It’s a time of resurgence for the award-winning Sunshine Coast band The Rakish Angles, who have a show coming to St. Bart’s Church in Gibsons on Saturday, Dec. 5.
The Rakish Angles with the original three of Dan Richter (guitar and guitjo), Boyd Norman (bass) and Simon Hocking (mandolin and tenor banjo) have been off the radar while they were looking for a new fiddle player. Now, they have found one of the best. It’s none other than Sara Fitzpatrick, whom audiences will remember from her three years with Delhi 2 Dublin. She’s another home grown musician and she’s busy breathing new life into the band.
The band has earned nominations for a Canadian Folk Music Award, two Western Canadian Music Awards and two Indie Acoustic Music Awards. Fans will remember that they began by playing all instrumental tunes. With some coaxing, they added vocal repertoire, and after touring together across B.C. and Ontario for the last eight years, melody and storytelling has become a natural evolution.
The word “rakish” means “displaying a dashing, jaunty or disreputable quality or appearance.” One might perch a hat on one’s head “at a rakish angle.” It suits their personalities. They sing time-stopping harmonies into one microphone, carrying audiences to warm and playful places.
The Saturday night concert is also the first official show of Sky Parallel, a duo of two Sara(h)s.
In 2014 both Sara Fitzpatrick and Sarah Noni arrived from different parts of the world to Gibsons. Though they had not known each other previously, they moved in next door to each other and discovered they were both working part-time as musicians and were mothers of small children. They formed a creative duo to fuse their talents, calling it Sky Parallel.
“We were Sara and Sarah for a while,” one of the women told Coast Reporter, “until we brought our worlds together.”
Fitzpatrick is a violinist on acoustic and electric violin with a history that includes classical, jazz, folk and electronica. Noni has come out of classical music training, with a passion for creating song. They are currently writing, composing and preparing ten songs for their first recording.
“They’re all original songs,” Fitzpatrick says, “and we have some cool arrangements – part of a drum set and fiddle, beat-boxing and looping, using ourselves in as many ways as possible.” Orchestral sounds and arrangements will be a strong feature, using not only strings but also elaborate vocal layering.
The concert also includes some of their students, the Coast String Fiddlers, nine to 15 year olds, who will join The Rakish Angles for a few tunes.
The Rakish Angles and Sky Parallel are in concert on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. at St. Bart’s Church in Gibsons. Tickets are $20 at MELOmania, Gaia’s Fair Trade and Strait Music.
