Fairbridge Festival: The ides of April bring the best world and folk music

With the Anzac Day holiday on Tuesday April 25 and a pupil-free day for many WA schools on the Monday, the organisers have packed this year’s festival full of more than enough spectacular musical and creative entertainment to make the long weekend worthwhile.

Just like previous years, Fairbridge in 2017 is fronting the ideal, family-friendly festival, offering a huge range of activities.

It simultaneously offers a second-to-none program for the serious music-listener; a safe, but totally cool, music/arts/hangout space for youth; an immersive, hands-on space for kids to create, listen and play; dancing (lots of dancing); a comprehensive workshop program; artisan markets; a fantastic selection of food vendors; and so much more, all in a safe, traffic-free, heritage-listed village location an hour(ish) south of Perth.

Once again, the lineup is nothing to sneeze at either. Over 100 folk, world and roots acts of international, national and local renown will appear on 13 stages across the four days of the festival.

To celebrate 25 years of bringing world-class music to Fairbridge, this year’s music lineup would the the envy of any folk festival.

To start off with, here’s a few of the huge international names coming to the festival.

BBC Young Folk Musician award winner Jarlath Henderson is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and doctor.

His debut solo album, Hearts Broken, Heads Turned, was released in early 2016 to widespread acclaim. This highly anticipated album is an assemblage of traditional folk songs from across the UK and Ireland, collected by Henderson throughout his musical life, and presented as they’ve never been heard before.

Known for his spine-tingling recreations of traditional folk ballads, Jarlath Henderson is sure to impress.

The trans-pacific duo Phil Wiggins and Dom Turner is a recent collaboration of old friends – America’s foremost harmonica virtuoso, Phil Wiggins and legendary Australian blues guitarist/vocalist, Dom Turner.

Phil Wiggins toured the world for the best part of 35 years with the Piedmont Blues duo Cephas and Wiggins. Dom Turner has played and toured for the last 30 years with the legendary Australian blues band, Backsliders.

The duo began their team-up in June 2014 on the east coast of the U.S, a tour which would see their partnership gain momentum, leading to a string of tours in the U.S and Australia.

Les Poules à Colin are a young band from Québec’s Lanaudière region famous for its traditional music: they learned their craft from the finest in the genre.

On top of their natural talent, energy and respect for the repertoire, they have beautifully arranged both original and folk-trad tunes and songs for fiddle, foot percussion, twin vocals, guitars, banjo, mandolin and electric bass. fRoots called it “A new take on Québécois folk”.

The band has played large festivals such as Vancouver and Winnipeg FolkFests, Celtic Connections, and small clubs and concerts in Canada, the US and Europe, to enthusiastic audiences.

With their second album Ste-Waves, the band explores further the alliance between Québec trad and polyglot styles, whether jazzy pop, folk, bluegrass or contemporary.

On top of that, there’s a huge swathe of national acts heading over to see what all the fuss is about.

For millennia Australia’s cultural heartbeat has been powered by music. Emily Wurramara is driven by passion for culture heard through every beat and skip of her deeply engaging and personal songs sung in both English and Anindilyakwa, the traditional language of her home, Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory.

With national airplay on ABC local and Triple J, Emily has performed across the country and at festivals including Gaarma, Woodford Folk Festival, Island Vibes, Bellingen Turtle Fest, and more, with a couple of Queensland Music Award nominations and Triple J Unearthed showcases at Big Sound.

Combining 60’s and 70’s folk singer-songwriter influences with a contemporary Americana/bluegrass sound, “John Flanagan has proven himself a songwriting force to keep an eye on” (Timber and Steel).

In February 2016 John released his latest album, There’s Another Way to Where You’re Going which was recorded in Nashville with producer Viktor Krauss and was nominated for best Folk/Roots Album in the Age Music Victoria Awards.

He has toured around Australia and Canada and he regularly plays in a dynamic trio characterised by warm vocal harmonies and impressive acoustic arrangements on guitar, banjo, mandolin and double bass. Together they deliver an energetic and entertaining live set that can vary from fun and uplifting to moving and thoughtful.

