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Main stage Saturday night was a fuzzy flurry of brilliant covers by Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Valerie June, the Teskey Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show — but plenty to note went on while that early afternoon sun was still rising and drying out the bog mud.
For instance, national treasure and local pride and joy Mariel Buckley, a heart-melting country troubadour who looks like she’d stare down a polar bear, but shares with us one of the prettiest, most tender voices in the land.
Her Stage 1, 12:45 p.m. show in the heat was crushing, wistful and occasionally hilarious barbed wire.
“Nice to be here with some fellow lefties,” she noted of the general political makeup on the slanted turf out here after singing the melty-sad Going Nowhere. “I’m always honoured that you’ll spend an hour with me crying about my problems.”
Buckley dedicated Hate This Town to “our premier who can’t f—ing read,” referring to the straight-pride t-shirt Danielle Smith posed with recently, which got a big laugh from the crowd. Buckley’s songs Shooting at the Moon and Let You Down were also heartfelt, sonic hugs, please seek her out.
First main stage act of the day at 2 p.m., meanwhile, was New Zealand-Canadian piston Tami Neilson who, speaking of covers, did a great version of Big Boned Gal.
One of her finest moments, though, was talking about her recently departed father.
“I think dad was pulling some strings on that one,” Neilson laughed. Willie couldn’t make it to the hill, but her young sons Charlie and Sam sang her father’s part, which was utterly lovely.
Horns to the sky, an impromptu concert in the sand by the ubiquitous, can’t -stop-won’t-stop Brasstactics followed in the sand to the left of main stage.
First Saturday night band up in the central clam couldn’t have been better — the energetic, accessible and above all stunning Nashville group of players Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, featuring Dominick Leslie on mandolin, banjoist Kyle Tuttle under giant Elton John glasses, stand-up bassist Shelby Means and the staggeringly awesome fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, most of them in turquoise, all of whom deserve mention.
“It’s wonderful to see the big, blue sky today,” said Molly, leading big, beautiful bluegrass tunes Evergreen, OK and She’ll Change, which rolled into the devilish jam-grass tune, Castilleja.
Kyle sang the appropriate Up on the Hill Where They Do the Boogie, Molly singing the rousing Over the Line, then the menacing Dooley’s Farm with Taylor Swift accessibility and a range close to Emmylou Harris — just great.
She spoke highly of the sessions, having played with Neko Case last time and Valerie June earlier Saturday, then, with the band swirling behind her, the terrific, menacing, gold-pan fable, El Dorado.
Bella White and Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor made the five-piece seven for a very moving take on The Band’s Helpless, and I was lucky enough to have local singer Jay Gilday singing along in my ear for this shoulda-been highlight … except for what happened next.
Talking about meeting a little girl with alopecia earlier in the day, Tuttle pulled off her wig and played the rest of the concert, starting with the lovely Crooked Tree, showing off her beautiful head. I cried, no lie.
Next up was the wickedly individual gospel singer Valerie June, who emerged dressed in a pink cape and gold pants with a big smile on her face, holding a banjo.
In her meowing Appalachian voice, she performed her slinky, rhythmic Man Done Wrong, then the wistful, delightfully growling Call Me a Fool.
“You look as beautiful as you did last time,” the 41-year-old June told the crowd with the sun still shining on the hill as she broke into a passionate cover of Whitey Houston’s I Will Always Love You, then unfurled her butterfly wings and twirled around during Two Roads.
If And was next, a sombre slow dance of sorts, then the contemplative and swirling Stardust, the band leaning into this sweet trance of a song. The band jammed behind her as she seemingly pulled bass notes out of the air, her entire set a sort of spell halfway between some other reality and ours as she asked who among us had magical hearts.
“This is for all the goddesses who are here,” she dedicated before Workin’ Woman Blues, a bookend to her earlier cover of the Carter Family’s Worried Man Blues.
Before the inspiring Astral Plane, she had more advice. “You have to wake up every morning and fearlessly shine!”
After she let loose Drink Up and Go Home, she echoed Houston again, “I will always love you, Edmonton!”
The answer to the question, what would happen if — in a good way — an A.I. designed an entire Australian blues rock band’s set to Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding, the Teskey Brothers were up third on the headliner bill. Slow build, explode. Slow build, explode. This was the pattern that got the entire crowd up on its feet by the last song, What Will Be, where singer Josh Teskey released the harmonica.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Opening with Remember the Time (not Michael Jackson’s version), then the sexy-breathy Oceans of Emotions, the first dynamic moment happened in the third song, I Get Up, where Josh — his guitar-playing brother Sam to his left — started to sing lower, and lower, and lower, coming out to the front of the stage and crouching down.
Rain, Caught Up and Drown in My Own Tears were next on the mid-tempo white soul train, then, for the penultimate Paint My Heart, things turned up a notch.
“We’re gonna get a bit freaky,” Josh said, which didn’t seem to be true until a funky blues breakdown appeared, Sam finally having his day as the seven-piece band, horn section included, summoned that rare thing around here, pure rock and roll.
This got all the goblins in the crowd yelling and hissing, of course, and when the song switched back to the Saturday night chillout, Josh offered a long caterwauling last note for dessert.
One of the standouts of this year’s fest, the Ruen Brothers did a soaring tweener set before the mighty final act.
The night had gotten a little behind schedule and slightly sleepy, but the raunchy-hilarious Old Crown Medicine Show smashed in like a mechanical bull, a very appropriate way to end Saturday.
First up in a whirl of beards and white cowboy hats was Ketch Secor, who we saw earlier, singing — nay screaming — Cocaine Habit.
To cement the adult themes straight outta Virginia, Alabama High-Test came next, Secor’s tongue wagging amid the fiddle mayhem, showing earlier efforts how a harmonica should be played.
Down Home Girl sung by Corey Younts, was next, then Humdinger, summoning “wine, whiskey, women and beer” — what is this, Big Valley Jamboree?
A cover of Proud Mary followed, then Great Balls of Fire, and honestly, it’s probably time to head into that madness and get dancing.
But know this: Old Crow Medicine Show is back so soon for a reason: they totally know how to party, Alberta style.
