Steve's Blog
Italian flat picker and singer / songwriter Beppe Gambetta graces the Rogue stage this week!
Thursday January 25, 2018
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1. Beppe Gambetta w/ Liz Stringer, Friday January 26th 8pm, St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue) Beppe Gambetta is an Italian musician born in Genoa in 1955. An acoustic guitar flatpicker and singer, Beppe has been called a "Virtual United Nations of influences: Italian, Ukrainian, Appalachian, Sardinian, and Celtic". These various influences will be on full display tomorrow evening at The Rogue, when Beppe makes his 6th appearance at The Rogue. He first came to us in 2000 with Dan Crary at the Wise Hall, and his most recent appearance was in 2013, when Rod Matheson of Everyday Music recorded this tune - Acadian Dream - at St. James Hall https://youtu.be/tJIxdDNH3zY He is one of the most charming and engaging performers around today, as can be seen in this video of the traditional song Handsome Molly, recorded for Bluegrass station WAMU in 2015. https://youtu.be/qUX1QRdD2u0 Finally, here's a very moving truck from his brand new CD, Short Stories, on the Canadian label Borealis Records. Benedicta 1944 is a tune he wrote for Italian refugees hiding in a monastery near Genova from Nazis in 1944. https://youtu.be/gFRtr9UODuE Beppe's previous CD, Round Trip, was a collaboration with Scottish-Canadian guitarist Tony McManus. I think they may have won a Canadian Folk Music Award for it. (Tony will be back at The Rogue in May, by the way!) On Beppe's new CD he includes a remarkable version of a French song called Le Vent Nous Portera, which was written by French punk band Noir Desir. The Italian Signor Gambetta sings this French song in German (retitled Der Wind Tragt Uns Davon) on his Canadian label! Talk about globalization! Continuing the global theme, the opening act is Liz Stringer, a powerful singer/songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. Liz came highly-recommended by her agent, Jim Fleming, so we decided to take a chance on a new name. Jim Fleming has delivered to The Rogue some of our finest performers dating back to 1987 when he first sent along Garnet Rogers. Others in his roster have included Connie Kaldor (whose amazing show a couple of weeks ago was a roaring, sold-out success), James Keelaghan, John Gorka, Cheryl Wheeler, Christine Lavin, and Dougie MacLean! When Jim recommends a new artist to us, we pay close attention!  Liz Stringer is one of Australia’s most respected and versatile songwriters and instrumentalists. A lauded guitarist and vocalist, she has released 5 full-length albums since 2006, her powerful and emotive live performances and melodically rich, story-based songs delighting fans and festival-goers throughout Australia and a growing audience in North America + Europe. Her newest recording, All The Bridges, came out late last year. There are still tickets available for this show here 2. Radio Waves  On this week's edition of The Saturday Edge On Folk (8am to noon on CiTR fm 101.9 in Vancouver and www.citr.ca everywhere) I'll pay tribute to South African trumpet legend Hugh Masekela and American soul / blues singer Terry Evans, who both passed away this week. We have lost a lot of musical luminaries over the past couple of years, but this feels more personal somehow. I had the immense pleasure of introducing Hugh Masekela at the Mission Folk Festival a few years back. What a delightful man!  More recently I saw Terry Evans backing Dutch blues legend Hans Theessink at festivals in Edmonton and again at Mission. He was also one of Ry Cooder's stalwart backing singers for many years. I'll also have new music from Canadian songwriter Rose Cousins, The Lynnes (Lynn Miles and Lynne Hanson), English singers Martha Tilston and Ange Hardy, and a unique accordion project linking Ireland with Newfoundland - Cordeen, featuring the likes of Danu's Benny McCarthy. And, of course, I'll be looking ahead to the amazing Rogue concerts coming up in the next few weeks. I hope you can tune me in and turn me on this - and every - Saturday morning. |