Willie Nile, photo by Cristina Arrigoni
Hillside is a festival with a big heart and a small footprint and we give over the open mic to Hillside acts we think you should pay some attention to: Adrian Sutherland, Ariel Posen, Billianne, DEBBY FRIDAY, Steven Lambke, Tami Neilson, Willie Nile, Witch Prophet
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Tami Neilson, photo by Mary Ellen Matthews
alt image - Killer Mike
By Will McGuirk
This is a celebration of a BAD ASS BLACK GIRL from the westside of Atlanta. She’s been affectionately called OG Mama Niecy by the many people she helped stay on their path.” - Killer Mike
“Reminding us that curiosity killed the cat, everything requires moderation, and that, in love, no one wants to walk on eggshells.” - Pierre Kwenders
“I wanted ‘Kingmaker’ to feel like a movie theme that plays as the opening credits unfold so that the songs take the listener through the highs and lows of a story unfolding, more like a movie soundtrack than adhering to one genre or style.” - Tami Neilson
“In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called Route 66 the ‘The Mother of all roads...the road of flight.’ As I zeroed out my odometer and started west on my road trip across the US, I hoped that driving the road of flight would give me a bird’s eye view of my life. But it didn’t take long to realize that I was not flying; I was running away.” - Grace Potter
By Will McGuirk
For two years festivals have been cancelled. And now they are back. On one level its a return to normal. There’s the normalcy of geography. Mariposa for example, the Grand Old Dame of Festivals, will take place July 8, 9 and 10 at Tudhope Park again, as it has for many years. There will be a familiarity to the infrastructure, but if you look closely you will see a difference. Things are not the same. It is subtle but it is there, just as it is in your own life. There’s change, a change you can’t quite put your finger on but you sense intuitively.
And if I may suggest if there was one place you want to go to to pause and consider and contemplate the passings of time, the passings of these pandemic times, it is without a doubt Mariposa. This folk fest in particular, is as entertaining as visiting an elder but also as enlightening. Mariposa has seen more than you have, it has been around longer, it has experience and wisdom and perspective and will be, no doubt about it, a balm for the past two years.
I have been fortunate to attend Mariposa for many years and this pop-up community of like-minded folkies, have always given me respite from my personal storms. And this year with 60-odd years of experience of providing respite Mariposa as a salve against all that all having been enduring for over two years will be invaluable, its impact incalculable, yet nevertheless felt. Mariposa is comfort food for the soul and right now the soul really really really needs some soul food.
And thus on stage the personification of soul salvation Mavis Staples. No-one should dismiss any one person’s suffering but it make take a civil rights activist born in 1939 to add some perspective to the hurt. She is a witness.
The hurt perspective runs through the output of Kathleen Edwards, one of the great artists but another unsung CDN singer/songwriter. Professional and personal hurt got her to the point where Edwards threw in the proverbial towel and took up the tea towel, opening her own coffee shop, poignantly called Quitters. But here we are, praise be whatever forces forced her out of retirement with a tour and an album ‘Total Freedom’. It would seem the restaurant rest did its job and time has tempered the fuck it but fortunately for us listeners not the fuck u attitude.
There’s a lot Kathleen Edwards independent streak also to Tami Neilson, plus a whole lotta of Mavis Staples, some Shirley Bassey, some Wanda Jackson and then again none of it. Neilson, a Canadian in the land of the Kiwi, combines all the edginess of roots music, with a take no prisoners voice as voluminous as her beehive. She is startling, subtle, traditional and wholly original - listen to Neilson duet with Nelson, the Willie is the ground to her electrifying vox.
The Weather Station has electrified her voice moving from the acoustic croon of her early recordings to an easy intensity on her self-titled, an intensity and self-determination that led to a determined take on the disasters looming just beyond the horizon on the next release. The world is changing, we are changing it, its not going to turn out well, but this dread gave up ‘Ignorance’, a sinewy dance on the doom and gloom, and perhaps we can weave our way out with art as material.
