Over the weekend, Winnipeg, Canada’s Winnipeg Folk Fest returned to Birds Hill Provincial Park. One of the event’s unique signature offerings is a series of artist workshops, where different artists collaborate during a full set of music–last year, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings teamed up with Robyn Hitchcock for one of these special sets and even ran through the Grateful Dead’s “Candyman.” This summer, longtime friends Sylvan Esso and Real Estate were paired together, with Hannah Cohen joining in as well.

The members of Sylvan Esso and Real Estate offered a selection of material from both of their catalogs, including the latter band’s “Paper Cuts,” a tune Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath recorded with the group on their 2020 album, The Main Thing. They also dusted off “Animal Tracks,” a song by Meath’s original folk project Mountain Man that Real Estate’s Alex Bleeker recorded on his 2009 Alex Bleeker and the Freaks album, backed by other members of his primary band. (Bleeker attended college with Mountain Man and recorded the song while they were all first gaining traction.) As a nod to their Canadian surroundings, Real Estate, Sylvan Esso and Cohen also joined together on a cover of Neil Young’s classic “Helpless,” a highlight of the show.  

Real Estate will appear at Huntington Beach, CA’s US Open of Surfing on July 31 while Sylvan Esso will perform at Burlington, VT’s Waterfront Park on the same day.