Maybe it’s an age thing, but I seem to be waxing nostalgic these days. It doesn’t even take that much to get me thinking through rose coloured glasses about things that happened twenty years ago or more. Today’s trigger was the weird juxtaposition of two articles in the entertainment section of the Globe And Mail newspaper.
The first was the announcement of the nominees for this years MTV Music Video Awards, the second was an account of this year’s Calgary Folk Festival. Going from the corporate speak of promoting the lifestyles of the rich and vacuous(descriptions of how attendees will be able to park their yachts at the hotel or how those arriving by car will be giving personalized tours of their vehicles made me realize once again how far popular music has descended into the corporate maw) to descriptions of workshops on how to play bluegrass mandolin is enough to give your brain whiplash.
I suppose this dichotomy has always existed, but for some reason it really struck home this year. It also made me think with longing of the days when I used to attend “The Mariposa Folk Festival” when it was located on the Toronto Islands. The Festival which
had it’s beginnings in Orillia Ontario moved down to Toronto in the sixties as the folk scene moved into full gear.
For those of you unfamiliar with Toronto a little background is probably in order. In the early sixties Toronto had it’s own little bohemian scene starting. Like a miniature Greenwich Village, Yorkville was a Mecca for artists, musicians, and writers. Cheap rents and some small cafes were the main drawing cards.
On a given night you could go down to the Riverboat coffee house and see Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian and Sylvia, or any number of Canadian and American folk artists. This was the club where so many Canadian artists got their start.
At the time Toronto was just starting to wake up from it’s sleepy provincial status and explore being a “Big City” While Montreal may have had Leonard Cohen and a host of French language singers Toronto had Glenn Gould and “The Perth County Conspiracy”. While the former is well known the latter may need some explaining.
“The Perth County Conspiracy” was the musical wing of an artistic commune located between Toronto and Stratford Ontario in Southern Ontario. It’s members were actors at the Shakespearean festival in Stratford, artists, and a variety of others. They would swoop into Toronto and perform concerts and generally liven things up.
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Article comments
1 - Aaman
Good stuff! Tell us of some of your 'exploits' at the festival - every show has memories, I'm sure, from personal exp.
2 - gypsyman
Do you mean like splitting a bottle of wine and smoking a "large One" and beoming very mellow and happy?
Not that I would ever have done that!!!
he he he he
3 - rick
Lightfoot didn't almost die on stage. He almost died in his dressing room while preparing to do a concert in Orillia, Ont., his original home town. Just a small difference, but I thought I'd let you know.