Steve's Blog
Friday June 7, 2013
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Hi everyone
It's a big weekend at The Rogue, with two very hot shows. Speaking of "hot", we're trying a new setting on the furnace at St. James. Well, it's not "new", it's just one that hasn't been noticed / tried before! It's a cool air circulation setting! I know it doesn't look like we'll need one today, but the weekend is supposed to be warm & sunny. We'll have plenty of cold drinks. Including Merridale Cider (we found a local supplier again!)
1. Kate Reid - Queer Across Canada CD launch - Saturday, June 8th, 8pm at St. James Hall, 3214 West 10th Avenue
Kate was my guest on The Edge On Folk last Saturday. We spoke about her ground-breaking new CD. I think it's a very timely and important - and above all, entertaining - body of work.
Tickets are available at the door, and also at Highlife Records, Rufus' Guitar Shop, and online.
Here's an article from Xtra West about Kate's new record.
Family values
MUSIC / Kate Reid's new CD is dedicated to youth of queer parents
Denise Sheppard / Vancouver / Thursday, June 06, 2013
Seven years have passed since the release of her first solo CD, Comin' Alive, and in that time, outspoken queer musician Kate Reid has been charming and challenging audiences with songs that run the rainbow gamut.
Since her debut, Reid has garnered such a hugely supportive fan base that her listeners have pledged seed money to fund her subsequent releases.
When she came up with the idea of creating an album for both queer youth and youth of queer parents, friends and fans pitched in.
Reid says her new CD, Queer Across Canada, was inspired by subjects close to home, specifically her partner's two kids.
"I wanted to write an album that speaks to their stories and the stories of kids growing up with queer parents."
Singer Kate Reid says her new youth-oriented CD and school tour is the most important work she's ever done. (Courtesy of Heather Kitching)
Reid interviewed more than 70 children of queer parents, ranging in age from four to 39, then turned their stories into songs.
From its initial form as a CD, the scope of the project kept expanding, the singer and former schoolteacher says. "It was just initially a plan to make an album, and then I got this idea: 'Oh, these songs can be used as tools; I should make a teaching resource out of it!'"
True to her word, Reid takes a moment out of her six-week tour of Ontario high schools - where she's been singing songs from her new CD such as "Boys Who Wear Dresses," "Radical Donor Dad" and a cover of "We Are Family" - to do this interview.
The natural levity in her voice grows more solemn as she discusses the tour, the project and its effect on her life.
"I've been doing a lot of crying on this tour, lots of outpouring of emotion," she says. "The feedback I've gotten from high school kids and teachers has been so incredible, and I just want to continue on with that.
"This is the most important work that I've been doing, because there is such a need, and because kids want to hear stories from people that are different. They want to have their minds expanded; they want to be accepting," she says. "It feels really important and really huge."
2. Joy Kills Sorrow, Sunday June 9th, 8pm at St. James Hall, 3214 West 10th Avenue
I turn to CBC's esteemed young host of Deep Roots, Newfoundland's Tom Power, to introduce you to Joy Kills Sorrow. Some of you might have seen them before. If not, then please be aware that there are two BC girls in the band now, including the amazing singer Emma Beaton from Qualicum Beach. The three musicians backing them up are three of the most talented young players in North America right now: Matthew Arcara (guitar), Jacob Joliffe (mandolin) and Wes Corbett (banjo.) They have just released Wide Awake - a 7-song EP with the new bass player, Zoe Guigueno, making her recorded debut with the band (she used to be a member of Fish & Bird, by the way.)
Trust me. This will be an incredible concert. Ticket sales are a little slow right now. It would be a pity to waste a chance to see this brilliant young band that may soon be moving too fast for us to bring back to The Rogue. Tickets are available at the door, and also at Highlife records, Rufus' Guitar Shop, and online.
Here's what Tom Power has to say about them:
"Every so often, you come across a band that people are talking about, a band that's still in its infancy but is poised to do great things, a band with potential a "buzz band." Boston's Joy Kills Sorrow is one of those bands.
