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Luedeckrously Busy | Old Man Luedecke is playing three sessions and a solo concert at this year’s Folk Fest.

DETAILS

Edmonton Folk Music Festival
Gallagher Park
Thursday, August 6 - Sunday, August 9

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OLD MAN LUEDECKE
Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Gallagher Park. I Am What I Play session (with Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir, Sam Baker, Gurf Morlix): Stage 7, Fri, Aug 7 (8pm) • Feast of Folk session (with Niamh Parsons, Ashley MacIsaac): Stage 4, Sat, Aug 8 (11am) • Up Close and Personal session (with Lynn Miles, Great Lake Swimmers): Stage 4, Sat, Aug 8 (3pm) • Concert: Stage 4, Sun, Aug 9 (5pm).

“When I was in university, I bought two records for a dollar,” says banjo hero Chris Luedecke from his home in Chester, Nova Scotia. “One was Sam Cooke’s Live at the Harlem Square Night Club in 1963 and the other was the RCA Carter Family compilation. I loved, beyond words, the Sam Cooke thing, but I thought I could sing the melodies of the Carter Family.”

A dollar well-spent and the cheery bounce of the pluckiest of all instruments, the banjo (can a banjo sound downcast?) set Luedecke on a path that has led him to Edmonton’s Folk Fest this year. Working under the misnomer Old Man Luedecke — actually, he’s only 33 — the singer/songwriter uses that joyful jingle-jangle as a platform to write lyrics about this life as honestly as he can.

“I look for an authenticity at least,” he says. “I look for something that resonates with myself so that I can sit by myself in front of people and be fairly convinced that what I’m saying, I believe in. It may not be all that fashionable, but I think sincerity is an important thing that helps me get up in front of an audience.”

He searches for a sense of genuine communication, with himself and his audience. He seems to be finding it too, if you count receiving the 2009 Juno Award for Best Solo Roots Album for his latest release Proof of Love as acknowledgment that we’re listening.

That said, what most critics and fans tend to describe as a refreshing optimism on the record, Luedecke sees differently. “Basically, I think that a lot of my songs are, at least while they’re being written, a temporary victory over some horrid fear that things won’t work out,” he laughs. “I think there’s a real tension between where you wanna go, what you want to be true, and what might be true or what you fear to be true or what you fear to be the reality. It’s important for me to not sugarcoat. A lot of what comes across as joy in my songs is really a statement of rejection of being too pessimistic — although, you know, I’m fairly full of it.”

He balances merry abandon with reality. When he sings of the freedom of quitting his job, he’s quick to add that he may now have to live on rice and potatoes too. He captures flitting moments with friends at breakfast and manages to make some serious critiques in a funny little song called “Monsanto Jones” — a tune that doesn’t have a home on a record yet but which you can check out on his MySpace page (myspace.com/oldmanluedecke). “The song basically tells the story of this kid being named Monsanto and then getting sued because his parents used the name and it was seen as a copyright infringement,” he explains. “It’s a bit ridiculous, but along the way I actually am able to point out a bunch of things I really don’t like about that company.”

“It would be nice to feel like I was going to get shut down or get hurt by it in some way, but I really don’t think that they have that kind of concern,” he continues. “I’m not sure they would ever feel terribly threatened by it.”

I don’t know. If one dollar can change a life, then couldn’t one voice change a company? Maybe.