Tuesday, August 12, 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited
Weather doesn't sour sweet sound of folk
Tanglefoot, Galitcha, kids' workshops a roaring success
By Stephen Pedersen / Arts Reporter CONCERT REVIEW

It should come as no surprise that monsoon rains, heavy fog, and continual damp failed to faze either organizers or audiences at the 18th annual Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival this weekend. Lunenburgers, after all, have heavy weather in their blood.
What did surprise was that when the sun firmly shone all day Sunday, attendance at workshops, jammed for the Friday and especially on Saturday, dropped sharply. Yet at the Heritage Bandstand in the centre of town and down on the Knot Pub Wharf the numbers held firm, and the evening show on the final two nights in the mainstage tent, festival co-ordinator Julie Lohnes said Sunday, were packed to capacity.
"The crowds were excellent considering the weather," she said. "The Opera House was packed Saturday for the Laughing Matters and Home Grown in Nova Scotia workshops."
The new children's stage venue got bumped from one church hall to another because of the rain, but Saturday's session with Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer drew a large crowd of happy kids.
"The dance workshops were amazingly well attended," Lohnes said. "We're reviewing venues for next year with a view to capacity." Lohnes was excited at the response to the new freestyle guitar session in which guitar superstars Rick Fines, Scott Parsons and Paul Asbell showed 20 young players, including beginners and those already playing in bands, a few useful tricks and approaches to improve their playing.
"The kids even started writing a song," Lohnes said. "They didn't have time to finish it, but judging from the enthusiasm we're getting through their e-mails, they will finish it online."
Gordon Stobbe's Young Fiddlers also proved popular. Nine young fiddlers including one or two from P.E.I. and Ontario, performed in line with the pros at Saturday's Fiddler's Workshop in the Opera House.
Saturday night's show came down in the end to uproarious receptions for Galitcha, the Toronto (Ottawa) band that specializes in Punjabi folksongs, and Tanglefoot's original songs drawn from Canadian history and culture. The biggest roar came during Tanglefoot's energetic set when Steve Ritchie, Al Parrish, Terry Snider, Terry Young and Bryan Wiermier sang "make us free from American domination" during their vintage Laura Secord song. It was an I-am-Canadian moment, impolite no doubt, but as spontaneous as the start of a hockey riot.
There may be other high energy groups, and A Crowd of Bold Sharemen would certainly be one, but none as dangerous as Tanglefoot. Al Parrish attacks his bass like a prizefighter with blood in his eye, jumps around and all over it and then picks it up and whirls it high - yet without endangering its beautiful curly maple finish, and, incredibly, without for a second compromising its hearty tone.
Tanglefoot is well on its way to legendary status by this tremendous showing of invention, musical integrity, and a performance style that strikes like lightning from the womb of a thundercloud.
Galitcha, formidably accessed by the amazing Ken Shorley as a pick-up percussionist, gave a stunning show as well. Lead-singer/tablist Kuljit Sodhi, bell-toned Chris MacLean and musical acrobatist Linsey Wellman on flute and soprano sax are the core of the group here expanded to include guitar, more tablas, and an amazingly poignant series of solos on an Indian one-string violin by a very musical gentleman whose name escaped me.
The Punjabi folk songs were immediate hits with festival crowds this weekend. The words are Urdu but the emotions tug at the universal heart.