The Space Between the Songs: James Keelaghan and the Art of Festival Curation

By Stevie Connor | The Sound Cafe Journal

Photo Credit: Anne Connor.

The Space Between the Songs: James Keelaghan and the Art of Festival Curation

How one conversation backstage in New Brunswick led to more than a decade of Summerfolk, lasting friendships, extraordinary music and a front-row seat to the often invisible art of bringing the right artists together.

There are moments in life that don't necessarily feel important when they happen.

A conversation.

A chance meeting.

An invitation.

Only years later do you look back and realize that something seemingly simple set you off in a direction you could never have anticipated.

For me, one of those moments happened backstage at a festival in New Brunswick.

James Keelaghan was performing. We were there doing what we did in those days with Blues & Roots Radio, talking to artists, sharing their stories and trying to build something that was still finding its place in the wider music community.

Somewhere during that backstage conversation, James took an interest in what we were doing.

Then came a suggestion.

Why didn't we send him an email and come along to Summerfolk?

It seemed like a simple invitation.

More than a decade later, I can honestly say it was anything but.

It opened a door.

And behind that door was not simply another festival.

It was a community.

Walking Into a Story Already Half a Century in the Making

By the time Blues & Roots Radio made its first journey to Summerfolk, we were stepping into a story that had already been unfolding for decades.

Summerfolk has been bringing artists, audiences, volunteers, artisans and communities together for more than half a century. What began in 1975 has grown into one of Canada's enduring folk and roots gatherings, returning annually to Kelso Beach at Nawash Park on the shores of Georgian Bay in Owen Sound.

Today, the festival remains about far more than individual performances. Its mission speaks of outstanding musical experiences, educational workshops and opportunities for collaboration, three things that, for me, have always been central to what makes Summerfolk different.

When James invited us to come and do what we did, he wasn't simply offering us an opportunity to cover another event.

He was inviting us into a story that had already been written by generations of artists, volunteers, audiences and friends.

At the time, of course, I had no idea where that one invitation would eventually lead.

Someone Opened a Door

Without James Keelaghan, I would probably never have had access to many of the artists I have spoken to over the years.

That isn't to diminish the work we did at Blues & Roots Radio, or the work we continue to do today with The Sound Café Journal.

We built relationships.

We earned trust.

We turned up.

We did the work.

But sometimes, somewhere along the way, another person recognises what you are trying to build and opens a door.

James opened one for us.

By inviting us to Summerfolk and welcoming us into that community, he gave us access to conversations and artists we might never otherwise have encountered.

We interviewed artists backstage.

We sat down with musicians whose work we had admired.

We discovered artists who were entirely new to us.

And then, year after year, some of those artists came back.

We would meet again, often picking up a conversation almost as though the previous year had only been yesterday.

Somewhere along the way, Summerfolk stopped being simply another festival we attended.

It became part of our lives.

Today, we consider The Sound Café Journal to be part of the Summerfolk community.

Every year, we return to familiar faces.

Friends we may not have seen since the previous Summerfolk.

Artists we first met through the festival who are back with new music, new projects and new stories.

And then there are the artists who are completely new to us.

That is part of the magic.

The familiar remains, but there is always something waiting to be discovered.

Photo Credit: Anne Connor.

James Keelaghan Understands Artists Because He Is One

James Keelaghan has spent decades doing what many of the artists arriving at Summerfolk each year continue to do.

He has travelled.

He has performed.

He has stood on festival stages and in concert halls.

He has written songs rooted in history, people and the human stories that connect us.

And he has spent a lifetime moving through the folk and roots community, not simply as an observer, but as one of its most respected artists.

That matters.

Because James understands artists from the inside.

He knows the life.

He knows the circuit.

He understands what it means to arrive at a festival and share a stage with someone you may have only just met.

He understands that artists are more than names on a poster.

They bring personalities, experiences, histories, humour and their own particular ways of seeing the world.

Perhaps that is why he has developed such a remarkable instinct for putting them together.

James has served as Summerfolk's Artistic Director since 2011. Over those years, his own experience as a touring, Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter has been brought to bear on one of the most important parts of building a festival: not simply deciding who should appear, but imagining what might happen when artists meet.

Booking Is One Thing. Curation Is Something Else

Booking brings artists to a festival.

Programming decides where and when they perform.

But curation is something more.

A great festival lineup can be assembled by booking great artists.

But a great festival experience requires something else entirely.

It requires an understanding that artists are not simply names on a poster or forty-five-minute slots on a schedule.

They are personalities.

Histories.

Musical languages.

Different generations.

Different experiences.

Different ways of seeing the world.

The real skill lies in understanding what might happen when those worlds meet.

Two great artists can be placed together and produce a perfectly competent performance.

But put the right artists together and something else happens.

There is laughter.

There are stories.

Someone sings a song they hadn't planned to sing.

Another musician responds.

A harmony appears.

And an audience suddenly becomes aware that it is witnessing something that exists only in that moment.

There is no spreadsheet that can measure chemistry.

No algorithm can guarantee that two artists will connect.

You cannot schedule spontaneity.

But you can create the conditions where it has the chance to happen.

And over more than a decade of attending Summerfolk, I have watched James Keelaghan do exactly that.

Alberta Bound

Sometimes, you don't have to look back through a decade of festival memories to find an example.

Sometimes the evidence is sitting right in front of you.

On Saturday morning at Summerfolk 51, James himself took to the Down by the Bay stage for a workshop called Alberta Bound.

Joining him were Tom Phillips and the D.T.'s and Jenny Allen.

Three Alberta acts.

One stage.

One hour.

And one of those Summerfolk moments that will stay with me.

