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Co C o nten nte n t s Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Mar - Apr 2012, Issue 91 ISSN 1918 -560x 91
Record Store Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 by LV nash
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Performing Behind Bars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 by LINda mcrae
CONTEST ALERT!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Songbirds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 by joanna chapman-smith
You’ve Got to Hear This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
BC Musician Magazine is published by Patanga Steamship Co. PO Box 1150 Peachland, BC V0H 1X0 604 999 4141 www.bcmusicianmag.com info@bcmusicianmag.com
by Barb Bruederlin
The Three-Legged Stool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 by CeLESTE DAVIDSON
Teaching at Bluegrass Camps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 by PHaris romero
AMP Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 by JANET ROGERS
Be the Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 - 26 by LV Nash & Meaghan cursons
CD Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-30 by bobby herron & staff
Publisher, Editor Leanne Nash lvnash@bcmusicianmag.com Community Partnerships Meaghan Cursons meg@bcmusicianmag.com Associate Publisher-at-Large Paul Crawford paul@bcmusicianmag.com Marketing, Sales, Distribution Joanne Layh jlayh@bcmusicianmag.com Graphic Design Joanne Layh, Shawn Wernig
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Cover Design Richard Chapman
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Con t ri b u to r s Janet Marie Rogers is Victoria’s Poet
Barbara Bruederlin is a freelance
writer in Calgary. She is trying to singlehandedly save the arts community in Canada by promoting struggling musicians and theatre troupes. Her reviews appear on the press pages of the Calgary Folk Music Festival and Sage Theatre. Barbara also maintains a blog, Bad Tempered Zombie. Her writing has been published in Prairie Fire Magazine, Swerve Magazine, Kitschykoo! Subcultural Magazine, and Alberta Views Magazine.
Bobby Herron spent six years as the
frontman of the ska band, The B-Sides. He’s played festivals, bars and parties from Portland to Eastern Europe. After three years as co-owner of Jo’s Bar in Prague and a job at Spinner Records in Vancouver, he has settled in the music mecca known as Cumberland, BC. He continues to write, record, produce and perform. He loves spaghetti, his wife and his daughter.
Linda McRae spent 8 years touring
the world with Platinum recording artists Spirit of the West. She has since released 3 critically acclaimed solo recordings and in 2007 was awarded a Canada Council Study Grant to work with Grammy winner Jon Vezner in Nashville, TN and clawhammer banjo aficionado Brad Leftwich in Bloomington, IN. Linda was married in a bail bonds office in Jackson, TN to James Whitmire, a retired donkey rancher-turned poet. They are working on a new CD of their own songs and a one-act play about how they met. www.lindamcrae.com
Joanna Chapman-Smith is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and performer with a flair for work that is unique and vast in scope. Since 2006, she has toured extensively throughout Canada and Europe and her latest CD, Contraries, saw her profiled on NPR in the USA in 2010. She is also the founder of the SONGBIRDS TRAVELLING MUSIC SCHOOL. Her upcoming release, Love Me Deeply hits BC later this year. Meaghan Cursons is a community
animateur and BC Musician’s newest multipurpose team member. She grew up at music festivals and community halls across BC - from Edgewood to Haida Gwaii - with many stops in between. She currently lends her passion to marketing cultural projects, organizing events, building community and general rabble rousing. She hangs her hat and makes a bit of music in the old coal town of Cumberland on Vancouver Island.
Celeste Davidson Classically trained
piano player, Celeste, and rock drummer husband, Ken, never expected that they would be playing back up to two awardwinning fiddlers - their own kids, Chloe & Kyle Davidson! Starting violin at the age of 3, the Kelowna siblings soon discovered the world of fiddle music, and it was love at first listen! www.chloeandkyle.com
4 BC Musician | March - April 2012
Laureate. A Mohawk/Tuscarora writer from the Six Nations band in southern Ontario. Born in Vancouver, she has been living on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people (Victoria) since 1994. Janet works in the genres of poetry, short fiction, spoken word performance poetry, video poetry and recorded poems with music and script writing. You can hear Janet on the radio hosting “Native Waves Radio” on CFUV 101.9fm Victoria and on Tribal Clefs music column every Tuesday with CBC Radio One throughout BC. www.janetmarierogers.com.
Richard Chapman has worked with a wide variety of great Canadian artists for nearly three decades - from the Rheostatics and Herald Nix to Moose Records and The Pointed Sticks. Currently he conducts the Northern Electric collective www. northern-electric.ca. Pharis Romero makes her home in Horsefly, BC. In between teaching at bluegrass, vocal and fiddle camps, she works as a banjo builder with her husband Jason in their homebased J. Romero Banjos workshop. They released their first duo CD, A Passing Glimpse, in 2011, and are looking forward to a summer of festivals and camps. In 2012 Keep an eye out for them at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Arts on the Fly (Horsefly, BC) and Artswells (Wells, BC), among others.
rec r ec or d sto r e day By L V Nash Everything is becoming ephemeral. Music is being housed in a “cloud.” Think about that for a minute. A recent Facebook posting*: “Drinking coffee and listening to Sticky Fingers on vinyl, good way to start the morning.” I love that, though I was curious, which issue of Sticky Fingers — the one with the functioning zipper? Music is easily dismissed as a aural experience. Or maybe dismissed isn’t fair, that is the end goal, after all. But don’t we need to feel it, too? Literally? Album art used to give you a visual cue as to what you were buying. Sometimes you would buy things you hadn’t heard because the album art told a story, or promised a story within. Sometimes this was disappointing, but more often exciting. Best of all, you could touch it, and quite often pull out a... poster or booklet or signed photo of John or Paul. Browsing the iTunes store by artist and song title doesn’t
have that same sense of anticipation. Sure, you get to listen to 1’ 30” to decide if you want to spend 99 cents on a single. Then you can get another single and another and another, or go to a web site and stream a custom playlist based on your genre interests. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. If, in the future, we only buy (or stream) what search engines find for us, based on our previous buying or listening patterns, it’s going to limit our brain’s ability to bend to new sounds. Keep this up, you lose the record store, lose the community, lose the intelligence behind the music, lose those quirky and clever people who can size you up in under a minute and 30 seconds and suggest something new, all without the help of a computer (except when they need to order new stock). This Record Store Day, and every day, consider what we stand to lose. Visit your local record shop and keep touching *Thanks, Todd Menzies! the product.
BC Musician | March - April 2012 5
r eecc o rd r d s tor e day Vancouver Audiopile 2016 Commercial Dr. Vancouver V5N 4A9 604 253 7453 www.audiopile.com help@audiopile.com 10% off new vinyl and 20% off used vinyl on RSD.
Dandelion Records 2442 Main St. Vancouver V5T 3E2 778 737 7367 dandelionrecords@gmail.com
RSD specials, 30% off all used vinyl. Bands playing next door all day at Guys and Dolls Billiards. Should have most RSD releases this year.
Highlife Records 1317 Commercial Dr. Vancouver V5L 3X5 604 251 6964 www.highlifeworld.com info@highlifeworld.com
Performances, sale items available, giveaways, prizes and more. Drop by and help celebrate Record Store Day.
Neptoon Records 3561 Main St. Vancouver V5V 3N4 604 324 1229 www.neptoon.com Email: ben@neptoon.com
The Islands
Red Cat Records 4332 Main St. Vancouver V5V 3P9 604 708 9422 www.redcat.ca redcatrecords@gmail.com
Live performances, sale, and Record Store Day releases.
Scratch Records 1 East Hastings St. Vancouver V6B 1M9 604 687 6355 www.scratchrecords.com
Vinyl Records 319 West Hastings St. Vancouver V6B 1H6 604 488 1234 www.vinylrecords.ca timepeacewarrior@hotmail.com Live music all day and everything will be on sale on RSD.
Black Raven Records 1294 Gladstone Ave. Victoria V8T 1G6 250 590 1033
Ditch Records & CDs 784 Fort St. Victoria V8W 1H2 www.ditchrecords.com ditchrecords@shaw.ca
Celebrating Record Store Day at a new location. Sale, door giveaways, new releases, live music.
Lyle’s Place 770 Yates St. Victoria V8W 1L4 250 382 8422 www.member.shaw.ca/lyles. place
Talk’s Cheap
Zoo Zhop Records 223 Main St. Vancouver V6A 2S7 604 875 9958 www.zoozhop.com davidsmind@davidsmind.com
Zoo Zhop will be hosting an all day music event on RSD.
556B Pandora Ave. Victoria V8W 1N7 250 381 9857 www.talkscheapvictoria.com mail@teenagedepression.ca
The Turntable
1972 West 4th Ave. Vancouver V6J 1M5 604 738 3232 www.zulurecords.com info@zulurecords.com
Fascinating Rhythms
Zulu will be celebrating RSD with storewide sale, exclusive RSD releases, and an all ages
51 Commercial St. Nanaimo BC V9R 5G3 250 716 9997
party at the end of the day.
REMEMBER Vinyl Records
Penticton’s neighbourhood record store
419 Main Street, Penticton BC 778.476.5838
BAND
CONNECT .COM
Website for all bands & musicians & the ONE website for those looking to hire.
bandZconnect.com
6 BC Musician | March - April 2012
Cranky Dog Records 154 Morison St. Parksville BC V9P 2G3 250 954 3465
Bop City Records 211 Simms St. Courtenay V9N 5W1 Tel. 250 338 6621
New owners as of April will be in a constant state of Record Store Day celebration!
Saltspring Music 250 537 5931 Box 746 Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2W3 250 537 5931 www.saltspringmusic.com info@saltspringmusic.com
Saltspring Sound
107- 3 Fan Tan Alley Victoria V8W 3G9 250 382 5543
Zulu Records
Fascinating Rhythm has been a focal point for local music fans of most genres going on 20 years. Find the latest CDs to the old rare vinyl record you need to complete your collection. There is a large collection of old radios, turntables and old stereo equipment.
131 McPhillips Ave. Salt Spring Island BC V8K 2T6 250 537 0065 www.bookbill.com
Dave’s Records Q-Cove Plaza, Harper Rd Quathiaski Cove, Quadra Grooveyard_Spec Island 2/29/12 3:09 PM
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www.islandmusic.webs.com
Used vinyl records and CDs. We buy, sell and trade. We specialize in 50s thru 80s vinyl. Even if Island Music is not open, and the Upper Realm is open, records can be purchased by using the ‘honour system’. Support your local record store!
Around BC Spinner’s Sound Centre 324 Victoria St. Kamloops V2C 2A5 250 372 5248 dieter.theiss@shaw.ca
Underground Music 1331 Ellis St., Unit 4 Kelowna V1Y 1Z9 778 478 0215 www.undergroundkelowna.com victor@undergroundkelowna. com
CD Shack 22356 Lougheed Hwy Maple Ridge V2X 2T4 604 463 6440 thecdshack@hotmail.com
The Grooveyard 239 Main St. Penticton V2A 5B1 250 493 6501 www.grooveyard.ca info@grooveyard.ca
The Grooveyard will be participating in RSD once again. “We always try to bring in a vast array of titles and it is exciting
The
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rec r ec or o r d sto r e day to see vinyl creating some buzz and excitement… nothing beats the sound on vinyl,” they told us.
