Artists Hozier, Jeff Rogers and X Ambassador astound the audience away when wrapping up the final night of Ottawa’s CityFolk Festival 2023
On Sept. 17 at CityFolk, all of the life in the city of Ottawa was at the TD Stadium. The night started with Jeff Rogers and his band’s salute to Ray Charles at the Courtside stage. The swoony mix of blues and jazz was entrancing as the 12 piece band supported the crisp and emotional voice of Rogers.
There were many people sitting in the chairs in the center of the audience floor, and others swayed with friends and loved ones at the outer edges of the audience. When the lyrics “Time stood still” were sung, it was the truest thing that could be said at that moment. Members of the band were each given a moment for a solo and their talent was extraordinary. Ray Charles’s music is soulful and timeless, and this was captured in the magical performances of Jeff Rogers and his band.
Next, I saw X Ambassadors on the main stage with a large and engaging crowd. They were an incredibly lively band and had the audience dancing. My favourite song was “Friend For Life” which Sam Harris introduced as embodying the importance of friendship. The audience loved Sam; he danced as he let the music flow through him, which resulted in his free-feeling moves.
Although the entire band was amazing, Sam Harris’s voice was stunning. Any audience member could tell that he was challenging himself and viewers were rewarded as he reached all of the high notes with strength.
They performed a variety of their discography including “Renegades”, “Unsteady”, “Ahead of Myself”, “Hey Child” and “Zen”. They will definitely be added to my playlists.
The last event of the night was singer-songwriter Hozier. He welcomed the crowd with compliments of his love for the beautiful city of Ottawa and the show was off to a great start. The audience was engaged with the beautiful sound that Hozier and his band gave as the dance moves of crowd members were bashful and lyrics were screamed. One of my favourite moments was when he played “Cherry Wine” and the audience roared as they recognized the opening guitar chords. The song was quiet and everyone sang along.
My top moment was when Hozier played my most loved song, “Francesca”, off of his new album, Unreal Unearth. Just like the previous artists, Hozier was nothing short of shy when it came to his vocals. You could tell, even from miles away, that he put his whole heart into every moment of the whole performance.
He played a variety of his work, including “Eat Your Young”, “Take Me To Church”, “Work Song”, “Someone New” and “Jackie and Wilson”. This continued when an encore was called and 3 more songs were played.
During the last few songs, Hozier took a trans flag from an audience member and hung it in solidarity on his microphone stand.
At the end of the performance, Hozier gave a big thank you to each individual member of his crew. These were not your casual ‘thank yous’, but a deep and sincere acknowledgment of the work of at least 13 members of his crew. After his amazing performance, the audience’s screams and claps were a way of thanking Hozier himself for the night he gave us.
