Kensington Hillbillies arranged by countryness of shirt.

Kensington Hillbillies arranged by countryness of shirt.

I’ve been having a look at the new lineup releases, and one name jumped out at me: Kensington Hillbillys. It struck me as fitting, for a few reasons: Kensington is a suburb in my hometown that you need a million dollars to buy a falling-to-pieces renovation prospect or a postage stamp sized soulless condo, harking to the original fishes out of water, the Beverly Hillbillies. This collective of cowboys and country bumpkins hail from Toronto, in Canada. A long way from the country sound they do so well. The other reason it struck me as fitting was half of Kensington is built on the site of an old abattoir, something that oft enough the lives of country folk are inescapably attached to. And certainly something I wouldn’t pay a million bucks for.

Having had a search I found that while Steve Ketchen and his rabble collective first plucked their strings together over ten years ago, their music is quite hard to track down on YouTube. No matter, a look at their MySpace page (does anyone use myspace for anything else these days?) found me four more of their tunes. Having a listen, I can confidently say that their slot on Naeba Shokodo on the Friday at 8:40pm may well be one of the shows of the weekend. If you haven’t seen a show at Naeba Shokodo yet, I can only say one thing: Do it! This stage is one of the gems of the festival. With connections to both Union Dues and Dodge Fiasco, two Toronto bands that play rap and rock respectively (both infused with more than a little country sound), as well as roots band Crybaby, this outlet is a much purer country, or perhaps bluegrass, sound. Maybe not quite bluegrass, but there definitely seems to be some influence there.

You’ll be able to catch them the following day at Mokudotei (on the boardwalk) at 2:50pm, another stroke of programming genius. Failing that, try Gypsy Avalon at 7:30pm on the Sunday. I would suspect these are the type of guys that will pop up here and there elsewhere over the weekend too. I’m keeping my eyes on the late Friday night spot in the Palace of Wonder tent. I’d kill to see this band in there!