Live Music at BJ’s Creekside Pub

Posted on 2013-11-04 by Rod Wilson

TUCK’S TROUBADOURS at BJ’s Creekside Pub, Saturday October 26, 2013, 7:30pm

Surely they were exaggerating. Dave Carlson claimed that they hadn’t got together for a rehearsal since April. If that was the case it didn’t show in their performance. There were a couple of false starts on a tune here and there but apart from that they sounded like they were in top form. Tuck’s Troubadours is the finest country band in the area. Larry Tuck on bass ukelele (in place of Larry’s usual bass guitar) and vocals was in full voice, Doug Simpson on rhythm guitar was in fine form, as was Dave Carlson on vocals and mandolin, and Bud Decose on lead guitar was even better than his usual silky smooth self. That Eastman Arch Top Guitar that he plays is a visual and aural delight. Through out the evening they worked their way through an impressive list of songs and tunes that included Chasing the Neon Rainbow, Just Call me Lonesome, Rose of San Antonio (Bob Wills), The Great Divide (Kate Wolf), My Heart has a History, Green Wood (John Reischman), The Lonesome Fugitive (Merle Haggard), Last Kiss (Ricky Nelson), Satisfied with You (Hank Williams), Mary (Marty Robbins), Don’t Get Around Much any More (Duke Ellington), Folsom Prison Blues (Johnny Cash), Muddy River and the power house instrumentals Razza Ma Tazz Polka, Bucks Polka and a Brazilian tune we have come to know as Aqua Velva (only because we can`t pronounce the Portuguese name). As always, it was another night of an almost unlimited tour of the whole scope of country music played by this very tight knit (despite their disclaimers) musical unit.

OPEN MIC SESSION AT BJ’s CREEKSIDE PUB hosted by Fraser Armstrong, Saturday November 2, 2013, 7:30 pm

SERENDIPITY (noun: the faculty of discovering pleasing or valuable things by chance – The New Penguin English Dictionary) is what it is all about. Open Mic sessions are serendipitous opportunities for memorable music. It doesn’t always happen but in this instance it did. Fraser Armstrong was the host and the anchor for a number of musicians that included Barry Jacklin, Alphonse Joseph, Jon Bisset, Sam Hornberger and Darin Welch. Fraser with his marvelous tenor voice, foot operated percussion, back up and lead guitar set the tone of the evening and when others stepped onto the stage it was the icing on the cake. Everyone was at the top of their game but there should be special mention made of Daren Welch`s performance. Darin played original material that included Pretty Water, Wilderness (his backyard) and a new tune that was so fresh of the press that it still needs a title. Together Darin and Fraser sounded like they had been aggressively rehearsing for months. The truth of the situation is that they only met for the first time when Darin stepped onto the stage. How do they do that? My head is still shaking with disbelief.

Here are some images from the evening:

Thanks go to Fraser for hosting the evening and also thanks to BJ`s staff (Shannon, Clare and Shelby) and, on a parting note, a little piece of trivia – serendip is an ancient name for Sri Lanka (I have no idea if that has anything to do with anything).

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Home Grown Coffee House – the first of the season

Posted on 2013-10-22 by Rod Wilson

Home Grown Coffee House, Saturday October 19, 2013, 8pm at Centre 64 in Kimberley.For over 30 years Kimberley’s Home Grown Music Society has presented regular Coffee House performances at Centre 64 during the winter season. Once again the season kicked off with a batch of local performers most of whom can be called Local (more than 10 years residency in the area) and most of whom have performed on this stage in the past. The line up for the evening

included Alphonse Joseph (Vocals and Guitar),Terry Mackam (Vocals and Piano), Sound Principle (Barbershop Quartet), Jim Marshall (Guitar and Vocals), Bill Renwick (Guitar and Vocals), Emilio Regina (Piano and Vocals), Karly Ross (Spoken Word, Vocals and Guitar) and Alex Buterman (Vocals and Guitar). To start the evening Alphonse broke with his usual blues inflected material to perform an original “down home” Cape Breton piece called Spirits of the Coal, followed by the Dobie Grey

