The best acts we saw at the Montreal International Folk Alliance

By Gabriel Sigler & Jacinta DeJoseph

The International Folk Alliance is overwhelming. Now in its 31st year, the annual industry convention is a massive gathering of musicians, record labels, DJs, promoters, managers, journalists, and all manner of folk music professionals, who gather in a hotel in a different city for a handful of days each year for an all-encompassing industry check-in / massive slumber party. With a “mission to serve, strengthen, and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation, and promotion,” the festival is a staggeringly massive production that is clearly put together by people with a true passion for the music.

This year the Folk Alliance descended on Montreal’s swanky Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, where entire floors of the 4.5 star hotel were turned into makeshift venues, showcasing a mind-boggling array of artists deep in the night. These private showcases are about as intimate a performance as you can imagine, with artists performing 15-30 minute sets in actual hotel rooms to a handful of conference badge-holders, usually wrapping up in the very early morning.

Apart from the private showcases, there are official artist showcases each day, held in the hotel ballrooms and conference rooms. Usually tied to a specific country, label, or talent agency, these showcases are more like “traditional” concerts, apart from all the note-taking in the crowd as participants look for talent for their upcoming festival, or new potential record label signees.

Apart from the hundreds of performances, there are also a number of daytime conferences, with speakers including 2019 Keynote Speaker Tanya Tagaq, along with the International Folk Music Awards hosted by CBC’s Tom Power, which included a moving speech from People’s Voice Award recipient Buffy Sainte-Marie.

With hundreds of well-lubricated attendees jamming the narrow hotel hallways, making your way through the festival, particularly during the late-night private showcases, felt like entering another era, where the endless obstacles between fans and musicians hadn’t yet been erected. What it really brought to mind was that scene in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, where fans and musicians jam the Hyatt House on the Sunset Strip (aka the Riot House), networking and gossiping as musicians casually jam in open hotel rooms.

On the opening night of the festival we caught Calgary’s Reuben and the Dark, led by Reuben Bullock. The majority of his band couldn’t make the show (perhaps due to the traditionally terrible Montreal winter), but even with a hastily put together lineup, Bullock’s emotive and soulful indie rock made an impact, and even elicited a sing-along from the reserved industry crowd with his take on The Tragically Hip’s classic “Bobcaygeon.”

Matt Mays has been a mainstay of Canadian rock for years now, and his sole appearance at Folk Alliance (many acts scheduled at least a half-dozen sets throughout the fest) was a great example of his blues-influenced Americana sound. Performing with a band that included a fiddler / backing vocalist, Mays’ set aptly demonstrated why he is one of the most trusted names in the Canadian rock scene. 

UK singer-songwriter John Smith put on a mesmerizing set of heartbreaking, romantic folk rock, complemented by his dexterous acoustic fingerpicking. Smith’s upcoming album is set for release later this year via Thirty Tigers (Jason Isbel, Lucinda Williams), which should propel him to a new level of awareness here in North America.

You really have to read through the Folk Alliance bios carefully. It was only through a deep dive into the schedule that we noticed that none other than Toad The Wet Sprocket’s Glen Phillips was performing a number of intimate sets at the fest, and thankfully we were able to catch up with Phillips on Friday for a late-night performance. Phillips clearly has a knack for melody (there’s a reason why “All I Want” is still in heavy radio rotation), and that ability to craft a well-honed hook served his stripped-down sound perfectly. Hopefully he’ll return for a headlining show soon.

Vancouver-based band The Long War weave intricate indie rock with Americana influences, the perfect mixture for the late-night / early morning showcase we caught. Winners of CBC’s country-wide Searchlight contest in 2017, The Long War remain a band to keep an eye on.

The Mission Songs Project had one of the most interesting concepts at the festival — performing a series of songs passed down from Indigenous Australians over the years, these recontextualized songs illuminate what life was like for the Indigenous Australian communities who were often living in Christian missions or state-run establishments. Deceptively simple sing-alongs like “Outcast Half Caste” have lost none of their power over the decades, and are also sadly relevant to Canada’s own mistreatment of our Indigenous peoples.

Regina’s Poor Nameless Boy made a big impression right off the bat with his immediately catchy and melodic indie folk songs, including the massive earworm “Atlantic Ocean,” which would be a top radio hit if there was any justice in this world — hopefully some radio programmers caught one of his sets.

Montreal’s own Les Poules à Colin were one of the youngest bands on the festival, with a multi-faceted sound that easily belied their young ages. Mixing aspects of traditional French and North American folk and jazz with swelling indie rock flourishes, it’s easy to see the 5-piece winning over fans from a handful of generations.

Led by sisters Leah and Chloe Smith, Rising Appalachia was one of the most buzzed-about acts at the festival. Apart from performing their own packed show at Cafe Campus, the band played to packed rooms at the festival, where the audiences actually stayed and watched an entire set, a rarity for a festival where attendees are constantly scrambling to get to the next showcase. With the Smith sisters’ incredible vocals front and present, the band melds their Appalachian influences with a wide array of world music and pop sensibilities, creating a truly beguiling and mesmerizing sound that is all their own. Rising Appalachia is a band that could easily take center stage at any number of festivals in the coming years.

Jim Lauderdale has been a fixture in the country, Americana, and bluegrass scene for decades now, with a whopping 31 releases under his belt. Just getting the chance to sit in a hotel room with a handful of other attendees to watch his set felt like an absurd luxury, and Lauderdale easily demonstrated why he’s become such a trusted name in the roots-rock world. A master storyteller, his set was peppered with hilarious anecdotes, which fit in comfortably with his penchant for sliding in and out of various genres for nearly every song. This set was easily one of the highlights of the fest. If you ever have the opportunity to see Jim Lauderdale, do not hesitate.

Finally, we come to Gangstagrass — in all honesty, reading the promo materials on this band made them sound like a novelty act — a mixture of hip hop and bluegrass? But midway trough the festival, you couldn’t escape hearing snippets of conversation about the band throughout the hotel. “I couldn’t get into their show, it was too packed.” “I’m going back to see them tonight.” After deciding to at least check out a few minutes of one of their sets, it was clear that the hype was justified. The odd combination of hip hop coupled with amped-up bluegrass actually works, and the band’s enthusiasm and energy is contagious. They know that they’ve come up with something truly invigorating and unique, they’re just waiting for everyone else to notice.

The final moments of the set we caught were so good that we also went back to catch another (full) set the next night, which once again had the industry crowd singing along to songs they had likely never heard before that night. This was by far the top discovery of the festival — now everyone else needs to catch up. You can get a taste of the band’s live experience on their recently released live album, Pocket Full of Fire.

The International Folk Alliance proved to be a staggering demonstration of the enduring legacy and power of folk music, along with all of its permutations and evolutions over the decades. It’s completely impossible to catch even a small fraction of all the acts that were on display, but that really isn’t the point. Due to its self-contained set-up, the act of discovery is what truly makes the festival unique. Wandering down the halls and peeking in to catch these intimate performances allows you quick and easy access to a monumental cross-section of artists in one building. The list of acts we hoped to catch is even longer than those we saw — but that’s what next year is for.

The next instalment of The International Folk Alliance runs from January 22 – 26 in New Orleans. For more information on the Folk Alliance and their various initiatives, visit their official site.