Chilean-Canadian guitarist Oscar Lopez — a two-time-Juno award winner — will perform in Sechelt later this month, headlining a benefit concert for the Ruby Slipper Black Boot Fund.
Lopez won the Juno for best instrumental album in 2002 and 2005, for his releases Armando’s Fire and Mi Destino. (He has also been nominated a further five times.) After emigrating from Chile, he moved to Canada in 1978 and has toured extensively while recording a dozen albums and contributing to another dozen compilations.
Lopez’s Sechelt appearance with his trio will take place on July 26 at the Rockwood Pavilion in an event sponsored by the Ruby Slipper Black Boot Fund. The fund was created in 2009 after the death of Patsy Rothenbush from cancer.
“It was her wish to start a foundation on the Coast that would benefit anybody with a cancer diagnosis,” said Craig Moore, one of the organizers. A decade ago, Moore himself was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. It became the impetus for him to add the “Black Boot” to the Rothenbush’s original “Ruby Slipper” vision.
“I thought men should be represented,” he said. “Peter [Lietz] and I put on events here over the years, and we ended up doing a dance at the Sechelt Legion every November.” Since its inception, the fund has raised nearly $450,000, enabling it to provide emergency support after a cancer diagnosis, respite care for caregivers, medications not covered by insurance, and other essentials like food and gas.
The show represents a return to the Coast for Lopez: the Calgary-based artist has previously performed at the Raven’s Cry Theatre and the Rockwood Pavilion.
Moore and his colleagues from the Ruby Slipper & Black Boot Fund have rented the Rockwood Lodge, preparing to serve a full-course dinner to Lopez and his trio before the group performs at the adjacent Pavilion. “We’ll have a cash bar there on the outside, and it won’t be a late evening,” added Moore.
Lopez is in the midst of a Western Canada tour that includes concerts in Medicine Hat, Kelowna, and Penticton. The self-taught showman was called “the Godfather of the Latin String Guitar” by British folk artist Martin Simpson. “Lopez is the only guitarist I know that can make an acoustic guitar scream,” said Simpson.
Tickets ($60) for Oscar Lopez and his band are available via Eventbrite: eventbrite.ca/e/oscar-lopez-and-his-band-in-concert-ahora-o-nunca-live-in-sechelt-tickets-1323677959409. Some tickets will also be available for purchase at the door. More information about the Ruby Slipper & Black Boot Fund is available at rubyslipperblackbootfund.com.
A singer who’s all Hart
Gibsons-based singer-songwriter Jess Hart is set to mesmerize listeners with her new album, Jade, which will be released next week during a launch party at The Kube gallery.
Inspired by the sounds of Bossa Nova, Hart’s latest collection pays homage to the work of João Gilberto while weaving a fresh narrative filled with rich melodies and personal reflections. The recording includes percussion from acclaimed Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Celso Machado and lush orchestral arrangements by John Philip Shenale. Jade depicts love, growth, and the beauty of everyday moments.
The album culminates in the hopeful instrumental “Her Spring,” which provides a reflective pause before diving into the politically-charged “Echo Chamber,” addressing the urgent need for diverse voices amid today’s divisive discourse. Hart never hesitates to weave political commentary into her songs, deftly and wryly.
The album launch party at the Kube takes place on Friday, July 18 at 7 p.m. (admission is a $5 donation). “I will be playing a couple of songs from the album with Celso Machado accompanying,” said Hart. “It should be a fun night to celebrate the launch on streaming platforms.”
New take on roots music
The Living Forest Institute has announced its summer hike-in concert lineup, featuring three Sunday concerts performed in the Health Trail Forest to support the expansion and connection of Elphinstone’s protected forest areas above xwesam / Stelk’aya (Roberts Creek).
Admission via the Health Trail Forest Trailhead #1, opposite the Oxygen Trail Forest, is by donation.
The first concert — on July 27 — will feature Em Postl (vocals) and Thomas Hoeller (guitar), appearing as part of the Streams Poetry Project collaboration. Upcoming events will include the Understory Choir, led by Kiki Connelly (August 3), and Steve Wright and Graham Ord (August 24).
Further details are available online via the Living Forest Institute website: livingforestinstitute.ca.
Sun sets on Twelfth Night
One more weekend of performances remains for the Driftwood Players production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Rockwood Pavilion. Fifteen actors are joined by an orchestra of eight Renaissance music specialists (plus a choir) to depict a tale of unsurpassed silliness first staged in 1602.
The full-length performances are being offered as a benefit for the Bev Shaw Literacy Fund, amplifying the legacy of the founder of Talewind Books through literacy programming across the Sunshine Coast.
Tickets by donation for the play’s performances on Friday, July 11 (7 p.m.) and Saturday, July 12 (2 p.m.) are available online via coastshakespeare.ca or at the door.
Disclosure: the Coast Reporter’s arts writer clambers onto the stage to introduce each performance, wearing foppish Elizabethan attire created by costume mastermind Robyn Faucher.