standard Drift Away, and the two originals Tell Me that You Love Me and Just Your Fool. Following a technical glitch Terry Mackham abandoned his electric keyboard in favor of the old upright. He performed a Neil Young classic, also an arrangement of Christina Rosetti’s Who Has Seen the Wind and some “anti-devil” music the Gospel tune And Glory Shone Around. The Barbershop Quartet (Michael, Gert, Joel and Rolly) started their set with Hi Neighbour, followed by a medley of Gospel Tunes, a song from way back when cowboys were cowboys (1890) Ragtime Cowboy Joe, and the two final songs, Once Upon a Time and An Irish Blessing. Jim Marshall appears to have moved back to this area on a more permanent basis. Permanent enough to invest in the renovation of a music room

in his house. In this new comfort zone he has been hard at work writing and practicing such tunes as Light Cafe, Anticipation,

My I-Phone, and Hard Times all for our enjoyment on this fall evening at the Home Grown Coffee House. Bill Renwick has an affection for the songs of John Prine and Neill Young so John’s comic piece Please Don’t Bury Me was an appropriate opening song, followed by Neil Young’s classic Old Man. As evidenced by the songs Hold me in Your Arms Tonight and Baby You’re the One Bill also writes some pretty strong material. He finished his set with an original blues called I’m Gone, Gone. Emilio Regina did covers of Bruce Springsteen’s One Step , Two Steps Back and also a Bob Dylan tune. Karly Ross is neither black, urban or anti- feminine so I guess her opening piece could not be called rap music. It was a spoken word performance more in keeping

with “the slam poets”. The piece was untitled so I have taken it upon my self to dub (no pun intended, well maybe yes it is intended) to title the piece The Dating Game. She followed this marvelous piece of rhetoric with a couple of original songs. Alex Buterman was the closing act of the evening with Ain’t no Sunshine when she’s Gone, 60 Days, Listen to the Music, and a Bluegrass original entitled Bubbly Water.

So ends another fine night of music. The Next Home Grown Coffee House will Be November 30, 2013. Tickets are available from the Snowdrift Cafe and Centre 64.

LOCALS / SOLD OUT

Posted on 2013-10-14 by Rod Wilson

LOCALS COFFEE HOUSE – THE FIRST OF THE SEASON, October 12, 2013, 7:30pm at the Studio / Stage Door, Cranbrook

This was a very auspicious start to the season – LOCALS Coffee House played to a sold out house on Saturday night. The local musicians, from novices to the most seasoned veteran of the coffee house circuit, were all set for the night’s activities. Dennis Kerr (vocals and guitar) moved to area recently and he kicked off the night with songs about his new found East Kootenay experiences. Songs such as I Am Getting Sick of it , Bull River Mosquitoes, Fort Steele and Dean Brodie’s Brothers. Shauna Plant is a well known local performer in The Rosie Brown Band who played a little later in the evening. In the meantime her children are seeking to displace her as the premier musician in the family. Her son Isaac was joined by his sister Meaghan and her friend Morgan Bulloch (the back up vocalists who will henceforth be known as the M&M’s) for a set of Josh Ritter songs that included Joy to You Baby, Certain Light and Kathleen. There is a rumour going around that Issac has resorted to sticking screw drivers into power outlets to get his hair into such tip top shape. The Rosie Brown Band was one member short for their performance. Their dobro player and fellow vocalist, Heather Gemmell, was way off in the boonies on a hiking trip. The gorgeous vocal ensemble is the signature ingredient of their sound and that remained intact for Long Gone and Cosima Wells’ showpiece Oh Suzanna. Janice Nickli on upright bass, Paige Lennox on banjo and Shauna Plant on mandolin shared the instrumental solo chores. The band member were obviously enjoying them selves. Steve Lungall, otherwise known as Pot Luck Steve, with the aid of his beautiful assistants, Shelagh Redecopp and Shauna Plant did the little one scene performance of the Drunken Scotsman and his prized “member”. Also on the racy side was the Grit Laskin song The Photographers. To ensure that we were not all destined for a quick trip to hell Steve finished his set with a Gospel song. Larry MacKenzie is a long time song writer and guitarist and over the years has been a staple on the local music scene. In his domestic life Larry tends to over build so when he started building a new wood shed he didn’t realize how much he over built until his wife appropriated the building to use as a car port. Never-the-less he took time off from these construction chores and hooked up with bass player Ferdy Belland to stroll though some of his original material. There was some choice slide guitar on one particular tune. The songs included A Day at a Time, Be a Good Little Boy, A Ha Ha Road, and My Shoes. The last act of the evening was Sheva (Van and Shelagh Redecopp) with Steve Jones on upright bass and young Drew Lyle on vocals and mandolin. With a whole new batch of songs that included Next Go Round (Old Crow Medicine Show), Flowers in Your Hair, Trials and Troubles, Stubborn Love and and a wonderful fiddle instrumental called Midnight on the Water. The instrumental was in the unusual fiddle tuning of DDAD. The highest compliment I can pay to any performer is one “where the music takes me some where else”. It doesn’t happen often, in fact the last time was at a concert by the clawhammer banjo player Chris Coole, but on Saturday night Sheva took me way, way out there. Great job guys. As always the volunteers make LOCALS possible and thanks must go to all of those behind the scenes for creating a such wonderful evening. Here are some images from the night.