The Beatmerchant 160-12240 2nd Ave. Richmond V7E 3L8 604 204 0044 www.beatmerchant.com frankie@beatmerchant.com
Live music, giveaways, and in store specials on RSD.
Alberta: Calgary Breakbeat Vinyl 7816 Hunterview Dr. NW Calgary T2K 5C9 403 475 2175 webmaster@breakbeatvinyl. com
Heritage Posters & Music 1502 11th Ave SW Calgary T3C 0M9 403 802 1846 heritagepostersandmusic.com jerry@heritagepostersandmusic.com
the works, but for sure there will be cupcakes.
Melodiya Records 2523a 17th Ave SW Calgary T3E 0A2 Tel. 403 246 8916 www.melodiyarecords.ca melodiya@telus.net RSD will be celebrated!
Sloth Records 736b 17th Ave SW Calgary T2S 0B7 403 265 6585 slothrecords@shaw.ca
Alberta: Edmonton If you are in Edmonton for the weekend, Sunday April 22 is the 2nd annual Edmonton Music Collectors Show, Sherbrooke Community Hall, 13008 122 Ave. www.edmontonmusiccollectorsshow.com
Blackbyrd (Myoozik) 10442 82 Whyte Ave Edmonton T6E 2A2 780 439 1273 www.blackbyrd.ca info@blackbyrd.ca
Record Store Day only, 20% off all new CDs and LPs, 50% off all used product. Planning to line up a couple of in stores. Plus tons of RSD releases.
Freecloud Records 10764 101 St Edmonton T5H 2S3 780 429 1476 www.freecloud.ca glotex@moderndigital.net
Every day is Record Store Day at Freecloud! The usual records everywhere, tons of new imports, new releases, and RSD special releases due that day.
continued on page 8
The Inner Sleeve 117 3411 20th St Calgary T2T 4Z6 403 242 9899 www.theinnersleeve.com music@theinnersleeve.com
We work hard to order releases as they are announced and have always had a great sale on all of our stock for the entire weekend that Record Store Day falls on. Plans are in
Beatm e rchant Record Store
New CDs • New DVDs • Records • Posters • T-Shirts Richmond’s Only Music Store 160 - 12240 2nd Ave, Richmond (Steveston Village) 604 204 0044 www.beatmerchant.com • frankie@beatmerchant.com
BC Musician | March - April 2012 7
r eecc o rd r d s tor e day continued from page 7
Listen Records & CDs 10433A 124th St Edmonton T5N 1R7 780 732 1132 www.listenrecords.net listenrecords@shaw.ca
As usual we’ll be having a sale and hopefully some live music and of course a ton of RSD exclusive releases.
Sound Connection 10016 82nd Ave Edmonton T6E 1Z3 780 425 8721 sound.connection@hotmail.com The Gramophone 7913 104 St Edmonton, AB T6E 4E1 780 425 9181 www.gramophone.ca info@gramophone.ca
The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl Edited by Trevor Schoonmaker
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University 216 pages
Get your own! Subscribe to BC Musician Magazine so that you’ll be sure to get your hands on our Annual Summer Festival Guide which will be published in late April. It’s a comprehensive list of music festivals in BC, Alberta, and beyond for you to plan your year around! Handy paypal link at www.bcmusicianmag.com
The Record is the catalogue of an art exhibition that explores the culture of vinyl records within contemporary art from 1965 to 2010. Originally curated for the Nasher Museum of Art the exhibition brought together the work of 41 artists from around the world. This is not album cover art. It is about the myriad ways that vinyl has shaped itself into modern art practices in every medium: sound, sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, video and performance art. It’s a pretty eclectic mix including everything from
Laurie Anderson’s Viophongraph to Robert Rauschenberg’s Revolver. Anderson’s contraption is a violin rigged up with a 45-rpm turntable above the chin rest and a stylus has been attached to the bow. The violinist can then manipulate the sound coming from the 45 in any way they choose. The Rauschenberg consists of layers of media images printed on five round sheets of plexiglas in a metal case, each layer is set in motion by electric motor and a separate controller, so you end up with something that plays like a LP record but produces constantly changing images. It is an endlessly fascinating catalogue and in the course of doing the research for the exhibition the editor found much more art than he could include. One appendix lists 78 artists who are not in the exhibition but whose work merit further exploration. Four Canadian artists contributed to the exhibition and three of them are residents of BC. Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are internationally renowned sound and multimedia installation artists who live part of the year in Grindrod (the other part in Berlin). And Rodney Graham from Vancouver, who is also internationally renowned as a conceptual artist. Of course readers of this magazine will remember him as a guitar player in UJ3RK5. The book is a large format (10.5” x 10.5”) soft cover in full colour throughout. It’s worth looking for, you’ll never see vinyl the same way again.
Celebrating Together! Tickets /info: 1-250-833-4096
8 BC Musician | March - April 2012
www.rootsandblues.ca
p eerrfo fo r mi n g beh i n d bars By Linda McRae Clang! The heavy steel door snaps shut and we are locked in. This is the last of three checkpoints before heading into C Facility at New Folsom Prison, the most infamous of California’s maximum security prisons. My husband James and I are guests of Jim Carlson who heads up The Arts in Corrections program and this is day one of our visit. Preparations for this trip began a year ago after having met Alaskan singer/songwriter Buddy Tabor at a performance in Nashville, where he told me he thought I would be perfect for the program at Folsom. Sadly, we lost Buddy on February 5 to cancer. I admired Buddy for his honesty, irreverence and his sense of humour. He was never afraid to tell it like it is, to speak his mind no matter what anyone thought. He knew he was dying and made one last trip to Folsom this past January. He had a tremendous impact on the inmates there and they on him. Buddy lives on through his music and I thank him for introducing us to Jim and this program (www. myspace.com/buddytabor). I have to admit I felt some trepidation, never having been to a maxi-
mum-security prison -or any prison for that matter. The lengthy process of background checks and security clearances took some time, but we got the go ahead. We arrived the night before, making our way along Prison Road early the next morning. There were high razor wire fences on both sides of the road. Winding up and around a couple of hills the prison, not visible from the main road, came into view, grey walls, lookout towers, guards, and the tiniest slits for windows. Once inside the building and past our final checkpoint we walked down a long, wide corridor, past staff offices, an infirmary, and a couple of guard stations where we were given the once over before heading into the “yard” where the inmates were. Once again there was the clang of the heavy steel doors and we were in a holding area between two yards where there were some prisoners hanging around. They were all dressed in blue. We were told we were not allowed to wear blue — for obvious reasons, I suppose. They looked at us with curiosity but no more than meeting strangers in the street, really. We were not allowed to have a cell phone, computer, recorders, cameras, or anything of that ilk. A cell phone goes for $2,000 behind bars!
We were led across the holding area through another chain link fence into a 20 x 20-ft. room where about a dozen inmates were waiting for us. Jim had told us that it was against the rules to have any physical contact with them, and if any tried to give us anything, even a piece of paper, it had to be given to a supervisor or guard first before we were allowed to accept it. He introduced us to everyone by first name - Marty, Ken, Big C, “hello, hi, how are you?” etc. - and we all sat down. Everyone was very friendly, warm, and very welcoming. The room was sparsely furnished with a couple of banquet type tables in the middle of the room and some metal chairs and large cupboards with chain link fronts on them where a few musical instruments were stored. There was an ancient dinosaur computer on a desk at the front of the room that was used for typing up lyrics mostly. There were a few posters on the walls of some of the other performers who had also spent time there - Michael Franti, Roseanne Cash, Buddy Tabor and a few CDs. Real bare bones, little colour but the blue uniforms. I was immediately struck by how comfortable I felt. I was expecting to feel, well… I don’t know what I was expecting to feel. Intimidated, freaked, scared, trepidation, reservations, etc. but it wasn’t like that at all. I felt at ease and welcome. I think for James it was a cathartic experience. He too had spent time behind bars and had he not cleaned up and become drug and alcohol free 24 years prior to our visit to New Folsom, he could have ended up being one of the people sitting across the table from me. I came to realize that “there but for the grace of god go I” - and I’m not even a religious person. I think many of us on the outside could have ended up behind bars because of a bad decision, like getting behind the wheel after one too many drinks, etc.
continued on page 10
BC Musician | March - April 2012 9
continued from page 9 After all the introductions James and I talked a little about our lives and what brought us together and what lead us to coming to Folsom in the first place. We weren’t told what any of the prisoners were there for and we didn’t want to know. Once the formalities were over everyone played a few songs in a round robin song circle type of situation. There were some incredibly gifted writers and some songs that really stuck with me. One was written by a man named Marty Williams who had been in Folsom for over 30 years. He was around the same age as me. I couldn’t imagine spending 30 years behind bars. Like most of the men we met, he will never get out. The first
song he and a fellow inmate and friend did blew me away. It was a blues song that was sung by a big brawny African American man named Big C. Big C is a member of The Crips. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, and drug dealing. I never would have guessed it by talking with him and hearing him sing. What a voice. He sang Marty’s song called Chains. I had a sweet companion as sweet as summer rain she’d have lived and died for me she’d have rocked away my pain I could have had love I could have had love But I chose these chains
10 BC Musician | March - April 2012
Well folks, there’s not enough room to finish this article in this issue so I will leave it off here and continue with an installment at www.bcmusicianmag. com. It’s been a great experience for me writing these articles and I thank all the folks at BC Musician Magazine for all the great work they’re doing. Until next time…see you somewhere on This Winding Road. LInda has much more to say about her time at Folsom. Be sure to visit www.bcmusicianmag.com for the continuation of this story.
Pre-Festival Workshops
Contest Alert! Island Mountain Arts located in the historic Cariboo town of Wells, BC and BC Musician Magazine are offering a chance to win a scholarship to attend a four-day intensive Songwriting Band Camp, July 31st – August 3rd with Canadian music legend, Dave Bidini and the Bidiniband. Each day will feature a series of workshops: songwriting with Bidini; improvising with bassist Doug Friesen (John K Samson; Peter Elkas); arranging with Bidiniband (featuring guitarist Paul Linklater); and production with drummer Don Kerr (Ron Sexsmith). The students will work on their songs in the morning, then work with the full band in the afternoon, honing their craft in the presence of four compelling and seasoned musicians, all of whom have an established pedigree in musical education and live performance. Students can choose from the menu of workshops to shape their interests, resulting in a live performance at the end of the session. Applicants are also encouraged to apply to the “Songwriter Workshop and Seminar Support Program,” offered through FACTOR (www.factor.ca), which provides up to $750 towards attending a songwriting workshop (next program deadline June 17, 2012). Running concurrently with the Adult Songwriting Band Camp is Songwriting Band Camp for ages 6 – 18 with Corwin Fox and Kia Kadiri. Island Mountain Arts is also excited to announce a two-day Ukulele Workshop on August 1 and 2, and a one-day Electronic Composition Workshop on August 3 with Indie star Rae Spoon. For more information about the contest or any of the programs offered, visit the Island Mountain Arts School of the Arts website at www.imarts.com, call 1-800-442-2787, or email info@ imarts.com. For more info on the ArtsWells Festival Of All Things Art please visit www.artswells.com.
