The Auckland Folk Festival was a revival show, after the devastation of the floods of Anniversary weekend 2023. It was a successful revival of the spirit through the superb artistry of the musicians. Some international and many local.
It was also a triumph for the supporters and audience. At the Friday evening welcome, festival president Nigel Robertson commented on the financial support they received from the fans. Many donated their ticket cost to the flooded show. Funds were received through social media sites.
It was an eleventh-hour insurance payout that enabled this event to proceed. That would have taken an incredible amount of frantic effort. The atmosphere when I arrived on Friday afternoon was serene and relaxed.
As if everything was in its rightful place and there was a benevolent presence. So, we give thanks to the Music Gods, who are eternal and endless, of course.
I floated at times. Other times, raced around to be in two places at once. The law of entanglement says it can be done. I was there for Friday and Saturday. The photographer covered all three days of music.
Alum Ridge Boys and Ashlee
The opening concert in the big hall venue are this five-piece from the environs of Virginia. They are Bluegrass with a grounding in the older style Roots Country music, with elements of the Blues.
A Dillard Brothers style which also heavily influenced New Zealand’s own great Bluegrass band, the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band.
Paul Trenwith still carries the torch there.
Andrew Small is the MC and mandolin player. Ashlee Robbins the female voice and acoustic guitar. Told that she comes from New South Wales, but her accent is Southern American. Conway Stratton on fiddle, Austin King double bass and Trevor plays the three-finger Earl Scruggs style on the banjo.
They look traditional and old-time. Ties and tucked-in shirts for the men, a gingham dress for Ashlee. One central mike around which they all take solos. I suspect the bass player, always at the back, has a small pick-up microphone.
They start swinging with the fiddle. I can see the sun sinking low/ Smoke from the chimney. Sounds traditional. In the manner of the Sixties Dolly Parton when she sang about My Tennessee Mountain Home.
In the hands of a group like this, the banjo is a thrilling sound. Its ringing tones cut through and can race at breakneck speed. Featured on Charlotte Breakdown, a cover of a Don Reno song.
Wasted Words is a showcase for their perfect harmony vocals. Often have a little yodel yelp at the end of phrases.
Cabin on a Mountain and Sweet Mother are classic Bill Monroe and Stanley Brothers style songs respectively.
Te Kaahu
Te Kaahu and Theia are both alter-egos and musical projects of singer Em-Haley Walker.
Te Kaahu is her spiritual connection to her Māori lineage, where she is developing waiata with a deep sense of the history of the land and the early people.
Theia is her avant-garde Indie or Experimental Pop side which leans more towards electronica.
Both are defined by her stunning voice, especially at the high range. The music featured tonight is largely contained on the Te Kaahu O Rangi album from 2022.
With her tonight is the multi-instrumentalist Jol Mulholland on guitars and lap steel, Holly Webster on electric bass, and Kyra on backing vocals.
E Taku Huia Kaimanawa. An homage to the extinct huia bird is a fine example of her high piercing and celestial melodic tone.
Rangirara is where the lap steel weeps tear-drop liquid glass tones. A Hawaiian sound of bending notes.
Te Kaahu’s vocal signature rests in that place between Doo-Wop and the emerging Girl Group sound of the late Fifties. The Chantels, with the lead from Arlene Smith capture that perfectly. Try their biggest hit and a key pivot song to the Sixties, Maybe.
Taupiri, which is an homage to the sacred mountain near Huntly, has a twanging Fifties Pop guitar and breathy vocals.
Special mention to He Hiimene. A hymn which Te Kaahu did translate a part of. Guard me in the dark. Coming closer to the classic Girl Group sound, not the dramatic sound of hard Black Gospel.
She does throw in one of her best pop songs for good measure, Roam. The extraordinary observation is how well it fits in with the tone of the material tonight. Everywhere I roam is home.
Ari Leason
Ari Leason is a Folk singer from Whanganui. There is little biographical profile to find, so what I know comes from what she tells us from the stage.
Six brothers and a sister. Eight is enough and denotes good fortune in Asian cultures.
Her parents were active in campaigning on social issues and connected to protest movements. I suspect this would be around the times of the 1981 Springbok Tour and the large anti-nuclear movement. Which led to our exile from ANZUS for a significant period.
Activism is what drives a lot of her songwriting. She has travelled through the UK and northern Europe, tempering her music in a much larger crucible.
She has an open and disarming manner which makes her immediately likeable. Talks about her environmentally sensitive parents and the mechanics of a composting toilet. It’s worth being told this as it leads to the inspiration for a song.
Strewn with a collage of slogans on the walls of the dunny, she came across a phrase which led her to write Resistance Becomes a Duty. Folk Pop, but it carries a burden of sadness.