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La Cafamore presents Celebrated Trios

Posted on 2013-10-07 by Rod Wilson

La Cafamore presents Celebrated Trios at the Knox Presbyterian Church, Saturday October 5, 7:30 pm.

How did she do it? In that day and age the idea of “career woman”, if it ever occurred at all, would have been considered an oxymoron. But Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was a single mother with 7 children and a busy concert career and she did manage to survive as a “working mother”. Of course, something had to go and in her case it was the demanding avocation of composer. Still, there are compositions of her’s out there. Case in point. La Cafamore (Carolyn Cameron – Violin, Nina Horvath – Piano and Alexis Moore – Viola) performed the Scherzo from the Piano Trio, Op.17 in concert at the Knox Presbyterian Church on Saturday. It is an interesting piece, somewhat jazzy in texture with rhythmic syncopations somewhat reminiscent of early ragtime. This is a composition that probably predates the compositions of the the flamboyant American pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk who started experimenting with indigenous American musical motives in the mid to late 19th century.

In classical chamber music the Piano Trio is usually piano, cello and violin. La Cafamore’s usual cello player (Jeff Faragher) was not available, so after arranging some suitable transcriptions of the cello part, Alexis Moore, on Viola, substituted for Jeff. The Viola and the Cello are an octave apart but are tuned the same way (CGDA) so the implementation of the substitution was possible. So with this configuration the group tackled Joseph Haydn’s Trio in G and Beethoven’s Trio in Bb (The Archduke). Alexis felt that the major challenge, surprisingly was not the Beethoven, but rather the Haydn trio. The music in this concert is what I call “music in the middle”. Joseph Haydn had left behind the the polyphonic complexities of the Baroque period to pursue a clearer compositional style. In what became known as the Classical era he was followed by Mozart and, to some extent, Beethoven. In the latter, elements of the gathering histrionic storm of the Romantics were on the horizon. The coming shift in music finally matured into the complexity of the late romantics. There you have it – from complexity to clarity and onto further complexity, ie. “music in the middle”. So in keeping with “music in the middle” this was an enjoyable program of clear, precise compositions by masters of the Classical period, Haydn and Beethoven, with a little taste of the exotic in the music of Clara Schumann. Just my cup of tea.

This particular concert was part of La Cafamore’s fall tour that included performances in Silverton, Rossland, Fernie, Invermere, Cranbrook, Crawford Bay and Nelson and was supported by the Columbia Basin Trust and The Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance. Dr. R.J. Cameron and Drs. Jane and Rob Gray must also be thanked for their sponsorship of the tour and Pastor Ron for making this exceptional venue once again available to La Cafamore. This is undoubtedly the finest chamber music venue in the area.