WHO CAN ENTER This contest is open to all aspiring or proficient songwriters – self-published or unpublished – who are looking for a chance to improve their song writing skills and further hone their craft. CRITERIA Entries will be judged on originality, melody, composition, and lyrics. Production/Recording quality and vocal ability are not criteria. HOW TO ENTER • Send 1 song, along with a typed lyric sheet, your name, address and telephone number to: Bidiniband Contest Island Mountain Arts PO Box 65 Wells, BC, V0K 2R0, Canada • You can also enter by e-mail by sending the above information and an MP3 to: admin@imarts.com • The song must be original DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES All entries must reach Island Mountain Arts no later than 5:00pm on Friday, April 20, 2012. The winner will be announced by Tuesday, May 1st, 2012. THE 2012 SONGWRITING PRIZE PACKAGE INCLUDES: • Full scholarship (value $460) to attend the four-day intensive Songwriting Band Camp in Wells, British Columbia with the Bidiniband. • A performance spot at the 2012 ArtsWells Festival (www.artswells.com), which begins on the last day of the workshop (Friday, August 3) and runs until Monday, August 6, 2012. • A profile in BC Musician Magazine • A profile interview and have music played on CBC Radio’s North by Northwest with Sheryl MacKay THE RUNNER UP PRIZE PACKAGE INCLUDES: • Full scholarship (value $460) to attend the four-day intensive Songwriting Band Camp in Wells, British Columbia with the Bidiniband. • Weekend pass to the 9th Annual ArtsWells Festival, August 3 - 6, 2012
Photo: Banff Centre
SONGWRITING BAND CAMP with
BIDINIBAND
July 31 - August 3 Bidiniband will be bringing their rock and educational arsenal to Wells for a weeklong Songwriting Band Camp program. Each day will feature a series of workshops: songwriting with Dave Bidini (ex-Rheostatics); improvising with bassist Doug Friesen (John K Samson; Peter Elkas); arranging with Bidiniband (featuring guitarist Paul Linklater); and production with drummer Don Kerr (Ron Sexsmith). The students will work on their songs in the morning, then work with the full band in the afternoon, honing their craft in the presence of four compelling and seasoned musicians, all of whom have an established pedigree in musical education and live performance. ine Enter the BC Musician Magaz a spot at Songwriting Contest and win ance spot at the Bidiniband Camp, plus a perform Musician and an the ArtsWells Festival, profile in BC program with interview on CBC Radio’s NXNW arts ag.com. Sheryl MacKay. Details at bcmusicianm
Other Pre-Fest Workshops: SONGWRITING CAMP FOR KIDS AND YOUTH with CORWIN FOX & KIA KADIRI July 31 - August 3
UKULELE (Aug 1 - 2) and ExPERIMENTAL/ ELECTRONIC COMPUTER MUSIC (Aug 3) with RAE SPOON ArtsWells Festival Of All Things Art August 3- 6, 2012 • www.artswells.com Scholarships and bursaries available, for more info about these and other programs:
1 -8 0 0 -4 4 2 -2787 www.i ma rt s .com ISLAND MOUNTAIN ARTS Wells/Barkerville, BC, Canada
BC Musician | March - April 2012 11
s on g b i r d s By Joanna Chapman-Smith The philosophy behind Songbirds Travelling Music School is to share the skills of travelling musicians with the local communities they visit as they tour around. The idea for Songbirds came to me on one of those sleepless nights. I was thinking about the future. I was thinking about how much I wanted to teach. I have always loved teaching, but in the past few years I have been moving around so much with touring that it didn’t make sense to me to set up a teaching practice at home. Then I remembered when I was teaching a vocal workshop at Arts on the Fly (the folk festival in Horsefly, BC) some of the women said how much they wished they could have
more lessons. I realized that many of these communities would love to have access to music instructors and I was visiting them all the time. I also realized that this could mean community building, getting to know the people in a place and sharing in something beautiful before leading up to a final show. I began dreaming and planning and talking to people. I drew up a basic concept for Songbirds and started shopping it to all the places I was heading. I was touring around BC with a trio, the other members of which were teachers as well, so I invited them to become additional “staff members”. It worked. We gave a few one-off workshops as we went and then spent a full and fantastic week up in Dunster, BC giving vocal, songwriting, banjo and accordion workshops before performing on our final night in town. A range of people from the commu-
Penticton’s Full Line Music Store www.skahasound.ca Monday-Saturday 10-5:30
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nity got involved, instruments came out of closets and attics, and we had so much fun during those days - making music and sharing stories – that at the end none of us wanted to say goodbye. I worked with some of the kids from the town to write a song about community, and they shared their unique experiences of Dunster with me. “When a house gets raised in Dunster,” young Tavish told me brightly, “we help out!” I felt so lucky to find myself in such a supportive and kindhearted place. I was very moved to see everybody getting engaged through Songbirds. My dream is for Songbirds to be a resource for musicians and musicloving communities alike, helping to bridge between the two. I am currently accepting submissions from touring musicians who would like to be on the “staff” roster, and would love to hear
from interested communities as well (details below). I am thrilled The legendary Longevity John, promoter andabout host atthe future of the Duncan Garage. Photo Lindsay Chung Songbirds and look forward to connecting with more communities and artists in the coming year. Up next, Songbirds Travelling Music School will be migrating to Valemount, BC. If you are interested in Songbirds for your community, you can email joannacs.music@ gmail.com or visit songbirdsmusic. wordpress.com. To apply to be on staff, email joannacs. music@gmail.com with a bio, picture, and one to three workshops you could lead.
The 2012 Ultimate Summer Festival Guide is coming!
Book your ad in this very special guide before Apr. 1! Ring us today!
Meg 250 218 0520 Joanne 604 999 4141
12 BC Musician | March - April 2012
y o u ’ve g ot to h ear t h is By Barb Bruederlin It’s band camp without the bunk beds and music sharing with no illegal downloads. In a darkened room lit only by small pools of lamplight, people jam onto the chesterfield and every available chair. There is a plate of cheese and crackers and a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, but nobody is eating anything. Nobody is talking much either; they are all intent on listening. It’s album night. On this mild autumn evening in this Vancouver hotel room, a group of rapt listeners are indulging their biggest collective passion — sharing music with friends. This is music sharing in the true sense, the act of listening together. Not passing along MP3s to friends, not sending pirated leaks to one another. Just listening. None of these people would call themselves musicians, although there is one accomplished clarinet player in the group, along with two fair to middling piano players and one lapsed guitarist. But a mutual need for a life filled with music is what initially brought them all together. Before this weekend, when they all flocked westward from various points around the continent, many of the listeners in that hotel room had never before met in real life. And until recently, some of them only knew the others by their DJ names. They are all members of the same online radio station, a song-streaming site that combines social networking with a vast musical database. As DJs create playlists and grow their audience, the like-minded find each other amongst the hordes of unwashed in the immense online music commune. Artist recommendations are passed around, favourite tracks are given the nod of approval, and friendships are struck up and solidified. There’s nothing like a shared taste for obscure Egyptian dream pop or shoe-gaze revival bands to help music nerds find one another.
There are plenty of similar music sites on the internet. BLIP.fm, Last.fm , Spotify, Jango, and Pandora are just a few of the popular sites that cater to the act of announcing your exquisite taste in music to the world. What draws the blippers - these folks in this hotel room - to the site that they frequent is the ability to interact with other DJs while exploring musical horizons. A Twitteresque message function on the site enables social interaction. You can make a lot of friends in 140 characters or less. Many DJs tend to log in at the same time each evening. As familiar user names start to scroll along with the streaming audio, the DJs chat while swapping tracks. They learn about each other’s lives. They spend way too many hours playing themed games online with other DJs. Eventually, they crave face time with these blipper friends. So they take the conversation offline and they fly to Vancouver. Tonight the group is hearing three albums in their entirety; a couple of new releases and someone’s desert island pick. Tomorrow they will listen to three more albums and, like tonight, they will talk about what they heard and why these albums are so important to them. They will ponder the secrets hidden in the lyrics, pour over the minutiae of the liner notes. On the final night before they scatter off to homes wide-flung across the landmass, there is a potluck dinner scheduled at the house of one of the local members. He’s got something planned for after dinner, when the plates have been gathered up and the wine glasses refilled. It’s a modern take on the tribal tradition of the talking stick — the passing of the iPad. His digital music library and sound system are jerry-rigged to a portable tablet, which will be handed around the room. Each person, in their turn, will choose a song that best sums up what the weekend has signified to them. Some of the choices will elicit considerable headshaking amongst the group, others nods of approval. None of these people lacks a soundtrack to their lives.
They will meet again around the same time next year, in Montreal, with a few more members, but the circle will still be small, the conversations intimate. This time they will host a shortened version of a music-themed PechaKucha Night (the elevator pitch presentation series whereby speakers show twenty slides on the evening’s theme, for 20 seconds per slide). On PechaKucha Night, each member of the listening group will present five slides that showcase their choices for vital, can’t-die-without-hearing-this music. Hopefully nobody in the group will be familiar with these choices, because you get bonus points for obscurity. It will be really tough to keep those presentations to a mere twenty seconds per slide, and some presenters will fail miserably. In the excitement they forgot the first rule of music listening club: sometimes you’ve just got to shut up and listen.
Voted best place to eat and hear live music Mar 20-21 Zappacosta Mar 29
Brandon Isaak & Keith Picot
Mar 31
David Vest Trio
Apr 5
Luke Dowler
Apr 9
Connie Kaldor
Apr 17
Loh El on Tour
Apr 19
Linda MaCrae
Apr 30
Erica Sigurdson (comic)
May 9
Jay Aymar
May 16
Rick Fines and Carlos del Junco entertainment charges may apply
4638 Lakeshore Road, Kelowna 250.764.2301 www.minstrelcafe.com
BC Musician | March - April 2012 13
th thee 3 - leg ged sto o l By Celeste Davidson When our daughter Chloe begged to play the violin at the age of three, it threw my preconceived plan of teaching her piano at the age of seven, right out the window. Faced with her insistence, I started to think seriously about the route we would take in our kids’ musical education. I wanted it to be different than mine, as I often felt like a “one-legged stool” — able to sight read well, but with the huge limitation of needing those little black dots on a white page in order to make music! For me, the desirable “three-legged stool” for our kids, and any musician, would mean they could: 1) read music well; 2) play by ear, including harmonizing and improvising; and 3) memorize with ease, giving them a repertoire to draw from at any time, anywhere.
