McKenzie Montag is gaining a much-deserved reputation in the Victoria music scene.
And she’ll bring her music to her hometown when she performs at the Sooke Folk Music Society Coffee House on Saturday (April 21).
Montag received formal musical training for seven years, but has been singing and performing her entire life.
She began playing piano at age six and studied opera and classical voice at the University of Utah.
Montag, along with her mother, sister and brother moved to the Island four years ago and she began performing at open mics and coffee houses in the area, including the Kemp Lake Store, the Sooke Legion and the Reading Room, as well as Gorgeous Coffee in Victoria.
While living briefly in China, she taught music to children.
Montag is learning songwriting skills and hopes to be performing her own original tunes soon.
Performing with Montag for this show will be Grant Jamieson on bass, Freddy Brown on drums, Dave Gallant on lead guitar, and Gary Blaine on rhythm guitar.
Blaine is also a songwriter and Montag will cover several of his tunes for this performance.
Jamieson got his first electric guitar when he was 13. He played in rock bands through high school and played mostly folk and light rock in England from 1969 until the mid 1970s. He still enjoys playing bass and guitar with fellow musicians.
Brown has been a semi-professional drummer/vocalist for more than 50 years in his hometown of Windsor, Ont., and later in Edmonton. Since moving to Sooke in 2016, he has served as house drummer for the Spiral Café weekly open stage and performing with Victoria groups Big Island Allstars Band, The Acoustic Crusaders, Seacruze and Bijou du Bayou.
Gallant is a singer/songwriter and has been involved in music both professionally and semi-professionally for most of his life.
Sooke Folk Music Society Coffee House is at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 1962 Murray Rd. in Sooke. Doors open at 7 p.m., with an open stage at 7:30 p.m. and the feature performance at 9 p.m.
