July 10, 2024

MARIPOSA AS ELECTRIC AS ECCLECTIC. THREE-DAY FETE A THREE-RING MUSICAL CIRCUS WITH OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW JUST WHAT DR. ORDERED

ORILLIA — Who knew a baton could be so damn entertaining.

In the right hands it was magic as the Old Crow Medicine Show stole the show the final night of the three-day Mariposa Folk Festival.

With the mixed wizardry of an Olympic gymnast and showman, his whirling and twirling bedazzled thousands with the silver stick ricocheting off the stage floor like a boomerang. (A clip of it even landing on TikTok.)

This bad boy batonist was leading a frenetic marching band high-stepping a break-neck tempos. Like a Band of Horses hell-bent for the barn.

**MC and musician Tom Power, centre, even got in a little late night pickin’ time with Ketch Secor and backed up by some of the Old Crow singers.**

The old-time Nashville string band was a musical circus on the high wire — with crazed Ketch Secor leading five multi-talented musicians who shared time singing, dancing and dashing between guitars, drums, keys, accordion, fiddle and harmonica while playing in equal harmonic madness.

And their stirring, moving acapella rendition of the Stan Rogers east coast classic Barrett’s Privateers brought the outdoor house down.

A tough act for hottie Dwayne Gretzky to follow in the 10:30 p.m. weekend finale, which wrapped up after midnight early Monday morning.

A festival favourite, the name-sake Great One look-alike singer scored with a cover band collection of some of pop’s greatest choreographed song and dance hits.

**Hottie Dwayne Gretzky was as hot a hit as anyone in the weekend festival that ended without folk as is usual now for Mariposa Sunday night.**

But it was Bruce Cockburn’s sweltering return to roots hour-long kick-ass kick-off set — on the Gordon Lightfoot Mainstage — that raised the bar and set the tone for the rest of the talented young performing stars half his age Sunday.

The Canadian folk legend was inducted by the Mariposa Foundation in to its Hall of Fame, joining an all-star line-up of past performers — including Orillia’s late Gordon Lightfoot — who have made the festival the country’s standard of summer musical excellence.

**Bruce Cockburn played a number of his mega hits in the late afternoon heat with an incredibly resonant voice, deep, clear, and continuing to sound good and compelling at age 79.**

He was followed by the enticing and alluring Oregon-bred indie-pop trio Joseph was upped the beat.

The three-day fete was as electric as it was eclectic. Just the prescription the doctor ordered.

It was smoothly emceed by CBC radio’s Q morning host Tom Powers, who once played the fest. He wanted to play here again, but opted to introduce acts as the Newfoundland singer is more accustomed to.

He did get in a little harmony with Cockburn and a bit of late night pickin’ with Old Crow. And he will be performing July 11-14 at the Winnipeg Folk Festival

Not unlike a lot of artists who wove their way in and out of each other’s groups often as backups adding vocal colour, flavour and texture many Mariposa audiences enjoy most in workshops and the seven small Tudhope Park stages and at downtown stage events.