Schedule/Lineup |
Roots on The River 2011 Artist Bios
Welcome to the 11th annual Roots on the River Festival celebrating roots music in all ways, shapes and forms and featuring three performances by Fred Eaglesmith and the Flying Squirrels. This year the festival is truly international with performers from Canada, Australia, the UK and the USA. I was headed south on I-91 a couple of weeks ago talking with my wife about the ROTR lineup and listening to Outlaw Country on Sirius/XM. All of a sudden Mojo Nixon comes on between songs and yells –“GUESS WHO JUST SCORED THE TITLE TRACK TO ALAN JACKSON’S NEW CD. FRED EAGLESMITH – THAT’S WHO!! NOW THAT HE’S HIT THE BIG TIME #%&@*! FRED BETTER NOT FORGET HIS ROOTS. BETTER NOT FORGET HIS TRUE FANS.” It’s true that this has been a good year for Fred. Beside’s landing the title cut on Jackson’s album Freight Train, Miranda Lambert recorded “Time to Get a Gun”, Bill Chambers covered “Just Dreaming” and Texas band Two Tons of Steel put out a great version of “Alcohol and Pills”. Word has it that Fred is working on a new album and he will be appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman soon after ROTR. The fact that Fred is back again this year is a sure sign that he hasn’t forgotten his true fans. Rumor has it that he also turned down an invite to Lambert’s record release party because he already had a gig booked that night. That’s vintage Fred. Born to a farming family in rural Southern Ontario Fred Eaglesmith has been on the road making music for 30 years. Over that time he has recorded 16 albums, written hundreds of songs and played thousands of shows. He has won a Juno award (Canada’s version of a Grammy) and has been nominated for several others. His most recent album Tinderbox was nominated for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year. In addition to those noted above, Fred’s songs have been recorded by diverse group of other artists including Kasey Chambers, Mary Gauthier, Toby Keith, Todd Snider and Dar Williams and have been used in film projects by Martin Scorsese and James Caan. What makes Fred and his music so special? It’s a combination of things. Part of it is the songs – short, gritty novels about real people and their trials and tribulations through life. Part of it is his performing style – in your face, full of monologues that make you laugh and think at the same time. A large part of it is his personality and philosophy. He doesn’t want to be a star and doesn’t take himself too seriously. In a recent interview Fred was quoted “I do my work like a plumber. A plumber goes home at night and says, ‘I did good work’. That’s what I’m interested in, doing good work. . . . It’s not as important as a doctor that operates on children, it’s just music.” Nope, he doesn’t sound like someone that will forget his roots. The Flying Squirrels are Luke Stackhouse on bass and vocals, Kori Heppner on drums and Matt Simpson on guitar, keyboards and banjo. Fred is playing a lot more lead guitar now and the band is smokin’. This weekend look for the Ginn Sisters to contribute harmony vocals and Roger Marin to chip in on guitar. This weekend is always the high point in the year for Fred Heads. If it’s your first experience at the festival I’ll bet it won’t be your last.
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