“I'll be a newbie,” the Nova Scotia-born, California-based folk singer tells Barrie Today. “The festival has a great reputation and I've always had it on my bucket list so needless to say, I'm thrilled to be a part of it.”
And Steve will be sharing his “good old-fashioned, singalong songs” with him to Tudhope Park.
“I think there's always a place for live entertainment. People have tough lives full of difficult challenges and they have lots of choices. If you're providing medicine for the soul, then folks will keep returning. It depends what you're putting out. We vibrate and we are magnets.”
Poltz first made his mark on the music scene with a band called the Rugburns, which made its inroads largely through an old Irish pub in California.
”I searched around San Diego and approached the owner of Kelly's Pub. He didn't have live music and was open to the idea. It was really important to me that we found a place that didn't have a scene at all. We wanted to make it our own. So we started playing every Friday night. I think it lasted for three years.
“By the end of our run, the place was packed and the newspaper had featured us on the front page of the arts section and we got a record deal."
And the heat from the Rugburns caught on.
“Other bands would show up because there was this audience and we would bring our friends up to be special guests. It was pure and joyful. I have fond memories.”
And Poltz has always been supportive of other artists, even the ones growing a bit long in the tooth. A few years ago, Steve got on the radio in Las Vegas and unleashed what sounded like a rant against former teen idol David Cassidy. For sure, it made waves, but Steve says he didn’t mean anything serious by it.
“I love David,” he says, which is particularly poignant in light of the former Partridge front man’s recent admission he has dementia. “That whole rant was just for entertainment purposes. That whole Las Vegas story was crazy. He was actually super nice. I wish him well.”
And, not to drop names, but Steve could also be heard singing alongside Jewel in the mid-1990s on her smash hit You Were Meant for Me. Poltz waxes lyrical about the Alaskan chanteuse.
“She's got that thing. That star quality. Nothing was going stop her momentum. You could be sitting around a fire passing a guitar and trading songs and she would just blow everyone away. Her voice is so strong and pure.
And Steve Poltz is issuing an invite of his own to Ms. Kilcher. “I wish she would go out and play small festivals. Go back to her roots. I think it would be good for her.”
For nearly 30 years, Steve Poltz has only wanted to play music, and hopes that comes through everywhere he plays, Mariposa and beyond.
“I receive energy form the crowd, energy and love. Hopefully I reciprocate. Hopefully, I ruffle feathers and inspire dialogue. That's all I have; my hands, my voice and my songs and stories. You can't touch them but you can hear them. It's magic. I try not to over-think it. I just do it. I'm very fortunate and grateful that I have this opportunity.
The 57th edition of the Mariposa Folk Festival runs July 7, 8, 9 at Tudhope Park in Orillia.
For more information, click http://www.mariposafolk.com.
