The Cowichan Folk Guild has two super shows lined up this week and next, so mark those calendars.
Ocie Elliott is performing on Friday, March 1 at The Chapel @ Providence Farm.
Elliott is Sierra Lundy and Jon Middleton, who are based out of Victoria these days, though Jon grew up in the Cowichan region. The two met on Saltspring Island in 2012, and started singing together in about 2015.
They’ve been building some serious buzz in recent years, with a number of big shows over the last 12 months or so.
And they’ll be fresh off a Western Canadian tour with Carmanah when they take to the stage in the intimate confines of Providence’s Chapel.
Their unique blend of contemporary and indie folk music is influenced by artists such as Gillian Welch, Simon & Garfunkel and Angus and Julia Stone, and born of the natural landscape of Canada’s wild west coast.
In late 2017, they released their first EP to the world, recorded in the woods right here on Vancouver Island, and immediately attracted an international following.
Since then, they’ve opened for the likes of Mason Jennings, Sons of the East, Kim Churchill, Roo Panes, Current Swell and Joshua Hyslop.
Their second album, We Fall In, is now available, through Nettwerk Music Group.
Tickets are $15 for CFG members and $20 for non-members, or get them online: https://islandsfolk.tickit.ca or in person at Ten Old Books in the Duncan Garage.
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There is also the monthly Cowichan Folk Guild Coffeehouse coming up, on Saturday, March 9 at Duncan United Church at 246 Ingram St.
Doors open at 7 p.m. There’s an open stage at 7:30 p.m., followed by the featured artist.
Admission is $5 for CFG Members and $10 general public. Kids 12 and under get in free. The showcase act for March is award-winning singer/songwriter Ross Douglas.
Douglas returns to the CFG Coffeehouse after delighting a Valley audience three years ago.
Based in the Lower Mainland, he is a consummate professional: a versatile and entertaining performer with music is rooted in the folk storytelling traditions.
Douglas as a solo performer, can hold an audience with the best of them and his extensive background in theatre serves him well in that capacity.
Initially drawn to theatre, he saw much of the world as pianist/narrator in the second-ever cast of the seminal Billy Bishop Goes to War, and was in the original Vancouver production, Angry Housewives, for which he also received a Jessie.
He also spent nine years as writer, musical director and performer at Theatre Royal in Barkerville. Those experiences spawned a songwriting output of our albums.
Most recently his song ‘Candlelight’ placed first in the Open Category of the 2018 International Acoustic Music Association song contest