Christine Skorepa
Citizen staff
Mayor Dan Rogers has proclaimed Jan. 21 to 29 as Coldsnap Music Festival Week in the City of Prince George because of the positive contributions the event has made to the community.
Mainstage performers gather together annually from around the world to offer a unique experience for residents of Prince George who might not ordinarily have the opportunity to see this diversity in music.
The Adonis Puentes Band will perform during Vivo, Cante, Danza tonight at 8 p.m. at the Ramada Hotel. The Mike Foottit Band will be opening the show. Adonis is half of the acclaimed Puentes Brothers band alongside Alex, better known as Alex Cuba. Adonis still calls Cuba home and is carrying on the tradition of sonero singers. Juan de Marcos, one of the masterminds behind the Buena Vista Social Club project and leader of the groundbreaking Afro-Cuban Allstars calls Adonis, Verdadero Sonero, A True Sonero. Come dance!
Tapestry of Strings is a sold out show taking place Saturday at 8 p.m. at ArtSpace, 1685 Third Avenue.
Sultans of String will perform with guests Seth and Shara of Mamaguroove. The Sultans of String are 2010 Juno award nominees and Canada's ambassadors of musical diversity. Sultans of String thrill their audiences with their global sonic tapestry of Spanish Flamenco, Arabic folk, Cuban rhythms, and French Manouche Gypsy-jazz, celebrating musical fusion and human creativity with warmth and virtuosity.
Bluegrass and Newgrass features the talents of the Good Lovelies and the April Verch Band Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Prince George Playhouse.
The Good Lovelies, Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Sue Passmore, are sharp, sassy, funny and building a following across Canada. Winners of the 2010 Juno for Roots Album of the Year and of the 2009 New Emerging Artist Award from the Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Good Lovelies are making waves across Canada and the US. The Good Lovelies are described as folk-roots and western swing. The Toronto-based trio combines three-part vocal harmonies with clever songs and funny onstage repartee.
The April Verch Band, with April at the helm on the fiddle, delivers richly textured phrasing on traditional roots tunes, bluegrass and newgrass melodies, jazz-influenced compositions, and country music. When April trades her fiddling for the rhythmic art of stepdancing, the band takes on the sound of the old lumber camp halls where those without instruments created rhythms with their feet.
The metal taps on April's shoes generate exhilarating cadences that enhance her traditional Ottawa Valley arrangements. It's even more impressive when April continues playing intricate rifts on her fiddle while dancing the rhythmic pulse that drives the tune. The overall effect on her audiences is electrifying.
Back to the Future, From the Backdoor Coffee House will be held Monday at 7:30 p.m. at ArtSpace, 1685 Third Avenue. This event is admission by donation and features local artists Murry Gable, Greg Beattie, Tom Young, Don Hagreen, Jeremy Stewart, Donncha O'Callaghan, Mike Foottit and Sound of the North and will offer music from the late '70s to the indie sounds of today.
Coldsnap Youth Collective Night will be held Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at ArtSpace, 1685 Third Avenue, featuring the Delightful Gang that plays ambient jazz, pop, post rock; Anywhere Road with singer songwriter Darby Yule; The Reeves, a brother sister folk duo from Quesnel and Walko aka DJ Sam Watkins.
Smooth and Driven will be presented during Indie Night at Art Space Wednesday at 8 p.m. featuring Brasstronaut, whose debut album, Mt. Chimaera, possesses qualities unpredictable character. Since forming in 2007, Brasstronaut has steadily acquired the hands necessary to fuse a diverse range of genres and this follow-up to their Old World Lies EP represents the first statement by the band's definitive six-piece line-up. Vocalist and keyboardist Edo Van Breemen is joined by a roster fluent in trumpet, lap steel, flugelhorn and the seldom-heard EWI (a wind synthesizer), among others.
Aidan Knight and The Friendly Friends will also appear during this event. Until recently, Aidan Knight was known as a helpful backing musician, playing everything from pop-rock bass lines to violent, pounding hardcore drums. He has recorded and performed with Maurice, The Zolas, and Counting Heartbeats amongst others.
Stand Up For Coldsnap will be held Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Ramada Hotel. During the evening two different styles are featured with Basia Bulat and Shadrach Kabango.
Basia Bulat is a two-time Polaris nominee, Canadian singer/songwriter who is one of the indie world's most talked about newcomers with the release of her first full-length album, 2007's Oh, My Darling.
Shadrach Kabango credited as Shad or Shad K, is a Canadian hip hop musician, born in Kenya, of Rwandan parents. He's a two-time Polaris nominee, critically acclaimed by everyone from Exclaim! magazine to Pitchfork, and was recently named Canada's best rapper of all time by The National Post.
Global Folk Fusion features The Paperboys and the Donne Roberts Band Friday, Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. at the Ramada Hotel. The Paperboys is one of Canada's best loved live bands and folkfest favourites demanded back by popular request. Mexican Son Jarocho mixed in with Irish jigs and reels and a good dose of country and bluegrass will be featured.
It has healthy servings of Ska, Soca and African Highlife and the band is known to throw in a little White Boy Reggae.
His full name Dieudonn and means God given and Roberts natural talents are obvious to anyone who hears him play. Canadian, Donn Roberts, was born in Madagascar, raised and educated in Moscow and Toronto, where he now lives. Rhythms, voices, melodies, chants and instruments from his and other cultures and communities from every corner of the earth have always fascinated Donn Roberts. This is what he brings to every endeavor, making his own songs, weaving his own music for others to enjoy as well.
A Special Evening with David Wilcox and Prince George's own Freedom Singers will take place Saturday, Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. at the Prince George Playhouse.
Wilcox, not to be confused with the Canadian David Wilcox, is an American singer-songwriter who for more than 15 years has been making music that bravely navigates a path through the emotional static of modern life towards a better place. He writes songs that are wake up calls to the heart and balm for the soul.
Tickets for all shows are on sale at Books and Company, 250-563-6637; Studio 2880, 250-563-2880 and the UNBC Bookstore.
