Harrison Festival Blogger

Five Alarm Funk are returning to the Memorial Hall hot on the heels of their latest album, “Force Majeure”. The band metaphorically lit the hall on fire three years ago, being the first festival act to play there following the pandemic closures. It was a memorable evening of funky, sweaty fun! This Vancouver musical powerhouse is a festival favourite across Canada, with their intensity, humour, and grooves that don’t stop. With a drummer as a frontman, a high octane horn section, psych rock guitar, percussion, and a style that evokes the greatest funk from James Brown to Parliament Funkadelic, this band will be sure to fill the dance floor and make it a Saturday night to remember.

Kate Weekes is a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter based in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec. As a touring and recording artist, Kate has released four albums of original material influenced by her time spent in the northern parts of the world working as a dog musher, canoe and hiking guide. Her latest album Better Days Ahead dives deep into “the liminal space created by lockdowns and cancelled plans” to unearth a stirring, picturesque collection of 10 original songs ranging from Appalachian-influenced murder-suicide ballads to anthemic folk-pop to whimsical instrumental waltzes, all buoyed by an eclectic assortment of instruments including (but not limited to) fiddle, flugelhorn, frame drum and fretless bass.

Ye Vagabonds consists of Brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn, who grew up playing music together around their hometown of Carlow, a small town in the southeast of Ireland. After moving to Dublin in 2012, they quickly became a staple of the live music and session scene in Ireland, playing their own original songs as well as folk songs from Ireland, Scotland, England and America. Their music is distinguished by hauntingly beautiful vocal harmonies that cut to the heart, set with simple yet powerful instrumental arrangements. They are multiple award winners in their home country, and have toured relentlessly across Ireland, the UK, Europe, and beyond. Their 2022 album, Nine Waves, was released online last year with an accompanying, stunningly shot full length video.

Cherished and admired in equal measure by listeners and fellow musicians, award-winning guitarist, singer, songwriter and prolific collaborator Kris Drever has been a leading light on the UK roots scene for well over a decade. Orkney-born, now living in Glasgow, his solo career arose concurrently with his membership in the stunning trio Lau, with whom he toured internationally. With the release of his album “Black Water”, which has since become a classic of new Scottish folk, his reputation as a solo performer took off. A highly skilled guitarist who adroitly blends traditional folk and flat picking with more contemporary influences, Drever is an astonishingly fine interpreter of others’ songs, with an increasingly frequent knack for concocting seriously smart lyrical observations and earworm melodies of his own.

We are fortunate out here on the west coast to have some of the world’s finest players from a range of global genres. Miguelito Valdes is one such luminary. Born in Cuba and now living in Victoria, Miguelito will be known to Harrison Festival audiences for performances here with Locarno, but his experience is massive, having begun his musical life at age 11 and then developed a career in music that saw him playing alongside many of Cuba’s top performers. Among the best known of these to Canadian audiences are the performers of the Buena Vista Social Club, including Ibrahim Ferrer. He is a master of the trumpet but also is a percussionist and singer, and will be joined on the piano and percussion for a set that will be sure to get folks up on their feet and swinging their hips.