After Roberta set me up with some breakfast Ray and Pam showed up to take me to Winnipeg Folk Festival which is running from Thursday through until Sunday. It has be running for over 35 years and though there is not so much folk it is a well organized event with great musicians from around the world. The festival is held in Birds Hill provincial park which is a very large park and campground North East of Winnipeg.

Entering the park I was so warmed seeing young evergreens mixed with the birch and oak trees. I really miss the forests and mountains of BC. We parked and headed over to the gate where we met two of Pam’s friends who knowingly brought tarps to sit on in front of the main stage. After staking our territory we grabbed some food and walked over to a smaller stage to watch a little country and western. Normally not my style of music but this guy, Jimmy Lafav, had a great voice. The first part of the set was sad songs but when the piano guy finally showed (must have been in the beer garden) they cranked it up a notch.

Off to the beer garden we went for a cold one in the roasting hot sun. The ladies wanted to shop so Ray and I staked out some ground to watch “you gotta fight for your right” workshop which included Billy Bragg, Atomic Duo, Natalia Zukerman, Willy Porter and Emmanuel Jai. They were all very talented musicians and were the closest thing to folk music with the exception of Emmanuel Jai who had a reggae style hip hop.

After a few more beers we watch the main stage and caught Junior Brown who played his own hand built double head guitar which had a lap steel. He could really play but wasn’t really my kind of music although I liked the kind of surf infused heavy picking.

The final show was Susan Tedeschi with the Dereck Trucks band and boy could she sing. He was a master on the slide guitar as well and for an 11 piece band they were super tight. I know Ray really loved the guitar playing since he is a great guitar player himself. It had cooled down quite a bit so by the end of the show I was ready for bed.

When I got back George was up with their nephew who was visiting from Vancouver Island and on his way to India to find a place to do some writing. George was so hospitable and made sure I had a beer 🙂 He also had contacted his neighbor who had a cabin near Kenora Ontario and had arranged for me to stay there tomorrow night. He even drew a very detailed map for me. I really can’t say enough about the Irvines and their wonderful hospitality. I hope to cross paths again some day.