Brenda Hansen, with her brother Dwayne and Kenny Hanuse, greeted the audience of Love Fest 2024 with the ‘Klahoose Welcome Song.’ (You can listen to it, sung in the ʔayʔaǰuθəm language, in the podcast version of this story.)
Close to 700 people purchased tickets, performed, or were at the event on Saturday August 10. Cortes Currents went backstage to interview some of the performers and record clips of their music.
Continue reading Stories from Lovefest 2024
(The second in a series of interviews with Ann Mortifee)
Ann Mortifee seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough few artists even dream of, when she left the music industry in 1975. EMI Records had just produced her second album and set up a world tour.
Yet Ann’s inner voice clearly stated, “if you go down this path, you will not fulfill your destiny.”
She resisted at first, but finally told her music director, “I’m leaving music, and I’m going on a pilgrimage.”
Continue reading Ann Mortifee part 2: A 3 year pilgrimage & returnAnn Mortifee is probably the most famous musician on Cortes Island, which is more of a compliment than it sounds like because there are a lot of talented musicians on Cortes. However from the start of our interview, it was apparent this story was about a lot more than singing. I had this bizarre feeling to lead with the question, ‘When did you start becoming Ann Mortifee?’
Her answer came out of the memories of a 4-years-old girl.
AM: “It happened maybe a hundred times in my childhood. I had the same dream. I’d be standing somewhere looking into a bedroom and there’d be someone lying in the bed. I’d go, ‘Oh no, I’m starting to dream of her again.’ Then I would get this anxious feeling, ‘I’m going to get stuck there in the dream and I’m going to believe it’s real.’ This dream gets more and more upsetting to me. I can feel myself starting to fall asleep and that I’m in a dream.”
Continue reading Ann Mortifee: ‘Dreaming I am Ann’
