All music festivals should fill their home cities like the 2013 Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival fills Fredericton, New Brunswick. That’s what I think as I pinch the orange foam plugs into my ears and enter one of four performance tents in the closed-off downtown where Gov’t Mule has just charged onto the stage. No match for the sound bomb exploding against my eardrums and punching my ribcage, the plugs must look as ridiculous as they feel. Friends suggested Gov’t Mule was the band to see at this, the 22nd version of the annual September festival. But three songs in former Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes, who’s built like a Harley riding linebacker, hasn’t sung a single word. He just keeps riffing on little ‘ol Fredericton like a jackhammer on tarmac. The crowd is loving it, but I gotta get out of here.
On one of the other 25 stages, I find Canadian self-described “talking honky” Buck 65 holding a crowd captive with nothing but a turntable, microphone and a unique turn of phrase. In jeans jacket and ball cap, the skinny guy from Mount Uniacke outside Halifax punches with poignant, sometimes humourous lyrics against creative soundscapes in songs that range in length from a single rhyming couplet to 15-minute ballads.
The Wailers at 2013 Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, Fredericton NB
The other performer I search out during my few days here is the Halifax-based band Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers. Caplan might have dubbed his band thus to imply a cause for his own gravelly bass voice. Golden-bronze curls frame his face – top, sides and chin. His band plays a klezmer-indie hybrid. His lyrics are philosophical, as if he found them painted on the wall of a cave or scratched onto a scroll. When I do find him the next night, like Buck 65, his audience is stuffed into too small a tent, but they’re jumping and fist pumping and screaming, coaxed with fiddles and a smoky voice more than they would be to over-amplified, sternum-crushing electric guitars.
The next afternoon, I stumble upon three remarkable performances, all of them unscheduled and free. The first is a trio of musicians jamming in the middle of the street between the food trucks, fire eaters and acrobats. I know two of them – Charlie A’Court wails out a tune over his acoustic guitar and Steve Marriner from the hot new blues band Monkey Junk accompanies on harmonica.
Charlie A’Court (centre) and friends jamming in the street at 2013 Harvest Fest
The second is in the local beer store – a steel guitar player who might have just walked out of a Texas roadhouse and his young troubadour female accompanist exploring the roots of the blues. Between songs, he complains that all that electric blues in the tents ain’t the real blues at all. The songs he’s playing from the Delta and the cotton fields, that’s the real blues.
My third accidental concert of the afternoon is by a group of drummers set up outside a coffee shop. A couple with experience are beating out complex rhythms on congas while another half dozen join in to keep the beat. Some of them are new to drumming, it’s easy to see. After a couple of songs, one of the drummers offers me a bongo. I do my best to copy the simplest version of each rhythm and keep up. Nobody seems to mind my mistakes. Everyone, including those walking along the sidewalk through the middle of the drummers is smiling. Beaming, even. For now, we are the music at the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival.
Busker at 2013 Harvest Jazz & Blues Fest
And it’s that kind of impromptu experience that makes me want to return for the 2014 version. The big acts come and go. In fact, the lineup for the festival starting this week, September 9-14, makes me envious of those lucky enough to either live in Fredericton or able to travel there. Dr. John, the ambassador for New Orleans’ musical heritage, is the headliner. Bad luck turned to good in 1961 when a gunshot ended his guitar career and Dr. John took up piano. Since then, his talents have placed him on stages alongside The Band, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, and he’s topped the charts with hits like “Right Place Wrong Time” and “Such A Night.”
Grammy Award winners Blues Traveller are sure to bring down the house as they have for the 30 million they’ve played for in over 6,000 shows. Gord Downie of Tragically Hip fame, local madman on the guitar Matt Anderson and stylish songster David Myles are sure bets. But perhaps the show I’ll regret missing most, if I don’t make it, is Buckwheat Zydeco, the biggest name ever to play washboard-infused Cajun zydeco. Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr. has shared the stage with legendary acts ranging from Eric Clapton and U2 and The Boston Pops. He’s recorded with Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Dwight Yoakam and Paul Simon. President Clinton invited Buckwheat Zydeco to both his inaugurations. The band’s music is both humble and rich for its deep Cajun roots.
Michael Franti & Spearhead at 2013 Harvest Jazz & Blues Fest
Back to 2013, the last performance I’ll have time for is by a musician little known to me. When he takes the stage at the main tent, everyone around me acts like star-struck teenagers at a Beatles concert in the 60’s. Michael Franti immediately captures the audience with a genuine affection he wraps around us like a warm blanket on a cold night. If the Beach Boys and John Lennon could have had a baby, it would have been this surfer, tattooed flower child now spreading his message of peace and love. His guitarist could be a leather-clad punk, but Franti’s lyrics and stage presence offer equal counterpoint. He climbs through the audience, randomly hugging people and singing his hit, “The Sound of Sunshine.” Back on stage, he pulls people up to join him and sings his adoration to them for being human until the stage is filled and we are all there with them in our hearts. After the show, our smiles help take his message to the streets.
I’ve had a few too many of the local Picaroons beers, but I feel safe, even one with my fellow humans in the crowd as I make my way through the safe, congenial crowd down the middle of the pedestrian-only streets back to my room. Go to the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton – it’ll rejuvenate your love of music and your faith in humanity.
All photos © Darcy Rhyno; all rights reserved.
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