The Regina Folk Festival brings together a wide variety of music from around the world, each artist bringing something different to the event. One of the bands at the festival, Regina's own Rah Rah, has been part of the event since the group formed as a three piece, and has finally graduated to a set on the main stage.
Erin Passmore with the group says that coming home for the weekend has been an amazing experience. The band has been extremely busy over the four days, participating in four workshops as well as the mainstage performance and an after party. She notes that the group played with many excellent bands over the days, and the homecoming has been incredible.
"It's kind of this huge homecoming, everyone you've ever known in your home town jam packed into this little fenced area. It's been a little overwhelming for me, but on the good side," Passmore says.
The band has been part of the festival since it began, with three festivals under their belt.
"It's where we started out as a three piece when nobody knew who we were. Now we've got a really good fanbase from Regina."
That fanbase showed up in huge numbers to the performance, as the area in front of the stage was packed with a receptive audience. Passmore says that when a band is touring all over the world, they encounter all kinds of audiences, but the Regina crowd was among the best audiences they had ever seen.
"I wish we could play shows like that all the time."
One thing that defines the group's show is that everyone is a multi-instrumentalist. Pass-more herself shifts from drums to guitar to keyboards. She says it keeps it interesting for the band, but also keeps it interesting for the audience, as the band shifts around between the instruments.
The group has recently seen their profile lifted after the release of their album The Poet's Dead, which has garnered acclaim and was featured on the long list for the Polaris Prize, which sets out to find the best album released by a Canadian musician. Passmore says that the new record is the result of the band taking recording more seriously, and the band is extremely proud of what they have accomplished.
"We spent a lot of time in pre-production getting the sounds we wanted, where we didn't do any of that with our last two recordings. They were essentially live off the floor, didn't really pay attention to what part went with what or the structure, it was 'well, we have to weeks, let's record this.' We spent two months on this record just in pre-production... I have no complaints, I can still listen to it without getting sick and that's how you know it's alright for me."
Saskatchewan goes to the root of their sound, and Passmore says that touring has made them able to reflect on their home and become more introspective about it, themes which are easily seen in their song Prairie Girl.
"Obviously I'm a prairie girl and I identify myself as that, but I also hate it here sometimes... It's a back and forth, that's what I hope people get out of that song."
