When musician Rick Scott's van broke down one day in 1971 in the rural community of Pender Harbour, he had no idea the Coast would become his home for a while and that it would foster the start of a long musical career.
Scott left Washington D.C. after completing his military service, bought a dulcimer and drove across the country in a van that lasted only until Pender Harbour, so he settled there and taught himself to play. His son Jorg was born in Storm Bay, his daughter Tai in Roberts Creek. The well-known folk trio Pied Pumkin, with Shari Ulrich and Joe Mock, began on the Sunshine Coast.
Scott's first bandin Canada wasa ragtag musical ensemble called Pender Harbour Fats and the Mother Furriers, with Scott on dulcimer, J.R. Stone (guitar), Dick Tarnoff (fiddle), Jim Colby (flute and bass) and Jon Van Arsdal (banjo and mandolin). They played at the pub and local events.
Also in 1971, Scott performedmusic for Ryan Larkin's award winning animation, Street Musique, which incorporates Coast landscapes and was briefly excerpted in the more contemporary animated film Ryan.
Scott returns to the Coast on Oct. 15 to give a family concert at the Heritage Playhouse at 1 p.m. He is currently nominated for outstanding children's recording in the Western Canadian Music Awards, to be announced Oct. 22, for the CD Snooze Music, dulcimer lullabies for all ages. The recording has already won a parents' choice silver honour award and a North American Parenting Publications (NAPPA) gold award in the U.S.
Scott and his wife Valley Hennell are on the Coast next week for another reason - to celebrate the recent marriage of former Gibsons resident actress Maggie Blue O'Hara to multi-media artist Hoi Chiu, who met in Vancouver in 2004 while Hoi Chiu was directing The 5 Elements, Scott's Juno-nominated collaboration with Hong Kongmusician Harry Wong.
Hoi Chiu, Maggie Blue, Scott and Hennell have since created the multi-media work, YuYu MiMi: A Love Story, which staged its preview performances at Grantham's Landing in 2005 (Coast Reporter, April 2005), premièred in England and will enjoy a muchexpanded production in the Hong Kong Arts Festival next March. The Festival isa prestigious event that fosters international collaboration. Scott and Hennell hope to travel to the première.
Over a 33-year career, Scott has released 15 albums, including six children's recordings. Father of six and grandfather of seven, he is goodwill ambassador for the Down Syndrome Research Foundation. He was keynote performer and MC for the 2006 world congress on Down syndrome held in Vancouver in August.
The Rick Scott family concert is on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 1 p.m. at the Heritage Playhouse in Gibsons. Tickets are $8 for kids under 12, $10 for adults and $30 for a family of four, for sale at Coast Books, Hallmark Cards, Talewind Books and the Roberts Creek General Store.
