The MusicFest Concert Series presents Pharis & Jason Romero, Tuesday, April 14 at the Cumberland Hotel.
The folk music duo will be playing selections from both A Passing Glimpse (2012) and Long Gone Out West Blues (2013) CDs, as well as some of their favourite classic tunes.
Pharis and Jason have been attracting attention on the Canadian folk music scene since shortly after their first meeting – at a fiddle jam in 2007, which ultimately resulted in their marriage two months later.
She was living in Victoria, and he was living in Arcata, California. She sent him a copy of the 1928 recording Tupelo Blues from Hoyt Ming & His Pepsteppers and, short story even shorter, they were married two months later.
In 2010 they moved their home and the J. Romero Banjo Company north to the B.C. Interior, to her hometown of Horsefly. In this way-out-there small place, surrounded by wilderness and good people, they build their finely crafted banjos, and play and write the music, new and old, that they adore.
Their first duo record, A Passing Glimpse, earned them New/Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2012 Canadian Folk Music Awards, as well as Americana Album of the Year at the 2012 Independent Music Awards.
Long Gone Out West Blues garnered a Canadian Folk Music Award for Traditional Singer (and nominated for Traditional Album of the Year), an Independent Music Award nomination for Americana Album, and two Western Canadian Music Awards nominations.
They have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion several times, played the Vancouver and Winnipeg Folk Music Festivals, Pickathon, as well as numerous other performing and teaching engagements at venues across North America.
Pharis & Jason’s releases continue to attract audiences and radio play globally. Their delight in making music for music’s sake no doubt contributes to the joyful lack of pretense in their albums and performances, and to the rapidly-growing fan-base for both.
Tickets ($20) for the April 14 show can be purchased at the Cumberland Hotel, or online at islandmusicfest.com
Show starts at 8 p.m.
