North Country STOMP 2010 Performers
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Audio Rocketry |
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Big John Bates Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz is a punk blues group from Vancouver led by John Bates, a Gretsch-endorsed guitarist who "mixes punk, blues & rockabilly"[1]. They were the first rock and roll band to add Burlesque performers[2](the Voodoo Dollz) as part of a synchronized live group. Originally influenced by bands as diverse as The Cramps, Reverend Horton Heat, The White Stripes and Tom Waits".[3], the band began releasing albums in 2001, appealing to a diverse cross-section of independent music fans. Based in Vancouver Canada, Big John Bates & the Voodoo Dollz were the first neo-burlesque performers to take their show throughout Europe and North America. European interviews with BJB & the Dollz have been featured on Europe's VH1 and National TV shows in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Television documentaries in North America on the A&E Network and Discovery Network have featured band interviews on the influences of film-makers such as Russ Meyer and authors Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane. The band has shared stages with notable performers such as Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Supersuckers, Solomon Burke, the Blasters, Eric Sardinas, Southern Cuture on the Skids, Los Straitjackets, Jay Munley, Wayne Hancock and th' Legendary Shack Shakers. |
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Boogie Patrol The Boogie Patrol is a Blues, Funk, Soul band from Edmonton, Alberta. After creating a serious reputation for themselves in the local circuit, these diverse musicians entered the studio to record their debut recording ‘Boogie On or Bug Off’. Showcasing the talent of Alberta’s own Yuji Ihara on Guitar, Nigel Gale on bass, Jimmy James on drums, and Rotten Dan The Blues Man on harp and vocals, Boogie Patrol brings blues back in style with a little funk to lead you to you a place of good lovin. Combining jaw dropping guitar solos with a rhythm section that will make you boogie, these boys stay true to their name and take letting loose to a whole new level. |
| Brickhouse | |
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David Gogo Although still relatively young in "blues years", David Gogo has accomplished much in his career. So far he has three Juno nominations, was named Musician of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, was twice named Guitarist of the Year at the Maple Blues Awards, and has been bestowed with the CBC Saturday Night Blues, Great Canadian Blues Award for a lifetime contribution to the blues in Canada. Nine albums have been released under his name and he has been a guest on a number of other artists recordings. David has composed music for television and major motion pictures and his songs have been performed and recorded by various musicians worldwide. Whether he’s showcasing his blistering guitar licks and soulful vocals during his electric performances or drawing the crowd in with his humour and down-to-earth personality during his acoustic shows, audiences throughout North America, Europe, and Scandinavia can attest to his outstanding talent. |
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Joey Only Outlaw Band |
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LEX JUSTICE Lex Justice (Alexander Varughese) is the Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist for this sound Roots, Rock Reggae group.. Having been involved in the Canadian/American music scene for a decade, Lex has been involved in many genres. He was the founder of progressive rock groups SUGAKANE and VELA, having played hundreds of shows, opening for the likes of Sam Roberts, Collin James, Danko Jones, Andrew WK, 54-40, The Headstones, Wide Mouth Mason, Randy Bachman, Nazareth, The Cult, Quiot Riot, George Thorogood, Grady, The Tea Party, members of Soundgarden and many more.. He has also worked with producers, Stu Kirkwood (Welcome), John Wozniak (Marcy Playground) and Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar/Grady) in recording, and The Road Hammers, Coheed and Cambria, Ozzy Osbourne/Zakk Wylde, and Big Sugar in other professional settings.. |
| Mama's Gone Wild | |
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Megan Lane Megan fills the gaps between blues, jazz, rock, and soul with fierce passion. An experienced song-writer, performer, and producer, Lane is touring her latest album Bow and Drill the Spark (2009). With this release Lane showcases an incredibly diverse style that is both sensitive and provocative. Igniting her audience from the first note, Lane has shared the stage with Colin James, Buffy St. Marie, and many others. Lane’s distinct voice moves back and forth between a deep dark growl and the breaking point of an aching cry, and her weeping guitar is anything but gentle. Her music resonates with the intensity and wisdom of someone who knows how to make fire from friction, and it leaves a burning mark. |
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Mike Clark |
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The Raygun Cowboys were formed in early 2000 by Jon Christopherson. The band started out as a trio playing Rockabilly and Psychobilly covers in its hometown, Edmonton, Alberta. The original members were Jon Christopherson on guitar and vocals, Mal Suydam on upright bass and Derek Theison on drums. Mal left the band in 2002 and was replaced by Oakland Valleau.
