How many concerts or shows does one need to attend before live music begins to lose meaning? How many sweltering days under the burning fire of the sun do we need to withstand before we decide festivals are simply too enduring to bear? How many accompanying rainfalls or thunderstorm delays? Live music is a demanding medium, and fatigue during a festival is not just expected; it's an inevitability. However, live music has the power to be the most life-affirming affair in existence. Harsh weather doesn't stand a chance for those who believe the same.
Lucinda Williams's golden hour set was the opening ceremony for the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Her timeless songs — which feel like they could've been written 50 years ago or 50 days ago — set a breezy tone for the evening, laying a deceptively refreshing groundwork for the next four days of hot, humid festivities. Like the electricity echoing from Williams's backing band over the loudspeakers, the energy of the mostly older crowd was palpable.
Williams tore through a set of her hits, the tear-jerking "Fruits of My Labor," the sultry reverb of "People Talkin'" and maybe the most perfect song ever set to melody and verse, "Drunken Angel," with outstanding vocal range and impressive vitality. Williams' stood through the whole set, giving minimal but effective crowd work, the tales of a rock star who's seen it all. Both sincere and satirical, Williams was sure to thank the country of Canada for "welcoming war resistors." Ending the set with a rousing take on Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" (intentionally catering to his hometown audience or not) showed a fighting rock'n'roll country star defying the odds, perfectly doing what they were put on this earth to do.