As I began the search for a modus operandi, the journey down an unconventional path began, and we watched as our kids became firmly planted on their three-legged stools. Along this path, we discovered many things that were transformative. Here are some: • Start young — If the spark is there, fan it! Chloe’s first violin at age 3 was a battery-operated toy and Kyle’s was a wooden spoon with a chopstick for a bow. (Of course, there are no age limits with music!) • Teach them to read music before they read words — age 4 is great. This became our special one on one time and turned into a game. • Teach them to read music by solfeggio — why wait until university? The rest of the world learns music by “do re mi” Solfeggio enabled us to practice violin pieces just by singing them while driving. When Kyle was 4, I remember over-
hearing him quietly singing his Suzuki violin song in solfeggio while playing on his bedroom floor with his hot wheels.... • Keep it fun or they won’t want to play. Chloe played Row, Row, Row Your Boat in a Rubbermaid bin.... • Have them memorize every song from the very beginning and it will start to happen naturally as they develop that part of their brain. • Make them sound amazing by playing along with them — be their back up! And if you can’t, find someone who can, like Grandma or Grandpa. Then, instead of a lonely exercise, music becomes an activity they can’t wait for and they can’t believe how good “they” sound! • Give them a reason to practice — Create opportunities for them to share their music in a natural way, with others and for others, on stage and off. Chloe & Kyle learned early that the joy they gave others came back to them, and they were hooked! If you ask Chloe &
is pleased to support local events in the Thompson Valley Nude Swim March 3, 2012 The Cariboo Nudist Society will be holding a nude swim from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Westsyde Pool. Everyone is welcome. For more information phone Connie at 250318-6844. Kamloops Film Festival March 8, 2012 Visit the Paramount Theatre on March 8 for the world’s best independent dramas, comedies, family fare, and thrillers. There will also be filmmaking workshops, guest stars, and elite parties.
Buddhist Church Annual Spring Bazaar March 10, 2012 Chow main, sushi, manju, karito and other fabulous fare will be for sale at the Buddhist Church Annual Spring Bazaar on March 10. The event will take place from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. at the Buddhist Temple, located at 361 Poplar Street. Afternoon tea will be available at the bazaar. Sugar Shack Party March 10, 2012 The Francophone Association will be hosting its annual sugar shack party at McQueen Lake Environment Centre. Activities will start at 2 p.m. Everyone
is invited to come and savour the uniqueness of maple toffee followed by traditional supper. Tickets for the supper are limited and are available at the office. For more info call the Association Francophone de Kamloops at 250-376-6060. Kamloops Wine Festival April 13 to 21, 2012 The Kamloops Wine Festival will host seminars, tastings, and special dinners paired with excellent wines between April 13 and 21. The festival kicks off with the Consumer Wine Tasting at the Kamloops Convention Centre on April 13. Over 200 wineries will be represented at the event.
Kamloops This Week | 1365B Dalhousie Dr. | Kamloops, B.C. | V2C 5P6
14 BC Musician | March - April 2012
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Kyle, they’ll tell you that their absolute favorite performance was when they were a Saturday night “tweener” act on the Main Stage at Salmon Arm Roots & Blues. Kyle, then 8, peeked out at the crowd of thousands, came back and commented, “there’s a lot of people out there,” and casually went back to playing with his Hot Wheels car until show time. The beauty of starting so young, playing so often in so many settings, and emphasizing the sharing of their music vs. performing results in it being as natural as breathing — and they don’t know what “nervous” is… until an adult brings it up! • Go to fiddle camps and music camps based on the aural tradition. That’s where we (yes, we!) learned to play by ear and had the experience of jamming in an inter-generational setting — all ages and levels making music together — or just running around, being inspired by it all! Along the way, Chloe and Kyle also discovered fiddle contests where they earned cash prizes and dresser tops full of shiny hardware, as well as coveted titles such as BC Twin FIddle Champions, BC Junior Fiddle Champion (Chloe), Grand North American Twin Fiddle Champions, and Grand North American Junior Fiddle Champion (Chloe). Contests and fiddle camps have given them opportunities to learn other instruments, meet and jam with some of the best fiddlers in North America and the UK, as well as learn the music and steps of dances that are a part of Canadian culture. It was priceless to see a retired grade one teacher
108 Cabin Fever Bluegrass Workshop
9th Annual
March 28 - April 1, 2012 at the Hills Health and Guest Ranch
108 Mile House, BC
Don’t be disappointed, register now!
www.bcbluegrass.com | 800 668 2233
at the Kamloops Fiddle Contest — 89 years young and spry — ask 10 year old Kyle for the next waltz — they were both great! • Homeschooling also gave us daytime opportunities to share the music and allowed us time to travel. Wherever we traveled we took the fiddles (Ken’s work is internet-based, so he could continue to work anywhere there was internet). We schooled as we traveled in our RV, which was far more engaging than a textbook, especially when it came to geography and history. For example, heading west from our cross-Canada trip, Chloe & Kyle were reading the Little House on the Prairie series, and we were able to stop at many of the places they were reading about, including Laura Ingalls’ original homestead. Science was also very hands on as we visited numerous science centres and museums across Canada and the US. Because Chloe &
Kyle started to read music before reading words, it seemed to make learning to read a very easy progression, and math just seems to make a lot of sense to their musically experienced minds. With no creative boundaries in their minds, just before turning 10, Chloe started to write her own music, with harmony for Kyle, and specific instructions for the drummer and piano player (kind of fun to be able to tell your parents what to do!). From what I’ve seen on our journey, I’m convinced we were all created to share the gift of music — not just from a stage, not just with sheet music, but from our hearts, with family and friends of all ages and skill levels, even if some are just toe-tappers, finger-snappers, and hand-clappers. Together, for the joy of it, ideally on a three-legged stool! For a glimpse at the last few miles of their journey, as well as the early years, you can check out chloeandkyle.com
Coco’s Bistro Princeton, BC Proudly Serving Cowboy Coffee
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BC Musician | March - April 2012 15
blu eegg ra s s c amp By Pharis Romero I went to my first bluegrass camp in 2002. I could play guitar but was feeling a bit shy, so I went to a songwriting class. I’d been listening to a lot of Tony Rice, Doc Watson and Bill Monroe and I thought I’d fit right in. That first night at the BC Bluegrass Workshop, out of class and into the jamming scene, I learned a few things: Bluegrass jammers don’t like tunes in the keys of F# - it’s not fair to the fiddles, the mandolins, or the bass players; Banjo players seem to be unaware of how loud a banjo really is; and, Playing a tune fast doesn’t mean it’s good. I’ve been teaching at camps for a good ten years now, and those first lessons still resonate. At camp, there are the classes, and then there’s the rest of camp life. You go to the classes to learn, to focus, to grow your repertoire, but the rest of camp life is just as important (if not more). Most camps have an elaborate list of activities for the campers, from band scrambles – where you put your name and the instrument you play into a hat, and are put into “throw together” bands, given 15 minutes to rehearse and then perform for the whole camp – to square dance nights, bluegrass karaoke to Cajun gumbo parties. For some, the classes are the second reason they go; the rest of the camp and meeting your musical heroes - is the first. To be in 24-hour exposure to people who live, breathe and eat music changes you. It supercharges you, taking you to new heights of musical interest you didn’t know you had. A few years ago I was teaching at a camp with an 80-year-old fiddler from West Virginia who had come to the west coast for the first time. They played a sublime concert, jammed tunes until sunrise, and then taught all the next day, telling the stories behind the music they played. I can’t think of a better way to get freaked out and worked up about music. You may have
found your lifelong singing partner at a vocal camp. I know that I found my partner in music and life because of bluegrass camps. Sappy, but it’s true. Camps are a family affair. You may not be related to anyone else there, but by the end of the camp you feel like you might as well be, and you can be damn certain that if your new musical family heads back to camp next year, you’re going too. At Fiddletunes, in Port Townsend, WA, the same campers have been meeting up for nearly 40 years now. People travel from all over North America for it. You wake up in the morning, go to class – maybe to learn from a fiddler from the Hebrides, or an 80-year old accordion player from New Mexico – and then you play your heart out with your camp family in the band workshops, the student concerts, and the country, square or contra dances. It’s just really hard to go home sometimes. For kids, meeting other kids who are excited about music spins them into an enthusiastic tune-playing whirling dervish. Practicing, performing, starting up kids bands, picking up new instruments, and embracing a sense of independence from their parents. I wish I had gone to music camp as a kid. Discovering camp in my 20s is a whole lot better than never finding it, but the sponge-like nature of ten-yearold is hard to get back. From a teacher’s perspective, teaching to a large group for a finite time can really broaden your own level of musicianship. You think about what you’re doing in a different way, and you learn a lot about your own approach to music. And as a student you gain so much from your teacher’s passion for playing and for listening to music. When I was getting into the old time fiddle traditions of the Southern US, a very wise fiddle player told me to listen 90 per cent of the time and play the other 10 per cent. At music camp, you can’t help but listen that much because there is music around you ALL THE TIME. Whether a novice or experienced player, we all can benefit from the considerable ability of a camp to
16 BC Musician | March - April 2012
turn us on to new artists and songs. And this greater sense of the music’s depth and breadth gives you the tools to put your own stamp on the music you’re playing. Vive la music camp! Camps we’ll be at this spring and summer: 108 Cabin Fever Bluegrass Workshop: 108 Mile House, BC. March 28 – April 1. Pharis is teaching bluegrass vocals, Jason is teaching bluegrass banjo. Georgia Strait Guitar Workshop: Crescent Beach, BC. June 1 – 3. Pharis is teaching old time guitar techniques and repertoire. Voiceworks: Port Townsend, WA June 25 – July 1. Pharis is teaching voice skills-building and early country harmony classes. Fiddletunes: Port Townsend, WA. July 1 – 6. We’ll be there hanging out. Nimblefingers Bluegrass and Old Time Week: Sorrento, BC. August 19 – 24. Pharis is teaching bluegrass vocals, Jason is teaching bluegrass banjo.
The 2012 Ultimate Summer Festival Guide is coming!
Book your ad before Apr. 1! Ring us today!
Meg 250 218 0520 Joanne 604 999 4141
B Joe Keithley: “Hey, don’t disturb me when I’m reading BCM!”
