Traditional music winds it’s way through history in an unorthodox fashion, and catches fire when it comes into contact with people like April Verch and her band.
Verch has been putting out music since high school and was competing in fiddle contests before that.
Raised in the Ottawa Valley area, she was steeped in the traditional music culture. Verch started step dancing at three years old, following in her older sister’s dancing footsteps, and picked up the fiddle at six.
“Singing sort of became part of the show a lot later, in my 20s,” Verch said.
She has since expanded her repertoire into not just the traditional music of the area where she grew up, but the traditional songs of the many places she now tours.
“It’s still a big part of who I am, but it’s not all that we do in our live performances anymore. We’ve branched out into a lot of different things,” Verch said. “I talk about it to explain where I come from and how I form my music, but stylistically we pull from a lot of different places now.”
Verch and her band find inspiration from old field recordings, which are not exactly official recordings, but rather the tapes of old collectors going around recording shows.
“They are really poor quality so it’s sometimes hard to make them out, but we’re lucky because our fans know we’re into that,” Verch said. “Sometimes people just hand us stuff at a show which is really cool.”
Friends and fellow collectors carry on the tradition passing along field recordings, usually experts on the local folklore of musicians in the area.
Though she admitted it sounds odd, the internet has become a good bastion for sharing old traditional tunes that may otherwise be lost. Something she and her band sift through from time to time.
She becomes another link in the chain of history with these songs, many of which are not attributable to any musician or songwriter, but live on as they continue to get played years later.
“I’m a big fan of the way life used to be and reading about it. Historically, the way people gathered as a community to celebrate with music, how they made everything by hand, I think that’s really important,” Verch said. “I’m drawn to it in more than just the music, but that’s what keeps inspiring me to seek it out and researching it as we travel.”
She stays in the realm of traditional music, but as Verch branched out into the world, so too did her musical styles. Bluegrass, Appalachian and even a Swedish Polska tune.
“It’s kind of all over the map in that sense, but what ties it all together is that it’s music that goes way back from all of those places,” Verch said.
Verch visits the Osoyoos Community Theatre as part of the Osoyoos Concert Series at 7:30 p.m. on March 10. Tickets are $25 at the door and $23 in advance ($15 for students) available at the Imperial Office in Osoyoos and at Sundance Video in Oliver.
