Familiar faces will be back Beneath the Arch this weekend.
Folk duo Cox and McRae makes its Turner Valley comeback on Oct. 29 at the Flare n' Derrick.
The two Canadian-born musicians, Doug Cox and Linda McRae, may be hard to pin down, but are rooted in acoustic folk.
“We play everything from Mississippi John Hurt to David Bowie and everything in between, and then our own original stuff as well,” said McRae.
“We’ve been writing together a little bit, and I write a lot.”
The multi-instramentalist McRae, formerly from Vancouver Island, has a busy career both solo and with bands, including as a former member of Canadian Celtic band Spirit of the West.
Alberta-born Cox, now residing in Courtenay, B.C., initially wielded his six-string guitar playing the blues before discovering the Dobro and proving his chops internationally with a fusion of acoustic roots and Americana.
The two began their collaboration sharing the stage at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, and Cox later invited McRae to join his David Bowie project, Starman: An Acoustic Evening of David Bowie Songs.
Shortly after, the two firmed up their partnership forming Cox and McRae.
A Bowie song will be included in the set list for the Flare n’ Derrick, McRae added.
“We’ve both played at Beneath the Arch before,” she said. “We just love it – Turner Valley is just such a great area and we just really look forward to meeting people.”
The Beneath the Arch’s non-profit society is now selling 50-50 and raffle tickets, which go to fund a bursary it offers each year, aimed at nurturing creative pursuits in youth.
Opening to applications in the spring, the bursary is aimed at students in grades 4-12 pursuing the performing arts and who reside in the western portion of Foothills County, with 16 Street West as the boundary.
“We had three winners in the last concert season, all very worthy, fabulous people,” said bursary chair Cathy McVee. “It’s really great for the kids to be able to access funds – we have a lot of children in our area that are pursuing very high goals in their performing arts, and they’re expensive.
“Anything we can do in our community to help them is amazing.”
This year a raffle is being held, with a handful of big ticket prizes up for grabs.
“Before this we usually only had about $1,500 to give away to kids in the community, and it’s a nice chunk of change, but there’s more kids applying than there is money,” McVee explained.
With that in mind, Tom Weber, owner of Turner Valley-based canoe and outdoors vendor Tom’s Marine, approached McVee last season with a big offer.
“So the next thing I know they’re donating this canoe,” McVee said. “They wanted to donate a canoe and all the trimmings to the bursary, for the kids.
“So it’s a canoe, it’s lifejackets, paddles and a bailer all included.”
Turner Valley Golf Club also donated a package with four green fees and two carts, and Black Diamond’s Rollick Co. donated e-bike rentals, and The Market located next door to them put up a charcuterie board and wine.
“So we have something like $4,500 in prizes to give away, and tickets are $5 each,” said McVee, adding the draw is on April 29, and attendance is not required to win.
“We have 2,500 tickets printed, so the potential is there.”
For more information visit beneaththearch.ca/bursary.
Cox and McRae play Saturday, Oct. 29 from 7:30-10 p.m. with doors open at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $25, $10 for children ages 6-12. Tickets can be found at beneaththearch.ca/concerts.
