If I MUST see live music, there is no better venue than outdoors on Prince’s Island at the Calgary Folk Music Festival.
The headliner on Friday night in 2006 was Macy Gray.
Gray’s profane show was sloppy. Her vocals slurred and often lost in the mix. I was disappointed. The only highlights were her two funky backup singers.
Moreover, some drunk girl tripped over me. Then cursed me as a poor fan for not standing throughout her show. (Is it impossible to enjoy music while sitting?)
Gray was booed in 2001 after forgetting the words to the American national anthem. I have to assume she is no one I would want to know in real life.
I love Macy Gray’s recorded music. But thumbs down on the live show.
Rick McCharles 
Hey, I saw that same show! Granted, no drunk stumbled over me, but the music had me up and dancing. There was a long diatribe on various ways of using the word “fuck” that I could have easily missed and which my 12-year old couldn’t believe could come from a fully grown adult, and I was a little disappointed to discover that she was lip-synching on her big hit “I Try” but maybe by then, she was just mailing it in. All in all, I was glad to see her, and had a good time, though I thought it could have been better. I was interested to see that she was much bigger than I had imagined. I’d guess a full six feet tall.
Far better though were TWO of the preceding acts. First, Robbie Fulks, from Illinois, who presented offbeat lyrics and blistering technique in a straight-ahead country delivery. Unlike Macy Gray, whose show I suspect will be almost identical regardless of where she’s playing, Fulks’s show depended on the way he fed off the audience, who in truth were right in the palm of his hand. I was intrigued, bought the CD, and am loving it, though I am usually not a country guy. Second, Jeff Healey’s Jazz Wizards, a 10-member ensemble headed by Ontario’s Jeff Healey, who played early jazz and had the audience hopping. Unlike Gray’s show, there was nothing superfluous to the music, but the band was tight, and the music great.