In 2003 and 2004 the band began writing original material and was in demand to open for touring Rockabilly/Psychobilly bands. In 2005 the band released its first recordings on the compilation "Zombie Night in Canada" and following up with their first full length album, "Underworld Boogie" in 2006. In 2007 the band added a horn section consisting of Mike Johnson on the trumpet and Nathan Conelly on the trombone. This transformed the band and added an exciting stage show and sound unique to the Cowboys. With the addition of the Horns the Cowboys have become a more recognized Headlining Act and are opening for bigger Rockabilly Acts such as Lee Rocker of the Stray Cats and Reverend Horton Heat. The Raygun Cowboys released a self-titled album on Stumble Records label in 2008. The band has toured across Canada several times and have played large festivals such as Folk on the Rocks in Yellowknife, the Beaumont Blues Fest, the Hotrod Hootenanny Rockabilly Festival and Headlined the North Country Fair in Alberta in 2009. In 2010 the Cowboys will be playing the Salmon Arm Blues and Roots Festival as well as doing their first tour of Europe and the UK. |
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RICH HOPE Likes it dirty You can tell because he uses the word a lot – ‘dirty’. And you can hear it in the “no-bass trash fest” he calls Whip It On Ya - his second album of Evil Doings. “I’ve always been drawn to that sound on guitar,” he says. “Dirty. Shitty. I want that amp to sound like it’s hurting. Like it’s really making a bad noise. Hound Dog Taylor’s guitar sound is the greatest thing to me. That’s dirty.” 2005’s Rich Hope and His Evil Doers signaled Hope’s descent into the belly of the beast, with half of its running length dedicated to the dirt and the shit that came to define his sound in the subsequent years. By his own admission, it was a conflicted record. |
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Romi Mayes "Romi Mayes is somethin else. She writes great songs and she's got a great voice, but you should see her try to outrun a train. I think I had more fun on tour with Romi Mayes than I've ever had in my life." - Gurf Morlix, producer, musician |
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Ron Casat Ron has been involved in the Canadian music community as a performer, composer, arranger and producer since 1967. He is a talented performer and educator who has learned his chops with Big Dave McLean, James Keelaghan, Maria Muldaur, Amos Garrett, Doug Cox, Tim Williams and Ellen McIlwaine, just to name a few. A great keyboardist, bass player and arranger, Ron also plays keyboards with one of the best blues bands out of Calgary, Tim Williams and the Electro Fires. Ron has a natural sense of musical timing that guides fellow musicians further on down the road or he can drive the tune straight to the soul. He is a highly sought after studio musician who has finally released his own outstanding personal CD. A former member of Amos Garrett and the Eh! Team, producer/sidesman for Diamond Joe White and James Keelaghan, Ron is a talented musician with much to teach. |
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SUNPARLOUR PLAYERS The Sunparlour Players started playing in spring of 2005 after Andrew recorded a small EP ("Mersea") based on the rural county he grew up in south of the Detroit/Windsor border. They then released another small live EP ("Alive At The Tranzac") later in 2005. Then they played a lot more. In 2007 they released their critically acclaimed "Hymns For The Happy" (Outside Music). "Hymns For The Happy" was recorded in many different places all over Southwestern Ontario. Engineered by Andy Magoffin @ The House of Miracles. "One of the ways Sunparlour Players succeeds on the new record is the band's intense creativity. This is heard in juxtapositions between the rawkus stomp and yowls found on John Had a Bell and a Whistle and the elegiac orchestrations and vocals of If the Creeks Don't Rise. The Players seem to be constantly evolving as their history comes from equal parts old country and old punk." (Ottawa XPress). "If AC/DC guest-starred on "Little House on the Prairie" (Maclean's). They were very happy with this album and it seemed that other people were too. They toured a lot then. In 2009 the Sunparlour Players released "Wave North" (Outside Music). Recorded at Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed Studio and the Fembots Junkshop with choir and horns recorded at Toronto’s Factory Theatre. Aided by celebrated producer Jeremy Backofen (Felice Brothers, Frightened Rabbit) who gave them a definitive approach to the recording of the album. "Wave North" was also critically acclaimed. "it will shock fans both old and new and shatter most of the easy jump off points reviewers search for. Sure, the elements are the same – banjo, guitar, kick drums, Penner’s unique vocal range – but they all sound bigger and more important" (Herohill) "this reflects a band just coming into its own, yet simultaneously sounding extremely confident in embracing the process. And it’s just serene — an ebullient and enigmatic album" (FFWD) Harnessing their personal storytelling with a bigger sound they created an album rooted in both conflict and joy. |