The acclaimed rock doc Bloodied But Unbowed, which features Joe prominently, is screening at The Heritage Grill on April 6th with guest panelists and surprise rock ‘n roll sets from two bands. Photo: Richard Chapman Location: Heritage Grill, New Westminster
BC Musician | March - April 2012 17
am p c a m p By Janet Rogers Band CAMP could very well stand for Committed Artistic Musicians Preparing. The Aboriginal Music Program or AMP Camp, now in it’s sixth year, hosts native musicians at emerging, mid and almost made it stages of their careers for an intensive five days of music and business related training. Forget about finding any forgiving recreational director on site. Manitoba Music and Canada Council programming ship over a dozen music hungry native artists to the semi-secluded area of Manitoba’s Interlake region, where there is very little distraction and cell phone signals are dicey. The hyper-focused strategy seems to work wonders as many of the past musicians have come so far along since being participants themselves, they are brought back to the AMP Camp in a mentoring capacity. Musicians such as Tracey Bone and Don Amero are big names across Turtle Island who have taken the creative and business skills learned at the camp and put them to practical use in their own careers. Mind you, these musicians have joined the ranks of Canadian musicians waiting to cross-over, but there is something to be said for carving a place for your self just four to five years in. Even though the AMP is a camp, individuals of age, and older are welcome. Musicians are required to have at least one professionally produced recording under their belt, $400 and the rest is taken care of. Flights, meals, and training are all provided for by the program. The line-up of industry professionals is very impressive, not to mention the program provides valuable face time to meet and rub shoulders with agents who are looking for the next Neil Young or Bryan Adams. Liv Wade (music.cbc.ca/#/artists/LivWade), is one British Columbia based musician attending AMP Camp this year. She looks forward to meeting
the past participants come mentors as she is very inspired by their success achieved in a short matter of time. Liv is driven by her own dreams of musical success and works hard at it. She will be travelling to Manitoba directly from a self-directed music residency at the Banff Centre where she has been composing new songs and soaking in the mountain inspiration for her second CD. She has no set intention of what she looks forward to experiencing the most while there, but says the marketing aspect is a skill she could use some help with. Liv understands the courage it takes to put your music out there for the first time. She knows how that experience can leave you feeling very vulnerable. In the AMP Camp setting, a sense of community is quickly established and some of those butterflies are soon put to rest. I attended AMP Camp in 2010 as a spoken word recording artist looking to bring my craft further onto the music scene side of things. I learned tons. More importantly, I met and have maintained great relationships with other participants. And a few of those meetings have turned into professional collaborations. In my role as radio host, I
was able to bring that fresh new talent and never heard of names onto the airwaves. As a bonus track, I met Doug Cox, the artistic director of the Vancouver Island Music Festival and was able to forge a professional friendship with him. I have had the honour of doing emcee duties at the music festival ever since and just last year, had the great pleasure of performing on stage with the feel-good, righteous soulful band Arrested Development. A career highlight for me. But let me back up. Doug has been a mentor at AMP Camp several years in a row. Doug has many talents and wears many hats, some of which are his ability to bring the best musical talent to Vancouver Island every year, his well deserved title as best Dobro player in the nation, and his commitment to fostering new talent in the native music scene. Now, they say that imitation is the best form of flattery. So British Columbia is paying a big compliment to AMP Camp by offering a similar week of music training for native talent in the province. From February 20 to the 25 the Vancouver Community College played host to the Aboriginal Music Lab. Five days of focused program-
AMP campers: Kristie Lane Sinclair, Cris Derksen, Ron Dean Harris/Ostwelve, Brandy McCallem, Janet Rogers
18 BC Musician | March - April 2012
m t t f m t p y M – r W m s t i t k m t d t l w
a m p c amp ming in song writing, recording, traditional music, social media, promotions and music business. The final day featured a concert of newly produced music by the participants. Once again, there are very little stipulations to participate other than having to be 18 years of age or older. The Aboriginal Music Lab mentors include Kinnie Starr – hip hop singer songwriter, David Laroque – guitar producer and educator, Wes Nahanee – traditional Coast Salish music, Ron Dean Harris/Ostwelve – social media, Suzette Amaya – promotions and Elaine Bomberry – performing arts activist. The skills brought to this lab are very diverse, which if I know the general vibe on the native music scene today, and I think I do, the mentorship will directly reflect the diverse genres bubbling up from our talented communities today. Let me leave you with a little poem to explain what I mean:
We Are Music from the hip hop kids and their brilliant poems and common beats to the folk singers cradling guitars like babies crooning raw emotion to the cabaret singer shaking her ass to karaoke tracks to the future one-hit-wonder welding on the weekends to the costume clad keyboardist finding half notes among fringe to the sexy full-lipped woman strumming honour songs for her sister to the black-haired punk rocker offering off-key originality to the electronic beat-boxer programming digital dance beats We are music.
Shane Koyczan and Short Story Long, are touring their new release, Remembrance Day (reviewed in BC Musician issue 90, Jan/Feb 2012). Make sure you see them live! BC and Alberta dates: March 16: The Dream Café, Penticton, BC March 18: Mary Irwin Theatre, Kelowna, BC March 21-24: Belfry Theatre, Spark Fest, Victoria, BC March 25: Duncan Garage Showroom, Duncan, BC March 28: Orpheus Theatre, Calgary, AB April 13: Haven Social Club, Edmonton, AB April 15: Cornerstone Theatre, Canmore, AB April 17: Vernon Performing Arts Ctr, Vernon, BC April 18: The Capitol Theatre, Nelson, BC April 21: Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, BC
is pleased to support local spring events Kinsmen Kickin’ it Indoor Garage Sale March 3-4, 2012 Head down to the Kinsmen Community Complex between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a huge indoor community garage sale. There will be a concession on site. Caledonia Ramblers Snowshoe Hike March 4, 2012 The Caledonia Ramblers will lead an easy two-hour long snowshoe hike at Ginter’s Field/West End to UNBC Connector. Hikers will meet in the parking lot behind City Hall at 8:45 a.m. The cost to carpool is $2. For more information contact Nowell at 250-562-7485.
Hart Pioneer Centre Crafts March 14, 2012 Visit with the craft ladies, check out their displays, and pick up crafts at reasonable prices. The event will take place at Hart Pioneer Centre from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Travelling World Community Film Festival March 18-27, 2012 BC’s largest documentary film package will land in Prince George for a nine-day screening festival. Environmental, human rights, youth, food and social justice issues are just some of the film topics. 23 different community groups organize the event.
Antique & Collectibles Fair April 14-15, 2012 The Hospice Society will hold their popular annual Antique and Collectibles Fair at the Prince George Rolla-Dome on Saturday until 5 p.m. and Sunday until 4 p.m. The venue is wheelchair accessible and there will be a concession booth on site. Rick Hansen 25th Anniversary Celebration March 19, 2012 Rick Hansen and the relay team will roll into PG on March 19. Wheelchair sports at the civic centre, a toonie swim at the Four Seasons, and a public skate are just a few of the activites planned.
Prince George Free Press | 1773 South Lyon St., Prince George, BC, V2N 1T3 | 250 564 0005 | www.pgfreepress.com
BC Musician | March - April 2012 19
be t h e mu si c By L V Nash What becomes so stunningly clear when compiling a list of music camps on offer in this province (and our fine neighbour, Alberta) is that there is so much. So much! (Which is why the camps we have listed in this issue are by no means comprehensive; there are more.) The extensive bluegrass offerings, which are a force seemingly independent of all other musical streams, can fill the season’s calendar. There are plenty to choose from, be it the newlyrenamed Nimble Fingers Bluegrass Camp in Sorrento (23 years running!), the Fiddle ‘Treat at Gavin Lake, or the Fiddlefest in the Bulkley Valley. The fabulous Hills Health Ranch at 100 Mile House hosts again the 108 Cabin Fever Bluegrass Workshops at the end of March. It’s as beautiful a time as any to head north and celebrate the beginning of spring by harmonizing with banjos, mandolins, washboards and more around a campfire. Which reminds me, the once-maligned banjo has become one of the most beautiful instruments, all the more so after hearing Corwin Fox’s stylings recently; and if you’ve got a child aged 6 to 18, you’d be very, very wise to send her or him to Wells for the Songwriting & Rhythms Camp with Corwin along with Kia Kadiri. Together they will inspire some astonishing compositions, I have no doubt. The added bonus is that you’d be in Wells
just before the ArtsWells Festival, so you can stake out an optimum camping location. Plenty of workshops with guitars for rocking (you go, Girls Rock Camp Vancouver and Camp Rockstar in Camrose!) or something a little more bluesy (hello, Guitar Workshop Plus) are on offer. If you’ve ever toyed with trying a music camp, experienced with your instrument or just beginning, this is the best year to do it. That’s right, the best year. Because if you didn’t do it last year you might not do it next year. Or you’ll be spending the rest of 2012 wishing you had. No regrets!
Vancouver, Coast and Mountains Georgia Strait Guitar Workshop, Crescent Beach gsgw.ca Hosts several music camps spring through summer, Spring Jam March 2 - 4, Summer Camp June 1 - 3, and Fall Jam November 9 - 11.
W2 Creative Technology Summer Camps, Vancouver Utopia DJ Camp Aug 1 - 5 For Young Women, Ages 14 - 18
Led by an all-female team of electronic music artists, this week long boot camp will teach young women the basics of music production and dj’ing. Students will learn a variety of skills: how to setup and sound check a P/A system, traditional turntablism, setup and use of digital controllers and turntables, cataloguing and maintaining a music
20 BC Musician | March - April 2012
library, and how to create their own mix! No experience required! Utopia DJ Camp is a fun and creative way of empowering young women to mix their favourite songs, and to create their own music. At the end of the boot camp, students will be able to show off what they’ve learned with an optional performance during W2’s 2nd Annual Surge Festival of Urban Digital Culture (July 30-August 5).
Guitar Workshop Plus, Squamish August 12 - 17 www.guitarworkshopplus.com
Get ready for a fun, educational, and musicfilled experience! Guitar, bass, drum, keyboard, and vocal courses are offered for all levels, ages, and styles including blues, jazz, rock, acoustic, classical, and songwriting. Study with professional faculty and worldclass guest artists in a supportive learning environment, play in a band, and record a DVD.
Girls Rock & Ladies Rock Camp, Vancouver girlsrockcampvancouver.ca July 9 - 13
Girls Rock Camp Vancouver is a project for female youth aged 8-18 years. They give young women the opportunity to explore, access, and play music with positive mentors. As society continues to push unattainable body image values, we want to reassure the leaders of tomorrow that there is more to being included in the music industry than a microphone and size 0 waistline. At Girls Rock Camp Vancouver they teach young women to pick up their instruments and make noise.
Cariboo Chilcotin Coast B.C. Fiddle ‘Treat, Gavin Lake July 28 – Aug 3
The BC Fiddle ‘Treat is a five day workshop
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be t h e mu sic with a 18 year history, designed to teach fiddlers and accompanists, old-time fiddle tunes and techniques. Instruction covers fiddle, piano, guitar and mandolin accompaniment, as well. They feature first-rate instructors, picked from both the local music community and top Canadian artists. The BC Fiddle ‘Treat is ideal for musicians of any age or ability.
