Joe Charron & Great☆Divide

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Joe Charron first stood on stage in front of 200 people when he was 5 years old at a Huntsville, Ontario festival . He remembers being scared to death ... but the thrill never left him.

When Joe was a kid he used to sit beside the big old floor model radio with the rotary dial and listen and sing along to his parents' music... the crooners (Crosby, Clooney, Kaye), the Rat Pack, maybe some Hank Williams. Then, late one night through some freak of nature in the atmoshere he heard Movin' and a' Groovin with Cousin Brucie". It was a show on WABC New York and a wild man going by the moniker of "Cousin Brucie" was playing the Beatles. The British Invasion was on. Joe was never the same after that.

Joe started writing poetry when he was a teenager. While he was at York University in Toronto he started going to The Riverboat club. He got fascinated with the singer/songwriter thing and started putting his words to music. Joe has always been a bookworm and the use of language to paint pictures is his passion. To him the challenge in songwriting has always been to tell a short story in three and a half minutes. Tom Waits' comment; "Vocabulary is my instrument" has continued to be a signpost.

Joe has appeared on festival stages such as: Mariposa, South Country Fair, Islands Folk Festival, Burns Lake Bluegrass Festival and Coombs Bluegrass Festival. In the late nineties Joe co-produced and hosted a short TV intervew/performance series for Shaw Cable to honor travelling singer/songwriters called Canadian Songsmith with guests like Fred Eaglesmith, David Essig, Bill Bourne, Pat Temple, Will Millar, Joe Hall and Diamond Joe White. Every once in awhile you still see one of the segments pop up on some public channel.

Joe Charron will be accompanied tonight by his band Great☆Divide: Don Fraser (dobro & guitar), Michael Burnyeat (fiddle) and Stu MacDonald (bass). Guesting at various points along the way will be Wahl (mandolin) Angela James (cello) and Jane Slemon (flute).

CD Review:

"THIS PLACE CALLED HOME is the title of Joe Charron's fifth CD. His strong voice is the pitch perfect medium for its 13 tracks. Like old cowboys and poets, Joe packs a whole lot of meaning into just a few simple words. Those old verities, love, honour, pity, pride, sacrifice and compassion are played out in scenes where often the human heart is in conflict with itself. Here are loners, lovers, drifters, dreamers and wanderers facing life's uncertainties with as much courage as they can. Joe's keen eye and ear for iconic settings, old stone fences, a single rose on a kitchen table, deserted barns, two-lane highways, the sound of a fiddle in the next room, a blackbird on the wing... even the moon in June, all combine to evoke those places where, taking our chances, we ourselves once walked a little bit lost, a little bit lonesome, a long way from home. Yes, all that's in there and with a great band to boot, you've got yourself a CD that you can leave in permanent rotation on the player." - Don Davidson, Vancouver, BC

The Rogue Folk Club is pleased to provide great Sponsorship Opportunities for all our shows. For a nominal cost, individuals or businesses can sponsor any of our shows and reap a number of benefits - free tickets, reserved table, recognition on literature, our web site and at the concerts. Find out more here, or simply contact our Sponsorship Director Morris Biddle at mobiddley@me.com