Kathleen Edwards' Sunday set should invite the listener to ponder the various lines between rock, pop, country, and blues, as she regales with tales of woe, withering, stress, and resilience. "For some reason I connect with people in hard times," she explains. "I love photographs from the Great Depression, stories of hardship, poverty, injustice because they inspire me to feel something real about the hardness of life... How someone survives their own battles is what I love about a person's character and I love channeling the spirit of that in songs." Not as apocalyptic as Johnny Cash, (but then again after Johnny Cash, who needs to be that apocalyptic?), Edwards keeps a human scale on her hardship tales. Listen carefully, at times, and you'll catch the delicate fluting of transcendence.
Lee "Scratch" Perry, also Sunday, may seem at first to have some odd ideas about the state of the world, its leaders, policies, conspiracies, and metaphysics. All of this makes perfect sense, however, once you realize that Lee "Scratch" Perry does not, in point of fact, live in the same world most of us call home. This doesn't prevent him from seeing through certain situations with a sharpshooter gaze. Upon setting eyes on Mr. Bangs for the first time on the legendary music scribe (and alcoholic) Lester Bangs, Mr. Perry, in the midst of his native Jamaica, the land of ganja, looked Bangs over and declaimed, "You wine man. I know wine man..." Catch his set and see if any parts of you become transparent.
Arthur & Yu aren't so frightening. But they'll make you feel at home. In your living room. Assuming that is, that your living room contains walls (or gigabytes) of only the finest pop music recorded between 1966 and 1976, plus a cellist who pops in and out of existence. Sounds like a fine place to be by me. They play Monday night.
Monday afternoon, author William Gibson takes the stage, with Eileen Gunn and John Osebold supporting. William Gibson invented the 21st century. No, really. He had to wait awhile for people to realize he'd done that, but he did. His latest book is called "Spook Country." I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was inventing the 23st century by now.
Moving on to Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, and Ivan Brunetti on Sunday afternoon, Daniel Clowes did not invent the 21st century, but he did reinvent the graphic novel. That was before he got his Oscar nomination for writing a script from that same graphic novel, "Ghost World." Mr. Tomine produced "Shortcomings," which doesn't eclipse "Ghost World" but applies the same intricacy, wit, and sadness to sexual relationships which Clowes applied to friendship. Ivan Brunetti, he's just all over the place. He has to be seen to be believed. You may want to wear a catcher's mask. Or some kendo armor.
"Bumbershoot is the kind of festival where I don't have to be more rock or more folk to fit in," concludes Kathleen Edwards. And indeed, we all hope it continues to be the kind of festival where we can all fit in assuming we can find some room. "The only way Seattle could improve," the singer signs off, "is if it moved to Canada so I could visit it more regularly without having my lengthy criminal record examined at the border through the use of a latex glove. That doesn't make any sense."
Andrew Hamlin may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.[[In-content Ad]]