Island Mountain Arts, Wells imarts.com
IMA has been running arts programming since 1977. Wells is a hotbed of musical (and artistic) creativity during the summer months. Continually upping the ante of awesome offerings, the 2012 music programs include: Songwriting Band Camp with Bidiniband; Songwriting and Rhythm Day Camp, ages 6 - 18 with Corwin Fox and Kia Kadiri; Ukulele with Rae Spoon; and Experimental/ Electronic Music with Rae Spoon. The 26th Annual International Harp School, August 14 - 18: Beginner - Sharlene Wallace; Intermediate - Alys Howe; from Ireland Máire Ní Chathasaigh for Advanced.
108 Cabin Fever Bluegrass Workshop, The Hills Health Ranch at 108 Mile Ranch March 28 - April 1
Spend a fun-filled four and half days with others who share a love for playing bluegrass music. The 108 Cabin Fever Bluegrass Workshop provides a friendly, non-competitive environment for all players. They provide ample opportunity for class time, special workshops, jam sessions, concerts and many other spontaneous activities. Join then for a unique one of a kind bluegrass workshop held within the setting of a world-renowned Hills Health Ranch and Resort, located in the beautiful hills of the Cariboo in British Columbia, Canada just outside of the town of 100 Mile House.
Smithers Younger Guitar Camp, Smithers August 14 -18, 2012 www.smithersmusicfest.com/bvfms/youthguitar-camp
An awesome program specializing in guitar instruction, welcoming youth, ages 10-18, located at Camp Caledonia on Tyhee Lake, Telkwa, BC. The program is designed to help participants explore guitar and creativity skills in a structured and fun environment.
Smithers Adult Guitar Camp, Smithers August 18 - 23 www.smithersmusicfest.com/bvfms/adultguitar-camp
Instructors include: Ben Brookes, Jenny Lester, George Stokes, Mark Perry, Mark Thibeault and guest instructor from out of town is Valdy! Only 25 spots available so don’t wait too long to register.
Northern BC Northwest FiddleFest, Bulkley Valley, near Smithers Early July www.northwestfiddlefest.com Fiddle, mandolin, guitar, piano, bass.
The Kamloops Interior Summer School of Music July 9-27, 201 www.kissm.ca
KISSM provides a high calibre of musical instruction in a fun, relaxed, camp-like atmosphere, attracting students from all over western Canada. From classical to jazz, acoustic to electronic, beginner to accomplished performer, age seven to 70, it is available to everyone.
Kootenay Rockies 11th Annual Fiddle, Piano, & Guitar Workshops July 16-20, 2012 www.kootenayfiddlers.com
The Kootenay fiddlers are pleased to have their 11th annual workshop in the Kootenays at Selkirk College. Whether you are a beginner or professional, this workshop has something to offer everyone. Classes are designed for learning and fun. Bring your recording device to keep track of all the tunes you will hear.
Suzuki Valhalla Institute 2012, New Denver
Thompson-Okanagan Nimble Fingers Bluegrass and OldTime Workshop, Sorrento August 19 - 24 and August 26 - 31 www.nimblefingers.ca
nity for group learning, electives, organized jam sessions, and many other spontaneous activities.
Spend an inspiring, challenging, and joyous week with others who share your passion for bluegrass! Now in their 23rd year, they provide a friendly and non-competitive environment for everyone from beginners to advanced players, with ample opportu-
August 5 - 10 www.valhallafinearts.org/svi
The Suzuki Valhalla Institute is a warm, friendly, well-organized institute now in its eighth year. It provides an inspiring musical program in a beautiful, natural setting well suited for a family vacation.
Selling Fair Trade Organic Shade Grown Coffee In the heart of Cow Bay, Prince Rupert, where we make everything from scratch. Check out our famous postcards! Now Licensed!
MUSICIANS/ENTERTAINERS WANTED! Contact us at 250.627.1395
Downtown Hope, BC www.bluemoosecafe.com
BC Musician | March - April 2012 21
be t h e mu si c Alberta Rocker Girl Camp www.rockergirlcamp.com July 2 - 6 Calgary July 9 - 13 Edmonton
More details coming soon! Music camp for girls aged 8 - 16 focuses mainly on writing and jamming etiquette.
MusiCamp Alberta, Red Deer www.musicampalberta.com July 22 - August 11
MusiCamp Alberta is the provincial residential summer music program for students aged 10 and up. This camp has been running for 55 years. The focus is on performance and preparation. The Faculty comprises high calibre, world-class performers and teachers drawn from professional ensembles, orchestras, universities and schools.
Foothills Acoustic Music Institute, Bragg Creek www.fami.ca
DiscoverE Summer Camp
May 18 - 21, August 23-26, October 12 - 14 jam camp
Musical styles include folk, swing, blues, celtic, bluegrass, country, old timey, roots and traditional; for ages 12 and up. Offering: Instrument-specific classes for the “core” acoustic instruments; Ensemble classes for specific genres allowing musical collaboration with a variety of instrumentation; Workshops on a wide variety of topics and instruments; Facilitated and non-facilitated jams; A friendly and supportive atmosphere in which to relax, learn and enjoy.
Camp Rockstar, Augustana, Camrose www.camprockstar.ca July 29 - August 3, 2012
Camp Rockstar is a summer music experience unlike any other in Alberta. Presented by Visionary College, Camp Rockstar is for musicians and singers ages 11 - 17 who want to learn how to rock. For six days you will live music. Future rockers will rehearse and jam with band mates, write songs, and arrange material for a concert on the final day, complete with lights and professional sound, and you will be recorded live!
Classic Guitars
University of Alberta, Edmonton http://discovere.ualberta.ca/Home
DiscoverE the science of MusicExplore, the how and why of music, while making music of your own! Collaborating with the Faculty of Engineering, this is an exciting new summer program for children. Science of Music: children in grades 4 through 6 will explore concepts underlying music. Building the Beat: children in grades 7 through 9 will look at mathematical principles as well as the acoustics and science of music making.
Great Canadian Acoustic Music Camp, The Great Canadian Barn Dance, Hillspring www.gcbd.ca July each year
Imagine… learning and playing with your family, without interruption from daily life, relaxing, enjoying prairie and mountain views, good people, and country cooking. Their instructors are here to share their musical gifts with you and your family. Instruction will be provided in guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass, banjo and vocals.
Open Everyday
FREE Wi-Fi
Licensed Establishment
The Packing House & electric & pick-ups mandolin & violin strings, cables, cords lessons & tips acoustic
amps
465 Main Street, Penticton, BC 250-492-5007
ROCKLAND MORAN on Saturday, March 10th Got the winter blues...The Packing House will blow those blues away with the blues of a different kind...enjoy blues man Rockland Moran. Linda McRae on Friday, April 13th If you have never heard the sweet sounds of Linda McRae you don’t want to miss this show. If you have, you’ll be booking your reservation. Willy Blizzard will make a Special Appearance on May 5th. Reservations, please. Scarlett Jane on Saturday, May 26th Andrea Ramola has a presence almost as inspiring as her voice. Now joined by her new band, Scarlett Jane, this will be a show to remember.
Located in downtown Spences Bridge just off the #8 and #1 Highways on Riverview Avenue Monthly music dinner shows ◆ Contact us to book your show! 3705 Riverview Ave, Spences Bridge, BC 250 458 2256 ◆ steverice53@msn.com
22 BC Musician | March - April 2012
be t h e mu sic By Meaghan Cursons Vancouver Island is a pretty darn lovely place to live. So are the eclectic little islands scattered up and down the coast of my island home. It’s one of those places that just inspire soul searching and music making. The Jan/Feb edition of BC Musician included a big long list of island venues where you can take music in. The May/June magazine will give us the scoop on island festivals galore. But sometimes the music falls into a zone between ‘performing’ and ‘consuming’. This is the place where music is all about community, making new friends and discovering your own musical gifts. Whether you want hang out at a local pub and play some familiar cover tunes (see the venue guide for options), swap folk songs at a local art gallery, take in a fiddle camp or a blues workshop, sing labour songs at the local Museum or enter a local contest or showcase - you don’t have to wander far with your instrument (or song) of choice on the Island before you find a place to express your musical self and be part of community building at the same time. A great example of this participatory music vibe is the Vancouver Island Music Workshop (VIMW) who offer a retreat in May and a workshop in September where the focus is music with a small “m”. “No hype, no stars, just good solid instructors”. At the
May retreat they just put up a sheet for folks to offer a 90 minute seminar on any subject and a sheet to request a 90 minute seminar on any subject, and then match them up. Other than that it’s straight jamming day and night. The goal of the VIMW is “to encourage anyone who wants to make music, to introduce everyone possible to the joy of making music, and to advance the skills of those who already play.” Basically VIMW is a weekend of musical joy in a beautiful country setting with great music, great food and lots of friends. www.vancouverislandmusicworkshop.com Fiddling around seems to be a big theme on the island(s) too. In the Comox Valley, Fiddlejam offers an opportunity for all ages and skill levels to learn and play Canadian Fiddle tunes. Most of the members are fiddlers but they enjoy an awesome backup contingent of piano, guitar, stand-up bass, mandolin, banjo and accordion. Fiddlejam plays a variety of styles including Canadian Old Time, Celtic, French Canadian, Cape Breton and dance music. They hold Contra / Old Time dance at the Merville Hall throughout the year and members perform at the local Farmers Market, Earth Day Festival and various street festivals and market days. www.fiddlejam.ca A conversation about fiddling around on Vancouver Island wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Victoria Fiddle Society. These guys were a big programming feature at last summer’s inaugral FolkWest Festival at Royal
Sound Advice Production Services Courtenay, BC, Canada
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Athletic Park. Their mandate is to “build community through fiddle music”. How sweet is that? Their instructors include Daniel Lapp and Qristina and Quinn Bachand. www.victoriafiddlesociety. com For the songwriters, players and producers on the island there is the annual Vancouver Island Music Awards (coming April 21st at the Fairfield United Church in Victoria). BC Musician is super happy to be on board supporting this event. The goal of the VIMA is to celebrate the Vancouver Island music scene, support networking on the island, recognize excellence, empower Island Artists to pursue their musical dreams, and set positive example for youth. As producer James Kasper puts it - it’s all about “Making Beautiful Music Together on Vancouver Island”. www.islandmusicawards.com How about a great motivator for the songwriters of the island? The Cowichan Folk Guild (producers of the Islands Folk Festival) is holding the 2012 Island Songwriters Contest. They’re putting out the call for the “next great song by a great Island Songwriter” and winners receive studio time, airplay and a live performance at the 2012 Islands Folk Festival. Their 2012 theme is “Ecology and the Environment.” and songwriters are asked to share in a song what “we can do to save our planet”. Their deadline is May 31st How about back to the Comox Valley (yup, I’m biased ‘cause I live here) for
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BC Musician | March - April 2012 23
be t he mu si c continued from page 23 the annual Miners Memorial Weekend in Cumberland (June 21-23). This event has been going on for over 20 years and brings labour activists, historians, artists, musicians, film makers and local community members together for a celebration of local and global labour history. And they play music. Lots of it! Miners Memorial includes a “Songs of the Workers” open mic night where musicians (amateur and professional) share labour and workers songs. Nothing warms the heart more than a group of lefties of all ages singing Solidarity Forever (sometimes in Russian) after a night of beers and music. There is lots of other music making over the weekend too including the campground and graveyard ceremony. Check out www. cumberlandmuseum.ca to find out more. Here’s a list of a bunch of some other cool camps, programs and retreats in the Vancouver Island area. Take a minute to check them out. Our
music lives become richer when we do more than just play or just listen. Music is also about relationships and playing to build community, raise funds, learn new (and really old) songs, share new tunes, test our skills, and follow our dreams. If you have kids who love music — send them to camp! I wish you a summer filled with musical discovery, musical soul searching and new musical friendships!
