War, capitalism and personal struggle set to sweet beats

Winnipeg Ska & Reggae Fest offers up great home-grown acts

Jason Wilson returns to Winnipeg’s Ska & Reggae Fest on Aug. 21.

Reggae fans will get more grooves for their green at this year’s Winnipeg Ska & Reggae Festival, with more bands and cheaper ticket prices.

Now in its fourth year, the festival, which runs Aug. 20 to Aug. 22, features an all-Canadian line-up and includes some of the most respected reggae artists in the country. It wasn’t organizer Matt Henderson’s original plan to feature strictly home-grown talent, but a poor Canadian dollar in January made it tough to book the big acts from Jamaica and the U.S.

“Usually, Saturday night would have a huge headliner and that would cost us a lot,” said Henderson.

“This year we thought ‘Why don’t we look at doing an all-Canadian festival, given that we’ve got some Juno Award-winning reggae artists?”

The lower booking costs cut the cost of the festival by half, allowing Henderson to book more acts – nine in total – and cut ticket prices.

Organizers faced another challenge putting this year’s festival together. Five of the eight organizers – including Henderson – became parents within the last year or so.

“The biggest challenge was finding time for volunteers to get together,” Henderson said.

The artists in this year’s festival cover a wide range of styles and sounds that will appeal to the head and the feet. The Idlers, an 11-piece “reggae circus” from St. John’s, N.L., match roots reggae and traditional Atlantic influences with lyrics tackling issues of war, capitalism, and personal struggle. Fredlocks Asher, from Vancouver, blends dub and dancehall with electronic beats to create a bed for his lyrics about love and hate.

But perhaps the least conventional performer at this year’s festival is Jason Wilson. The northwest Toronto neighbourhood where Wilson grew up has the highest concentration of people from the West Indies outside of the Caribbean. For the past 15 years, Wilson has been blending the Jamaican music of his youth with the traditional Scottish music of his family.

Wilson’s latest album, 2008’s The Peacemaker’s Chauffeur, brought in another of Wilson’s passions – World War I history. Wilson is a published First World War historian, and the album was inspired by a photo of the drivers for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and French Premier Georges Clemenceau, playing cards while their bosses divided up the world after the war.

Despite the weighty subject matter, Wilson strived to make sure the music worked on stage.

“When we recorded this one we were thinking of that because we’ve run into problems with that in the past, where the album stuff didn’t translate as well live,” said Wilson, on his cell phone driving to the Calgary Reggae Festival.

Wilson said he’s been surprised by the reception his music has received from traditional reggae fans.

“I think of a song like Warrior, that has Jackie Mittoo on it, as more of a traditional reggae anthem, and yet I know one radio station back in Toronto, one of the reggae guys, is playing Matty Groves which is a traditional 17th century Scottish ballad.”

This is the second time Wilson has played the festival, having played here in 2007. At that time, Wilson said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the local interest in ska and reggae music.

“And not just the interest but the broad knowledge that a lot of the Winnipeg faithful have about reggae music in general.”

Henderson credits one Winnipegger in particular with keeping the local flame alive.

“I think a lot of it has to do with JFK [of JFK and the Conspirators] having a lot of knowledge and him providing us with a bit of a reggae high school.”

Last year’s festival drew 1,500 people and Henderson expects a similar turnout this year. Wilson is playing Aug. 21 at the King’s Head. Tickets are $10.

Published in Volume 63, Number 30 of The Uniter (August 13, 2009)

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