The Rogue Folk Club just finished hosting the Canadian Folk Music Awards in Vancouver, but they are by no means done entertaining us for the month.

There are still four more amazing shows to come, including Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph, who is truly in the top tier of global performers, and the 5th annual Hornby Blues concert.

For more information on these shows, visit http://www.roguefolk.bc.ca or call 604-736-3022.  As always, there are live stream tickets available so you can watch from anywhere!

Martyn Joseph – April 13 at Mel Lehan Hall at St. James

Martyn Joseph is a powerful singer and songwriter gifted with the rare ability to speak to the soul with his expressive and poignant lyrics. With a discography of 37 albums spanning 1983 to the present, over a half a million record sales and thousands of live performances, he has established himself as a versatile artist who touches genres of folk, rock, soul, folk funk and Americana, yet somehow all these labels cannot define the spirit of his music.

Compared to Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Bruce Cockburn and Dave Matthews, he has created reputation as a mesmerising live performer, giving what thousands have described as the best live music experience of their lives. A unique talent driven by passion, social awareness and love for his trade, he makes music that manages to empower and speak for the many. He’s a jaw dropping guitar player who has developed a unique percussive style, teamed up with a powerful show stopping voice, and has been called “The Welsh Springsteen”

Steve Dawson & The Hooded Mergansers – April 21 at Mel Lehan Hall at St. James

Steve Dawson is an award-winning Canadian guitarist, originally from Vancouver. He is a solo artist, songwriter, pedal steel player, multi-instrumentalist, producer and engineer now living and working in Nashville, TN. Over the past two decades, Steve has become such an indelible fixture on the Canadian musical landscape that it’s tempting to take him for granted. The music that flows out of him is so natural and authentic that it’s possible to forget all of the toil that went into producing it.

He spent the last few years pre-pandemic on the road playing guitar, steel and dobro with Allison Russell’s band Birds of Chicago, and with Canadian powerhouse Matt Andersen.

He has produced, engineered and mixed over 100 albums for many artists from all over the world, and continues to work as a side-person and freelance musician both on stage and in the studio. Whether he’s turning heads on the concert circuit with his incendiary playing, or pulling the best possible performances out of the many artists that he works with in the studio, Steve is always striving to take things to the next level.

The 5th annual Hornby Blues:  Emily Burgess, Rick Fines, Paul Pigat & Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne – April 28 at Mel Lehan Hall at St. James

The Hornby Island Blues Workshop takes place every spring on Hornby Island. Each year they invite a dozen or so of the finest Canadian blues and roots musicians around to share their knowledge and inspiration with some lucky students. We thought, “Why not catch some of these great players, singers and all-round crowd-pleasers, and get them to do a show for us on the way? So, we snagged some of these entertaining entertainers to entertain you just before they head over there. It’s a simple but foolproof formula!

Emily Burgess graduated with honours from Humber College’s prestigious music program at 22 and began touring Canada and the U.S with the Juno nominated 24th Street Wailers. She wrote two songs and took guitar duties for their 2015 Juno Award nominated album, Wicked.  Eight years and hundreds of shows later, she’s fronting her own band, The Emburys, and playing guitar with many different acts across Canada.

Rick Fines
Rick crafts a unique blend of warm-hearted blues, juke joint folk, and dockside soul that both embraces and defies the genres that influence him. As a veteran of the North American blues and folk circuits, he engages audiences with captivating songs, diverse guitar styling and his signature vocal growl.

Paul Pigat
What kind of music do you want Paul to play? Blues? Jazz? Gospel? Bluegrass? Punk? Classical? Metal? Rockabilly? Western Swing? Something unique, say Mel Torme meets AC/DC? He could do it, and he could do it well; he’s that kind of guy. Paul Pigat can play just about every style and technique imaginable, with a modern twist that is both fluid and precise, and is without fail exhilarating in its intensity.

Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne
Kenny was born in Spokane, WA in 1944. He had a nomadic childhood; his family moved from New Orleans to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Compton when he was young. His father was a preacher who encouraged his son to listen to gospel music, but his mother preferred the sounds of Nat King Cole, Little Willie John and Fats Domino, which sparked his early interest in blues and R&B. Kenny was inducted into theBoogie Woogie Piano Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2017.

Daimh – April 30 at Mel Lehan Hall at St. James

Daimh, Gaelic Super-group and unchallenged champions of straight-in-the-eye Highland music, are based around West Lochaber and the Isle of Skye. Joining the force on this tour is world-renowned fiddler Alasdair White!

Formed around the turn of the century and taking the name from the Gaelic word for kinship, Daimh (pronounced Dive) have taken their contemporary take on Highland and Gaelic music to over 20 countries, setting audiences alight from Moscow to San Francisco. With a reputation as giants of the bagpipes and fiddle, Angus Mackenzie and Gabe McVarish lead the melodic powerhouse with fellow founding member Ross Martin underpinning the groove on the guitar. The band are joined by new guy Murdo Yogi Cameron on mandola and accordion to complete the instrumental line up.

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