Steve's Blog
This weekend: versatile singer launches CD, and popular Celtic band reunites for a rollicking night of fun!
Tuesday November 21, 2023

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More exciting concerts in the pipeline! Last Chance To Win Big $$$ in our 50/50 Draw


1. Jane Mortifee CD Launch, Saturday November 25th, 8pm, Mel Lehan Hall at St. James (3214 West 10th Avenue)

Join us for the official CD launch of Jane Mortifee's new album Just Here Just Now Just Enough. She will be joined by the talented musicians who were the music makers on this project: Bill Sample on keyboards and piano and background vocals, Miles Foxx Hill on bass, Tim Porter on guitar, Randall Stoll on drums, Tom Keenlyside on sax and Darlene Cooper on background vocals. Jane did the official launch for her previous CD, Get Ready, on the St James Hall stage 14 years ago. What a memorable show that was! She also shared the bill with her great friend Ms. Shari Ulrich when we started to present shows again after full lockdown in 2021. That was also sold out. Let's hope we can fill the hall again this weekend. It will be a fabulous concert. She’s happy to be back - and we are equally thrilled to present her new album! Click here to purchase LIVE in-person concert tickets, or Watch-At-Home Tickets.



2. Mad Pudding, Sunday November 26th, 8pm, Mel Lehan Hall at St. James (3214 West 10th Avenue)

Vancouver Celtic-Funk combo 
Mad Pudding has performed over a dozen times at The Rogue. Their unique blend of instrumental swagger, impeccable harmonies, and powerful original songs and tunes - not to mention rollicking traditional medleys of jigs and reels - made them not only the darlings of the Rogue / Roots / Celtic crowd in Vancouver, but also popular attractions at festivals and concerts and dance halls across Canada and into the USA and Europe. They released four CDs plus a 10-year retrospective. The best-loved and most enduring line-up of the band reunites on rare occasions. This is one of those occasions!

The group started out way back when with Amy Stephen (harp, accordion, vocals) and Andy Hillhouse (guitar, vocals). They were soon joined by fellow UBC music student Cam Wilson (of Van DjangoJoe TrioGet Back Unplugged, and VSOfame) on fiddle. The rhythm section evolved into Allen Dionne (drums, percussion, accordion) and Boris Favre (bass, piano, accordion, etc.) and the band's last studio albums, Grand Hotel and Rattle On The Stovepipe, stand as testaments to the range and ability of this fine band. We hope you will be there to join the fun on Sunday.

Click here for concert tickets, or if you can't make it to the show, why not choose Watch-At-Home tickets so you can see the show any time and any place.



3. Rogue 50/50 - Deadline is Monday November 27th at midnight!

Our third 50/50 fundraiser is almost over, but so far we haven't had a great response. At the end of last year regular Rogue attendee Sandi Cleary won over $4,000 and a few months later another regular concert goer Marian Gilmour took home around $4,500

We would love to be able to help someone pick up a pre-Christmas "bonus" of $10,000 - but we need to sell more tickets!! The maximum we can sell is $20,000 worth, but right now the total is just over $2,500 and that means this particular Rogue fundraiser will add less than $1,100 to the Rogue's ever-dwindling coffers. For sure, we have had some sold out concerts lately, but the bigger the crowd the more we pay the musicians. So, we are in a constant state of need! 


You can purchase packs of 3 tickets for $5, 20 for $10, 50 for $20, or 100 for $30 - or as many of those packs as you like. Just click this link to stake your claim and support live music!

Please do support the Rogue if you possibly can. You may or may not be the lucky winner of the grand prize, but every little bit helps us to keep bringing you the very best music in the very best live venue in town! Thank you!



4. John Wort Hannam & Chris Ronald, Saturday December 2nd, 8pm, Mel Lehan Hall at St. James (3214 West 10th Avenue)
Roll Up! Roll Up! Two talented, award-winning Canadian singer-songwriters join together on stage in a contest to out-do each other. And the winner is ... the audience, of course!

