Two acclaimed singer-songwriters are coming to Chilliwack for an intimate performance in Bozzini’s upstairs lounge on Friday, May 10.
Jonathan Byrd and Chris Kokesh met as teachers at a song academy in Sisters Oregon in 2006.
Enamored with Chris’s fiddle-playing and voice, Jonathan invited her to play with him at the Sisters Folk Festival that weekend. They played two encores, and the festival audience voted them the ‘encore ‘performers’ to return the following year. The duo toured the Pacific Northwest and Midwest, and came back to Oregon to make their first recordings in a barn at Sisters. Jonathan and Chris had to stop recording when the birds in the walls erupted in song. They called themselves the Barn Birds.
Jonathan Byrd is a preacher’s son, a Gulf War Navy veteran, and a seventh generation North Carolinian whose songs you likely have heard, even if you haven’t heard Byrd sing them. The Chicago Tribune called him “one of the top 50 songwriters of the last 50 years.” The Boston Globe gushed, “This rootsy North Carolinian…displays John Prine’s gift for stark little songs that tell big, complex stories, Guy Clark’s lean melodicism, Lyle Lovett’s wry mischief, and Bill Morrissey’s knack for the revealing image.”
Chris Kokesh toured 14 years with the all-woman quartet Misty River. and helped create the signature vocal blend of this Northwest favorite. In July 2010 her latest release, October Valentine, debuted on the Folk DJ charts at #20, and Chris’s stunning songwriting, crystalline vocals, and fiddle and guitar chops distinguish her as a stand-alone talent. Onstage, Kokesh reveals the inner workings of her heart with grace and a wry sense of humor.
Showtime is 9:30 p.m. Tables at 8. Tickets $20 at Bozzini’s or 604-792-0744 to reserve.