Of course, what makes her so appealing is her strong and robust voice, where she can work up some passion.
A new song, Stained Carpet has a similar playful nature to that of Norma Tanega’s Walkin’ My Cat Named Dog. A pure-toned voice and some sly humour.
She can be grim and haunted. The wind hollowed me out, and what follows is an old Folk style of a song about knives and suicide. There is a soulful climax.
One that captured my attention was 109, talking about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, when a platoon of American soldiers murdered 500 people. This was also the story of Lt. William Calley who led the men, and personally killed 109 men, women, and children.
This was talked about in my primary school as well in the early Seventies. All the participants were given life prison sentences eventually, but I seem to have forgotten that Calley received a full pardon after one year. Her song does not resolve the Why?
She sings this with the same air of tragedy as Emmylou Harris’s My Name is Emmett Till. One of the important functions of Folk music over the centuries.
Acapollination and Medena Ensemble
These two ensembles were part of the Songs of the Old Country presentation.
Both revolve around Tui Mamaki. Born in France to a Kiwi father and French mother, she was raised in New Zealand.
She delves into a myriad of older Folk traditions from Europe and beyond, but what makes her most interesting is her love of the bewitching enchantment that comes from the traditional Bulgarian Women’s choir and the Mystere de Voix Bulgares in particular.
To hear this music is to become bewitched. It is other-worldly and conjures up images of succubi. This is the power of Circe (from Homer’s Odyssey), a beautiful sorceress who could turn men into swine.
Homer also talks about Thrace, an ancient kingdom famous for its unparalleled music, whom scholars have deemed to be in Bulgaria in modern times.
Mamaki immersed herself in this culture and tradition, learnt of its convoluted history including political subversion under the totalitarian control of the defunct USSR.
That she has recreated this music of bewitchment here in New Zealand is incredible. It is remarkable is that she is close to the sound of a forty-plus women’s choir with the dozen strong Medena Ensemble.
Dressed in traditional Folk costume, they look like the young maidens in the disturbing horror movie Midsommar. Most of the action in that happens in bright sunshine and a pastoral setting. Like this festival.
Opening song throws you straight into an ancient or parallel world of melodic seduction with a strong hint of the Bardo. Voices arranged in interwoven layers. Perfectly timed squeaks.
There are Indie Pop younger women sounds and deeper Elders tones. A spirit world and immediately I am reminded of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that I saw just prior, at this year’s Shakespeare in the Park.
Mamaki gives us a lot of the stories behind these (mostly) ancient airs, A lot revolve around randy shepherds and soldiers with frolicking maidens.
After one song involving multi-layered complex tones and what sounds like scathing sarcasm, she tells us the song peaks in orgasm.
That makes sense. In France it is called le petite mort. The Smith’s sing the hilarious Pretty Girls Make Graves (Give in to lust, give up to lust/ Oh heaven knows we’ll soon be dust).
In a way, the Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria is one long Bardo trip, and sex and death are interwoven in a double helix like DNA.
Acapollination are a trio who widen the net of the older European Folk music traditions, whilst grounding themselves in the choir sound of the Bulgarian witch music.
Mamaki is the centre of it, and she is joined by Gabrielle Young and Sally Jamila.
A French song A La Claire. Māori language one Tihore Mai. The story of Marie Houbava from Bulgaria.
A Sicilian donkey song which includes the necessary hee-haw and may have been an homage to a recent wedding.
They all have that same witching essence of the Mystere.
Dan Walsh
Dan Walsh is a banjo virtuoso from Stafford, England who can metaphorically set fire to the instrument with his blazing style.
He learnt his craft in all the wrong ways, backward and upside-down. Loved traditional Irish jigs and reels listening to his parent’s music.
Was given a 5-string instrument and was taught on this, until someone pointed out that the correct one is a 4-string tenor banjo.
From such serendipity comes great art. But first you need thorough grounding in the traditional ways.
He starts with a mash-up of jigs and reels (or rigs and jeels in Walsh style) that come from the O’Neill Songbook.
Francis O’Neill chronicled hundreds of traditional Irish songs over a century ago in America. He has been described having the greatest individual influence on the evolution of traditional Irish music in the twentieth century. The equivalent of Harry Smith and his Anthology of American Folk Music.
He plays clawhammer style, which is not in the realm of Bluegrass. But he makes it sound Bluegrass anyway, to such an extent that you can’t tell the difference.
Purists may turn their nose up, but one who would embrace this would have been (God)Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe.
He throws in melodic Gypsy Jazz tones. Can be compared to Michael Bloomfield in this manner of dissolving boundaries.
Best illustrated by his Whiplash Reel. Born out of jam sessions with Indian artists. While it mirrors Bloomfields celebrated East West, it breaks free of any constraints and limitations.