On paper, you could describe it simply as a workshop bringing together artists from the same province.

But what happened on that stage was something much more than that.

For an unforgettable hour, the music flowed.

The stories flowed.

There was chemistry.

There was humour.

There was the obvious joy of artists sharing a stage and responding to one another.

And the audience loved it.

I did too.

It was, for me, a perfect and immediate example of something I have been watching James do for years.

He understands the individual artist.

But he also seems to possess an innate ability to understand what might happen between artists.

That space between the songs.

The moment when one voice responds to another.

When musicians find common ground.

When the original plan gives way to spontaneity.

When a carefully curated idea becomes something that neither the audience nor, perhaps, even the artists could have entirely predicted.

The Alberta Bound workshop was unforgettable.

But it was also revealing.

Because James wasn't simply standing behind the scenes, pairing other artists together.

He was sitting there himself.

Part of the musical conversation.

And perhaps that is part of what makes him so good at this.

He doesn't just understand the mechanics of a festival.

He understands what it feels like to be in the middle of the music.

The Invisible Art Behind the Festival

Over the years, I have watched workshops featuring artists who, at first glance, might not appear to be obvious companions.

Different musical backgrounds.

Different generations.

Different personalities.

Different approaches to songwriting.

And yet, somehow, they work.

Sometimes brilliantly.

The audience sees the finished result.

What they don't always see is the thought that went into creating the possibility of that moment.

That, to me, is the invisible art of festival curation.

It is recognizing that an artist's contribution to a festival isn't confined to their own set.

It can also be found in what they might bring to someone else's song.

Their humour.

Their stories.

Their musical instincts.

Their history.

Their willingness to take a chance.

James appears to understand that instinctively.

Perhaps that comes from having spent a lifetime in the middle of this world.

He knows the artists.

He knows the circuit.

And, perhaps most importantly, he understands that some of the greatest moments at a festival are not necessarily the ones printed in bold on the poster.

Sometimes they happen when artists who might never otherwise have shared a stage are given the opportunity to do exactly that.

More Than Music

There is another side to this story.

Community.

Summerfolk is built around music, but its heart is people.

Artists.

Volunteers.

Crew.

Artisans.

Families.

Audience members.

Friends.

At first, we came to do a job.

We brought microphones, cameras and questions.

We interviewed artists.

We covered performances.

We did what Blues & Roots Radio did.

But gradually, something changed.

We started returning to familiar faces.

People we hadn't seen since the previous Summerfolk.

Artists we had interviewed years earlier.

Friends made somewhere between the stages, backstage areas and the conversations that seem to happen almost accidentally at festivals.

And then, every year, there is someone new.

An artist we haven't met.

A voice we haven't heard.

A story waiting to be told.

That is one of the reasons Summerfolk never feels like the same festival twice.

The community remains.

But it continues to grow.

And over the years, we have grown with it.

Photo Credit: Anne Connor.

The Space Between the Songs

Perhaps that is what I have come to understand after more than a decade.

The best moments at a festival are not always the ones you can plan for.

Sometimes they happen backstage.

Sometimes in a workshop.

Sometimes on a stage where a group of artists suddenly discover that they have more in common than anyone expected.

Sometimes they happen in the space between one song and the next.

A shared laugh.

An unexpected story.

A musician responding to another musician.

An audience recognising that it is witnessing something that will never happen in quite the same way again.

For me, the Alberta Bound workshop was one of those moments.

James Keelaghan, Tom Phillips and the D.T.'s, and Jenny Allen.

An hour of music that worked because the artists worked.

A celebration of Alberta that felt completely at home on a stage overlooking Georgian Bay.

And another reminder of the particular talent James has for bringing people together.

But this story is personal too.

Because more than a decade ago, I met James backstage at a festival in New Brunswick.

We talked about Blues & Roots Radio.

He saw what we were trying to do.

And he suggested that we send him an email and come to Summerfolk.

It was a simple gesture.

But sometimes simple gestures change things.

That invitation opened the door to artists I might never otherwise have met.

It led to interviews, stories and friendships.

It gave us access to a community that, over time, became part of our own story.

Today, Blues & Roots Radio may be part of our history, but the journey it began continues through The Sound Café Journal.

And every year, when we return to Summerfolk, we reconnect with friends.

We sit down with artists we have known for years.

We discover new ones.

We tell stories.

And somewhere between the music, the conversations and the familiar faces, it no longer feels as though we are simply arriving to cover a festival.

We are returning to a community.

Not simply that James Keelaghan invited us to Summerfolk.

But that, more than a decade later, we still feel welcome there.

All because of a conversation backstage.

One artist.

One invitation.

And a simple suggestion.

Come along.

More than a decade later, we're still coming.

And somehow, every year, Summerfolk feels a little more like coming home.

About Summerfolk

Summerfolk Music & Crafts Festival has been a fixture of Owen Sound's cultural landscape since 1975. Held annually on the third weekend in August at Kelso Beach at Nawash Park, the festival brings together music, workshops, artisans, volunteers and community. Its stated mission includes creating outstanding musical experiences, educational workshops and opportunities for collaboration.

Summerfolk's 2026 edition, Summerfolk 51, continues that tradition.

About James Keelaghan

James Keelaghan is a Juno Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter whose career has taken him to stages and festivals across Canada and internationally. A respected songwriter and performer, his work has long drawn on history, people and the stories that connect us.

Since 2011, he has also brought that lifetime of experience as a touring artist to his role as Artistic Director of Summerfolk, helping shape not only who appears at the festival, but the musical conversations and collaborations that can happen when the right artists are brought together.

Summerfolk Music & Crafts Festival

James Keelaghan Official Website

Photo Credit: Anne Connor.