Steve's Blog
Friday March 6, 2009

Hi everyone

Many of you will have received the Rogue Folk Review in the mail by now. If you have chosen to download it, it is available online.

Rogue Shows

We still have a few tickets left for this evening's concert with Tom Russell & Michael Martin at St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue) at 8pm.

On Saturday there's a Contra Dance with the Sybaritic Stringband at the same venue at 8pm. If anyone would like to help out at the door and / or the water jug supply line, please come to the hall by 7:30pm. If there are enough of you, you can spell each other off and still get plenty of dancing. Last month I had no help at all. This time I would like to be able to go to see La Bottine Souriante, but that's another story ....

De Temps Antan & Pastiche, Sunday March 8th 8pm, at St. James

Last month we saw a lot of amazing bands in Memphis at the Folk Alliance Conference. None were as impressive as Quebec's De Temps Antan! This trio features Andre Brunet (fiddle, vocals) from Celtic Fiddle Festival and a former member of La Bottine, Pierre-Luc Dupuis (accordion, vocals) who is another ex Bottine, and Eric Beaudry (guitar, bouzouki, vocals) who still plays and sings with La Bottine. They play a lot of reels and sing a lot of chansons a repondre (chorus songs, where the audience sings back the lines). They are very animated and play music with a huge smile. They are stunning musicians. You will have a lot of fun if you see this band. Guaranteed.

Opening for them are Vancouver's Pastiche, which is made up of two or three ex members of Mad Pudding, an amazing Celtic band that added funk and fun to their repertoire and was one of Canada's hottest bands for a decade. Boris Favre (piano, bass, vocals, etc) and Allen Dionne (accordion) will be joined by Rich Sobel (fiddle) of the Sybaritic Stringband, and Cam Wilson (Van Django, Joe Trio, VSO, etc.) They play lively music from France and Quebec.

Come and flaunt your Frenchness encore une fois!

Festival du Bois

Festival du Bois takes place this weekend at Mackin Park in Coquitlam / Maillardville. There are performances starting at 12 noon on Saturday until 4:30pm (Jou Tou, De Temps Antan, Zal Sissokho & Buntalo, Bardefou). The French Bistro just down the street runs from 4:30pm to 7pm, with live music by Mimosa. The main concert starts at 8pm with the N Shore & Coquitlam Celtic Ensemble opening for the amazing La Bottine Souriante. On Sunday there's a tasty breakfast at 10am and the music goes until 4:30pm, with the Celtic Ensemble, De Temps Antan, Zal Sissokho & Buntalo, and Delhi 2 Dublin. More information on www.festivaldubois.ca.

Celticfest Vancouver

The Edgewater Casino Celticfest runs March 11 to 15, and includes dozens of performances. Highlights include The Duhks on March 11th, and The Paperboys with Puro Son on March 13th. These are both at the Casino. On Saturday March 14th, Lunasa open for Ashley MacIsaac at The Vogue, and on Sunday the St. Patrick's Day Parade starts at 11:30am. There are heaps of performances and workshops afterwards. More information on www.celticfestvancouver.com.

The Edge On Folk

I'll have a bunch of new releases again, including:

Bela Fleck's soundtrack of his movie Throw Down Your Heart, where he joins the likes of Oumou Sangare, Bassekou Kouyate, Djelimady Tounkara and a host of other African musicians

Zal Sissokho & Buntalo (he's a griot and a kora player from Senegal, now living in Quebec. Great singer, too.)

Helene Blum a gorgeous singer from Denmark who combines traditional songs with her own compositions. Her new CD was produced by her husband, the amazing fiddler Harald Haugaard.

Romi Mayes from Winnipeg. Her new CD, Achin' In Yer Bones, is gorgeous. Harrowing tales of life on the road, rendered with great subtlety and barely-contained dramatic intensity. Fred Heads will love this!

Diana Jones, a remarkable singer whose alto voice sends delicious shivers down my spine as she delivers her Appalachian-flavoured songs of hope, loss, and longing

Justin Townes Earle, son of Steve and nephew of Stacey, who has just launched his second solo CD. He wears the heavy mantle of his name extremely well.

The Luminescent Orchestrii is a string band from NYC combining Balkan music with edgey alternative acoustic songs

Yonder Mountain Stringband - a sort of Old Crow Medicine Show meets The Avett Brothers. (I think they sing like XTC, too. Very interesting.)

There will also be lots of music by performers coming to the Rogue and Festival du Bois and Celticfest Vancouver, and some new music uncovered in Memphis

Please join me for four hours of the very best in Roots, World, Celtic & Folk music from 8am to 12 noon on CiTR fm 101.9, streamed live on www.citr.ca and available on Podcasts later that day on the same website.

Surveys

We are working with some BCIT Marketing Students to come up with a Marketing Plan. They have devised a short survey which we invite you to complete at our next three concerts. The forms are anonymous, but if you fill out the separate contact sheet you could win a pair of tickets to a future show.