Madeira Park resident Joel Fafard's got the blues, the resonator guitar, gravelly-voiced type of blues that he showcases on his latest CD, Cluck Old Hen. He ends his launch tour this Saturday, Nov. 27, by coming home to the Coast and playing at the Roberts Creek Legion.
He's liked this music ever since the age of 10 when he first heard John Lee Hooker. Fafard began to play at age 15, and while in high school he would sneak into a biker bar in Regina that was a hotbed for Chicago guitar players. The Appalachian/roots influence on his music came later when he played with an early version of the band Scruj Macduhk.
This is his seventh album. He hasn't looked back in the last 14 years, earning a Juno nomination, a Western Canadian Music Award and two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations.
The CD is mostly traditional songs, 12 in all with five reprises; many are associated with blues greats such as Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon plus familiar Appalachian tunes. He also includes more recent classics: Richard Thompson's Vincent Black Lightning and Lyle Lovett's If I Had a Boat. The title track lyrics for Cluck Old Hen were written by Kris Delmhorst. They all have that deep groove that seems lodged in Mississippi mud.
So what's with the chicken imagery in his music? (A 2008 CD was entitled Three Hens Escape Oblivion.) His wife, artist Megan Mansbridge, is fond of chickens and paints the eye-catching cover art. They've lived on the Coast almost three years now, and Fafard enjoys meeting other local musicians.
"I like to perform with people and jam. It's nourishing for the soul," he said.
For details about this Sat-urday's concert, call the Legion at 604-886-9813. See www.joelfafard.com for more.
After a long musical journey, Ron Kalmakoff came to live in Sechelt and knew he'd reached his new home. Turn Around, the title track on his new CD, charts that journey.
"After I moved here my head cleared and I got back to my true passion - making music," he said.
Born in Saskatchewan, Kalmakoff entered a talent contest at the age of 15, and although he's done many jobs from banking to retail, music is a constant. He's produced seven albums, but this is his first in 10 years. The hiatus was because of family-related events that took him away from Vancouver where he had just released his sixth CD, Journey of the Heart, and back to his family's Saskatchewan farm where he found himself taking in the harvest. Life is full of such strange turns.
Kalmakoff has a distinctive voice at the high end of tenor. "The higher notes are not hard for me to reach," he said.
The mood on this CD is mellow with many original ballads and an excellent cover of the Jim Reeves' song Welcome to My World. The arrangements are by Juno award-winning Michael Creber. When Kalmakoff decided to record again, he was referred to Creber as the man who could help.
"We gelled quickly," Kalmakoff recalls. "He's my musical brother."
Vocalist Shari Ulrich was also invited to harmonize on two tracks. The last song, Give me Jesus, was written by Fanny J. Crosby, who wrote more than 8,000 hymns in her lifetime and whose grandmother played a major influence in her life.
"I was looking for a piece of music to dedicate to my own grandmother, and I felt that the history of Fanny's background is something my grandmother would have appreciated," he said. "She was the first person who encouraged me to use my voice to sing and pursue my music."
Turn Around sells for $18.95 at Shanti Gifts, Strait Music and Fresh, Sechelt; Bluewaters Books, Madeira Park; and Woods Christmas Store, Gibsons. See more at www.ronkalmakoff.com.
