Members of the Winnipeg neo-folk group The Duhks, left to right: Jordan McConnell, Leonard Podolak, Sarah Dugas, Tania Elizabeth and Scott Senior. According to Leonard Podolak, leader of the Grammy-nominated Canadian roots band The Duhks, Winnipeggers “stand on the prairie, with their ears wide open to music.” He should know.
The 31-year-old son of Winnipeg Folk Festival co-founder Mitch Podolak, Leonard spent much of his youth in Birds Hill Provincial Park, where this summer — as in every summer since 1974 — close to 40,000 people will gather to hear a variety of folk and world music. This year s festival, which runs July 5 to 8, features an eclectic lineup, including the African Guitar Summit, Randy Newman, Los Lobos, Todd Snider and The Duhks. This won’t be Podolak’s festival debut, however.
“At four, when I was really into the TV show , I once walked on stage and went from Bill Bixby’s Bruce Banner to Lou Ferrigno’s Hulk, uttering the word, ‘metamorphosis.’ That was my act then,” he laughs. Podolak was recently in his hometown, in a talkative mood and full of opinions and stories about Winnipeg, its famous folk festival and The Duhks, a genre-busting band that has become a headline act on the American folk circuit with a sound that has been described as “progressive soul grass” and “Beyoncé meets the Grateful Dead.
” The banjo player was also more than happy to explain how his band came to fiddle around with Led Zeppelin in a YouTube video that surfaced earlier this year. What was it like growing up with the Winnipeg Folk Festival? I was born the year after the first festival.
Folk music and the festival to me was life. I had to give up my bed at home to visiting musicians come festival time. Stan Rogers and Tony Bird, guys like that.
Every summer, I was in a park listening to people I knew play. Did you see any acts over the years that influenced your musical direction? Members of the Winnipeg neo-folk group The Duhks, left to right: Jordan McConnell, Leonard Podolak, Sarah Dugas, Tania Elizabeth and Scott Senior.
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