John Wort Hannam

In 2001 John Wort Hannam quit his teaching job and spent 10 months depleting his savings while sat at his kitchen table, wearing a lucky hat, writing his first ten songs. Those songs would become his first recording Pocket Full Of Holes, released in 2003.


Two decades later, the Alberta musician has released eight full-length recordings so far, culminating in 2021's 'Long Haul' and has a few feathers in that lucky hat for his offerings. Feathers that include a Juno nominationthree Canadian Folk Music Awards, a CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award, a Kerrville Texas New Folk win, and numerous Western Canadian Music Award and Canadian Folk Music Award nominations.

Chris Ronald

Since emigrating from his native England in 2002, Chris Ronald has earned a place as one of Canada’s finest singer-songwriters creating and performing contemporary folk music. Ronald's stand-out signature sound is steeped in his British background, poetic lyrics, and a buttery fusion of roots and Americana music. Chris hired ace producer and multi-instrumentalist John MacArthur Ellis to work on his first full-production studio album. The resulting Timeline (2014) album catapulted Ronald to a new level in his career with, among other accolades, a nomination for “Songwriter of the Year” at the 2014 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Shortly afterward, Ronald was signed to esteemed Canadian folk label Borealis Records to release Fragments(2017) followed by Light & Dark (2021). Both albums achieved top 10 on the Folk Alliance International Folk Radio chart.


John and Chris will perform "in the round", trading songs and stories as they go. They will be accompanied by John MacArthur Ellis - a Canadian award-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist who’s known for capturing the hottest sounds in the Americana, alt country, folk, singer/songwriter and roots genres. With a career spanning decades in the music industry, John has made quite a name for himself.

Tickets for this special LIVE concert are on sale here, and the Watch-At-Home alternative ticket option is right here.



5. Kyle McKearney, Thursday December 7th, 8pm, Mel Lehan Hall at St. James (3214 West 10th Avenue)

Born and raised in Northern BC, Metis singer / songwriter Kyle McKearney made a big impression on us when he performed at the Canadian Folk Music Awards at the Rogue's home venue back in April, and we are delighted to be able to bring him back for a full concert. His latest CD, A Traveler's Lamenthas just been nominated for a Grammy Award, and won FOUR Canadian Country Music Awards this year for Alt Country AlbumProducerCreative Team Director, and Innovative Campaign of The Year! His songs and delivery place him on the folk end of the alt country spectrum, and his rich, honest delivery will be accented by backing vocals from his wife, Sarah, and a superb backing band.

Click here for tickets to the LIVE show, and here for the Watch-At-Home streaming version.



6. Radio Waves

On this week's edition of the Saturday Edge On Folk I'll feature new music by the likes of La Bottine Souriante, Sharon Shannon, Vishten, Ryan Young, Riccardo Tesi, Andy Cutting & Gudrun Walther, Bombino, Oriane Lacaille (Reunion Island), Kavita Shah (Cape Verde), Bombino(Touareg musician), Vumbi Dekula (Congo), Cherry Bandura (Greek music from Berlin), Kaifo(Argentina), Cajun innoivator Louis Michot, young Irish trad band Realta, and the Indian / US fusion combo of Alam Khan & Arjun K Verma with the Del Sol String Quartet. Many of the above artists are featured in the latest issue of UK magazine Songlines, which comes with a sampler CD every month.

I will also spin some tunes by the aforementioned Rogue Folk Club performers, and a whole lot more besides, including a sad farewell to John Dunford, Sharon Shannon's manager and sound engineer for the past 35 years, who passed away last weekend. He was such a lovely man, and will be greatly missed.

I hope you will tune in and turn on to www.citr.caevery Saturday from 8am to noon. The signal is also carried around the Lower Mainland from our FM transmitter at 101.9fm.

If you miss the show, or part of it, or indeed any edition dating back over 15 years, you can find podcasts and playlists here