Steve Dawson’s Black Hen Road show is making a stop at the Golden Civic Centre next week, featuring three blues and roots artists on the bill.
Black Hen is Dawson’s label, and the road show is on its third tour around. This year’s lineup includes Steve Marriner, Ndidi O, and Leeroy Stagger.
The three artists each bring something a little different to the showcase, ensuring there will be a bit of something for everyone. Dawson brought the three together, and they are excited to take part in the showcase.
“It should be really fun,” Said O, adding that Dawson was the second producer she had ever worked with, and that she has performed with him as well, and that showcases like these used to happen all the time with Elvis, Johnny Cash, and the likes of those artists. “It’s very much old school.”
After spending many of her childhood year in Golden, O is excited to come back to play at the Civic Centre. She hopes to find time to take a stroll down her old street to see if her home is still there.
Stagger has also been to Golden before, playing at the Golden Sound Festival a few years ago, although he grew up on Vancouver Island in Victoria. Just by default of being a travelling musician, he says he has been through Golden many times.
“I love it there, I’ve been there plenty of times,” he said. “I’ve been stranded there when the highway was closed. I’ve played shows there and visited for vacations.”
The musicians have all released records recently, so they will be showcasing their new albums. Stagger hopes they will get to collaborate a bit as well.
“It’s going to be a pretty special evening,” he said, adding that his music is like a documentation of humanity. “I get pegged as a roots artist a lot, but at the same time I think my last record has a lot of depth to it.”
The road show will bring out a lot of roots and blues, and the audience will get to take in some harmonica from Marriner, who was acclaimed as the harmonica player of the year at the Maple Blues awards. Marriner is also an “eloquent” singer and guitarist.
Encompassing many different sounds into her music, O says that she sticks pretty close to the blues.
“I’m very aware of the tonality of what I do. I have a jazz tonality in my voice, but I’ve never considered myself to exist in that world,” she explained. “The nature of the blues tends to be songs about the trials and tribulations of life; about loving and losing and loving again.”
All three artists will take Golden on a journey through their own emotions at the Civic Centre on April 19 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Art Gallery of Golden box office, or by calling 250-344-6186.
Check out O at www.facebook.com/ndidio.official, Stagger at www.facebook.com/leeroy.stagger, and Marriner at www.monkeyjunkband.com.
