On the eastern border of the lovely and leafy Fraser River Heritage Park is an old cemetery, the final place of repose for some of the students of St. Mary’s Mission School, native kids who had contracted smallpox, and their teachers of the Oblates of St. Mary order. Among the stone crosses there is one of particular note inscribed with the name Father Leon Fouquet.
Born in France just after the French Revolution, he found himself a world away in July 1861, rounding a bend in the Fraser River in a war canoe with a dozen native paddlers, when he spied a sloping hill with a flat area above that.
Bingo! thought Father Fouquet, although historians are divided about the exact wording.
But here he had found the site for what would become St. Mary’s Mission School, which thrived until the 1960s. In time the school would have its own dormitories, dining hall, bakery, slaughterhouse and milking barn.
It is not known if the good Père Fouquet had visions of stages, lighting rigs, amps and mics, but a corner of his visionary find now has become home to the Mission Folk Music Festival. Saints be praised.
This 26th iteration of the festival features, among many others, the likes of Jim Byrnes, David Francey, the Piccola Band Ikona from Italy, Locarno and the Sojourners and, from Ottawa, one of our very finest singer-songwriters, Lynn Miles.
Miles was actually born in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec but has called Ottawa home “forever.”
She’s only ever played music for a living, at first in bars in and around Ottawa singing cover songs as she honed her own original material.
That she ever got up on a stage at all is surprising, given her introverted nature. How did that happen? “I have no idea,” Miles said with a laugh.
“I’ve been thinking about it lately — what was in me that I felt the need to get up on stage and sing this stuff. I don’t know, it’s a really good question and I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately.
“It’s such a funny thing, such an odd thing to want to do. The first time I got up I was nervous and the second time I wasn’t and I’ve never been since.
“Actually, I really, really enjoy it. If I could sort of have an apartment on stage it would be fun.”
A Lynn Miles song is an old school song, well constructed, unambiguous and occasionally searingly personal. She has a scalpel eye for detail and is unflinching as she delves into matters of the heart.
There was an indie cassette release in the late ’80s, and an indie CD came out in the early ’90s, but it was her Slightly Haunted album on Philo in 1996 that won her a really big audience and favourable reviews in the New York Times and Billboard. She hasn’t looked back since.
With nine studio albums in, including the current Downpour, Miles spends a great deal of time on the road. There will be six festivals this summer, which is quite a lot.
In past years, she travelled and worked alone — as she will for the Mission show — but latterly she’s been accompanied by Prairie Oyster guitarist Keith Glass for 80 per cent of her shows.
But it’s still a grind.
“The travel gets a bit old,” Miles said. “I did a European tour where I did 28 shows in 30 days and after that I thought, ‘OK, I’m never, ever doing that again.’ It nearly killed me. So I try to pace myself.
“But I love playing shows, I love writing songs, I love making records. So I get to do all these things that I really love and I feel very fortunate.
“I try not to complain when I’m tired and travelling too much because these are my choices.
“It’s all good. I just don’t know what I’m going to do when I’m 70. Didn’t the Rolling Stones say that at some point?”
The weather looks to be brilliant in Mission this weekend. Bring your sunblock, leave the dog at home and head out to one of the prettiest music fests around. Lynn Miles will be playing Sunday night with Eliza Gilkyson and Mary Gauthier.
