Ready for an active weekend on the local roots music scene?
Things kick off this evening with the local debut of Ruth Purves Smith and the 581at The Matchbox theatre.
Purves Smith is a passionate artist with strong original material.
At the same venue on Sunday, acoustic stringband Headwater headlines a concert with local performer Spenser Pasman opening. Tickets at the venue and Ticketmaster.
Also this weekend, the Canadian Rockies Bluegrass Fest at David Thompson Resort is being held with Canadian bluegrass and acoustic acts along with old-time autoharpist Bryan Bowers appearing.
CKUA favourite Randall Spears visits The Hub on Ross on Saturday afternoon with songs from Slow Parade; the 4 p.m. concert is only $10.
Supporting Gas and Time, Duane Steele brings his acoustic show to Innisfail’s Century Theatre on Sunday.
The Central Music Festival is slated for Aug. 13 and 14. Featuring local talent, headliners include The Trews Acoustic, Shane Yellowbird, Jim Byrnes, Steve Coffey and Great American Taxi.
This week’s disc reviews:
Oliver Schroer & the Stewed Tomatoes
Freedom Row
Borealis
Since his death two years ago, Oliver Schroer’s impact on Canadian folk music has become increasingly apparent.
Like Tim O’Brien’s, Schroer’s albums cross genres — from Celtic to ambient, classical and world to folk — without warning. Always powerful, the Ontario fiddler and composer, who lived for many years in Smithers, B.C., never stayed in one place too long.
With Freedom Row — completed in the months before succumbing to leukemia — Schroer completes a band recording initiated the previous decade. Within minimal vocals, Schroer and his compatriots have breathed story into fiddle-centered tunes that cut a swath through the musical lands Schroer explores. It is an intimately appealing recording, and not only because of the circumstances of its final gestation; the instrumentalists play off each other in dramatic ways, and the songs often go to unexpected places.
Schroer’s song notes read like fiction, revealing tales and influences the captured sounds hint toward, and the packaging is — like most Borealis projects — as impressive as the recording it houses.
The Farewell Drifters
Yellow Tag Mondays
Thirty Tigers
Like The Infamous Stringdusters, Cadillac Sky and Nickel Creek before them, The Farewell Drifters are a string band that uses the structures and instrumentation of bluegrass as a springboard to acoustic pop reinvention.
With youthful enthusiasm and instrumental acumen, the second album from this Nashville band extends their explorations and acutely focuses their vision. Vocal diversity and harmonies that echo both the Beatles (the album’s sole cover is from Revolver) and Hot Rize provide the group with a dynamic that has wide appeal.
In-house songwriting provides a bit of narrative mixed with artistic wordplay, maintaining listeners’ attention. Similarly, the instrumentation is spirited and engaging with songs ebbing and flowing with clever, unexpected changes. The cumulative result is a catchy album of which one is not likely soon to tire.
Also in rotation: Fred Eaglesmith — Cha Cha Cha; Elizabeth Cook — Welder; Amber Digby & Justin Trevino — Keeping Up Appearances; Will White — Rise Above; Mark Chesnutt — Outlaw.
Donald Teplyske is a local freelance writer who contributes a twice-monthly column on roots music; visit fervorcoulee.wordpress.com for additional reviews. If you know a roots music event of which he should be aware, contact him at fervorcoulee@shaw.ca