The 4th annual Lille Gard Festival (June 28 -30th 2013) is a family-friendly Music and Arts festival organized by TribeHouse Artist Collective which will feature visual arts, dance, speakers, spoken word, and of course all the music your ears can handle. All profits from the festival will benefit charities; ‘Hands in Service” locally and the Najenga Congo Project internationally.
To Build a Fire’ is an album of leaving and new beginnings- not because anything is so bad perhaps but because things can always be better. If there is a chance, you have to look. Cam had recently escaped the city to live in his new dwelling in the mountains with his sweetheart and new daughter- new start, new challenges. Ideas were trusted and built upon quickly, the unfamiliar was used as confidently as the familiar, pushing the conventions of what can still be called folk music back to where it should be- immediate and honest.
With verses still to be written and arrangements still unknown one mic was placed in the room then the stomping on floorboards. The opening words spilled into the microphone, “I’ve got to know that you’ll make it through the night, make it through the day, that you’ll make it out alive, that you’ll always have water running down the mountain side, always have shelter, know to build a fire.” Eight days in a cabin in the woods.
Cam Penner finds new textures and bolder sounds on his fifth release. The fractured rootsy persona still creeps in but this is not a depressing album. ʻTo Build a Fireʼ is full of hope. It’s full of love. It’s electrifying and provoking. It is a rallying call that reaches out, boldly and courageously into present-day existence. It’s full of everything we should be looking for, not only musically, but in life.
The lush beauty of the opening brass track lures you in but leaves you wondering what is to come…then it begins. Ukuleles, guitars, banjos strummed. Floorboards stomped. Kick drums kicked. Feet stumbled. Thighs, knees, hands slapped and clapped. Voices strained and bent. Fingers gripped, grabbed and picked. Arms and hands flung. Body and sound thrown against wood and metal. Breathing fire into every note and lyric.
Cam Penner’s last album, WCMA Nominated “Gypsy Summer” debuted at number 16 on the FOLK BILLBOARD Charts. It was featured along with a full interview on NPR’s ‘All Music Considered’ and toured the album through both Eastern & Western Canada, UK, Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France. Through constant touring and promotion and with no national label or management support Cam Penner has sold over 5000 copies of ‘Gypsy Summer’.
At eighteen Penner left small town life to wander the highways and back roads of North America. A year later he found himself in Chicago serving mystery soup and stale bread to two hundred and fifty homeless men a day. Next, a women & children’s shelter, then youth shelters and detox centers. For thirteen years he immersed himself in this subculture absorbing as much raw humanity as he could. When the shift was over he would spend endless cathartic hours writing and playing his guitar, exorcising his emotions through music. After becoming a self-taught expert on homelessness, he decided to become a full time touring artist, meanwhile becoming homeless himself.
Taking place July 4—6th at Habitat each night will be $10 before 10pm, $15 after 10pm, and we’ll be offering up $30 weekend passes soon (they will be limited!). So stay tuned to A-OK as we reveal more information about these great acts and this awesome weekend! For now, we’ll leave you with a live acoustic version of Van Damsel’s “Sun & Sand”
The Belushis are Vancouver’s own champions of sweat rock. Their explosive live show and strong recordings have led to the Belushis being paired with some of the best touring acts on the road today, including; The Bellrays (Alternative Tentacles/Crucial Gesture), the Atomic Bitchwax (Meteor City), Valis (ex- Screaming Trees, Small Stone/Man’s Ruin), Cobra Skulls (Fat Wreck Chords, Interpunk) and Rich Hope and His Evil Doers.
Earning their keep onstage with non-stop, earsplitting, sweat-flying, no-bullshit action, The Belushis are one of Vancouver’s longest running premier hard rock bands, combining the best riff-rocking TKOs on the Canadian West Coast in the finest tradition of bands like AC/DC, the Ramones and Motorhead. In print they have been compared to the Stooges and the MC5, but the band members would also tip their influence caps to fellow Canadian rockers Tricky Woo and C’mon, not to mention such rock and roll warriors as the Supersuckers, Turbonegro, the Hellacopters and Nashville Pussy.
“Listening to Shaker from start to finish is almost as exhausting as watching their riotous, sweat-drenched live shows, and in an evolving world of music that is seeming to veer closer to alienation through electronics, it is good to know there are still some purists out there who just want to rock the fuck out!” – Discorder
“…The Belushis play big music with a larger-than-life this-town-ain’t-big- enough-fer-the-both-of-us sound and attitude. Loud, vivid, untouched by human sensitivity…” –Maximumrockandroll
“the Belushis are rich in those ineffable qualities—heart, swagger, huge testicles—that make a good rock band great…” –The Georgia Straight
“…the sweat practically pours out of your speakers and you half expect the band to pass out before the album’s over.” –FFWD Magazine
BC and Newfoundland Independent Artists Join Together for East Meets West Tour
Several years ago while tending bar together in a popular St. John’s Irish Pub, Andrew Mercer (Cod Gone Wild) and Dave Whitty never imagined that a short time later they would be joining forces from opposite sides of the country to showcase their musical offerings.
Dave Whitty Joining Cod Gone Wild on the upcoming tour will be St. John’s, Newfoundland Folk/Rock artist Dave Whitty who has been busy travelling back and forth between Toronto and St. John’s promoting his debut EP “Let it Rest.” Although he spends time in Toronto, Dave has stuck to his musical roots, writing and singing about actual events and classifying his style as folk/rock with strong lyrics of friendship, love, and tales of growing up. One minute, he is making his audience laugh with his genius comedic quality, singing about ridiculous adventures with friends; the next minute he can conjure profound feelings of nostalgia or pain with his stories of finding love, losing friendship, and the things that make Newfoundland special. (Click Dave’s picture for full Bio)
Andrew Mercer, Cod Gone Wild front man and fellow Newfoundlander, made the call to Whitty a couple of months ago and asked him if he would be interested in joining the band on a BC tour. “I have always been a fan of Dave’s music, he is just exciting to watch, and I believe it is very important for us independent musicians to collaborate and work together to promote and celebrate our craft,” said Mercer. “We are so excited to have him join us and allow the people of B.C. to catch a glimpse of the high caliber of talent and passion for music that exists on the East Coast.”
Cod Gone Wild is coming off a very successful and busy year promoting their second album entitled, “The Traveler,” throughout Western and Eastern Canada. The bands popularity is growing rapidly and the Cods are enjoying playing all sorts of interesting venues, theaters, festivals and community events all over. This upcoming spring tour provides the band with the opportunity to play a bunch of shows at home before the busy summer schedule begins. “We are excited to get out on the road and play some new venues and re-visit some of the places here in BC that we have loved playing in the past,” said Mercer. “Our music has evolved so much over the last couple of years since adding multi-talented violin/fiddle player Anjuli Otter to the mix and we have so much exciting new music to share, we just want to get out there and perform!”
Cod Gone Wild is excited to announce and present the 2013 “East Meets West Tour” which will kick off on April 26th in Cod Gone Wild’s hometown of Vernon, B.C. The tour will run until June 2nd and will include a variety of venues for sixteen energetic shows across the Interior region of the province.
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Kelowna Live Music Blog 