Five concerts are coming up at the Snoring Sasquatch, including three running during Arts and Culture Week, April 20-26.
Carl Erickson (guitar, saxophone), Donny Clark (trumpet, trombone), Gary Snow (bass), Rick Potyok (guitar) and Adam Koenig (percussion) will dazzle audiences with a range of tunes on April 19.
Rainy Night in Georgia (the Ray Charles version), What is the Colour of Love (reggae by Jamaican Richie Stephens) and Johnny Cash’s Hurt are on the set list concert, as are some originals.
“I always like to think my song Pickups, Ball Caps and Beer will … become a song we can all think of as a bit of an anthem for Creston,” said Erickson.
The Arts and Culture Week lineup begins on April 24 with Camel Toast Electric, a Frank Zappa tribute band with Creston native and Prince Charles Secondary School graduate Micah Snow.
It has been said that it takes a special type of mental unbalance to truly understand Zappa’s music. If that’s true, it must take an even more special brand of insanity to undertake the task of a Zappa tribute, but that’s exactly what the boys from Camel Toast Electric have done.
Comprised of Selkirk College alumni Snow (guitar, vocals), James “Toast” Jost (guitar, vocals), Andrew “Trex” McBain (drums), Kevin Welch (guitar, vocals), Spencer Daley (bass), and Adrien Lapierre (synth guitar), they have been trained to bring the best of their ability and more to the table.
After honing his craft in Selkirk’s contemporary music and technology program, Snow and the band are inviting everybody down for a night of great music and some fabulous playing.
Cam Penner and John Wood will play on April 25. Penner has been touring, recording and writing full time for the last 12 years. He is joined by musical cohort and creator Wood (electric guitar, lap steel, vocals and other ghost sounds), with whom he has spent the last year touring Penner’s CD, To Build a Fire, through North America and Europe.
Their music will silence a room and draw the listener’s eyes and ears to the stage. It is spontaneously robust, grand and fragile at the same time.
Penner has been creating sounds and words for over a decade. The bearded wood dweller sings with tenderness and poise, from a raw bellow to breathless whispers. The symphony of sound and lyricism showcase the inevitable evolution of a growing artist. On To Build a Fire, his fifth release, Penner finds new textures and bolder sounds. It is an album of leaving and new beginnings — not because anything is so bad perhaps but because things can always be better.
The Creston Valley’s own Velle Weitman Trio has an exciting evening planned for the 1950s murder mystery concert at the Snoring Sasquatch for April 26. The trio’s eclectic repertoire consists of a range of genres from folk to rock to smoky jazz, with a smattering of 1950s smash tunes. The trio consists of Velle Weitman (violin, vocals), Aaron Weitman (upright bass, vocals) and two special guests.
That concert wraps up Arts and Culture Week, and is part of a joint event with the Snoring Sasquatch, museum and Real Food Cafe. If participants haven’t guessed the murderer’s identity in the previous segments, it will be revealed at the concert. (For more information, contact the museum at 250-428-9262.)
The following evening, April 27, Animal Nation will perform.
Tickets are available at Black Bear Books, Kingfisher Used Books and Buffalo Trail Coffee House. Doors open at 7 p.m. and shows begin at 8, except for the Velle Weitman Trio, which plays at 7 p.m.
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