Eclectic mix comes together on the hill on opening night
-by Alan Kellog

Thursday nights at the folk fest are usually somewhat desultory affairs as the crowd - even on sellout weekends – slowly moves in for the four-day musical endurance test involving an embarrassment of riches. So it went this year, in an evening of solid and decidedly eclectic programming, stretching the boundaries, serving up well-crafted fare.

Opening the Thursday night mainstage at the festival comes as close to a thankless task as it gets, But it’s a job that must get done, and Blackie and Rodeo Kings -  a.k.a Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, and Colin Linden -  acquitted themselves quite nicely. Literally kicking out with Water and Gasoline, a hot and slidey tune from their new CD Bark, the three veterans delivered a typically solid set underpinned by the great keyboard work of near-legend Richard Bell. Linden’s Lock All Your Doors was a particular standout, an anthemic mid-tempo beauty that conjured up memories of Linden’s fallen comrade Rick Danko.

Things began strangely with Blue Highway, which lifted an old Dillards introduction word-for-word from Mitch Jayne, then launched into an ode to the wonders of oncology, using a band member as a living prop. It’s much better when they play and sing, which they do very well, culling material from their last two albums, which have breathed some new life into original traditional bluegrass. The title cut Still Climbing Mountains was a standout, as were the forays into bluegrass gospel featured on the just-released Wondrous Love.

No flies on any of the pickers here, but Bay Area dobro player Rod Ickes is the man who sets the aged hickory on fire. On his Monrobro, a wry reference to genre patriarch Bill Monroe’s famous aversion to the instrument, he rocked the hill with hot riffs delivered at near-impossible speed.

In one of the more striking segues you’ll find at any festival, Portuguese fado sensation Mariza- resplendent in a black-and-white striped gown and sexy black shawl – followed, leaving little doubt that she’s on the fast track to the world music front ranks.

The Mozambique-born beauty is a sultry living bridge to old and new, east and west, and may well be the hip reincarnation of fado legend Amalia Rodriguez.

Backed by an accomplished string trio, which impressed on a genre-skipping instrumental, Mariza’s vocals of dark, unsweetened chocolate soared across the hill with an authority rarely heard at these affairs. A bit of fado dominatrix, that Mariza. When Mariza says clap, we clap, when Mariza says we should have fun, we have fun.

Here is a star in the making who will no doubt be appearing on a movie soundtrack near you soon, and not a little reminiscent of Montreal’s Lhasa, who has disappeared off the face of the Earth. Much of the audience offered her the first standing O of the 2003 festival, well-deserved.

Deadline considerations forced a pass on The Jim Cuddy Band and alas, the opportunity to only catch a couple of songs by Daniel Lanois, one of the nation’s finest musical exports, whose long shadow has graced many a talent. Beginning his set – “dedicated to my native compadres”- with a fuzzy, atonal solo electric guitar intro, he sang of Caledonia river running so wide in Still Water, as his aggressive trio fell in, laying down a beguiling wash more reminiscent of U2 than Graeme Card, whose album he engineered and played steel on so long ago back in Hamilton. A lot of water has been crossed since those early days, lately displaying an increasingly confident solo performer.

The festival continues today with sessions beginning at 6 p.m. and mainstage performers including Patty Griffin and Detroit’s legendary Funk Brothers.