More coverage (photos, reviews) of Ottawa Bluesfest: The Lumineers, Leif Vollebek, The Summersets
[Ottawa Bluesfest is one of Canada’s premier outdoor summer music events. Melody Maloney (photos) and Karen Coughtrey (reviews) were there again for us on yet another night. – AC]
Night 4 of Ottawa Bluesfest (Sunday 12 July) capped off a beautiful hot sunny day with a refreshing breeze off the Ottawa River and folk rock on the mainstage, featuring Summersets, Leif Vollebeck https://www.leifvollebekk.com/ and headliners The Lumineers. Evidently, many in Ottawa thought this was the perfect weekend ender as there were at least 30K people who attended this night of the festival at Lebreton Flats.
Summersets made a return to Bluesfest with an upgrade to opening the night on the main stage after playing an opening set on one of the side stages (River Stage) in 2024.
Summersets is Juno and Polaris prize nominated singer-songwriter Kalle Mattson and collaborator Andrew Sowka. The duo may be more well known now and are racking up the award nominations (Ontario Folk Music Award, Canadian Folk Music Award) but they are as endearing and funny and self-deprecating as ever. Jokes about being the mysterious performers behind upcoming and fellow bluesfest mainstage performers Angine de Poitrine and about lost love of former Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk were popular with the audience.
They have a new album coming soon “Pine Trees In A Perfect Row” and opened with their newest song, named for our beautiful country ‘Canada’ followed by other 2026 releases ‘Somewhere Gone’ and ‘Million Dollar Ticket.’
Their gentle, mellow harmonies and cottage/camping/lakeside/cross country road trip vibes, singing about themes that are relatable to most Canadians in these interesting, unprecedented times, provided a wonderful background soundtrack as the steadily growing crowd settled in for the evening. Like setting a campfire, they expertly built their set with the slowest, mellowest ones early on, building gradually to ones livelier in tempo as the evening progressed.
The members have ties to a few places in Ontario, Sault St Marie, Sudbury and Ottawa where Kalle started this project, inspired by the storytelling of John Prine, as a challenge to write a story of a couple from the time they met til one died all in one song which later became the basis for their debut album ‘Small Town Story.’ They shared that story and rounded out their set with songs from that album.
Next to take the stage was another artist with ties to Ottawa and also both Juno and Polaris Prize nominated, Leif Vollebeck. He now calls Montreal home but shared about growing up in Ottawa and remembered seeing the Killers on the stage on which he was now performing.
Leif kept the gentle mellow beachy vibes going, opening with songs from his 2024 album Revelation, ‘Rock and Roll’ and ‘Southern Star’ and was joined on stage by American and multi Grammy award winner steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar.
The set notably included a song for the hippies (those with crystals and gems in their pockets) ‘Moondog’ and after a very emphatic warning about being too cocky when surfing, a song for the surfer’s ‘Surfer’s Journal.’
The crowd continued to grow as the set built and the tempo increased slightly and he finished with songs off his 2019 album New Ways, ‘Apalachee Plain’ and ‘Hot Tears.’
Ottawa got cozy with their neighbours as the massive crowd assembled in front of the RBC mainstage for the night’s headliners The Lumineers, who would not disappoint managing to play 18 songs for the eager audience.
They marvelled at the size of the crowd, even declaring it was the largest crowd they’ve ever played for, whether that is true or not, that from their viewpoint, it was a truly impressive sizable assembly of fans, the park was packed, is fact. They made sure they could get as close as possible with the fans and had a catwalk added to the front of the usual stage set up, and even came off the stage to walk among the huge adoring crowd during ‘Brightside’.
They opened with the first track of their newest album Automatic ‘Same Old Song’ and then followed that with the first track off their self titled first album ‘Flowers In Your Hair.’ Surprisingly the set list did not seem to include their single released just this June ‘Old Lovers.’
They played all the favourites of course, shot confetti into the air and in a surprising move didn’t make the crowd wait til the end, playing mega hit ‘Ho Hey’ about a third of the way into their set.
Before their song ‘Asshole’ they toasted all the assholes, perhaps to the way too many “fans” in attendance choosing (because it’s an outdoor festival?) to talk loudly through their entire set making it hard for anyone else to hear the lyrics and wonderful anecdotes they likely were trying to share between songs. Not holding my breath but here’s hoping concert etiquette makes a return to Ottawa soon.
That said, for those feeling frustrated by the behaviour of those around them, the inclusion in the set of a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ was a good reminder to let it go and breathe and enjoy what you could hear of the show.
In a fun twist on the usual band introductions and a highlight of the night, they each took a turn taking over the vocals for a verse in ‘Big Parade.’ This was followed by ‘Cleopatra’ and ‘Stubborn Love’ and then sadly the night was over and the large crowd was left with the challenging task of dispersing into the warm Ottawa night.
The Lumineers
Wesley Schultz – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
Jeremiah Fraites – drums, percussion, keyboards, guitar, mandolin, sampler, backing vocals
Stelth Ulvang – piano, keyboards, accordion, mandolin, guitar, percussion, backing vocals
Byron Isaacs – bass, guitar, backing vocals
Brandon Miller – guitar, mandolin, percussion
Lauren Jacobson – strings, piano, backing vocals