Larsen Music www.larsenmusic.ca
These folks are committed to “building healthy communities by offering a wide variety of musical opportunities in a warm and supportive environment” in Victoria. Workshops, music programs, concerts, music store, and more. Great place to pick up your copy of BC Musician Magazine.
Victoria Conservatory of Music www.vcm.bc.ca
Offering a Summer Academies program, the VCM exists to enrich lives through music as a thriving and sustainable regional centre of excellence, open and accessible to all who desire a meaningful connection with music. Guitar, strings, piano, voice, flute and more.
Salt Spring Fiddle Camp www.fiddleworks.ca July 23-27 2012
All ages, and a lot more than just fiddle! All abilities from first time to advanced players are warmly invited in a large variety of instruments; fiddle, viola, cello, guitar, mandolin, concertina, flute, whistle, percussion, choir and classes in dance, improv and art.
The Haven www.haven.ca
The Haven offers personal and professional development that embodies the principles of responsibility, communication and relationship. It’s a place where people of all ages can grow and fulfill their potential, while developing rewarding and respectful relationships with others. They have a tonne of music related programming for those in need of some soul searching. Located on gorgeous Gabriola Island.
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is pleased to support spring local events in the North The Arrogant Worms March 15, 2012 The Arrogant Worms (Mike McCormick, Chris Patterson and Trevor Strong) put on shows that are fast, furious and family friendly. Check them out at the North Peace Cultural Centre in Fort St. John at 7 p.m. Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale March 29-31, 2012 The Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale will take place during regular hours. All money raised supports library programs and projects. Please drop off your good condition books for the sale at the library before March 28.
Art Auction April 13, 2012 An elegant gala will be held at the Best Western banquet room that will include a full supper and classical entertainment. For more info ring the Dawson Creek Art Gallery at 250 782 2601. Home Routes House Concert - Rodney Brown April 19, 2012 Organized by the founders of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Home Routes house concerts is a monthly series of concerts throughout the winter that will bring great performers from across Canada to Fort St John. Get up close and personal with amazing performers in the comfort of a living room. For more
information contact Retro Relics at 250 787 8822. Stage North Presents: Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad April 26-28, 2012 Two single parents, Donna and Teddy, engage in the courtship game while cheering their 8-year-old children on at the hockey rink. This romantic comedy takes a serious look at violence in the hockey rink. Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad will be on stage at the North Peace Cultural Centre in Fort St. John. For ticket information call 250 785 1992.
Northeast News | 9909 100th Ave., Fort St. John, BC, V1J 1Y4 | 877 787 7030 | info@northeastnews.ca Northeast News | 1220B - 103 Ave., Dawson Creek, BC, V1G 2G9 | 250 782 7060 | www.northeastnews.ca
24 BC Musician | March - April 2012
is pleased to support spring local events in the Columbia Valley Adventures of TinTin March 9-10 and 15-17, 2012 See the Adventures of Tintin at the Toby Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on various evenings. Open Mic at Pynelogs Cultural Centre March 2, 2012 Check out the open mic at Pynelogs Cultural Centre at 7 p.m. For more information ring 250-342-4423. Music Around the World Carnival March 11, 2012 Music Around the World Carnival, a Columbia Valley Figure Skating Club fundraising event, kicks off at 1 p.m. at the Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena. St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Dance March 17, 2012 The Edgewater’s St. Patrick’s Day Dinner and Dance at the Edgewater Community
Hall will feature a roast beef buffet with all the trimmings at 6 p.m. A dance will follow featuring live music by L8TE. Sass Class 101 Burlesque Workshop April 22, 2012 Head over to Bud’s Bar & Lounge in Invermere if you’re ready to sharpen your performing skills. For registration information call 250-342-4423. The Cheesecake Burlesque Revue April 22, 2012 Check out the Victoria entertainers at Bud’s Bar & Lounge. The Cheesecakes are known for high-energy acts, lavish costumes, stand out performers, comedic timing, seductiveness, and girl-nextdoor accessibility.
The Columbia Valley Pioneer | #8, 1008 8th Ave. Invermere, BC | V0A 1K0 250 341 6299 | www.columbiavalleypioneer.com
BC Musician | March - April 2012 25
be t h e mu si c continued from page 24
Hornby Island Blues Workshop www.hornby-blues.bc.ca May 7-11 2012.
One of Canada’s premier blues instructional camps on beautiful Hornby Island. The Hornby Blues Society believes that music creates community, and Blues and Roots music energize the spirit and inspire attitude. In 2012 we continue our unique workshops where we invite a dozen or so of the finest Canadian Blues and Roots musicians around to share their knowledge and inspiration with those 70 students fortunate enough to have successfully registered for the camp.
Celtic Performing Arts and The Pacific Institute of Piping www.celticperformingarts.com/generalinformation-summer-school.com July 17-22, 2011
A weeklong summer school offering classes in a wide variety of subjects from music to dance, pipes and drums, to singing, harp, fiddle and penny whistle.
Nanaimo Conservatory of Music
Hollyhock
www.ncmusic.ca
www.hollyhock.ca
This incredible retreat on Cortes Island offers a wide range of personal, professional and spiritual development programs many with music as a key component. This place is amazing...and even if the program isn’t about music...it will inspire you to create some.
Comox Valley Youth Music Centre (CYMC) www.cymc.ca July and August 2012
Pacific Jazz, Classical and Musical Theatre Camps for youth based in the Comox Valley. BC’s longest running music camp!
Headliners School of Performing Arts www.headliners.ca
School of Rock youth programs, theatre and film classes, workshops and classes and great little performance space for jams and collaborations!
A community musical school offering musical activities for all ages in a non-competitive and richly creative environment.
And over on the Sunshine Coast (which I like to pretend is part of Vancouver Island)
Coast String Fiddlers www.coaststringfiddlers.com The Sunshine Coast School of Celtic Music will be 8th – 14th of July 2012.
Powell River Academy of Music www.powellriveracademy.org
A community music school offering excellence in arts education to students of all ages as well as adults. Through its training programs in music, dance, theatre, visual arts the students and adults develop their talents and skills; plus acquire a life long” love of the arts”. Presents the International Choral Kathaumixw Festival and Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific.
2012 is our 23rd year! Spend an inspiring, challenging, chal and joyous week with others who share your Week 2 passion for music! Sunday, Workshops in Bluegrass Aug ust 26 to and Old-Time Mandolin, Friday, Banjo, Dobro, Bass, Fiddle, Lead and Harmony Singing, August 31 Songwriting and more. Old-Time dances, band o t n e scrambles, student concerts, r r o The S ss new friends, fantastic food, great a r g e lu B accommodation, and loads of l Festiva jamming! , y a d r u Sat Held at The Sorrento Centre in 5 2 August Sorrento, BC.
1 Week ,
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For more informaiton please visit nimblefingers.ca
26 BC Musician | March - April 2012
DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO GET IN THE ULTIMATE SUMMER FESTIVAL GUIDE! The 2012 Ultimate Summer Festival Guide is starting to perk in the secret laboratories of BC Musician Magazine and over 15,000 copies of sweet festival love will be hitting the streets of BC and Alberta in May of this year. We’d love for you to be part of the story we tell! The Ultimate Summer Festival Guide is a perfect tool for festival fans and includes a comprehensive, colourful and informative list of BC and Alberta Music Festivals. The Guide has seen a huge surge in popularity over the past three years as more and more folks are discovering this perfect print side-kick for their ‘unplugged’ summer season. The Guide also provides festivals with a super effective way promote their event to a highly targeted audience. In fact, our team is made up of current festival staff and festival veterans who have a genuine interest in, and passion for, the success of the BC festival scene. We know first hand about humble marketing budgets and the need to be creative, smart and highly tactical in getting the word out about your event.
Advertising in the Ultimate Festival Guide is effective AND affordable. Deadline for booking is April 1st. Ads start as low as $133! Contact: Meg Cursons: meg@bcmusicianmag.com or Joanne Layh: jlayh@bcmusicianmag.com
is pleased to support spring events in the Robson Valley Valemount Arts and Cultural Society Silent Auction and Celebration March 12, 2012 In celebration of five years of theatre presentations, there will be a celebration auction from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the foyer of Valemount Secondary School. Bid on great items in support of VACS. All proceeds go to the theatre program. Free refreshments for all. Caladh Nua March 12, 2012 Traditional Irish band Caladh Nua is comprised of five extremely talented musicians from three beautiful regions in Ireland. The tasteful musical arrangements of Caladh Nua include traditional Irish dance music, traditional songs alongside some more recently composed pieces. They’ll be performing at Valemount Community Theatre. Corin Raymond & The Sundowners March 28, 2012 Dunster Schoolhouse Concert Series will present Corin Raymond & The Sundowners on March
28. The concert series is a fundraiser for Dunster Fine Arts School. For more information visit www.robsonvalleymusicfestivalbc. com/DunsterSchool. Jesse Peters Trio April 25, 2012 At the Roundhouse Theatre in McBride. $30 advance, $40 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m., show at 7:30 p.m. Brian Macmillan April 28, 2012 Dunster Schoolhouse Concert Series will present Brian Macmillan on April 28. The concert series is a fundraiser for Dunster Fine Arts School. For more information visit www.robsonvalleymusicfestivalbc. com/DunsterSchool. Pharis and Jason Romero May 12, 2012 Dunster Schoolhouse Concert Series will present Pharis and Jason Romero on May 12. The concert series is a fundraiser for Dunster Fine Arts School. For more information visit www.robsonvalleymusicfestivalbc.com/DunsterSchool.
