are you referring to there?

These are the collaborative sessions - the pairing of seemingly disparate or easily connected acts and artists under one theme - that take place Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday between 10:30 am and 5:30 pm on six stages. There are 40 sessions over these 2.5 days.
 
The sessions are songwriter-in-the round and jam sessions, organized around themes and styles of music.  These are dependent on the artists booked each year, however we typically have several blues-oriented stages, a celtic session or two, several focussing on certain instruments, a gospel session, world music collaborations, etc.  The format is 3-4 artists or groups put together on a stage.  They rotate playing and often back each other up. It’s a magical meeting of artists in an intimate setting.

Here are some things other people have said about them:

"Soon after came another Sophie's Choice by way of a concert by great roots rock act The Acorn, workshops featuring friends and acquaintances of talented West Coast artist, producer and performer Steve Dawson (Deep Dark Woods, Ebony Hillbillies and The Sojourners), or a stacked stage hosting acts under the Cooking with Brass umbrella. The latter was another superb example of the collaborative magic at work, featuring altfolk waif Mirah teaming with Jon Boden & Jon Spiers, and members of Bell Orchestre and Tarhana as they oscillated wildly between horn-fuelled Gypsy skronk and Celtic second line."-Mike Bell, Calgary Herald

"I was able to share the stage with songwriters and friends like Josh Ritter, but also with a Trinidadian calypso group and a French Canadian band.  It was really exhilarating and a wonderful example of how we're all doing the same thing, music, but coloured with our individual contexts and histories.  This has always been my philosophy, but I've never seen in put into practice by others so thoroughly." -Mark Erelli, artist

4. What have your favorite artist pairings been in the past? Why?

• Uncorrected Personality Traits with the Sadies, Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Case and Anne Loree. The Sadies and Robyn got on like a house on fire, singing on each other’s songs, and then played together the week after in Winnipeg as a result of meeting at the Festival.

• Lord Have Mercy! gospel session with Rhonda Vincent, Martin Joseph, Ruthie Foster and Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. It was 2004 and just before the second George Bush election so Martin’s spiritual songs that talk about how the world should be if Jesus was here and his comments about the coming election weren’t appreciated by Rhonda, so although it there was generally a lot of harmony – in both senses of the word, there was some agro afterwards, which is always interesting.

• Another gospel session, in 2002 called Playing to the Congregation, with Jim White, Sleepy LaBeef, David Essig and John Reischman. Sleepy thought some of Jim’s songs were blasphemous   
and was heard saying ‘I’m going to take you out back and whoop ya!’

• Too Bad Faulkner Couldn't Be Here: a wonderful grouping of artists who do dark country songs. The collaboration that usually happens was lacking, but Mary played on Jim’s next album, so that introduction paid dividends.

• The Newly A-Choired session with the UK’s Chumbawamba, Tuvans Chirgilchin and alt-country Canadians Nathan. The blend of vocals was to die for. When Nathan sang the chorus to their song ‘the wind’ and the Tuvans came in with their throat singing, it was haunting and exquisite.

• Will the Circuit Be Unbroken? featured artists Emily Wells, Kid Koala, Esthero and Chad VanGaalen who all use loops and technology in their music. They joked around and collaborated on each other’s songs.
   
 • Don't Mex with Texas: Texas artists Hayes Carll, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Emily Wells combined with Mexican Norteño group Los Misioneros del Norte 

• The Revolution will not be Twitterized Canadian reggae artists Jason Wilson, Jamaican dub poet Mutabaruka, hip-hoppers Arrested Development and Scottish trad troubadour Dick Gaughan. Political rabble-rousing has never been so funky or deep. One song bled into another and all artists backed each other up. At the end, Dick said he wanted to join AD, and they said they’d like to cover his songs.

• Guided by Voices with Canada’s Juno award-winners the Good Lovelies, Garifuna artists Umalali, experimental rockers Akron/Family and bluegrassers Dry Branch Fire Squad. All very different styles of music, with strong vocal harmonies as the link.

5. What’s unique about the setting of the Calgary Folk Festival?

It’s urban and in a beautiful park. So it’s close to amenities and skyscrapers but like a little paradise with lots of trees, grass and shade. People line up for hours to get their choice spot on the grass in front of mainstage, where they stake out their claim for the day on a tarp and blanket. The keeners are lovingly referred to as ‘tarpies’. We like to say that artists wouldn’t sound as good in a parking lot or stadium. Also, because it’s mid-sized, audience members can get close to performers and sit comfortably on the grass, or stand, dance or (yep – we have hippies!) hula-hoop.

6. How do you describe your curatorial vision for the musicians playing the festival?

We try to explore the roots and evolution of folk, from around the world. A combination of icons and upstarts. It’s an art and a science. The art part is finding some of the finest, most interesting, creative artists to perform. The science or math part is trying to make sure we have the right balance of a bunch of genres, genders, styles, generations and attitudes. We’re looking for artists who ‘play well with others’ and are willing to stretch artistically, as the collaborations are so key.

7. Which performer this year do you think will be the biggest surprise for your audience?

Probably Man Man, Frank Turner, St. Vincent, and DJ Dolores.

8. Which performer this year do you think might be the biggest surprise for you?

If I knew, it wouldn’t be a surprise! Actually it’s likely to be from a genre that isn’t my bailiwick, so perhaps Fribo, whose music is more on the trad. side.

9. Anything else you would like our readers to know?

It’s a festival of discovery. Many people come to see their favourite artist(s) and leave with an armful of CDs (yes, our audience still buy CDs!) from artists they’d never heard before the weekend.

Festival website: www.calgaryfolkfest.com

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.