Burra. Gympie. Parachilna. Wangaratta. You name a town in Australia, chances are Harry Hookey has played it, probably in the last month. This is a man who lives and breathes the troubadour tradition.

That’s been the lot of this Gippsland-born boy who gave up the country for the city, and life as a would-be lawyer for life as a roaming musician.

“I’m a big fan of the early Dylan records, a bit of Woody Guthrie, early Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, all that sort of stuff. That’s what I grew up listening to and then branched out into rock, and then found country a bit later with Hank Williams. I think my music’s a reflection of all those tastes, all mixed together,” he says, “somewhere between James Taylor and Nirvana.”

Then, of course, there’s the swathe of local talent filling out the bill, and this year again they’ll be testing the musical mettle of the international visitors.

Celebrated folk heroine Lucy Peach has had an incredibly successful twelve months; releasing her single and matching video, Be So Good, earning a WAM nomination for Best Folk Act, playing a slew of Western Australian Festivals and releasing her sophomore EP, Silver Tongue.

Produced by Joel Quartermain, ‘Silver Tongue’ was released in November 2016 and features talisman Lee Jones on piano, pedal steel and electric guitar who worked on all of the tracks; 2 of which have enjoyed both community radio support as well as on Radio National, Double J and triple J. “It’s superbly produced and the songs are brilliantly crafted,” (Cool Perth Nights). The new year will see the release of a debut album featuring songs inspired by female relations, her grandmother Elaine Fifield (the first Australian to be a prima ballerina in Covent Garden) and Mary Cannon, an ancestor who was sent to NSW from London in shackles for stealing embroidered cloth.

Soaring wherever the wind takes her, Peach has toured internationally to her Father’s home ground in New Zealand and supported Mama Kin on her Irish tour in 2015. Her songwriting and live presence has won the approval of fellow musicians and industry, supporting the eclectic likes of Boy and Bear, Tim Finn, Abbe May, Ngaiire, Kav Temperley and Tim Rogers.

Boasting a star studded act featuring John Brown, Tara John, Luke Dux and Michael Savage, the live show offers something for everyone: uplifting melodies, enchanting vocals and irresistible charm. 

POW! Negro is a six-piece consisting of slick guitars, tasteful electronics, banging drums, smooth sax and fluid rhymes.

A big 2016 saw POW take out Best Live Act and Best New Act at the WAM awards as well as first place in the Big Splash band competition.

The six-man squad played 2016 Southbound and have supported the likes of Blackalicious, Remi, Sampa The Great and Koi Child. Their high-energy show is one not to miss.

There’s already quite a buzz around Soukouss Internationale.

Within it’s first year the band had headlined Leederville Carnival, performed to enthusiastic crowds at RTR FM’s A Moment in Time show at the WA museum and Fremantle’s Hidden Treasures and capped off 2016 with a semi legendary performance at Camp Doogs and a WAMi award nomination for Best World Act.

Soukouss Internationale showcase authentic high energy African dance beats with a sexy dance show. For the last 50 years Congolese music has been the hit sound all over the Africa, and with good reason: gorgeous vocal melodies, pumping afro-latin booty shaking rhythms and scorching guitar solos.

Led by guitarist Jamie Searle (Grace Barbe, Odette Mercy), Soukouss Internationale also features guitar hero Mahamudo Selimane from Mozambican supergroup Eyuphuro, plus members of Grace Barbe’s multi award-winning band, Odette Mercy’s Soul Atomics and the legendary Askari Afrobeat Orchestra.

Fronting the band are the dynamic singers Quentin Thony (La Reunion) and Flora Osyanju (Kenya) and dancers Aminata Kamara (Sierra Leone) and Chabala Chalwe (Zambia).

Soukouss means “shake it”! – Get ready for an unforgettable night of music and dance.

And that is all barely scratching the surface of what is sure to be one of the biggest music experiences ever made in this region.

For tickets, full details – including parking, transport and camping  – go to farbridgefestival.com.au.