Jigs and Reel merge with Indian raga drones. Bridges of peace and serenity, and then winds up again with his right hand a blur. Wild and disciplined.
He gets a prolonged standing ovation.
Caroline Keane and Tom Delaney
This duo from Ireland carries on the great and extensive traditions of Celtic Folk music from their country. Celtic music is also the backbone of Americana.
Tom Delaney on uilleann pipes and Caroline Keane on concertina. They have been playing together for fourteen years, since they met at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, from the University of Limerick.
That’s close enough to I-WOMAD. Someone commented to me that this Folk Festival has become a homegrown version of that, which is accurate.
They have a big band sound for just two people. Part of that is the deep sonorous tones of the pipes, which also produces counter-rhythms.
On an old song which comes from the Dingle Isles, the pipes are lonesome and haunting. They work up a beautiful spectral atmosphere, and you can feel the mist.
Playing jigs and reels and rhythm is king.
A mash-up of Benny Desmond March and Brackenberry March features circling drone rhythm riffs and would be perfect on the Shakespeare Globe productions of Henry IV or Richard III. Marching into war or limping back in defeat.
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, written by Robbie Robertson, is one of the best descendants of that tradition and sound. You can’t raise a Kane back up when he’s in defeat.
Delaney also plays a 10-string bouzouki on a cover of a Planxty song, The Little Drummer.
Mishra
Mishra are an interesting band from Sheffield, England. They can be a six-member collective, and they are also the duo of Kate Griffin banjo and guitar, and Ford Collier flute, guitar, and percussion.
This is a true WOMAD pairing. They combine British Folk with Indian Classical and the Qawwali music traditions of the Sufi’s. Remember Richard and Linda Thompson were Sufi practitioners.
They mix and blend and end up sounding closer to Western tradition than East.
They play Scarlet Town where the banjo features. Griffin plays in clawhammer style and was taught by Dan Walsh. A beautiful ringing sound, and this time there is separation from a Bluegrass sound.
The Kite is a song they wrote in collaboration with Sufi singer Deepa Nair Rasiya. The flute takes the lead and can riff like a raga or skirl like Irish pipes. They build up the intensity.
If We Listen has a Mozambique connection as they explore the African roots of the banjo. Especially with the tribal rhythms and the bass bottom.
The bass comes from Griffin’s foot pedals.
Ethno New Zealand
Ethno is an interesting project which has featured before at the Folk Festival. Bring together young (mostly) Folk and traditional musicians from diverse countries and cultures. Workshop songs which represent one tradition and work it up amongst the whole ensemble.
The result is two shows this weekend. Blending of World music, and again this is what makes this Festival the predecessor of WOMAD.
On stage you see masses of fiddles/violins, a cello, accordion, saxophone, keyboards, electric and acoustic guitars, a flute, percussion.
Origins of the style of each tune presented does remain. The Celtic sound is widespread across Europe and probably does have origins in India and the wanderings of Gypsies.
Dave Alley
Dave Alley is one local who encompasses World music in his own idiosyncratic way. Think of Delaney Davidson who plays mutant Blues, R’n’B and gruff Americana mostly as a one-man band and you get an idea of his approach.
This is the first time I have seen him, so hopefully that does him justice. Big beard, long hair and has the demeanour of a wandering Bogan. The Wild West of Kumeu may be his natural stomping ground.
He’s just starting his set on the Saturday Showcase, when his best mate comes in, yelling his name and trying to make it to the front of stage.
Dave takes it in stride and doesn’t seem bothered.
Said Westie mate is then on the stage and launches into Dock of the Bay, the Otis Redding song. He’s okay in a rough and ready way.
Alley takes it up and is much better. A white Southern Soul vocal.
Later we are told it was a stage invasion and this was a random Bogan. I confess it fooled me, as it was quite good.
This can be explained by the fact I attended the Foo Fighters concert last Saturday. This fat guy with a black beard got up with them suddenly and sang a complete version of AC-DC’s Big Balls. Then shows us his big beer belly and forward rolls almost off the stage into the crowd.
That was Jack Black, and it was planned.
I should have realised this guy was not legit. He didn’t show us his gut.
Well Alley does complete his set, along with many of the artist like Dan Walsh and Tom Delaney as guests.
Chris Albi of Albi & The Wolves is brought on to sing Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. This is with two acoustic guitars (John Sanders) and no electronics. Super version and Albi is cooking! He doesn’t show us his gut or do forward rolls to validate his presence though.
A wonderful and exhilarating Festival. I am astounded that they could pull this show off to such a high standard with such a narrow window of time.
I was not there for Sunday, but the photographer was. I did manage to see something of Albi.
Rev. Orange Peel
Here is a slideshow of the event. All photos by Dennis O’Keeffe
