In Canada, you know you’re going places when Don Cherry gives you a mention on Hockey Night in Canada.
If you’re the Slocan Ramblers, a couple of the places you’re going are right here in the Bow Valley.
The Slocan Ramblers, who Grapes mentioned did a version of “Abide With Me” that gave him chills on HNIC last winter, play Banff’s Elk and Oarsman, Saturday (Aug. 30) and Canmore’s Good Earth Café, Sunday (Aug. 31).
The bluegrass four-piece out of Toronto includes Frank Evans (banjo), Adrian Gross (mandolin-), Darryl Poulsen (guitar) and Alastair Whitehead (bass). The band is on the road, touring in support of their album, Shaking Down the Acorns.
“It’s our first real tour of the prairies,” said Gross. “We’re really looking forward to it.”
To avoid part of the long haul from Toronto, the Ramblers will fly to Saskatoon, rent some wheels, then take to the highway.
Oddly enough, if the name Slocan sounds familiar, it’s both a hamlet and lake in B.C.’s West Kootenays. It might seem an unlikely moniker for a Toronto band whose members met at Humber College, but Whitehead, originally from Newfoundland, who lived in Kaslo, B.C. for a while, came up with it when the then-nameless band booked a gig and had to go by something.
Currently, bandmembers live within about 10 minutes of each other in Toronto’s west end, and can bike to a jam space.
Until the band released it debut 12-track album Shaking Down the Acorns in 2013, the foursome stayed close to home.
“There’s a big bluegrass scene in Toronto, so we stayed close to home for three or four years,” said Gross. “If you want to find bluegrass, you’ll find it. But last summer we were at Folk on the Rocks in Yellowknife, we were in Israel in May, also P.E.I. and now we’re heading west and we have some U.S. dates coming up in the future. This summer, we’re also going to be at the Ness Creek festival in Saskatchewan and teaching for four or five days.
“We’re doing this full time and we also all play with different groups. We’ve been playing weekly gigs on College Street in Toronto and we love the music and seeing it played locally.”
Songwriting is a collaborative effort for the band and they mesh originals with classics they re-work and re-arrange. New material is already in the works for what the Ramblers hope will be a new spring release.
“For my songwriting, I like storytelling and relating personal experiences. The other guys, of course, do things their own way.”
Along with gigging and flogging CDs and merchandise at shows, Slocan Ramblers are getting airplay with CBC and Alberta’s own CKUA.
“And we can’t wait to get to Alberta,” said Gross. “Venues seem easy to book and we’ve spoken with a lot of receptive people there.”
