Steve's Blog
Wednesday July 28, 2010

Hi everyone

Mission was a very fine festival indeed. Still catching up on my sleep ...

I hope to publish some photos and memories from Island Musicfest, Vancouver Folk Music Festival, and Mission Folk Festival in the next few days.

Meanwhile ...

1. Wednesday July 28th, 6pm - Shorefest w/ Kendel Carson, Jon & Roy, Dan Mangan

Kendel Carson was the fiddler in The Paperboys for many years, and also played with Outlaw Social. More recently she toured with Chip Taylor (who wrote many hits, including "Wild Thing") and has now launched her solo career with a great CD. She will be joined by members of her partner Dustin Bentall's band. Jon & Roy from Victoria were at the VFMF the other week. I missed them, but have heard great things about them. Dan Mangan is a local songwriter who has rapidly moved up from the coffee houses to become one of Canada's best-loved young songwriters. All this for free! At the Bathhouse Stage at the foot of Denman Street on English Bay. The show starts at 6pm, and runs till 9pm. Then it's fireworks night again - this time from Mexico! The whole show will be simulcast on Shore 104.3fm so if you can't make it to the beach, tune in and turn on - as they used to say! www.shore104.com

2. Thursday July 29th, 8pm - Debashish Bhattacharya, CBC Studio 700 (700 Hamilton Street)

A unique musical journey, bringing Indian raga to Canada to meet jazz piano! Debashish Bhattacharya is one of the world's most remarkable musicians, combining the evocative sounds of Indian raga with the slick and soulful sounds of western jazz and blues on a range of guitars seldom seen outside the sub-continent. As he explains, slide guitar was taken to India from Hawaii about 70 years ago. It chimed with the local musical tradition and a whole new art form was developed in Calcutta slide-Guitar. Debashish began playing Hawaiian lap steel guitar at the age of three and gave his first major concert on All India Radio when he was four. All his guitars are unique instruments designed by Debashish - the Chaturangui, the Gandharvi and the Anandi - all accompanied by his brother Subhasis on tablas. These slide guitars represent three generations of instruments and a 1,000 years tradition of Indian music performed in a hypnotic and stunning style.

The brothers will team up with Bob Murphy - last seen at The Rogue playing Hammond organ with The Sojourners in June. Bob is also a piano virtuoso, and a few years ago he met Debashish and they formed a mutual appreciation society, vowing one day to work together. That day has come! Tom Keenlyside, a stalwart member of the local jazz scene, will add flute and sax to the mix.

We invite you to experience this unique musical fusion and revel in the majesty, grace, and power of one of the world's oldest musical traditions washing up and over and around western music in the air conditioned comfort of the new CBC Studio 700 theatre. This show is accessible, licensed, and open to all ages. There is a restaurant next door and plenty more on the adjacent Robson Street.

There are still plenty of tickets available, and yes, you can use Parcel O'Rogues tickets for this show. You can book online or buy tickets at Highlife Records or Rufus' guitar Shop. You may instead choose to reserve tickets on the Rogue hotline 604-736-3022. We'd love to have a full house as we bid adieu to Debashish and Subhasis as they depart for a festival in Dublin next week and then are off to India and Japan. For more information about Debashish, visit www.debashishbhattacharya.com There are YouTube videos on our website, too.

3. The Edge On Folk, Saturday 8am to noon on CiTR fm 101.9 and www.citr.ca

I'll have a preview of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, plus highlights from the recent festivals in Courtenay, Vancouver and Mission. Plus new releases including Red Horse (Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky - who will be at the Rogue in April.) Podcasts of the last two festival specials are now available for download on www.citr.ca and playlists are on our website Please join me for four hours of the best in World, Roots and Folk Music from 8am to noon on CiTR fm 101.9 (streamed live on www.citr.ca)

4. Saturday July 31st, noon to 10:30pm - Shorefest finale

The Rogue will have a booth next to the stage on Sunset Beach - near the Aquatic Centre - which runs from noon to 5:30pm! There will be short sets from 5 more Shore 104 Summer Songsearch finalists - including Headwater and the amazing Reid Jamieson (who launches a CD at The Rogue in September) then longer sets from BTU (Barney Bentall, Tom Taylor & Shari Ulrich) and the Jim Byrnes R&B Band. Then the action moves west to the Bathhouse Stage from 6pm to 9pm with Yukon Blonde, Patrick Brealey, and Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy. The fireworks are A Tribute To China. The whole show will be broadcast live on Shore 104.3fm. www.shore104.com

Have fun - and music - in the sun!

Steve