The Vernon Jazz Club will be getting down and bluesy as The Kirby Sewell Band takes the stage this Saturday night.
Sewell will be joined by Jae Cho, Morgan Turk, and Neil Gunhold on guitar and Jim Johnston on drums.
The band, which has been compared to Joe Cocker, The Commitments and Otis Redding, will be playing soulful music that the audience will really be able to groove the night away to.
Frontman Sewell has been praised as “one of the finest male blues vocalists in Canada,” by Real Blues Magazine.
Mike Bell of The Calgary Herald says, “Sewell’s powerful vocals and unflinching frontman presence are magic.”
What makes his performances so magical?
“I once lost my head and the Blues found me and now my heart bleeds down my sleeve for all to see,” says Sewell.
The band first formed in 2009 for a performance at the Calgary Lilac Festival. It has sold out countless performances at top regional venues like The Ironwood, Cantos National Music Centre of Canada, and Edmonton’s Festival Place ever since.
They have opened for great musicians like Eric Lindell, Trombone Shorty and The Bedouin Soundclash and have graced the stage at festivals across North America including The Kaslo Jazz Festival and The Mount Baker Rhythm and Blues Festival.
In 2012 the band opened for Blue Rodeo to celebrate the 100th annual Calgary Stampede. From there they continued on to Salmon Arm’s Roots & Blues Festival, where they headlined the CBC Blues Stage.
That same year the band released their second album, Bought Myself a Hammer, and are currently in the process of recording their third.
Last month, The Kirby Sewell Band played The Mountain of Food Festival in Calgary. This event was founded by Sewell and is a way to help feed the community.
He challenged the all-ages audience to bring enough non-perishable food items to build a mountain taller than two of Calgary’s largest musicians. Brent Tyler is seven feet tall and Sewell stands at six-foot-six-inches tall.
The event raised more than 2,400 pounds of food and Sewell hopes that they’ll raise even more at next year’s event.
The Kirby Sewell Band has been continuing to pick up momentum all over North America.
New York City magazine RELIX selected the Kirby Sewell Band’s single Bought Myself a Hammer to be the second track on their On the Rise CD compilation following the lead cut from Chris Robinson Brotherhood (former Black Crowes singer).
The Kirby Sewell Band was also added as Pick to Click on B.B. King’s Bluesville on SiriusXM.
You can get a sneak peek of the band at: www.reverbnation.com/kirbysewellband
The Kirby Sewell Band takes the stage at the Vernon Jazz Club (3000-31st St.) this Saturday at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:15. Tickets are $20 at the Bean Scene, Bean to Cup and at www.vernonjazz.ca.