Symphonic music performances are the major marque events that attract the most significant amounts of sponsorship support and money. I think Carolyn Cameron and her colleagues in La Cafarmore, The Selkirk Trio and The Kootenay Brass Quintet should be more than commended for their unflagging efforts, without major corporate sponsorship, to get quality music out in front of local audiences. Over the past few years we have been treated to some stellar performance of music that are somewhat off the beaten track. It is extraordinary that we have managed to hear live performances of George Crumb’s Black Angels, and Steve Reich’s Different Trains, just to mention two, here in the small communities of the Kootenays. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

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They are back at the Ravens Roost

Posted on 2013-09-05 by Rod Wilson

Bill St. Amand’s Open Mic Session at The Ravens Roost – Kimberley Golf Club, August 30, 2013 6-9pm.

The days are starting to shorten already and this session wailed on into the shadows of the evening. It was another memorable session of music on the deck of the Kimberley golf club. The usual performers turned up (Bill St. Armand, Rod Wilson, Shayne and Maridee Rodrigues, Jon Bisset and Gary Jaclin). They were joined by Gordie Blake serving up his well seasoned interpretations of Gordon Lightfoot classics. The most anticipated returning performers were Connor Foote and Clayton Parsons. Since their last visit to the Ravens Roost Bill St. Amand has been under a constant barrage of requests to have them back on the deck. The duo has undergone a slight re-branding and are now performing under the name of THE STEAMBOAT HOLLERS. These two young performers are the latest link in a roots musical legacy that goes way back past the beginning of the twentieth century. Over the past 100 years there have been a number of illustrious performers who have left their mark on a musical genre that includes folk, blues, bluegrass classic jazz, western swing and country. The legendary performers that come to mind are Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Big Bill Broozy, Doc Watson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and in more recent times, Bob Dylan and John Prine. In the never ending quest for fame, fortune and popularity most the younger performers of today have strayed from the true path of music rooted in earthy values. Not so The Steamboat Hollers. Their music reeks of an authenticity based on their personal experiences and honed by the musical craft handed down from their families. Connor’s grandfather is Ed King, a Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductee. It is hard to believe that such young performers have so seamlessly assimilated the craft and the essence of such a fine musical tradition. Along with well crafted songs – Connor’s Family Re-union, and the recently written Glory Bound (it commemorates a trip to Vancouver and Seattle in search of the holy grail of a John Prine concert in, of all places a zoo). Besides Connor’s Table For One there is Clayton’s Sun Shines Down on Me.Through out the performance there was a sprinkling of covers tunes of John Prine (of course). In response to Connor’s claim to be looking for “the ultimate romantic John Prine song” a member of the audience responded with “that’s an oxymoron” and as quick as a whip Connor rose to the occasion with “what did you just call me?”. The duo is quick on their verbal feet, fleet of fingers on their instruments, have a wonderful relaxed stage presence and are thoroughly entertaining. Clayton Parsons deserve special mention for he seems to have nailed a very personal interpretation of the Big Bill Broonzy style of finger picking. His playing is clear, strong and very rhythmic. Connor is no slouch either and together they demonstrate that they are not just another couple of strummers capable of singing and writing interesting songs. This a duo destined to go onto bigger things.

Here are some more images from the evening.

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Dave Prinn and company at Summersounds

Posted on 2013-08-23 by Rod Wilson

VESTED INTERESTS (Dave Prinn & Bill Renwick) and D SQUARED (Dave Prinn and David Phillipe) at Summersounds, at Cranbrook Rotary Park, Saturday August 17, 2013, 12 noon.

The organizers of Summersounds would like to thank the sponsors of the event: Columbia Recycling, Kootenay Gradall, South Sierra Developments, Salvador Redi-Mix, Tundra Steel, Freightliner, White Oak Valley Contracting, BCGEU, Rocky Mountain Diesel, AquaPro Drilling, Cranbrook Farmer’s Market, Cranbrook District Arts Council, Cranbrook Rotary, Fiorentino Brothers and HD Kootenays.

This was the last official Summersounds concert in the park and mountains of thanks need to be sent to Jim Conley and Brian Noer for organizing the events and taking care of the sound. Many, Many thanks guys.

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A Pastoral Musical Scene at the Ravens Roost

Posted on 2013-08-19 by Rod Wilson

Bill St. Amand’s Open Mic Session at The Raven’s Roost – Kimberley Golf Club, August 9, 2013 6-9pm.

