Ottawa hosts Canadian folk festival
By Jake Romphf
Ottawa became the centre of the Canadian folk music world during the recent two-day celebration culminating in the 13th annual Canadian Folk Music Awards at the Bronson Centre. The CFMA’s purpose is to celebrate and encourage Canadian folk music in all its forms. The awards took place on Nov. 19 at the Centretown performance space, with local musicians listed among the nominees.
Meanwhile, several Ottawa cafés and pubs showcased the art of folk music with performances by CFMA nominees.
Folk music includes traditional and contemporary styles and draws influences from other genres. Award nominees also sing in a range of languages, including English, French and Gaelic. The use of stringed instruments – guitar, cello, ukulele, violin, banjo and more — and folk’s traditional association with step dancing are among the features that make the genre unique.
The CFMA weekend began around midday Nov. 18 with a Celtic Jam session at at Deacon Brodie’s Pub on Elgin Street, and at Patty’s Pub in Old Ottawa South. Some award nominees then performed intimate singer-songwriter concerts for audiences at Centretown’s Fox and Feather Pub & Grill and other venues in the city.
Trish Bolechowsky, a member of CFMA’s local organizing committee, said the purpose of the small-scale concerts was to get the community more closely connected to the music the CFMAs are showcasing.
“We wanted to bring it to places where people would already be congregating so we could create that mix of already proven music lovers and maybe have some new music lovers too,” said Bolechowsky.
Hannah Shira Naiman, a Toronto resident, performed at Sunday’s songwriter’s concert. Shira Naiman said her folk sound is versatile enough to resonate with a wide range of people. “The music that I write is very non-personal in the sense that it’s not detailed descriptions of my own story, it’s very accessible stories, myths and folkloric things that I feel like people can relate to, and so in that sense I’m hoping to connect to a lot of different folks,” said Shira Naiman.
She went on to be named Traditional Singer of the Year at the Sunday awards show.
Married couple Jaaji and Chelsey June form the Ottawa based folk duo Twin Flames. They were nominated for three CFMAs and won for Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year. To Chelsey, an Algonquin Cree Métis woman, and Jaaji, her Inuk Mohawk husband, folk music “has been a part of Indigenous and Inuit culture for a very long time,” she said.
But their music, they added, isn’t only shaped by their Indigenous heritage.
“East Coast feel and folk music has influenced our music in some ways, but we remain unique in what we write and keep our own sound, a fusion of legends that came before us, tribal sounds, traditional instruments and our own voice,” said Chelsey.
Alexis MacIsaac and Calum MacKenzie a Centretown couple who – as MacIsaac and MacKenzie — were nominated for Instrumental Group of the Year.
MacIsaac said the duo didn’t get serious about their music careers until they got married.
“We had composed a tune for our first dance, which precipitated our musical partnership,” she said.
Their folk roots trace back to their childhoods. For MacIsaac, it was playing at various Ottawa venues with her father; for MacKenzie, it was the Scottish Gaelic tradition of Cape Breton in which he was immersed growing up.
But the Centretown community exerts its own influences on their music, they said.
“We titled the album ‘The Bay Street Sessions’ to reflect the variety of styles of music and musicians who’ve influenced us over the years in our home on Bay Street,” said MacIsaac. “Centretown, with its diversity, has so much to offer and we feel so privileged to be part of this space.”