The Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival is sort of like my end-of-summer festival scene celebration for me. Its the last big festival that I go to at the end summer and it always delivers some awesome, unexpected talent. There is something special about dancin’ my heart out, mid day in the blistering August heat to some true blue zydeco blues band from Louisana.  Even with sweat pouring into my eyes, I can’t bear to stop dancing.

Roots and Blues as it is commonly coined, really has diversified over the years. From personal experience, I only have about 4 years under my belt. But even in those 4 short years, the artistic vision has really shifted. I suppose that would simply be due to the change of Artistic Director. In 2008 Hugo Rampen took on the ever prestigious position and since, has created some buzz and interest for a different demographic of folks. For instance; though I have not listened to Broken Social Scene much, I certainly have heard the name tossed around once or twice (Im a CBC junkie!). Yet, the performance I expected, compared to the one delivered were two very different things.

This was a group that really defied a lot of what I thought I knew of rock bands, but it definitely enhanced what indie music is all about now a days. Collaboration! With epic string sounds and clashing ambient voices, I was really quite enchanted with the group. The live show really gave the audience a sense of what pure inspiration can look like. Of course this is my humble opinion and many of my fellow festival friends didn’t agree. Some of the unique arrangements presented on stage were taken for confusing or just too obscure. But the musical talent that was presented really was a pleasure to behold.

Now, I like guitars and rawnchy weird sounds that can be created on them, therefore I really wanted to see the John Butler Trio. I have loved the albums and live recordings that the band has released over the past few years, so I knew we were going to be in for something good. With friendly banter on stage and the obvious curiosity the trio had for the locale of Salmon Arm, the performance started off well and continued for the duration of the show to blow my mind.

The climactic finale to the show was really what left all spectators with that electric charge, the spine tingling excitement we get when music touches us. This was certainly what I felt and I know I wasn’t alone.  After playing an amazing hour of heart stopping, blood pumping, bum shakin’ great tunes, that I couldn’t imagine sitting down to, the drummer of the trio, Nicky Bomba insisted that everyone stand up, turn around, close their eyes and on his count, turn to face the stage and dance like crazy people… and we all did! Thousands of us! Thats what good music does. It unites us all in heart and spirit. We forget our daily lives, we forget our problems and the problems of the world for that moment… and we do it together as a mass of sweaty, sticky, dirty passionate dancing freaks. That is a performance I won’t soon forget.