"I first saw them at the 2011 International Folk Alliance in Memphis, Tennessee. They were playing at one of the hotel room showcases. Even though it was a large hotel suite, it was rammed with music writers, label representatives, festival bookers, and jealous musicians eager to have a look at the band with all of the buzz.
"After years of touring and building up their chops, it finally feels like Joy Kills Sorrow are ready to release the record that will take them to a higher level. Their mix of traditional string-band music with modern indie rock (I once heard them describe their music as "hipster bluegrass") is well suited (to the) level of technical dexterity (of a) Mumford/Lumineers set.
"In anticipation of their latest seven-song EP Awake (to be released June 7), they have posted a cover of The Postal Service's 2003 hit "Such Great Heights." Their goal was to take music that was made purely electronically, and subvert it by playing it purely acoustically. What has come out is a sure sign that this band will live up to its hype."
Joy Kills Sorrow are fronted by BC singer Emma Beaton, who was nominated for "Traditional Vocalist of the Year" at the Canadian Folk Music Awards 2010 and won "Young Performer of the Year" at the age of 18 at the Canadian Folk Music Awards 2008. She quickly caught the ear of bluegrass super-star Laurie Lewis, who says she has a "voice like a laser." A classically trained cellist, she formerly studied at Berklee College of Music and has worked closely with Crooked Still's Tristan Clarridge and Rushad Eggleston.
This Boston-based string band brings together an eclectic mix of musicians who each have classical and/or jazz conservatory training, though collectively, they ambitiously utilize their years of study to hone a new acoustic territory yet discovered by many of today's top artists. It's an amalgamation of lamenting music of the heartland, singular stories of heartache and laughter, beautiful string arrangements, and five musicians who grew up listening to indie-rock, jazz, and pop music that churn out impressive tunes with an incredibly contemporary sensibility.
Their music is fresh and original... creative and expressive, honest
and sincere, played on bluegrass instruments but not defined explicitly by
the style... What sets them apart is how well they navigate the minefield
that any artist in a pioneering genre faces: crafting intelligent music
without sounding pretentious; paying tribute to immediate precursors without
being derivative; charting a daring and original course without a whiff of
preciousness.
- The Bluegrass Blog
3. Vancouver Folk Music Festival Early Bird Ticket deadline - Monday June 10th
Monday June 10th is our deadline for ordering VFMF tickets. We have Adult Weekend Passes available for $122 (regular price $135, going up next week to $150!) Call us today at 604-732-1305 or email roguefolk@telus.net and we will call you back today or over the weekend (or on Monday, at the latest) to get your credit card details.
You can buy as many tickets as you like for friends and family members, as long as your Rogue membership is current (and we can make it so, if it ain't already!)
We will pick up the tickets on Tuesday and they will be available at our office at 1 - 3630 West Broadway (at Dunbar) and at our concerts on June 20th and June 21st. If you want them mailed, we can do so for an extra $12 per order, to send them by Registered Mail. If you can't make it to our office or one of these concerts we will NOT be able to hold the tickets at the gate for you.
If we haven't called you back yet, don't worry, we're working on it!
4. The Edge On Folk, Saturday 8am to noon on CiTR fm 101.9 and www.citr.ca
On this week's show I'll have a chat with Emma Beaton of Joy Kills Sorrow. She will be phoning in around 11am. I'll also spin some tunes from their new CD, Wide Awake, plus new music from Rory Block (her tribute to Mississippi John Hurt), Betse Ellis (an incredible, acoustic cover of a Clash song,) and a wild new band called This Way To The Egress with their outrageous new take on Show Me The Way To Go Home! Plus heaps more from the wide world of Roots and Folk Music.
I'm thinking of spinning a random Juke Box of favourites old and new - to test my memory as well as to showcase a broad spectrum of great tunes! I hope you can join me live on CiTR fm 101.9 on Saturday from 8am to noon, or streamed live on www.citr.ca (we're also on Telus TV channel 3717, by the way.) Podcasts will be available for later listening. They can be found under S for Saturday Edge in the Podcast section of www.citr.ca