Steve's Blog
"Celtic Colours West" - A Celebration of Celtic, Folk & Roots Music
Friday October 5, 2018

1. Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi, Saturday October 6th, 8pm, St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue)

Guy Davis has been a regular at The Rogue with 12 previous shows dating back to 1998. He's long been one of my favourite Blues singers, and he's a masterful raconteur as well. He's played loads of folk festivals in Canada down the years, most recently the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in July, where I interviewed him. You can hear snippets of that on interview on my radio show tomorrow morning on www.citr.ca (at around 10am, I think!)

Guy had his musical storytelling influenced by artists like Blind Willie McTell and Big Bill Broonzy, and his musicality from artists as diverse as Lightnin’ Hopkins, Dylan, Donovan, and Babatunde Olatunji. However, there’s one man that Guy most credits for his harmonica techniques, by stealing and crediting from him everything that he could, and that man is the legendary Sonny Terry.

Guy’s new album, Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train – A Look Back at Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, is an homage to these two hugely influential artists, not only on Guy’s career, but to thousands of musicians around the world. One such artist is the Italian harmonica ace, Fabrizio Poggi, who collaborates with and produced this recording. 

Fabrizio will accompany Guy at this very special concert, which is sponsored by long-time Rogue Folk Club members and supporters Tom Nesbit and Adrienne Burk. Thank you!!!

Tickets are still available here and at Highlife Records, Tapestry Music on Broadway, and at the door. Doors open at 7pm, show time is 8pm. See you there!!

N.B. The Sybaritic String Band's October Contra Dance has been moved to the Russian Hall in Strathcona to enable us to bring you this fine concert! Thanks, Sybs!!
 

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2. We Banjo 3, Tuesday October 9th, 8pm, St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue)

We've seen this wonderful Irish band at The Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton, and at the Doolin Folk Festival in Ireland, and are thrilled to be able to bring them to The Rogue for their Vancouver debut! These two pairs of brothers are such fun entertainers, with great vocals, stunning musicianship, and an irrepressible joie de vivre! They call their particular brand of music "Celtgrass", for the combination of scorching hot jigs and reels with Bluegrass and Alt Country songs. Sort of like Four Men & A Dog meets the Everly Brothers, if you like! We do like. A lot! Hope you do, too.

Tickets are still available here and at Highlife Records, Tapestry Music on Broadway, and at the door. Doors open at 7pm, show time is 8pm.
 

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3. Claire Lynch Band, Wednesday October 10th, 8pm, St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue)

Nashville Bluegrass singer Claire Lynch has been on our radar for over a decade now, and her frequent visits to Canada led to fan mail from one particular chap who kept recommending great Canadian songwriters to her. This has led to two amazing results: their marriage, and Claire's superb CD North By South, which features songs penned by Canadian writers like Ron Sexsmith, Willie P Bennett, JP Cormier, David Francey, Lynn Miles, Gordon Lightfoot and Bruce Cockburn. 

Claire is a glorious singer, and the music is definitely not all Bluegrass. Just beautiful, stirring Canadian story songs brilliantly performed by one of the finest bands in the business. We are delighted to present her first Vancouver show, and her band features Canadian and American National Fiddle Champion Shane Cooke.

Again, tickets are available here and at Highlife Records, Tapestry Music on Broadway, and at the door. Doors open at 7pm, show time is 8pm.
 

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4. The Fretless, Saturday October 13th, 8pm, St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue)

Next Saturday we present the return of the amazing Celtic string quartet The Fretless, with special guest Rachel Beck Colwill from PEI opening proceedings. More details and tickets are available here.
 

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5. Jim Byrnes on Joy TV!

Last January we presented the CD launch concert for Jim Byrnes' stunning album Long Hot Summer Days. Hubcast Media recorded the show and JoyTV will begin a new series of shows at midnight on Saturdays, starting on October 6th with Star Captains, and October 13th with Tiller's Folly. Then on Saturday October 20th, they will feature several songs from the Jim Byrnes CD launch show at The Rogue! The show is hosted by local TV personality Fiona Forbes, and I think they are going to squeeze in a segment with me interviewing Jim. Watch for a Russell deCarle feature in the coming weeks, too.
 

