words and photos by Deanna Roos
This past Friday, August 16th through Sunday, August 18th, the annual Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme Music festival went down. This is the 3rd year in a row that NSMZ has been able to attend the festival which is held on the beautiful and hallowed Ness Creek Festival grounds. Whether you like old time, bluegrass, folk, or twangy country, this festival had something for everyone in its choice of performers and programming. This made for a well rounded joyride for the ears.
It’s impossible to mention it all, so below are some of the performer highlights:
Lachlan Neville is an up and coming Saskatchewan solo artist who did a couple short sets as a tweener (bands that play between the longer main stage sets). Within a few seconds of hearing Lachlan’s voice, you can’t help but stop and pay attention. It has a depth, confidence, and warmth that stands in defiance against his young age. After NSMZ founder Scott Roos commented to Lachlan that his music had an “old soul” vibe to it, he responded “I was 90 when I was born”. Can’t wait to hear more original tunes and recordings in the future!
After doing a tweener set last year at the festival, Gil And Wil debuted on the main stage this year with guest fiddler Karley Parovsky. They sing old-timey, femme driven country with harmonies so tight and in tune that it puts the rest of the plebeian world to shame. Their voices are perfectly blended, balanced, and nuanced so that the vibe of the tune isn’t lost in the hubbub of playing instruments, singing, and performing all at the same time. This duo is definitely a group to watch in Saskatchewan to see what they are going to do next.
Golden Shoals is an americana duo made up of Mark Kilianski (guitar) and Amy Alvey (fiddle) who come from an old-time musical tradition. More recently they have bent a bit more towards folk with original songwriting. For the festival, they were joined by Dan Klingsberg on the stand up bass and Brad Koldoner on banjo. Each set had a unique focus and curated setlist so that the audience was kept entertained with new sounds and different energies. This included some topnotch fiddling by Alvey whose style changed ever so slightly to suit the feel of each song. The original more folky songs were soulful and had some lovely harmonies between Kilianski and Alvey.
Tristen Durocher is a fiddler rooted in the Metis tradition who performed both completely solo (which is not easy to pull off with just a fiddle over a loud microphone) and also with a few friends to back him up on guitar and fiddle. Full disclosure – Durocher blew the preconceived notions of what I expected from the performance right out of my brain. So much so, that I am going to use first-person writing for the rest of this paragraph as I can’t help but be deeply connected to this experience. My confession is that I am incredibly judgmental and picky when listening to fiddle music. Often fiddlers, in an effort to play lightning fast, lose all tonal quality, pitch, and sense of timing so that it’s just messy. This ends up sounding like a cacophony to my ears. My piano teacher growing up would have said “the tempo got away from your fingers”. But, with every song Tristan did, whether lightning fast or slow, he kept the soul of the piece and it was beautiful throughout. He flowed with the vibe of the festival goers on the dance floor and kept his performance fresh and connected with the audience. Also, honorable mention for his “between the songs” banter – he was authentic, warm, and hilarious in a quirky, fun way.
The final performance highlight is Seth Mulder & Midnight Run. They formed a very cohesive band where every member was on point whether they were soloing or playing backup. The fiddler Max Silverstein bent the pitches in all the right places for an authentic but fresh bluegrass sound. Colton Powers kept the banjo rolling while laying out some strong, clear vocals that hearken back to some of the bluegrass greats. Finally, Mulder’s face-melting mandolin solos were unreal and a crowd pleaser, while his voice was full and rich with just a bit of grit to it to give it an edge.
It would be remiss not to mention other happenings during the weekend that the festival goers can partake in that help create the Northern Lights Bluegrass Festival culture:
On Friday and Saturday nights, a dance is held in the Jack Millikan Centre after the main stage performances. This year, The Lost Highway Navigators performed while festival-goers got their two-stepping boots on. You are welcome whether you know all the dance moves or are more akin to someone flailing around the dance floor. If late night dances aren’t your thing, this year there was a square dance held during the day and of course people are always welcome to dance in front of the main stage during the performances.
Throughout the weekend, there are planned jams in the Pickin' Shack that have designated leaders to help unite the jammers. Because the main stage acts perform a few times throughout the weekend, festival goers have the chance to take part in the jams as well as catch all the bands at least once. This NSMZ writer was able to enjoy 3 jams in the Pickin Shack this year. Of note, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run facilitated one of the jams and it was an amazing experience to be able to sit in a circle playing with this calibre of musicians.
This festival has a lot to offer for people of all different ages, backgrounds, musical tastes, and festival preferences to enjoy, whether you are a “day-time chill on my lawn chair”, “sit near the children’s area while my feral child runs around with the other kids”, or “don my brightly coloured festival attire and groove on the dance floor” type of festival goer.
*stay tuned as we will also be talking about the week long music camp that preceded the festival in our next piece
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