Once again the Open Mic session at the Kimberley Golf Club lives up to its reputation as the best musical venue of the summer. Great scenery, great food, great refreshment and great music and a very appreciative audience. In a previous post I miss spoke. Not knowing that they already had a well established brand name I dubbed the Datson / Rodrigues crew as the The Margarita Mixers. In reality on the ski hill they are known as THE HERD and on the band stand they are also known as THE HEARD. Despite crushing schedules and lots of travel time and miles THE HERD made it to the RAVENS ROOST in time for an early set before Shayne and his family had to shuffle back to Calgary. Also at this session the regular musicians, Bill St. Amand, Rod Wilson, Gary Jacklin and Jim Marshall were augmented by a performance by the well known local blues player Joseph Alphonse. Here are some more images from another memorable evening of music.

Thanks to Bill St. Amand, the musicians, patrons, staff and the master of good weather for another stellar evening. Tentative date for the next session is Friday August 30, 2013, 6-9pm.

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Heather Gemmell Band at Summersounds

Posted on 2013-08-04 by Rod Wilson

SATURDAY JULY 27, 2013, 12pm at Rotary Park (Cranbrook) SummerSounds featured THE HEATHER GEMMELL BAND.

Heather Gemmell – guitar and Vocals; Podier Atto – Drums; Brian Noer – Bass

What can one say? Every time this young lady steps on the stage she just gets better and better. Currently Heather and her band mates have begun the recording of a new CD and, I am sure the final product is something to look forward to. For this afternoon in the sun the band stepped through some of her originals (such as Bluesville, Lowball, Ready for Love, Change Me and The Heat) as well as some new tunes and also some covers such as the Beatles epic Come Together with its magnificent bass line. Here are some images from the afternoon (click for a larger view).

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Selkirk Trio at the Knox

Posted on 2013-08-01 by Rod Wilson

The Selkirk Trio at the Knox – A Reprise,Tuesday July 30th, 7:30 pm at the Knox Presbyterian Church in Cranbrook. The stage is set, let the music begin…………………. The Selkirk Trio members are Jeff Faragher from Nelson on Cello, Nicola Evererton from Rossland on Clarinet and Susan Gould from Golden on Piano. “Nothing beats a good tune”. Beethoven may not have said that but it is evident that he must have thought about it. For instance in the Piano trio in Bb major, Opus 11, he used a popular melody of the day as a basis for the composition. Along with the decision to replace the violin with clarinet in the traditional piano trio maybe it was, as we say these days ‘a marketing strategy ‘. As the opening performance piece in the Selkirk Trio’s concert this lively third movement, with its nine variations, was a winner. For this concert it established the trio’s classical credentials . This concert is somewhat a reprise of the previous year’s program that was designed to display the trio’s classical and Jazz “chops”. Classical credentials are in order, what about Jazz? For this the audience was called upon to test the warm turbulent Cuban waters of Paquito D’Rivera’s Afro. Paquito is a master Cuban clarinettist and Alto Sax player who has, at one time or another, dominated Cuban Jazz and Classical music. The rhythmic nature of the composition was re-enforced by the Jeff doing double duty on cello and Djembe (West African drum). The rhythmic possibilities of Cuban music were merely a taste test for the exotic Serbian Dance compositions of Croatian composer Marko Tajcevic. For the uninitiated this Serbian music should have been a complete revelation. Eighth rhythms (7/8, 11/8, 13/8 etc) are well known features of Balkan music and are prominent in these dances. Arthur Rubenstein was known to have played transcriptions of these compositions and his influence was very evident in Sue Gould’s lively accompaniment to Nicola Everton’s absolutely liquid clarinet playing. Once again Nicola bounced and oozed her way through the exotic odd meter eighth rhythms of this music that sounded like it came straight off the streets of Zagreb. Oscar Peterson is a classically trained Canadian pianist who is better known for his post-Art Tatum dominance of the jazz piano world. One of his famous pieces is Hoagy Carmichael’s Georgia on My Mind. Although written for his sister, the US State of Georgia has appropriated the piece as their state anthem. Now that would be a composers dream. Just think of the royalty checks. Sue Gould played a transcription of this famous Oscar Peterson performance piece. The modern composer Nino Roto is better known to audiences through his orchestral scores for The Godfather I & II. It is not his only claim to fame. He is a prolific composer who at his peak was producing 10 scores a year. The trio presented some selections from his chamber works. Mark Summer, is the Turtle Island Quartet‘s cellist; he is a founding member and has performed with Turtle Island (a.k.a. Turtle Island String Quartet) since its founding in 1985. Prior to that he was a resident of Winnipeg and performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In this piece Jeff Faragher gave full range to his aggressive percussive nature on a solo piece by Mark Summer entitled Julie-O. Back in the jazz bag with the trio with Nicola exploring the jazz standard I Got Rhythm. The trio returned to the streets of Cuba with Paquito D’Rivera’s Danzon. The evening concluded with Sue Gould and Nicola Everton giving full rein to their jazz inclinations on Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”. Jeff provided some wonderful percussive brushes on snare drum and hi-hat to give the tune the required propulsive jazz feel.The concert was a reprise of last year’s program but the trio put “live’ back into classical performances with their lively program of an interesting mix of new repertoire and re-interpretations. One can look forward, hopefully, to their next tour through the area.

