Nashville-based musician Mike Farris was invited back for Canmore’s Folk Music Festival (Aug. 1-3) based on his obvious talent, but in a just world, talent is met with accolades and this is no further from the truth for Farris, who received in February the Grammy Award for Best Roots Gospel Album for his 2014 release Shine For All the People.
The album has been described as, “an uplifting message of survival and gratitude,” with American music heavyweight Marty Stuart recently hailing Farris as a “secret weapon – loaded with soul.”
“When Marty speaks he’s a master at quotes and he’s a master at what he does,” Farris said. “He’s an historian and he’s highly regarded in this household as one of the greatest musicians on the planet; and a fine human being, so with all that it means a lot when Marty says something like that.”
Does the Grammy go on the road as a good luck charm?
“The short answer to that is no,” Farris said. “All the Grammys that you see at the award show are props. They’re real Grammys, but they don’t have anything engraved on them, so what happens is you go home empty handed, and then three months later you get it in the mail, they have to go and make them.
“When we did get ours and it arrived in the mail, we were out running around town showing it to friends and actually went to our buddies at Hattie B’s (famous Nashville hot chicken restaurant) to show it off to the guys over there. We started taking pictures with the cooks and the dishwashers, and one of the guys took a picture of it next to the fry vat and we were posting all that stuff online; and I got home and my wife was waiting outside the door and said, ‘hand it over.’ ”
Farris says he’s pretty sure it was the photo of the Grammy sitting next to the fry vat that put an end to the Grammy ever going on tour. “That put her over the edge, so we don’t get to take it with us. The thing is, it’s 24-karat gold and we didn’t know that at the time, so it doesn’t leave the house anymore,” Farris said.
The Tennessee musician really turned heads with his 2007 release Salvation in Lights, and didn’t disappoint fans by bringing an even more heartfelt and powerful album to the masses with Shine For All the People.
He says the key is always to follow who you are and be accepting of inspiration. “It was the same as it’s always been, just going and researching songs, or just have the antennae up at all times ready for whatever songs come along and deliver,” Farris said.
“I think it goes back to what I draw from, which is all rooted in old, black spiritual music and that music is so strong, and so powerful, and it’s all built on people in literal bondage and so I relate to that. I came up the rough side of the mountain – that’s why that music resonates throughout the world so much to this day and that’s what I carry with me.”
With enough luck and talent, hardship can lead to success, which is very true for Farris. The man has persevered through addiction, personal loss and injury, but says he’s in good spirit and shape for the road.
“My back’s been doing good, it’s been a few years since I had surgery. It took a lot longer to really recover than I ever dreamed it would, but I didn’t do the physio I was supposed to at the time, and I was in a bit of a rut at the time physically and emotionally,” Farris said.
“I had just lost my manager, who had passed away within a few weeks of having surgery and I was just in a bad state all around, so I just never went and did the work – it led to a prolonged recovery, but now that I’m doing it clean and trying to take care of myself, my back hardly ever gives me any problem.”
Farris says he’ll be doing whatever “tickles his fancy” for the upcoming folk fest performance, but promises a good mixture of material to please the audience.
“We’ll definitely be featuring songs from Shine For All the People for sure,” Farris said. “They should know it’s one of my favourite festivals to come back to, and it’s an honour to be back for the second year in a row and I don’t think they do that very often, so I’m really honoured that they asked me back.”
Farris will close out the 39th annual Canmore Folk Music Festival on Monday (Aug. 3), following Coig, John Reischman & Celso Machado, The Once, Cecile Doo-Kingue and Oysterband.
The festival kicks off on Friday (July 31) with a live CKUA broadcast of Andy Donnelly’s The Celtic Show, followed by a street party at the Canmore Civic Centre featuring Shred Kelly.