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THE PLEADING HEARTS Whinin’, cheatin’ and plain ol’ hurtin’….. the country duet taken to the sublime and the ridiculous. That’s The Pleading Hearts, an Edmonton band that can bring you to tears or make you spit your beer out laughing. Consisting of Terry Morrison, John Gorham, Chris Smith and Paul ‘Duke’ Paetz, this is an all out fun project for these veterans of the Edmonton music scene. Great harmonies and real musical talent, make this one of the most fun bands to come along in a long while |
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Terry Morrison A veteran performer, Terry has 4 CD’s of original music and is featured on numerous compilations. Her music is heard on CKUA, CBC, college radio as well as stations in Europe and the USA. Her voice is rich and deep, her melodies, rhythm and lyrics, strong and uniquely her own. “Armed with a large volume of original work, Morrison sings from the heart and writes material that finds her voice and acoustic guitar enveloping the crowd. Deep sounding, and smooth but imaginatively delivered vocals, make her one of the better solo acts in town.” |
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Tim Williams & The Electrofires Born in Southern California in the late 1940s, Tim Williams was both a published poet and an emerging coffee house phenomenon by his late teens in the mid-1960s. His first LP recording,, Blues Full Circle (produced by Arhoolie Records legend Chris Strachwitz, cover photo by Jim Marshall, liner notes by Pete Welding, and boasting appearances by L.A. blues veterans Pee Wee Crayton and George “Harmonica” Smith) came out when he was just 20 years old. Although most often known within the context of the blues, Williams grew up hearing (and able to play) everything from the Bob Wills and Sons of the Pioneers music his parents preferred, to the Mexican and Hawaiian music which were part of the musical melting pot of the Los Angeles area. Quickly mastering acoustic and electric guitar, banjo, and mandolin, Tim was also introduced at a young age to the rudiments of Hawaiian steel guitar by his grandfather. Over a short period of time he became extremely fluent in the Delta bottleneck and Bluegrass Dobro techniques as well. When he moved to Vancouver in 1970, weary of America’s wars and assassinations, he immediately found work as a studio musician playing on gospel, folk and country recordings, plus commercial jingles selling everything from weed killer to Toyotas. In addition, he taught guitar and continued to tour as a headliner in smaller venues and an opening act in the larger ones. His live shows moved away from the “blues-only” approach he had been taking to include more traditional country and western swing music, and his growing body of original songs. The 1974 single “Careful Mountain Pony” was a surprise hit with country radio, but when two follow-ups received critical praise and no sales (and the label went under) Tim left music for a year to work as a horse wrangler in the British Columbia interior. For the next several years he would vacillate between music and ranch work, releasing two LPs of bluesy country-folk (1977’s Writin’ This Song “…Williams is one of the best songwriters anywhere.” Canadian Composer magazine; and 1982’s It’s Enough To Be Remembered, which was heavily praised by other writers like Tom Russell and resulted in Mel Tillis beginning to publish his tunes in Nashville). Valdy covered “My Heart Can’t Take Another Rodeo from the latter disc on his own “Notes From Places” LP. A co-write with Laurie Thain, “Tryin’ To Rope The Wind” was a runner-up in the Billboard World Song Round-Up. And was covered by Cindy Church on her Just A Little Rain cd. Following his first appearance at the Edmonton Folk Festival in 1988, Tim returned to performing and writing full time. In addition to his solo work he co-founded the popular acoustic blues trio Triple Threat, and co-produced their JUNO-nominated cd The Terra Firma Boogie. From that disc, zydeco star CJ Chenier covered Tim’s song “Au Contraire, Mon Frere,” as did Toronto’s Krockodiles. Steve Pineo covered “In Rehearsal For The Blues” on his second cd. Leaving Triple Threat in 1994 with his solo release Riverboat Rendezvous (“…Tim Williams has the taste, panache and style to pull it off.” Living Blues magazine) Tim released several more cds and has continued to tour Canada and much of the rest of the world, spreading his blend of blues, roots and original music with three tours of the United Kingdom, two of Australia, appearances in Cuba and Morocco, as well as producing numerous cds for other artists (another JUNO nomination for Ray Bonneville’s Rough Luck cd) and working in theatre as a composer and musical director (five Betty Mitchell Awards for Outstanding Musical Direction and Outstanding Composition). |
Schedule
FRIDAY, July 30
From 9 pm to 1 am
Audio/Rocketry
The Sheepdogs
Joey Only Outlaw Band
Megan Lane
Lex Justice
SATURDAY
From 3 pm to 3 am
The Pleading Hearts
The Terry Morrison Band
Big John Bates and the Voodoo Dollz
Brickhouse
Sunparlour Players
Rich Hope
David Gogo
SUNDAY
From 4 pm to 2 am?
Tim Williams and the Electrofires
Ron Casat Band
Romi Mayes
Mike Clark Band
Raygun Cowboys