The Valley Sentinel | 1012 Commercial Drive P.O. Box 688 | Valemount, BC | V0E 2Z0 800 226 2120 | www.thevalleysentinel.com
BC Musician | March - April 2012 27
Cd r ev i ews
By Staff
The Falcons Atomic Guitar www.falconbeachmusic.com
The Resurrect Christ Foundation Lest Ye Sin theresurrectchristfoundation.com This band has been performing in Fort St. John and the surrounding areas in northern BC for nearly eight years. They describe themselves as more than a simple post voodoo shock folk band. They claim that the Shroud of Turin should contain sufficient genetic material to allow for the cloning of Jesus and they are actually a not-forprofit society raising money to achieve that goal. The core of the band consists of Josh Giesbrecht, who plays all the instruments and writes all of the songs, his brother, Jared, who rides entirely on the coat-tails of Josh, and drummer Mark Bodner who refuses to appear live with the band. These are supplemented by a cadre of about 10 musicians who may or may not turn out for live performances. This is their second CD and is actually a lot of fun, but you need to have the right sense of humour or it will make you crazy. Although that could be the point. Josh Giesbrecht is trying to drive you insane. Combine Captain Beefheart with early Mothers of Invention and mash it up with a really bad polka band playing Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity and you get some idea of what’s happening here. Although you are still only scratching the surface. You can listen on their website and you should. According to Josh when the Lord says he loves you, he’s lying.
Locarno Una Mas Y Ya Nos Vamos Jerico Beach Music www.jericobeachmusic.com Locarno is the Latin music project of Paperboys front man Tom Landa. Landa was born in Mexico city to a Mexican father and a Canadian mother. He moved to Ontario as a teenager and was later reintroduced to Mexican music through Los Lobos, La Pistola y el Corazón. He then began a quest to learn more about the music and this CD is a return to his roots. He studied the Son Jarocho style in Veracruz and here he modernizes that sound with elements of Cuban son, folk music and funk. A key contributor to the project is Joby Baker who has co-production credits and amongst other instruments plays bass, piano and fender rhodes. Baker has worked with a number of world and Latin artists including Alex Cuba. Miguelito Valdes plays trumpet and percussion, Sam Esecson on drums and percussion, Kalissa Hernandez on violin and Nick La Riviere on trombone. The great guitarists Alpha Yaya Diallo and Marc Atkinson each guest on one track. Seven tracks and a running time of less than 30 minutes, but nothing is wasted and it is a compelling effort.
28 BC Musician | March - April 2012
Formed 20 years ago as an original instrumental rock and roll band inspired by The Ventures and The Shadows, this is year of The Falcons. They are releasing three CDs this year. Atomic Guitar, which is their first new album in seven years, a 13-track retrospective EP collection, and Rebel Jukebox: 10th Anniversary Edition (completely remixed and remastered in analogue). Atomic Guitar was recorded live off the floor in analogue at the Russian Community Centre on 4th Avenue in Vancouver. Those of us old enough to remember will know this as the location of the first incarnation of the Afterthought, one of the original psychedelic clubs on the west coast. There are 13 tracks on the CD, 12 originals and a cover of Sleep Walk, a hit for Santo & Johnny in 1959 and also covered by Jeff Beck. Although rooted in earlier styles and recording techniques, The Falcons are not a nostalgia act. Their sound is modern, wide-ranging and innovative. In their own words, they play Canadian surf, western romance, barbed wire and space crash. In the liner notes Jolly John Tanner says they catapult “you into a perfect Tarantino soundtrack.” Their website contains a useful history of the three great waves of instrumental rock and roll music that everyone should read. Instros for the atomic age indeed.
C d r ev i ews ew s Are you sending us a CD? We realize that many of you feel that your music should speak for itself and that it might be unseemly to engage in selfpromotion. But it is not a good idea to send us your CD with nothing but an artist name and a listing of tracks. In fact it is a really bad idea and you shouldn’t bother. Here’s why. All of our CD reviews are written by two guys who do it to help out. We don’t get paid, but we get fed at home so we’re not complaining. Because we don’t get paid we have to work at other jobs and that takes a lot of time that might otherwise be available to research who you are. So why don’t you make this easy? If you are going to take the time to send us your CD tell us who you are. Where do you live? Tell us something interesting about yourself. Tell us about the CD. Are there other musicians on it? Do they have names? The more information you give us the better chance you have we can get
The Colorifics What Happened to You www.thecolorifics.com The Colorifics are fun, cuddly, elegant at times, and musically skilled. They’re cheeky and want you to know that they enjoy what they do because music is about that for many of us. These are some of my impressions when listening to What Happened To You. Based in Vancouver, The Colorifics have been at it since 1995. In their latest recording you can hear the beneficial results of adults consistently playing nice together. Every song on this album is a delight to listen to or dance to with a glass of bubbly something in one of your hands. This is uplifting music for adults who would like a break from auto tuning and horrendously compressed pop albums. Bernard Boulanger lends tasty, jazzy licks that weave in and out with intuitive phrasing. Mellissa Bandura’s vocals sound like they were made for these songs. She also lays down some colourful fiddle and sultry flute. John Rule on drums and percussion (formerly of Bob’s Yer Uncle/Wingnuts) handles a variety of grooves with his usual flare and solidity. Eric Napier completes the rhythm section nicely on bass. The Colorifics explore all kinds of exotic musical places from gypsy flavoured swing to rock and roll to classic jazz. Their songs are sophisticated without being pretentious. Put on this disc and move around, waving your hands in the air or just whistle along whenever you feel like brightening up your day.
By Bobby Herron
Miss Quincy Like the Devil Does missquincey.net Miss Quincy is running hard. She has a new CD, Like The Devil Does, a new band, The Showdown, and has started an eight-month tour that will take her across Canada before launching the European leg in late March. Just for the hell of it she also recently starred as the heroine, tied to the railroad tracks, in a new silent movie music video shot by Patrick Shannon. A role that ended with her in the hospital after falling backwards on the tracks. If there was an award for sheer energy she would come first. This CD is her second and it continues in the spirit of the roots sound that she has already established, but it both ups the musical ante with better musicians and moves down into dirtier territory, just like the devil does. Produced by Tim Williams, a stalwart of the Alberta blues scene, and with the support of an additional eight backing musicians, it has a live gutbucket sound. There are 10 tracks on the CD, nine originals and a courageous cover of Nina Simone’s I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl. With The Showdown she tours as a three piece of electric guitar, drums and upright bass. She says they have never played a boring show and never intend to. We believe her.
something into print about you. And that’s why you sent the CD right?
BC Musician | March - April 2012 29
Cd r ev i ews
Deanna Cartea Open Road www.deannacartea.com Deanna Cartea is a Sunshine Coast vocalist with a distinctive style. She’s got one of those voices that are at times 60 per cent air and 40 per cent tone. This, combined with her effortless phrasing, pulled me into the music. Some of the songs that stand out for me on Open Road are - It’s Another Day with the guitar textures that remind me of Phil Mansanera of Roxy Music, One More Time and Photograph – a dramatic, folky tune which contains one of my favorite instruments – accordion. Deanna’s vocals are both expressive and dreamy at times. There are several guitar players on this album. All clever and proficient. Sometimes it sounds like a guitar player’s showcase. The guitar that appears most consistent is Deanna’s acoustic. I would have liked the drummer to have advocated for a bigger sound. These are all production comments. I believe Deanna Cartea should keep making records that contain her winning voice and guitar strumming and her Sunshine Coast brand of tasty songwriting.
By Bobby Herron
Luke Blu Guthrie Routes & Blu follyarts.com/lukebluguthrie.com Luke Blu Guthrie sounds like he’s spent time in Nashville, Edmonton, Vancouver and all kinds of rural places in between. His genuine style of songwriting combined with his in-thepocket guitar playing and his smooth, soulful voice make me wonder if he wasn’t born with a prominent, musical predisposition. If pushed to assign a genre to Luke’s music, I can only think of the word roots. Many of the flavours of western music such as country, blues, and folk are present on his new album Routes & Blu. Luke appears to have a good time effortlessly meshing the styles together with the help of some fellow Vancouver Islanders. The first song on this album, Southern Time is a country influenced tune with some sweet slide work. Luke’s clean voice, relaxed vocal style and adept guitar picking pull it back from being full on C&W for me and take the sound into other realms. I like that. The rest of the songs on the album continue to explore the roots and blues musical themes without adhering too closely to any particular bag. The result is a lively, original sounding west coast album.
30 BC Musician | March - April 2012
Mamaguroove Songs for a Blue Planet www.mamaguroove.com Mamaguroove is from Dunster, BC. (I looked on a map because my curiosity had been sparked.) They must be a hell of a lot of fun to see live. Listening to their latest release, Songs For A Blue Planet, I get a sense of their high energy grooves and can imagine their wild stage antics. Beneath all the face paint and mother earth loving rootsiness is a smokin’ dance band. MG kick out horn driven rhythms that range from rubbery funk to righteous reggae. The performances and production seem to reflect a desire to capture the live essence of the band. I’m impressed when a musical act can take a song by the slightly peaked looking Bronski Beat and turn it into an organic sounding ska tune. Nice work. Many of the lyrical themes on this disc have a socially conscious edge to them. With titles like Blood Of The Nation and World Citizen, Shara Gufstafson, the band’s vocalist seems to want to hit you with a thoughtful message while causing you to dance your ass off. Songs For a Blue Planet is their second album.
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Tlell Queen Charlotte Quesnel
Wells/Barkerville McBride Dunster Valemount
Horsefly Williams Lake
Bella Coola
Clearwater Golden Clinton Revelstoke Calgary Ashcroft Radium Salmon Arm Kamloops Invermere Enderby Spences Bridge Fairmont Hot Springs Vernon Pemberton Campbell River Merritt Kelowna Whistler Peachland Kimberley Squamish Nelson Cumberland Qualicum Beach Princeton Penticton Fernie Courtenay Ymir Sirdar Cranbrook Parksville Mission/Abbotsford Hope Oliver Castlegar Comox Nanaimo Trail Creston Saltspring Vancouver Chilliwack Osoyoos Grand Forks Rossland Richmond WASHINGTON IDAHO MONTANA Duncan Victoria
Please support these great businesses who support local music in their communities. Audiopile (604 253 7453 | Vancouver) The Blue Moose (604 868 0729 | Hope) Coco’s Bistro (250 295 3431 | Princeton) The Packing House (250 458 2256 | Spences Bridge) The Minstrel Café (250 764 2301 | Kelowna) Classic Guitars (250 492 5007 | Penticton) Zocalo’s (250 331 0933 | Courtenay)
The Waverley (250 336 8322 | Cumberland) Skaha Sound (250 492 4710 | Penticton) The Royal on Baker (250 352 1269 | Nelson) Cowpuccino’s (250 627 1395 | Prince Rupert) The Beatmerchant (604 204 0044 | Richmond) Larsen Music (204 389 1988 | Victoria)
And while you’re there, be sure to pick up the latest issue of BC Musician Magazine!
web, marketing & admin support for people doing it virtually alone www.time4somethingelse/bandplan.com 250 650 5425 Your talent is creating music, ours is creating websites. We could rock together.
BC Musician | March - April 2012 31
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