Big Bass Theory (Sarah's pick)

There’s a new universe of homegrown BC dub, schooled in Jamaica and reverberating around the world. Led by SirBassa, BBT supplies solid rhythms with serious bass frequencies totaling heavy, heavy bass dub sounds. Be ready to groove while they take you on a warm sonic dub journey.

Dub Universe

The New Lost City Ramblers (Dugg's pick)

This trio walks as gods through the landscapes of American traditional music. More than one musicologist has credited them with re-introducing obscure instruments like the mandolin and the fiddle into contemporary acoustic music. Their work has had a profound effect on artists including Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder and the Grateful Dead, who in turn influenced innumerable artists. This year’s festival presents a rare opportunity to hear three artists who changed musical history, in a good way.

Afrodizz (Sarah's pick)

Guitarist and composer Gabriel Aldama started this project in 2002, leading his Montréal band to become a big sensation throughout Canada. The eight-piece band creates a festive and hypnotic ambiance, inviting everyone to dance, at times almost reaching a state of trance. Heavily influenced by Fela Kuti, they don’t just reproduce the sound of Nigerian Afro-beat music: they enrich the experience with contagious grooves and some heavy funk! Up to now, Afrodizz has released 2 albums, including 2004’s Kif Kif and this year’s Froots.

Froots (2006); Kif Kif (2004)

Najma Akhtar (Sarah's pick)

One of the pioneers of Anglo-Asian music, Najma is a phenomenal singer with a global perspective. Najma released her first album, Qareeb, in 1987, fusing jazz and ghazals into music made for a voice to soar over. At the time, very few had heard music like hers before. Twenty years later, Najma’s innovation endures, and she has collaborated with Peter Gabriel, Phillip Glass, Jah Wobble, Robert Plant, Jimmy Paige, among others. She is also a playwright, an actor in theatre and film, a teacher in vocal technique, a music programmer and a humanitarian.

various

Salt (Sarah's pick)

Salt is two voices, four hands, ten instruments and ears wide open. Still in their twenties, Vancouver-based Awna Teixeira former founding member of Barley Wik) and Allison Russell (founding member of Po’Girl) are already veterans of the international roots music community. They share years of stories and collected wisdom from the road and a long streak of dark theatrical humour. Between them, they play banjo, guitar, clarinet, accordion, gutbucket and electric bass, pennywhistle, bodhran, harmonica, washboard and kazoo, and almost anything they can get their hands on: everything they touch sounds distinctively like Salt.

self-titled EP

No Luck Club (Dugg's pick)

Trevor and Matt Chan and Paul Belen use turntables and Macs to scratch, sample, loop and otherwise re-conjugate and re-grove the world around them. Drawing on classic vinyl, film dialogue and other tasty bit and bytes from the info-sphere we live in these days, they create a groove that can free your mind and your butt. On Sunday, July 16th, they’ll be debuting 60 new minutes of sound commissioned especially for the festival, using classic folk and world music vinyl as their departure point.

Prosperity

Eyrnn Marshall & Chris Coole (Sarah's pick)

Marshall and Coole have performed at numerous venues, festivals and camps in Canada and the United States. Marshall recently released her award-winning album Calico, which features the duo extensively. Both were featured in the roots music documentary I’ll Fly Away Home and perform together and separately in several groups through the Toronto area.

various

Ray Wylie Hubbard (Dugg's pick)

Ray Wylie’s a genuine, one hundred percent original Texas outlaw artist. Like Townes and Steve Earle, Ray has a wicked sense of humour and a fine feel for the history of blues and country music. To my ears, his songs are part of a poetic tradition that includes writers like Rilke and William Blake: seekers, all after truth and peace of mind. Add in 40 years of kicking it up in road houses and honky-tonks, and you’ve got yourself one hell of an artist.

various