Steve's Blog
Thursday June 25, 2009

Hi everyone

We're on a road trip, heading for the Kate Wolf Festival this weekend in Northern California. The line-up is amazing, with Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, Dave Alvin & THe Guilty Women, Chris Smither, Ruthie Foster, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Mavis Staples, Blind Boys Of Alabama, Riders In The Sky, and many more. We just couldn't resist! So now we're in the Napa Valley and it's warm and sunny, and I've finally managed to hook up to the internet!

Andrea Berman, of the excellent Bluegrass show Pacific Pickin', will be hosting The Edge On Folk this Saturday. I'm hoping to call in from the festival, so tune in between 8am and 12 noon for some great acoustic and roots music and - Telus permitting - a phoned report on the Kate Wolf Festival.

We'll be back in time for the Canada Day celebrations on Granville Island, and I'd like to catch the Vieux Farka Toure concert at Performance Works on July 2nd.

Then, on Firday July 3rd, we have a great concert for you, featuring the exhilarating soul music of New Zealand's Pacific Curls. Their concert at the Rogue last July remains one of my concert highlights of the past 12 months, and that's saying something! These three women really are amazing. Gorgeous vocals, scintillating musicianship on ukulele, guitar, and a variety of percussion, plus the delectable fiddle of Scotland's Sarah Beattie. The music is a wonderful blend of Celtic fiddle music with funky acoustic soul music, R&B, folk and Polynesian and Maori words and instruments. There really is no other band like them, and they exude a real passion and vitality that has to be witnessed in person. So we hope to see you there! More details - and tickets - are on our website, of course.

Then we welcome back Scots Celtic / World Music pioneers Old Blind Dogs on July 4th, Scandinavian fiddle trio Nordik Tree on July 9th, and legendary Scots singer / guitarist Dick Gaughan on July 14th.

All these shows are at St. James Hall, 3214 West 10th Avenue at 8pm.

Hope to see you there!

Cheers
Steve