Friday, April 9, 2010
You’ll hear more than a hint of Texas in Karen Potje’s bar-stompin’ country tunes, bluegrass, blues, and lonesome ballads. When she started song-writing almost 20 years ago, Karen lived in Dallas. Parenting and politics brought her back to Canada, but years of Montreal winters haven’t taken the country warmth out of her voice. Karen tells good stories about real people - songs about hope and foolishness, truth and lies, and all those grey areas in between. She has returned to performing ‘’grown-up stuff’’ after a busy year promoting her award-winning country-jazz CD for kids. Guitarist and guitar-builder Dan Kelly plays and sings along, and singer Avery Gietz adds her beautiful harmonies.
Jim Robinson continues to write and record. He has released All the Way Home (2006) and The Country Blues Collection (2008). Like his first two collections, Heading South and Working in the Dark, his newest albums, continue to reflect a combination of his rural roots and diverse performance experience. Falling stylistically into the contemporary roots/folk category, his two newest collections feature Jim's distinctive voice, storyteller's sensibility and sense of humour. While his focus has been on writing and recording for the last couple of years, he states, "there's nothing like getting out of the studio and performing songs for a live audience; it brings the whole process full circle." For more information: www.jimrobinson.ca
Prince Edward Island native, Teresa Doyle, has toured extensively and taken her Celtic and jazz infused music to countless festivals and concert venues in North America, Europe and Japan. Her ten recordings on her label Bedlam Records have met with critical acclaim and her body of work has garnered numerous awards including two ECMAs, two JUNO nominations and the 2007 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton award for music. Doyle has recorded with some of Canada’s finest musicians and has five award-winning Celtic recordings including a collection of Irish Gaelic songs. Teresa credits much of her recording success to her long-standing relationship with the now late Oliver Schroer. Her most recent release, Late Night Parlour, is dedicated to his memory. More at: www.teresadoyle.com.
The Bridge End Dairy Company is returning to the Side Door after an absence of a few years. Led by guitarist/vocalist Stuart MacDougall, they describe themselves as a loose assemblage of songwriters and musicians, both amateur and professional, they play a mixed bag of folk music with a country twist, laced with rich harmonies. See www.myspace.com/dairycompany for more information.
