festival to go
various artists
Festival Distribution Inc.
1998
19 tracks
It must be said up front that this is not properly a review. Rather, it is a matter of giving credit where credit is due. It might also be said that it reflects my great pride in the quality of music being made in Canada today.
In North America in general and Canada in specific, it is becoming increasingly difficult for independent artists to get that elusive record deal. This has created the very diverse "indie" recording industry of the nineties, where musicians, especially those who write their own songs, are recording and releasing their own material.
Once a recording is made, however, distribution across a nation as spacious as Canada becomes as much a problem as getting a record deal had been. There are only a handful of distribution companies in Canada who show the courage to pick up these often little known acts and to promote them across the nation and into the United States.
One which stands out as exceptional in its support of Canadian artists is Festival Distribution. Recently, I received festival to go, a compilation CD featuring nineteen of Festival Distribution's artists. It should be made clear here that Festival Distribution did not ask me to review this CD, which is not available for commercial distribution. I had requested it because it had been offered as a sampler of their artists and I wanted to hear what they have to offer.
I offer this column, not as a review, but because I think the folks at Festival Distribution deserve commendation for their support of Canadian artists. The package I received included an 80 page catalogue which is interesting enough to be read as a magazine plus the professionally packaged festival to go CD. While it is certainly in the interest of Festival Distribution to promote sales of their artists' products, few disributors would go to the expense to offer a package such as this to potential record buyers.
The sampler CD offers a wonderful cross-section of the new Canadian music that has developed over the past decade or so. The liner notes say festival to go includes "some of the diverse sounds of this country, from St. John's to the Yukon, from Brazil to China, from ancient to contemporary. With stops in between for jazz, folk, Celtic, blues, comedy, and myriad fusions that bridge time and traditions." This may sound like an exaggerated claim, but after listening to the CD, I can assure you it is true.
The liner notes also give summary information about each of the performers included on the CD. Reading these brief bios and listening to the music, one can only commend the editor who filtered these nineteen examples out of the entire Festival Distribution catalogue. This is surely some of the best music being released in Canada today.
Anyone who is interested in what is the future of Canadian music beyond pure pop could do worse than to browse through the catalogue, also titled festival to go. Even if the sampler CD is no longer available (and it may well not be by now), the catalogue in itself is an education.
For any who may be interested, information on Festival Distribution is also available at their web site.
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Review Written: January 11, 1999
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