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Here are some selections from YouTube that will give some sense of the Paquito D’Rivera’s compositions. AFRO DANZON

and also Mark Summer JULIE-O

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Ravens Roost – a slice of paradise

Posted on 2013-08-01 by Rod Wilson

Bill St. Amand’s Open Mic Session at The Raven’s Roost – Kimberley Golf Club, July 26, 2013 6-9pm

I don’t play golf. If the truth be known it was the reason I had to leave Australia. I neither played golf or drank enough beer. Both considered crimes against humanity or at least a distinct show of poor taste and bad manners. I chose Canada. After all it was the land of ice and snow and a non-golfer only had to fake it for half of the year. The rest of the time could be spent skiing. It is not that I dislike golf, after all I am married to a Scot, it is just that I have an addictive personality and I have seen what it has done to some of my friends; despondency when the game is not going well; unhappy wives coping with absent husbands, children left fatherless for inordinate lengths of time – but, perhaps, I exaggerate. By choosing not to play I have avoided the undesirable side effects of the game. Bill St. Amand on the other hand is an avid golfer and has managed to live a well adjusted life. He is what I call, “a high functioning golfer” that is he can play the game and live a normal life. To prove the point he has organized a series of open mic sessions at the Ravens Roost at the Kimberley Golf course. Bill assured me that golfers were not monsters and, by inviting me along it was at least, for me an opportunity to indulge my addiction to music in very pleasant surroundings. And that is has proven to be. This was the third of a very successful series of musical evenings. Some musicians who were there to dispense music to soothe the savage beasts included Bill St. Amand (of course), myself (Rod Wilson), Sam Hornberger and new faces Garry Jacklin and Jim Marshall. Bill’s chord melody approach to a number of well known melodies and songs is enjoyably familiar. I, myself, Rod Wilson introduced some original 12-string guitar music on an unsuspecting audience and later in the evening some Celtic songs and tunes on the Irish Cittern. Garry did the karoake thing as well as a solo set that had a couple of dancers up doing their thing. Jim Marshall is a master guitar player who has been wintering in Kamloops for the last few years and he is now back in Kimberley on a more permanent basis. I have played percussion with Jim on rare occasions in the past and his guitar playing and my percussion just seem to mesh when we get together. It was a real pleasure to once again play with Jim. So there we were on the deck of the Kimberly Golf course, kicking back, enjoying the food, refreshments, sunshine, shade, music and the great scenery. Yes, it is our little slice of paradise.

Every thing is getting a little fuzzy; either I have had to much sun, too much beer or to much golf………. or maybe Bill lied and this is what happens in paradise.

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Rod Wilson's Blog

Tag Archives: Local Performers

Live Music at BJ’s Creekside Pub

Home Grown Coffee House – the first of the season

LOCALS / SOLD OUT

La Cafamore presents Celebrated Trios

They are back at the Ravens Roost

Dave Prinn and company at Summersounds

A Pastoral Musical Scene at the Ravens Roost

Heather Gemmell Band at Summersounds

Selkirk Trio at the Knox

Ravens Roost – a slice of paradise