Clap your hands and stomp your feet in Okotoks next weekend.
The Roots & Blues Weekend with David Vest and John Rutherford hits the Rotary Performing Arts Centre (RPAC) on April 21 and 22.
Friday night will feature Vest, who’s been on the keys since 1957, played with blues greats such as Big Joe Turner and Jimmy T99 Nelson, and is a six-time winner of Canada’s Maple Blues Award for piano player of the year.
“What I try to give in my shows is give the whole history of blues piano in one whirlwind tour,” Vest said, adding he never forgets and puts a lot of stock in the roots he draws on.
“I like to stress the fact that this music has a history behind it. The people that created it were fantastic characters, amazing human beings.
“I was a teenager when I got to play on stage with Big Joe Turner for the first time.”
That wealth of experience has given him an open mind.
“I come from a time when everything wasn’t put in these boxes and categories, you might turn on the radio and hear all kinds of music: jazz, bluegrass, black gospel, boogie woogie and rock and roll, and I just always thought of it as music,” Vest said.
Making his way up to Canada, he has relished in the depth of the Canadian music scene.
“What was mind blowing to me is I how vast and deep the Canadian music industry is, how many great players there are everywhere you go,” he said. “First time I came to Calgary I needed a guitar player and they said to me, ‘Do you want Amos Garrett or Tim Williams?’ and I’d have both of them.”
Vest is the son of a north Alabama sharecropper, with his father the last of that generation, and the blues man now resides in Victoria on account of a tale as old as time.
“Well, I met a Canadian,” Vest said. “It never occurred to me to leave once I set foot here.”
Saturday night will feature Rutherford, a Calgary-area blues guitarist and storyteller who’s no stranger to Okotoks.
“I’ve worked with Okotoks and the Arts and Culture division there for some time,” Rutherford said. “So it’s the celebration of a couple things, this long and creative and fruitful relationship with the folks at the RPAC and in the community.”
The festival will also mark the release of Rutherford’s new album, Midnight Microphone, which dropped on streaming platforms April 11.
“So celebrating this in that environment and choosing the RPAC, because it’s just such a favourite venue of mine to be performing," he said.
“The acoustics are quite remarkable and the other thing I love about it is just the proximity to the audience, the way it’s set up, you really are in an intimate setting where you’re able to communicate on a very different level than you would in a club or a festival."
Both the April 21 and 22 shows start at 7:30 p.m. with doors open at 7, and run until 10 p.m.
For tickets and more information visit OkotoksCulture.ca.
