The show will be great all-around; the out-of-towner performers are simply phenomenal and this chance to see them shouldn't be missed. So, ah, here's the promotional boilerplate from the festival's website.
This year’s Festival kicks off with the Accordéon Café, a presentation of accordion artists who boast equal gifts as storytellers, humourists, and genre-bending instrumentalists. Featuring casse-croûte by Crêpe Bohème the Café is a chance to slow down, listen close, and be transported by the special intimacy that flows whenever musicians and audiences gather under the influence of each other.(And a tip 'o the hat to Erin & Abe, whose wedding reception we performed at late on September 7th at The Ticket downtown!)Award-winning Francophone accordion legend Steven Normandin from Montreal makes his hotly anticipated return to Vancouver, following his hit performance at the 2011 MusicFest Vancouver. Fans of Normandin know to expect riveting renditions of traditional chansons from France and Québec, enlivened by touches of jazz and swing and performed with a uniquely theatrical flair. Audiences discovering Normadin for the first time will find themselves in the hands of a true master: an artist who can make you laugh, cry and dance in the space of one set of music. Equally accomplished as an instrumentalist and as a songwriter, Normandin has performed in work by Robert Lepage, appeared as a soloist with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, and toured internationally with a host of musical projects and theatrical productions.
The raw feel of blues and country music meet the sensibilities of a first class storyteller in renegade accordionist David P. Smith. Hailed as one of Victoria’s most captivating and original songwriters, Smith is known for visceral, often hilarious narratives that crack open the boundaries between humor and despair. Appearing with his talented accomplice, violinist Rachelle Reath, David P. Smith’s performance promises to reveal why EXCLAIM! Magazine went so far as to call his accordion music a “siren song.”
The Creaking Planks, East Vancouver's jug band of the damned, are the best at what they do. (Not coincidentally, they are the /only/ ones who do what they do.) A well-heeled crew of folk music misfits, they bring their instruments together to challenge the ghettoizing expectations of their respective traditional repertoires through détournement, the mash-up, and their specialty, the outright train wreck. This festival's program sees them boldly charging off into uncharted territory (as usual) with an unprecedented audience-interactive suite of songs inspired by the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure children's book series of the 1980s.
