After a lengthy Thompson hiatus for the Winnipeg-based Home Routes Concert Tour since Dec. 1 when Hunter River, Prince Edward Island folk artist Meaghan Blanchard performed, Lester Quitzau, originally from Edmonton and now from the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, is here Feb. 10 with his "soul drenched blues in the Thompson Public Library's basement Bijou Room.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and showtime is at 7 p.m. Admission is $15 at the door.
Quitzau performances rely on a wealth of sources, which he often skilfully transcends and transforms them into something entirely new.
On his new CD, The Same Light, the Juno Award-winner unveils sensitive, finely-crafted songs showcasing his writing skills, soul-drenched blues, which are sure to satisfy his loyal fans, and three instrumental pieces that transcend easy descriptive tags such as "jazz" or "folk" or "roots."
The Home Routes Concert Tour is in its second year in Thompson and is organized by Lisa Evasiuk, who also co-ordinates the Reel North Film Festival, and teams up with Thompson Public Library administrator Cheryl Davies for both projects in the Bijou venue.
Katherine Wheatley, originally from Parry Sound, Ont., who graduated from Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. with a geology degree and spent five seasons roughing it in the bush, is here March 11. She started songwriting with a $13 guitar ordered from the Sears catalogue. She spent four seasons working north of Flin Flon before heading to Africa. She is also a member of the Toronto band, Betty and the Bobs and a guitarist in Wendell Ferguson's trio "The Smoking Section."
The season wraps up April 9 with Arthur O'Brien and Fred Jorgensen, half of the four-member Newfoundland band The Navigators, who were will be here to share their traditional Newfoundland and Irish music.
Last season wound up April 19 with Boston-based husband-and-wife duo Matt and Shannon Heaton offering traditional - and non-traditional - Irish music on Irish wood flute, guitar, bouzouki and accordion.
Some of the other acts last season included Fort MacLeod, Alberta's John Wort Hannam, a former schoolteacher on the Kainai First Nation, who has been compared to Gordon Lightfoot, James Keelaghan and John Prine; Toronto's HOTCHA!, with Beverly Kreller on vocals, bodhran, accordion, guitar, kazoo, mouth trumpet, spoons and Howard Druckman on vocals, guitar, slide and harmonica; and Fort William, Ontario's Rodney Brown, with his banjo "Bob" and acoustic guitar.
The way the Home Routes Concert Tour works, Evasiuk said, is the admission cost all goes to the musicians and she put them up while they are in town.
"Our particular circuit is now known as 'The Borealis Trail,' Evasiuk said, "and this group of artists will start their tour in Buena Vista Sask. and then go on to Porcupine Plain Sask., Prince Albert, Carrot River Sask., The Pas, Thompson, Flin Flon, Swan River Valley Rossburn, Onanole, Carman and then end in Winnipeg."
Homes Routes is a not-for-profit organization. The chairperson is Derek Black, a veteran of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, including eight years as its board president. Black plays guitar and sings as well.
Other board members include Chris White, artistic director of the Ottawa Folk Festival, who is also a songwriter; Troy Greencorn, artistic director of the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, Nova Scotia; Manitoban Steve Schellenberg, a songwriter who is the artist representative on the board; Robert Lyons of Regina, an owner of nightclubs and restaurants, who is also described as "a very decent lyricist and guitar player and an old hand at producing house concerts" and Les Siemieniuk, general manager of the Calgary Folk Festival and a long-time broadcaster including producing CBC Radio's Simply Folk.
Meanwhile, the City of Thompson Concert Series for 2010-11 continues with its fourth show of the season at R.D. Parker Collegiate's Letkemann Theatre Feb. 25 with Crystal Shawanda, an aboriginal country singer, who grew up on the Odawa-Ojibwe Wikwemikong First Nation in Northern Ontario.
Show time is at 7 p.m.
"If you've read about me before," Shawanda says on her website, "it's quite possible you know that I am native American, and that I grew up on a reservation, and you probably got the sense that I was lucky to make it out. You probably didn't get to hear a lot about how all that bad stuff I seen growing up, was such a very small part of my life there. That I actually grew up in a paradise really, a beautiful island, a community rich in culture, history, and famous for their perseverance and sense of humour; a hockey town, overflowing with a competitive streak and plenty of pride. If it was all bad, than how would I know to dream?
Shawanda adds: "My parents and grandparents listened to country music, and told me stories about the legends, songs, and storytellers ... It was in high school I found the courage to be confident in my path, so in turn, at 16, I booked it to Nashville, and thus began my reality check, and my real education in year seven, I put my anchor down in Nashville, permanently, and set up base at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge."
Last month, the City of Thompson Concert Series kicked off the new year with classical music soprano Martha Guth and baritone Tyler Duncan, top prize winner at the 2007 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London, soprano Martha Guth and baritone Tyler Duncan, with collaborative pianist, Erika Switzer, are here Jan. 21, followed just four days later on Jan. 25 by India-born Kiran Ahluwalia, with her blend of fado, Saharan African blues and jazz, bringing a modern ghazal style into a contemporary global context. She won the 2004 Juno Award for Best World Music album.
Last season, Thompson-born violinist Steven Tsitsos kicked off the City of Thompson's concert series, followed in November 2009 by Bancroft, Ontario's Everything Fitz, led by Paddy Fitzgerald, patriarch of the percussive step dancing clan.
The Borderlanders touring quartet - made up of Canadian singer-songwriters Sylvia Tyson and Ron Hynes and their American counterparts Gretchen Peters and Graham Isaacson - wrapped up the musical portion of the City of Thompson Concert Series for 2008-09 in January 2009. That series kicked of Oct. 30, 2008 with country music star Shane Yellowbird, followed on Nov. 12, 2008 with an evening classical music program offered by pianist David Moroz and saxophonist Allen Harrington.
