Bob Oldfield
Vernon Folk Roots Music Society
This week the Vernon Folk Roots Music Society (VFRMS) continues its mission to bring quality music in the folk and roots genre to Vernon.
Following last month鈥檚 sold-out show featuring David Francey, this month they welcome another Canadian folk legend in James Keelaghan along with one of the UK鈥檚 top folk artists, Jezz Lowe, to the Vernon Jazz club venue where VFRMS holds most of its shows.
Both Keelaghan and Lowe will play solo sets, but they will team up to play together for a set of material as a duo.
The two were just a couple shows into a Canadian tour in 2020 when the pandemic shut them down, so they feel that this is simply the resumption of that tour, with dates from Quebec right across to B.C.
Keelaghan and Lowe first teamed up in the late 鈥�90s and have periodically toured together, finding a commonality of purpose, of inspiration and love for the genre in which they have found so much success. They are songwriters separated by distance, background and cultures, yet they are able to find so much that ties them together. Through their songs they weave a tapestry of stories and observations dealing sometimes with both the hardships of life alongside the joy of simply being able to share music. The two complement each other鈥檚 styles perfectly.
Asking about the output of material and how to keep fresh after so many years playing, both of these artists talk about the necessity of constantly writing down notes, making observations and collecting phrases that will one day find their way into songs, with characters being sculpted from the experiences of meeting people during many years on the road.
Keelaghan, in fact, works by a simple rule in his life in which he pushes himself to 鈥渘ever stop accumulating because that鈥檚 how I challenge myself to stay fresh.鈥�
Alongside music, Lowe has become a novelist, writing stories based on the folk music and traditions of his home 鈥榯urf鈥�, the North East of England.
The stories and songs of these two giants of the folk world will certainly be well received at the now sold-out show to be held at the Vernon Jazz Club on Thursday, March 7.
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