Summer in the North Okanagan holds a special place in the heart of Zoltan (Foxx)Szoges.
Currently on tour with his wife, folk singer/musician Lauren Mann, Szoges spent his fair share of summers working at the Christian-based Circle Square Ranch in Spallumcheen before it shut down in 2009. (The site is now run by the Okanagan Boys and Girls Club as Camp Arrowflight.)
Now he’s promoting Mann’s cross-country tour, and is also a member of her band, The Fairly Odd Folk, which comes to Vernon’s Talkin’ Donkey coffee house Saturday.
This is Mann’s first big tour since she and Szoges retired from working at Circle Square Ranch’s Port Severn, Ont. location this summer. She began to tap Szoges’ musical and tour organizing expertise to try the full-time musician’s lifestyle.
“He has a lot of experience touring and doing music. So we thought, ‘why don’t we just go on tour?’” Mann told The Kelowna Capital News recently. “I never really thought that that would be possible, but we just kind of went for it.”
Mann, 21, grew up playing classical piano and eventually made the transition into songwriting.
Her debut full-length CD, Stories from Home, is a compilation of her first two EPs, with three new songs. Although some of the songs lean heavily on her classical training, some also have a get-on-your-feet dance groove.
The songs received a pretty good test-run on her first tour, a small venture from Prince George to Victoria, but the Calgary-based musician didn’t really make her touring debut until last week.
“We had a couple of months to work with and we just kind of mapped it out,” said Mann, who says her songs are all about telling a story.
By the end of the east-west venture she should have a fair number of new stories to share.
This will only be her second venture across the country.
She did some travelling and saw the sites earlier this year, and said she’s really looking forward to making connections between people on the east and west coast through her music.
While in Vernon, Szoges hopes to invite some friends he made while living in the area on stage with him and Mann.
Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk perform at the Talkin’ Donkey, located at 3922 32nd St., Saturday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. Admission is $5.
