Steve's Blog
Tuesday January 24, 2012

Hi everyone

We have two concerts this week - a couple of excellent Canadian bands, one from the far east coast and one from Vancouver. To mark the occasion (or maybe to mark the beginning of the Rogue's 25th anniversary year) if you come early - doors open at 7pm - come and join us for a grand old Canadian game of Crokinole. It's like a warmer, table-top version of curling, or a fairly close relative of the English pub game Shove Ha'penny. I was introduced to it in Nova Scotia in the late 70s. Anyhow, I digress. We'll also have some Rogue Folk calendars for sale at these shows.

1. Sherman Downey & The Silver Lining, Tuesday January 24, 8pm, St. James Hall, 3214 West 10th Avenue

Sherman Downey is a young Newfoundlander with dreadlocks. His band - they are all from Cornerbrook - serve up a delicious blend of folk / pop / bluegrass and genuinely warm, infectious music with a gentle groove and subtle lyrics. Their debut CD, Honey For Bees, came out in 2009, so they will have plenty of new material as well by now, but even if they only played the 10 songs from the CD two or three times each you would have enjoyed a memorable concert and you'd have at least 5 of those songs buzzing happily around your head for weeks! So, if you're looking for shelter from a storm, look no further than St. James Hall and check out this fine young band from The Rock! www.shermandowney.ca

2. Tim Readman & Out Of The Green, Friday January 27, 8pm, St. James Hall

During CiTR fm's recent Fundrive I had the delightful experience of hosting this quartet on my show. Tim Readman, of course, is a veritable cornerstone of the local folk scene, having hosted Thursday nights at Main Street's Cafe Montmartre for years - and the Southill Candy Shop before that - as well as opening for the likes of Jez Lowe and Vin Garbutt on numerous occasions (Tim hails from the same NE Coast of England as those two giants of the genre,) and he's also a regular performer at the Mission Folk Festival. In addition, he was Artistic Director of the Vancouver Celtic festival for two years and is a music reviewer for that wonderful Canadian magazine Penguin Eggs. He's recently made a name for himself at the home of his beloved Newcastle United FC, where his songs are often featured in the pre-match entertainment! Sometimes a performer can be so well known in his home town that he can be taken forgranted. This may have been the case with Tim, but with his new CD and the new backing band he has taken a quantum leap forward with his choice of material (6 traditional folk songs from the Old Sod, and four exemplary contemporary folk songs by the likes of The Pogues, Lindisfarne, Richard Thompson, and Ron Kavana) and his great new band. Fiddler Jennie Bice has played with Tim for years, but the recent addition of the driving rhythms of Ed Weaver on mandola and Allen Dionne on bodhran have moved the music to the next "level." Together with Tim's increased maturity as a singer and arranger, and Jennie's brilliant fiddle work, Out Of The Green make a joyful Celtic noise and this will be a highly enjoyable CD launch concert, mark my words! www.timreadman.com

We hope to see you at The Rogue! (Who will be Rogue Crokinole Champion of the week?)

Steve