Northern Groove

Just a friendly nudge-nudge reminder about Wednesday's Home Routes House Concert Featuring Kim Wempe.

Who is Kim Wempe? From her Bio:

Kim Wempe has a fight in her. From the second you hear one of her stunning folk ballads, it's not something that can be overlooked. Some may call her vocals haunting and smokey, others may insist she is the child of Janis Joplin and sister of Adele, but the unique pull of her music is the quiet warrior you can hear seeping through her songs. You can hear the fearlessness in every strum. The minute her wide brown eyes fix themselves on the road ahead, there is no holding her back. Wempe is out to blaze her own trail and leave a slew of dropped jaws in her wake.

Born in a small Saskatchewan farming town, Wempe lived for a period in Alberta before heading to Canada's East Coast in 2007. After only three months in Nova Scotia, she realized that what once seemed a daunting and unplanned move turned out to be a blessing in disguise. She has peformed alongside Canadian favourites such as Royal Wood, Jill Barber, Jenn Grant, Amelia Curran, James Keelaghan, David Francey, Matt Andersen, Rawlins Cross, and Madison Violet. Winning both an East Coast Music Award and Music Nova Scotia Award for her 2009 release Where I Need to Be EP, it's not hard to tell she's on to something.

Kim's undeniable talent has been showcased at JUNOFest, the Vancouver Olympics, Canadian Music Week and festivals across the East Coast including the Stan Rogers Folk Festival and Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. This September she will return to stages across the country, bringing her powerful live set to audiences coast to coast.

Her new album "Paining with Tides" is our now, and you can preview tracks on her website kimwempe.com.

Tickets for this "in the living room right near your ears" show are available at Retro Relics or at the door.

SHOWDATE: Wed Mar 7, start showing up at 7pm, show starts 7:30ish.

PHOTO CREDIT: Scope Digital Media

Arts, crafts, and rock 'n roll... that was the theme of this months magazine -- complete with a hand-done cover done by our own resident artistic genious Mark Bodner!  This months edition is complete with everything from scrapbooking, to local rock 'n roll bands gone big, to the makeup artistry talents, to a complete page spread about the vagina monologues (complete with pictures of well known Fort St. John men in vagina costumes).

Anyways, we had an amazing time putting this latest edition together and hope you get as much joy out of it as we do!

Thanks!

It's House Concert time again! Oh, yeah!

Tuesday, February 7, we welcome from Winnipeg, Red Moon Road. Never heard of them? Did you see Madonna at the SuperBowl? They are nothing like that. They're good. They don't need fancy, multi-million dollar production and vocal effects to cover up weak voices and prefabricated music. They aren't supported by the military-industrial-entertainment complex. They are doing it on their own.

So, here's the thing. If you liked Madonna, you're excused. You don't need to come check out Red Moon Road because, well, you liked Madonna. There's nothing we can do for you. But if you are looking for music that is honest in a setting that is simple and direct, then come check out our Home Routes House Concerts series. Real musicians making real music in a real home. You can chat with them, get to know them, not just worship them from afar as they strut their stuff on the altar of cheap effects and American exceptionalism.

Get yer tickets:

Tickets are $20, either at Retro Relics or at the door. The show is at 9308 105th Avenue, the home of the gracious Mark Bodner. Show starts at 7:30. All the money goes to the musicians.

Henry See is an enigma.

His bespectacled visage is perched almost daily behind the counter at Retro Relics, quietly contemplating life, music, art, John Timber, and what meat goes with what other meat (and really, what meat doesn't go with another meat? The only thing better than meat and cheese is meat and meat. I'm not quoting Henry here, but I'm sure he would agree).

Henry turns slightly older today. But, much like that wizened little Jedi Master, Yoda... age does not seem to matter to Henry either. Or have any effect at all, really. Sure, Henry might not be able to run the one-minute mile anymore (nor does he ever profess to having actually done it in the first place), and there might be a few more laugh lines around the eyes... but Henry is still young at heart. Where it counts.

Tonight we invite and encourage you to come out to Egan's Pub for Open Mic and to wish Henry the absolute bestest of birthday wishes. Maybe even roll up a smoke and shiver in the chilled November air with him, sharing a conversation about the history of fonts (hint: typefaces, not the leather jacketed motorcycle dude from Happy Days), binary, mixing port with wine (thanks David Essig), or coming up with interesting questions to ask Siri (like where is the best place to spot Bigfoot, or if you are Bigfoot... the best place to hide).

Happy Bornday, Henry See, from all of us at Northern Groove, and probably all of us that read Northern Groove, too! Thanks for being part of the local culture, an awesome specimen of humanity and for looking so damned dapper all the time.

Just a reminder about this month's Home Routes House Concert featuring Nudie (of Nudie and the Turks fame) accompanied by Thomas Webb on guitar and pedal steel.

Marianne will be in Fort St John as part of the Home Routes House Concerts series on Sunday evening, November 27 at 6 pm. She is also playing in Hudson’s Hope, Dawson Creek, Grande Prairie and Chetwynd as part of her tour.

There’s no better way to see a performer than in the intimate setting of a house concert. You’re up close with a handful of other people. It is an amazing way to discover new talent or seasoned performers you might not have encountered before. 

While many of you were suffering through yet another family-based Thanksgiving dinner, the good time music of the Mike Lynch Band was generating some serious foot stompin’ and hand clappin’ heat from a small but enthusiastic band of house concert aficionados. Mike gets ‘er done; his enthusiasm, as they say, is contagious. With songs about drinking, stealing over to the cheating side of town, and life on the road, his themes are as old as country music itself.

There’s no better way to see a performer than in the intimate setting of a house concert. You’re up close with a handful of other people. It is an amazing way to discover new talent or seasoned performers you might not have encountered before.

Retro Relics is part of the Home Routes House Concert Series for the third year. Saturday, October 29, we welcome Nudie, an artist from PEI.

Formed in the spring of 2005, Nudie and the Turks took their vision first to the streets, busking anywhere and everywhere. This lead to an East Coast Music Awards showcase; no small feat for a three month old band.

After playing the clubs and a six month residency at the infamous Elm Avenue Social Club, they decided to follow Willie Nelson’s Maritime Tour in 2006, busking for the people going in, then playing a show in each city. The seed for this idea came from them doing the same at a George Jones show, where they met George backstage and had his fiddle player sit in with them out front. George’s wise advice was “Do what’s in your heart and good things will happen to you."

Four shows into the ten city tour, Billy English (Willie’s percussionist/drummer) joined Nudie on the street, playing snare drum. They were invited on the tour bus, hung out with the band and crew, and were asked to play the end of tour party in St. John’s. As well as seeing a few shows backstage, an invitation was extended to come to Texas to play Poodie Locke’s (Willie’s tour manager of 30 + years) club outside of Austin.

Nudie has played across North America, and for one night, he’ll be in Fort St John. Don’t miss it.

Tickets are $20 and are available at Retro Relics.

Old time country artist Mike Lynch will be back for his third appearance in Fort St John on Monday, October 10. Mike is a great entertainer, harking back to the days of Hank Williams and Merle Travis, with foot stompin’ songs and stories. He’s travelling as a trio this time around.

Mike has a new CD, Road Map, that he’s promoting on this tour, so come and celebrate Thanksgiving with a guy who never disappoints.

Tickets are $20 and are available at Retro Relics.