When the time comes around for The Broadside committee to come up with articles for the next issue, I usually keep pretty quiet. But this time, maybe foolishly, I volunteered to write something about Folk Night, since programming the acts for Folk Night is a task I’ve taken on for over a year now.

Folk Night has a long history; it has been running for about thirty years, and has been held in quite a few establishments around town. Currently, it is held at the Ship Pub. A real community has been built around our Wednesday night event; faithful listeners show up every week to support it. Many musicians have cut their teeth at Folk Night, and it continues to be a safe place for new performers to play for an audience. As well, many veteran musicians are asked back time and time again, and so have been performing at Folk Night for years. With all this in mind, it was with some fear and trepidation that I took on the programming when Jean Hewson handed over to me. But programming Folk Night has actually turned out to be a great job. I’ve met all kinds of wonderful people, and have heard some great music in the process.

So what’s been happening lately?

A recent addition to the programming of Folk Night has been our folk forums, held a couple of times a year. These forums provide a chance for everybody, performer and non-performer alike, to discuss topics pertaining to folk music. They give audience members a chance to be enlightened about the music itself or to find out more about the performers. This past November we held a forum to start off the Storytelling Festival. Anita Best, Ron Hynes and Pat Byrne discussed storytelling in music; for the two hours preceding our regular Folk Club, with Jean Hewson moderating, they talked about their songs and inspiration, and answered questions from the audience. To my delight, we had a large audience, with some members eager to participate in the discussion. The rest of the evening was wonderful as Anita, Ron and Pat traded songs, and performed for a full house. It’s always a bit nerve wracking wondering how any new initiative is going to work, but so far these forums have been relatively successful. We hope to be able to continue them on a regular basis.

On November 16th we held our annual Madhatter fundraiser. Twenty kind and talented folk donated their time to play for Folk Night that evening. Every year I ask for volunteers, put the names in a hat, and pull out the names to forms bands which play 4 or 5 songs each. All the musicians had a lot of fun sporting their hats and performing their tunes. We had a great turn out, and everybody was impressed with what the bands put together.

In our regular programming, we’ve had all kinds of wonderful artists perform this year, as we do every year. I’m making an effort to book musicians new to folk club, such as Jill Porter, Sherry Ryan, Janet Cull and Allan Byrne, and they have all been received very positively.

So come one, come all, to Folk Night. If you would like to be a performer, a good way to introduce yourself is to come and play for our open mic. I’m usually there on Wednesdays and would love to meet you. Everybody else, I’ll see you there.

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