Home Routes returns Feb. 8 with the second half of season five with Darren McMullen, an award-winning multi-instrumentalist based in Halifax, who plays the mandolin, bouzouki, tenor banjo, whistles, guitar and bass, and Rachel Davis, an up-and-coming young violin and viola fiddling style playing sensation from God's own country of Baddeck, Victoria County's shire town on the north shore of Bras d'Or Lake, who learned Cape Breton fiddle firstly from her grandfather, Clarence Long, then at the hands of some of the island's top teachers, including Karen Beaton, Kyle MacNeil and Stan Chapman.
Davis also tours and plays with Buddy MacDonald, Carmel Mikol, Donnie Campbell, The Cottars, and the Celtic ensemble Coig, of which McMullen is also a member. You can take a listen to "Coig Tunes" on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUJlHyqIuPc
Typically, but not invariably, Home Routes has concerts in Thompson from September through April, three before Christmas and three after in the new year, with a long holiday hiatus in December and January.
This year, Home Routes is the most important live concert venue in town with the collapse of the City of Thompson Concert Series, at least on the musical side; their last concert series musical offering was during the 2012-13 season with Prince Edward Island fiddler and step dancer Richard Wood, accompanied by Saskatchewan-born guitarist and vocalist Gordon Belsher - on Nov. 17, 2012, although the City of Thompson's Recreation, Parks and Culture Department did manage to book a successful one-off show, which was not part of a concert series, last Sept. 21 at C.A. Nesbitt Arena with Eleven Past One (1-11), a five-member electro-pop pulse boy band.
St. John's United Church also brought in Moose Jaw country roots singer-guitarist Stephen Palmer for a one-off fundraiser for church programs last Oct. 17.
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre's annual regional tour is set to close out the City of Thompson Concert Series for 2013-2014 on the non-musical side with Miracle onSouth Division Street Feb. 12 at the Letkemann Theatre.
"The new Concert Series will be announced late May 2014. No date on the May announcement date yet," said Chris Sharpe, the city's culture co-ordinator from the Recreation, Parks and Culture Department, in an e-mail Jan. 17.
American actor and playwright Randy Noojin's tribute to folk musician Woody Guthrie closed out the first half of Thompson's Home Routes season Nov. 22.
Thompson Home Routes concerts for the second season in a row are being held in volunteer hosts Tim and Jean Cameron's living room at 206 Campbell Dr. The couple moved here from Ashern two years ago. They hosted Home Routes concerts in Ashern for three years before moving here. "We took over from Lisa Evasiuk last year and have enjoyed being hosts here and meeting other music loving folks here," the Camerons said in an e-mail last Aug. 25 to friends of Home Routes in Thompson.
"Jean and I are volunteer hosts with all monies going directly to the artists. We provide them with supper, a room full of music lovers and a bed to sleep in," says Tim. "So spread the word to your music loving friends. The doors are open to all." All concerts at the Camerons' place start at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $20. For more information give Tim or Jean a call at 204-677-3574 or send them an e-mail at: cameron8@mymts.net.
Tim's day job is as a uniformed armed peace officer with Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship - the province's chief natural resource officer. Jean Cameron is the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) branch manager here. Tim is also known as a guitar-playing folkie from the late 1980s, whose talents were on display at the long-defunct Thompson Folk Festival, during an earlier stint working and living here in his 20s. Tim picked up a guitar for a few songs after the Noojin show, joining local musician Russell Peters and Noojin for a Hank Williams kitchen party sing-along.
McMullen has toured and performed with numerous bands and musicians in recent years, including the Colin Grant Band, Pogey, Dave Gunning, Matt Andersen, Bruce Guthro, Matt Minglewood, David Francey, Gillian Boucher, Troy MacGillivray, Andrea Beaton, Anna Ludlow and Chrissy Crowley. In the fall of 2010, McMullen was hired by The Rankins for their 22-date acoustic tour.
Performers typically do 11 shows in 14 days at their stops along the Borealis Trail.
Other circuits on Home Routes include the Yukon Trail; Salmon-Berry in British Columbia; Cherry Bomb and Blue Moon in British Columbia and Alberta; Chautauqua Trail in Saskatchewan and Alberta; CCN SK in Saskatchewan; Central Plains in Saskatchewan and Manitoba; Jeanne Bernardin in Manitoba, Agassiz in Manitoba and Ontario; Estelle-Klein in Ontario and Québec and the Maritimes in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Home Routes, then hosted by Evasiuk at its original venue in the Basement Bijou at Thompson Public Library, kicked off in Thompson on Sept. 22, 2009 with a show by Corin Raymond and Sean Cotton, who make up The Undesirables.
Season three began Oct. 6, 2011 with guitar-playing songstress Carolyn Mark, the long-time host of the Hootenanny in Victoria every Sunday and founder of The Vinaigrettes, an all-girl surfy twang popster band.
Home Routes Inc. (also known as Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous) is a national non-profit arts organization incorporated in February 2007 to create new performance opportunities for Canadian musicians and audiences, in the homes of volunteer house concert presenters organized in touring circuits through rural and urban, French and English communities in Canada. A national volunteer board of directors operates the arts-service and arts-delivery organization, along with a small professional staff in Winnipeg and more than 200 volunteer house concert hosts across Canada.