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6. Judy Collins & Stephen Stills, Friday October 5th at The Vogue

Last week I interviewed "Folk Royalty" on CiTR - Judy Collins! What a delight that was!! I'm really excited to hear her in concert tonight at The Vogue with Stephen Stills and a great band! Show time is 8pm, doors at 7. 
 

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7. Capilano University Global Roots Series Update

Mad Dogs & Vancouverites is the latest Album Tribute Show put together by the amazing Steve Dawson. He and his pals will pay homage to the late English soul singer Joe Cocker and his wonderful 1970 LP, Mad Dogs & Englishmen. There are two shows at the Kay Meek Theatre in West Vancouver: Friday October 12th, and Saturday October 13th. Click here for tickets.


Bilingual PEI singer / songwriter Lennie Gallant returns to town with a brilliant new CD, Time Travel, and plays the Blueshore Financial Stage at Capilano University on Sunday October 28th. Click here for tickets.
 

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8. Coming Up at The Rogue
We have so many great bands who fit into the programming MO of Celtic Colours this Fall that I've taken the liberty of sub-titling our shows - unofficially, of course - "Celtic Colours West"!

• Friday October 19th - The East Pointers (scintillating Celtic music and original songs from PEI)
• Sunday October 21st - Matthew Byrne (Canada's finest trad singer, all the way from Newfoundland)
• Thursday October 25th - Irish Mythen (one of the most powerful voices on the scene, this diminutive singer from Ireland now makes her home in PEI. Don't miss her local debut!)
• Friday November 2nd - The Once (glorious vocal harmonies from Newfoundland trio whoa re darlings of CBC - with good reason!)
• Sunday November 4th - TriVo (Karla Mundy, Dawn Pemberton and Brian Tate) & Fraser Union play a Fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. East Van GoGos are grandmothers supporting African grandmothers (GoGos) who are raising their grandkids who lost their parents to the AIDS epidemic.
• Friday November 9th - Early Spirit (Gabriel Dubreuil and Jay Knutson lead this band in stirring Celtic / Jazz fiddle tunes and songs from the early repertoire of Spirit of the West)
• Saturday November 10th - Martin Kerr (English songwriter living in Edmonton. This wonderful communicator was a huge hit at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in July.)
• Friday November 16th - The Small Glories (Winnipeg duo Cara Luft and JD Edwards return with new songs and a new CD. Watch for details of an exciting opening act to be confirmed.)
• Thursday November 22nd - Beatles White Album Tribute (to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the Fab Four's Double LP, a vast array of Vancouver musicians and singers from the Celtic, Jazz, Classical, and New Music scene will perform every song from the White Album, in sequence!)

For tickets and information on all our shows click here.
 

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9. Radio Waves
On this week's Saturday Edge On Folk (Saturday 8am to noon on CiTR fm 101.9 and www.citr.ca  I'll have new releases from the likes of Ethiopian singer Minyeshu, Scandinavia's Trio Mio, wild Irish combo Kila, Dutch singer Judy Blank, Cuban mambo from Orquesta Akokan, American Blues divas Shemekia Copeland and Maria Muldaur, Alberta's own Blues diva Kat Danser, and more. Plus RIPs to Blues guitar great Otis Rush, ex-Fairport / Tull multi-instrumentalist Maartin Allcock, and Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin. Plus, of course features on Guy Davis (including the interview from the VFMF), We Banjo 3, Claire Lynch, and other Rogues. I hope you can tune me in and turn me on tomorrow morning from 8am to noon on www.citr.ca 

Radio Rogue is also available for your Roots Music Listening Pleasure 24/7/365 on our website

10. Celtic Colours on Live Stream
Starting today the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton (the REAL one!) is sharing a live stream of one of their amazing concerts from 3:30pm to 7:30pm Pacific. These streams will be available online any time until the broadcast of the next one starts. The opening concert features Natalie MacMaster and Blazin' Fiddles. It's on right now, in fact! There will be a new show each day up to and including next Saturday 13th.