Creston’s Carl Erickson will be joined by Mike Mitchell and Ted Bryant of the Kings of Kitchener and bass player Gary Snow for a concert at the Snoring Sasquatch on Jan. 19.
Erickson started in music at age 10 playing the violin, and later the clarinet when his father passed on his when he couldn’t figure it out.
“My brother took me to see Ray Charles about age 12 and I have never been the same since,” said Erickson.
He and his sister, Karen, had a rock band in high school called the Royals, and before Erickson knew it, he was playing saxophone in a band called the Nocturnals along with his friend, Ron Henschel. The Nocturnals recorded over 20 singles and are featured on the Live at the Grooveyard album, which has become a collectors item. That album musically showcases all the R&B groups of that Vancouver era who were booked by Jaguar Enterprises.
Erickson has good memories of touring with groups like the Buck Owens revue, which he left in Phoenix, Ariz., around 1976, to Spade Nielson and Gamblers touring across Canada and the U.S.A. all the way to southeast Asia, and countless groups like the Elvis, Elvis, Elvis (three Elvis impersonators representing the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s ) followed.
After that, Erickson spent about eight years in Calgary, part of which was spent playing saxophone with Ronnie King, who had taken a leave of absence from the Stampeder band of Sweet City Woman fame. He then returned to Vancouver and reunited with his friend, Muddy Fraser, a blues legend, and they recorded two albums, one in late 1980 and one about 1990.
More recently, he spent a year in Jamaica starting in 2010 where he played and recorded with some really great Jamaican musicians.
“These days I happily reside here in Creston and have many wonderful friends musical and otherwise,” he said, and has often played with Warren and Kalen Huscroft and their group, the Hollyhocks, which is currently taking a break from the world of music.
The doors to Erickson’s show open at 6 p.m. and the show begins at 7. Tickets are $10 in advance at Kingfisher Used Books and Black Bear Books, and $13 at the door.