Winnipeg music & culture since 1989
by Sheldon Birnie
It’s that time of year again, folks. Crops are coming in, the days are getting shorter, and there’s a chill in the air that lingers each morning. As the autumn approaches, it’s time for one last kick at the outdoor festival can here in Manitoba. Pack up the car, it’s time to head for Clearwater. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Time once again for Harvest Moon”
It sure feels like spring out there. Get out & enjoy some live music this weekend! Continue reading “Weekenders 02/28 – 03/03”
by Sheldon Birnie
Well, friends, the Harvest Moon Festival wrapped up this past weekend under Sunday’s grey skies. The weekend was a beauty for an outdoor festival, and about as far removed from last year’s chilly, drizzle soaked romp as could be. The sun was shining Friday as I drove into the sunset, and Saturday hovered around 30 degrees. People walked around the community barefoot, bare chested, and smiling ear to ear, soaking up the last of the season’s rays. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Summer’s over, folks”
Lots to see in & out of Winnipeg this weekend, folks! Check out our Weekenders suggestions.
by Sheldon Birnie
Well, friends, summer’s officially over, or will be once this weekend’s Harvest Moon Festival comes to a close on Sunday afternoon. The last outdoor festival of the year here in Manitoba — where we’re lucky to experience an abundance each summer, from the Winnipeg and Brandon Folk Festivals, to smaller community events like Rainbow Trout, Harvest Sun and Harvest Moon — this fest out in Clearwater, MB is a special one. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Harvest Moon Festival closes out the season”
There is a road that stretches back in time, back beyond the interweb, beyond compact discs, cassette tapes, vinyl records and gramophones. It winds between hills and hollers, follows riverbanks and lakeshores deep into the woods and across tall grass prairie. It picks up from quays and travels back across seas, crossing itself time and again in backwater voids, where wind whips dead branches against nothing and scavenger birds craw out in vain.
This is the same road Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam sang about in the 80s, same road the Boss, and Dylan before him. Before them all, Hank Williams sang about this Lost Highway. The sands of time have largely obscured the names of those who sang about it before ol’ Hank, but their numbers are legion and their ghosts walk the road still.
This is the Lost Highway, the Thunder Road, Highway 51, Route 23. The Hillbilly Highway, the Nowhere Road. The low road. Maybe you’re walking it now, following your dreams up and down Pembina Highway or Portage Avenue, Highway One or 17.
I been on many of these roads, myself. I just cruised down a gooder: west on provincial Highway 2, with a south turn at Holland onto 34. 34 hits a stop at 3, then heads west again to 3A. Now you’re in country country.
The tiny village of Clearwater, MB has hosted the perennial Harvest Moon Festival for the past ten years. Formed as “a celebration of the harvest season, local food production, the area’s rich cultural heritage, and the bond between rural and urban folks,” the festival is like no other in Manitoba. A strong community dedicated to surviving against the economic and political forces that are draining people and money from the prairies, Clearwater is itself a beacon of potential for any community struggling to remain viable in the 21st century.
And the music is fucking good too. Highlights, for me, this year were the Deep Dark Woods, CKUW favourite Greg MacPherson and Ridley Bent’s Good Looking Country Band. Each delivered to-notch performances in weather bordering on frigid. Many other acts performed throughout the days, including Bog River and the Reverend Rambler, names to look for on the hillbilly highway in the months and years to come.
Keep your eyes on the road. It has a way of winding somewhere strange.
– Sheldon Birnie