The Detroit Festival of the Arts is an outdoor world music festival and art show held around the Detroit Institute of the Arts and the Wayne State University campus. This year's festival is scheduled for September 14-16, Friday-Sunday. Last year a number of Grexers went down to see the Swedish electric-folk band Hedningarna and we had lots of fun with the whole festival, so this year I'm trying to encourage more people to come out for the shows. A web site, including maps and schedules, is at http://www.detroitfestival.com So far it looks like my picks for the festival will be around dinner time Sunday. The Latvian folk/folk-rock band Ilgi will play at 5:30; Ilgi produced what will almost certainly be my favorite album from 2001. And then at 7:30 there will be a performance by Spanish bagpiper Susana Seivane. (Whoever is picking the musicians for the festival is doing a very good job of it!)25 responses total.
In light of the attacks, I don't know what is going to happen with the Detroit Festival of the Arts. The band I most want to see is the Latvian band Ilgi. Their website is at http://www.ilgi.lv . The tour info on their site is apparently being kept up to date: shows in Washington DC, New York and New Jersey listed for Sept. 13, 14 and 15 are listed as CANCELLED. The Detroit Festival of Arts appearance for Sept. 16 is not listed as cancelled; neither is their Grand Rapids appearance on Tues. Sept. 18. If the band made it into the USA before the attacks, maybe one or both of these shows will happen. If the band is not in the USA yet, I expect the tour will not happen. Spanish Galician bagpiper Susana Seivane is scheduled for the Ark on Monday, Sept. 17. Again, no idea if she's already in the USA, or able to move within the country.
I found a tour schedule for Susana Seivane on a cached Google page. Her tour was to begin on Sept. 15 in Chicago, so I have to assume it will not happen.
I called the Detroit Festival of the Arts, having gotten their number from the Green Linnet tour page. The woman who answered seemed prepared for my questions. She said: The Festival will be held. They do not know if Ilgi or Susana Seivane will appear; they have heard neither a reconfirmation nor a cancellation. The world music artists who were in the country before Tuesday's attack are expected to appear, as well as lots of local musicians. I didn't ask for a full list. Ilgi's web page has been updated since I looked at it yesterday (resp:1) :: the shows which were listed as cancelled yesterday are now totally deleted from the listings. So, I have some hope that the band will make it to Detroit, since that show is still listed. Ilgi is also listed for a Kalamazoo show at the end of September. I'm trying to call the contact listed for Ilgi's Grand Rapids show, but I have not been successful.
Today Ilgi's web page has the news:
ILGI on tour 2001?
ILGI still in Europe till Monday
Transatlantic flights to USA still on hold.
Detroit show cancelled.
Please check back regularly.
The Ark website has the news that Monday's Susana Seivane show is cancelled, as she is still outside of the US. Obviously this means she won't be at the Detroit Festival either. The Ark adds that Tuesday's show with guitarists Pierre Bensusan and John Renbourn is also cancelled.
The Festival web site http://www.detroitfestival.com has been updated since the attacks. They show cancellations of many of the world music performers, but their list of cancellations is not complete because they still have Ilgi listed as appearing.
The yoyo continues. Ilgi's web site says that as of Friday night, the band expected to be on a Lufthansa flight, and the Detroit show was on again. Argh! And we'd settled on not going... now I just don't know.
And think of how the band must feel about it.
Ilgi made the Detroit Festival of the Arts show; they got a Saturday night flight into a DC area airport (presumably Dulles) and then drove all night to make the 5:30 pm Detroit show. More on the festival later...
I'll borrow this item to mention that the schedule is up for the 2002 Detroit Festival of the Arts, in mid-September. I think the URL is http://www.detroitfestival.com. It looks like most of the international artists who were forced to cancel last year in the wake of the September 11 attacks have been rescheduled for this year. Susana Seivane has a slot on Sunday night.
The Detroit Festival of the Arts is this weekend. I have to miss it due to my injury -- no way I can cover several blocks on foot. Bleah. I didn't bother trying to get other people to go this year.
And again, for 2003, the Detroit Festival of the Arts is this weekend. I was sort of looking forward to going to see the Swedish folk band Gjallarhorn, but I'm just not feeling up to another weekend mostly away from home, the rest of the lineup is not appealing to me this year. http://www.detroitfestival.com
After a long, long boat trip I wound up down in the Seattle area just long enough to do a bit of shopping for some things I can't easily find in the small Alaska island town I'm now living in. While I was in a West Seattle record store I noticed that they had a poster promoting an upcoming Gillian Welch performance in October, which I would assume means she's touring to promote her new album. I saw her in Seattle last summer and would say that she and her musical partner David Rawlings put on quite a good show. Anybody who likes neo-traditionalist country-folk might check them out.
i've heard them, they're pretty good
I dunno, somehow the idea of taking a boat ride from Alaska to Seattle just to do a little CD shopping strikes me as a bit over the top. :) Is Amazon really *that* hard to deal with? :)
I liked Gillian Welch's first two (?) albums. The new one I'm less enthusiastic about -- it just doesn't have the same energy as the other ones. But I imagine she must put on a damn good live show.
She's done four albums at this point, plus assorted work on other projects
(such as the "O Brother Where Art Thou?" and "Songcatcher" soundtracks.)
They are (in order of release):
Revival
Hell Among the Yearlings
Time (the Revelator)
Soul Journey.
"Time (the Revelator)" is my favorite of the bunch, followed by "Revival".
The new album is growing on me, but I don't expect to wind up liking it more
than those two, however I already prefer it to "Hell Among the Yearlings".
"Revival" is probably the one that would most appeal to fans of "O Brother"-
type stuff.
Album opinions aside, I have no reservations about recommending Welch and
Rawlings's live shows..
Ah, okay, I missed one. I also loved "Time," and liked the earlier one that I've heard. (I think it was "Hell Among the Yearlings" -- the one with "Orphan Girl" on it.)
("Orphan Girl" is on "Revival")
Damn. Two strikes. :)
As long as we're meandering, "Orphan Girl" is the song that brought Gillian Welch to people's attention, when Emmylou Harris covered it on her "Wrecking Ball" album.
Somewhat misleadingly there's a song on "Soul Journey" (Welch's new album) entitled "Wrecking Ball." Prior to purchase I assumed Welch had covered the same Neil-Young-penned "Wrecking Ball" that Emmylou had used as the title song for her album. The "Wrecking Ball" on Welch's latest, however, is a wholly new song (and a pretty good one at that..) Continuing the meander, I'd like to state once again what a wonderful album Emmylou Harris's "Wrecking Ball" was -- easily one of my top ten favorites of the last few years and a bold and brilliantly accomplished new direction for Emmylou.
Detroit Festival of the Arts has moved from its September dates to June 11-13. Sigh. I could maybe get a little interested in some of the music lineup -- Hugh Masekela, Clark Terry, Thornetta Davis -- but I see fewer national/international performers, and no European folk bands, and it conflicts with the opening of Top of the Park in Ann Arbor, so I'm just gonna skip it (again) this year.
The Juggernaut Jug Band, now also known as The Juggernauts will be perforning this year. Stop listening so seriously and give you ears a fun break.
The 2005 edition of Detroit Festival of the Arts is coming up on June 10-12, in the area around Detroit Institute of the Arts and Wayne State. I'm hoping to get down to the festival for Saturday evening, for the Quebecois band Le Vent du Nord and the Jewish/Middle Eastern folk-rock group Pharaoh's Daughter. http://www.detroitfestival.com
You have several choices: