Winnipeg Folk Fest

So one of the many activities that I'm participating in while I'm out here in the mid-West is the Winnipeg Folk Festival. This is a big deal for my in-laws and I was told in no uncertain terms by WifeRat that I was going and I was gonna smile and act like I was excited about it too. As you may or may not have figured out from reading this blog, folk music isn't exactly my thing; occasionally listening to the Dead and CSNY while I was smoking bales of herb back in college was about as close I ever came to developing an appreciation for folk music.

However as a music lover, I can find something to like about any kind of music that's been created with some real passion and honesty. And since it's not like you have a lot of sleazy Joe Simpson or Joe Jackson type characters out there pushing their kids into a career in folk music, if nothing else you can be reasonably sure that folk acts are going to bring some real love for what they're doing to the stage and that's something I can always get with. Then once I took a look at the lineup and saw acts like Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Ray Davies, and Lee "Scratch" Perry were scheduled to play I was actually kind of excited to go to this festival.

Too bad the weather didn't cooperate . . . at all. The forecast originally called for a high of 63; no problem, throw on a sweat shirt or light jacket and keep moving right? Wrong!! When we got to the festival (being held at a park that seemed to be only slightly smaller than Yellowstone) we were greeted with gusting winds and rain. My Father-in-law (FR) was ready to throw in the towel before we even went in, but I'll be damned if I'm going to take a trip all the way to Winnipeg just to be deterred by a little rain.

Once we got into the festival we all split up. FILRat got settled in to see an act right by the entrance and my sainted Mother-in-Law (MR) volunteered to baby wrangle, which left WifeRat and I to just wander around and hang out together. Wifey and I saw a bunch of duos on stage together which was kind of cool, but there were some seriously twee motherfuckers up on that stage.

After seeing a some people play, having coffee, getting something to eat, and having a beer the wife and I both started missing BabyRat; so we headed over to the kid's tent to find her. The kid's tent was kind of cool and the highlight of the day for me. I love seeing my kid enjoy herself, her Grandma was stuffing her full of tasty crap and she was tickled by the performers.

As a parent you find yourself watching some really horrible, boring, and strange kid's show an exception to these awful kid's shows is the Backyardigans. I dig the fact that they introduce kids to different types of music. Well one of my favorite Backyardigans episodes is one called "Riding the Range" and while we were in the kid's tent, the band the Aunts and the Uncles played the song "Riding the Range" which totally made my day.