A new season of the Revelstoke Coffee House begins Saturday, October 18, and will surely administer another winter of heartfelt, soulful rhythms that will warm up those chilly nights.
Kicking off the season, the coffee house will feature the eclectic sounds of Seymour Arm duo Sue Kyle and Alan Bates. A joyful, acoustic brew of swing elements and Celtic jigs combined with their folk revival and contemporary folk influences, this pair will deliver us some sweet sounds that will get you moving.
Music became a part of Kyle’s life early on, growing up playing the guitar and the flute; the banjo, coming later. Kyle relocated to British Columbia from Montreal and settled in the Shuswap region; eventually joining the horse-drawn Caravan Stage Company in the 1970’s, where she met Bates.
After seven years with the caravan, the pair parted from the company, eventually establishing themselves in remote Seymour Arm, and starting a family.
In 1995, the duo paired up with Richard Owings and Jean Brighouse forming Birchbark; who are no strangers to Revelstoke. The group performed at last year’s seond annual Revelstoke Coffee House Fundraiser Extravaganza Hootenanny in December.
Although passionate about music, it can be hard to part from responsibilities on their Seymour Arm farm. Together, the couple live off the grid, tending to a garden, their chickens, as well as Bates’ involvement in the gravity-fed, community water system. They have even started their own Seymour Arm Coffee House.
Their simple life provides ample opportunity to develop their music, songwriting and even craft their own instruments.
Kyle wrote her first song in her twenties. “It’s not always easy,” she says. “Sometimes they just seem to fall out of the air, and other times, not so much.”
For her, it’s personal experiences, the simple things in life, that inspire her most; whether its her dog, or picking huckleberries. “It’s anything that gives me strength.”
Her song ‘Shuswap Swing’ was one of the winning entries in the songwriting contest held by the Shuswap Watershed Project in 2010.
Working with the guitar, Kyle develops her lyrics and tune. The piano helps her work out melodies, and the banjo, well “that’s just fun,” she says.
Bates finds working with the guitar therapeutic; focusing the mind, providing clarity and feeding the soul.
Bates has crafted several of his own instruments including a banjo, a bouzouki and an Irish Bodhran drum made with goat hide. Their most cherished of instruments includes a set of guitars made for the couple by a friend in the 70s, which they still play today.
For Kyle and Bates, their enjoyment comes from the comraderie in playing with others; those special moments and harmonies created. Whether it’s around fires or jam sessions, “those people have enriched our lives so much,” says Kyle.
There is also an essence of “danger and adrenaline” that I like about stage playing, says Bates.
Influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, John Prine and a “pot pourri” of others, the couple hopes to continue playing and touring B.C. as a duo, preserving old folk music, and playing songs that should be shared.
Catch Sue Kyle and Alan Bates at the Revelstoke Coffee House on Satruday, Oct. 18, at the United Church. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and admission is $3.