Kathleen Edwards, The Weather Station, and Tami Neilson, as artists are on different paths. I imagine however those paths will converge, should demands permit, right around the time Mavis Staples steps on the Main Stage. ’Respect Yourself’
nêhiyawak
By Will McGuirk
“There are many important ideas and teachings that we were raised with in our lives, but few more important than water. It’s a modern conversation with complex meanings and understandings.” - nêhiyawak
“Sometime back in December 2020, in between endless rounds of chess and dominos, my dad looked up at me and said, ‘If I die when I’m high I’ll be halfway to heaven’. It took me a second to process, but I said , ‘Dad, that's the best song title I ever heard. You better write the rest of it quick.’ He said. ‘Why don’t you write it?’ So I did. That night I wrote it for him, about him. It’s really just a love letter to him. A tribute. - Particle Kid
“feeling lonely despite being surrounded by constant stimulation,” - the Secret Beach
Tami Neilson plays the Biltmore Theatre, Oshawa Thursday July 14 2022. Tickets here.
Julia Jacklin plays the Phoenix Theatre, Toronto Wednesday Sept 21.
By Will McGuirk
A “fire-breathing R&B belter” according to Rolling Stone magazine, Tami Neilson will be belting it out at the Biltmore Theatre Oshawa on Thursday July 14 2022. Tami is touring her latest album, ‘Kingmaker’ recorded at Neil Finn’s studio in New Zealand and featuring a duet with Willie Nelson. The record drops July 15 so the Shwa will get a preview.
Chad VanGaalen, photo by Sebastian Buzzalino
By Will McGuirk
Big guns, big lungs, big sounds, big ideas showed up for this Open Mic on this night here in ShwaRawk City. We always have room for the emerging voices and always happy to share those voices on this platform, thats the being an all of what we do really, but when the name kats come by, well, there’s just as much room for those folks too and we appreciate the support. Listen and learn kids, and if you haven’t begat a band go begat a band right now.
“Black Myself is the first song I’ve written that was confrontational. I’d always made it a point to sing songs that anybody could relate to, but this was something that had been welling up inside me for a long time. The reception of the song so far has given me hope that there are people out there who are ready to confront the shared trauma of racism, to look within ourselves and see how we might be perpetuating racist beliefs, and to do what is needed to create equality for all people.” - Amythyst Kiah
Tami Nelson, photo by Si Moore
By Will McGuirk
Could be me, could be Tuesday, but it seems the ladies have got the blues, - we do this by inviting everyone who wants to to get up on stage, and sometimes its a flow and sometimes its all going in every direction, this evening its all these so fab female voices but there’s a sadness to the sassiness but heck the blues ain’t nothing to get down about.
I've been a big Daniel Romano fan since I first heard this song. It was so nice to hear a modern country song that was reminiscent of the old stuff. The songwriting is so good, I was excited to strip it down so the lyrics really shine. Recorded in front of one mic at the New Scotland Yard.” – Mo Kenney
“we were musing on the idea that the majority of beings live behind the scene lives with no perceived power or glory, often unaware of the power they actually hold, individually and collectively - especially as ‘we’. The ingenuity required to survive is more amazing than the trivial exploits of the ‘powerful’. The real power waits and it's beautiful when it shows itself. ‘We’re the dirt that starts the pearl’.” - Rob Baker
Andy Shauf, photo by Colin Medley
By Will McGuirk
Sometimes sometimes sometimes when all else no longer matters, and the world wells up and the flood overwhelms there is only music, just music which will get you up and out. If all else is beyond you, focus all you have and reach out one finger to press play on whatever device you have and let the music in. Have at it.
“This song is for anyone who measures time against a deep loss of love that was an integral part of the fabric that makes up your life.” - Tami Neilson
“More Than My Heart” is about accepting the limits of what is in our power to give to another person. Sometimes all we have to offer is our heart, and that is enough. - Brielle Ansems
‘How hard is it to give a shit?’ - Andy Shauf
Tami Neilson, photo by Sabin Holloway
By Will McGuirk
Who says there’s no great music anymore? So much great stuff cos there’s little money in it anymore so its all passion , and this is all passion, Red Arms from London ON, wow, loving it, that will get me out of bed - churning Doughboys riffage. That’s passion. Tami, Tourist Company, with passion; JayWood, Tamino, with passion. New Pornographers and Overcoats! Yah bring it on, please, bring it all on. Pop ate itself, now there’s only art left on the table. Get yr bib on!
