The lineup for A Room Full of Sound concert at Okotoks United Church on Sept. 24 will boast youth, experience and versatility.
The youth will come in the form of 17-year-old Sarah Troy who started performing at age 12 and released her fourth independent album earlier this year. With more than 20 years of live experience on stage Eva Levesque of the Travelling Mabels will supply the experience. A relatively new force on the local music scene — the husband and wife Celtic and folk act known as Two, will provide the versatility.
The faces of Two, Dwight and Lisa Forseth, not only produced their own album “After the Rain” earlier this year, they have a combined skill set that’s been helping others record and package their own albums as well. In addition to both being musicians, he is an adept sound engineer and is skilled at repairing and customizing guitars while she’s an experienced graphic designer and budding digital photographer.
Put it all together and the Forseths have the ability to take a new performer’s music out of his or her head, into the studio and all the way to a finished CD the artist is able to market, promote and sell on their own.
“A lot of the clients Dwight has had are people who have never recorded an album before so he plays on their recordings a lot,” Lisa said. “Sometimes I play on the albums as well. It’s really a nice partnership that we can also offer a photo shoot, a CD cover and help them organize getting all the duplication done as well.”
Dwight added, “Part of the fun of it is seeing someone come into the studio for the first time.”
Dwight, a guitar player, bassist, drummer and harmonica player, said he enjoys see fledgling artists gain confidence and satisfaction through the recording process.
The members of Two provide their services to other artists through their company The Furnace Room. After helping other artists expand their careers, the couple has been greatly inspired to kick their own music careers up to the next level.
“We moved here (to Okotoks) about two years ago and we haven’t really done much outside of our jobs,” Lisa said. “We’re just gearing up again and writing some songs and trying to remember the old ones.”
“I’ll see a situation and I’ll comment usually to Lisa about it,” Dwight said of his songwriting process. “But it will also keep kind of playing in the back of my mind. Later it sometimes comes out as lyrics in a song. We have written a lot separately, but we’re starting to write a lot more together.”
Before coming to Okotoks, the Forseths lived close to Edmonton for many years and were two-thirds of a trio which also featured Lisa’s brother. As a pair they’ve been striving to expand their range musically. Lisa, who has long played the tin whistle and sings, is always looking to improve her proficiency on the piano and other keyboards.
One of Two’s first public performances locally came during the re-opening festivities for the Rotary Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) in the early part of 2011.
“We’re pretty new to the community,” Lisa said of being part of an RPAC opening concert. “We hadn’t really shown our faces outside our door. Just being amongst that greatness, hearing everybody else and just being part of that night was excellent.”
Being capable musically and wanting to connect more with other local musicians made Two a fine choice for the A Room Full of Sound concert series, which is being adapted into a Shaw television series set to begin airing in November.
One can see the Forseths take to the Okotoks United Church stage Sept. 24 on the same bill with Sarah Troy and The Travelling Mabels. The concert begins at 7 p.m. For more information on the concert or to order tickets go to www.aroomfullofsound.com
