Friday and Saturday night, July 5th & 6th, the Evergreen Cultural Centre and Greenline Dental present the first section of Music on the Grill; a fantastic evening of live music and great barbecue right here in Coquitlam. Music on the Grill is one of Coquitlam’s most popular summer events and Friday’s first show is already sold out. A second show was added Saturday evening, so check for tickets here.
This year Babe Gurr opens for Jim Byrnes in what promises to be an unforgettable evening out for lovers of blues and folk music. We got to chat with Babe and Jim to discuss their passion for music and their latest work.
Babe Gurr
Babe Gurr is the opening act at this year’s Music on the Grill. Her sultry voice and unique writing are influenced by blues and folk spliced creatively with influence from Spanish, Italian, Middle-Eastern and Brazilian music to name a few. We talked with Babe on the phone about her upcoming album Side Dish, her influences and what fans can expect from her performance at Evergreen Cultural Centre this weekend.
On how Babe found her love for music…
“I just started to really appreciate music at a young age, my parents aren’t musicians but they are avid fans of music and so I grew up listening to a lot of their jazz albums but then of course ventured into rock and roll myself, and then it evolved from there into all types of music and bands that I played in.”
On what influences and inspires her writing…
“I’d say the inspiration I draw from so many variety of things in my life, it can be about my own life, it can be drawn from books I’m reading, from even a TV show for example I have a song on my new album called “the whip” and it was actually inspired by the show “House of Cards” its a brilliant show. “
On her unique combination of music styles…
“When I was learning the ropes of the music industry I played in all types of bands before I started writing my own music. It isn’t truly a conscious effort, I just write from my heart and I love all types of music or most types of music. I think a lot of the world beats have come from my travels because I’ve travelled a lot and I’m always fascinated with the music of the country that I’m in and the rhythm inspires me a lot and I think (the album) Side Dish was inspired by that… I’ve also been to Spain and all over Europe but I was recently in Turkey and that inspired the more middle-eastern rhythms and then I would throw in some tunes that are sometimes pulling from the more Klezmer-style (Yiddish-style) of music too. I think music in a melting pot for the world to embrace and I think it breaks down all boundaries and borders and that’s why I like blending styles.
On her last album, Side Dish…
“It actually came about through wanting to learn a song in Italian just for fun because I was doing a lot of folk festivals that particular summer and I thought I would through an Italian song just for a kick. So I played an Italian song and people were asking for more of that style and then they’re saying you should do like that and put an album out. I thought well, my sound was more blues/roots but if I put an album called Side Dish, which means it’s a kind of a side dish to my entrée which is the roots/blues-y pop sound then I’ve got this side dish of world beats I could pull it off and get away with it. And then it turned out that it’s gone over really well and people are really liking when I disperse my normal roots-y sound with these tunes. I think if you play one style all night sometimes it can get a little boring for people and maybe there are people of different ethnicities sitting in the audience and they appreciate hearing something that reminds them of home.”
On her new album, Hearts Up To The Sun…
“[The new album] is a different game, it pulls more from the blues-y stuff and I’ve got a lot of horns on it. I’ve always used horns here and there throughout my music. It has a slightly different direction, although its still me, there’s a consistent thread from one album to another, I think it’s my melody and my voice. It’s going to be called Hearts Up To The Sun. It’s a derivative of a song on the album called Throw Your Hearts Up To The Sun, but that was too long of a name. It’s a song that based on telling a friend that’s having a tough time that we’re going to go away and go to a nice sunny vacation. I’ve fallen in love with California and I visit there often and I love what the sun can do to your spirit. I love the west coast but the rain gets to me after a while…”
On Music on the Grill…
“I’ve done [Music on the Grill] before, about 3 years back and it was a fun experience and they asked us to do it again and we said yes. It was a great time and a nice audience… I’ll be coming with a great group, not my full band but I often play with this quartet. David Sinclair will be playing guitar. He’s really quite amazing, he’s played with K.D. Lang and toured with Sarah McLachlan and Tom Neville will be on violin and bass and Nick Apivor will be playing on percussion and maybe some keyboard… I will play 5 tunes off the new CD (Hearts Up To The Sun) and mix it up a bit with some tunes from Side Dish as well.”
Find out More About Babe Gurr’s upcoming shows Here.
Jim Byrnes
Following Babe Gurr is Music on the Grill’s first headliner, Jim Byrnes. The Juno-winning, multi-talented blues icon is also a longtime Vancouver resident. His smoky, soulful vocals are synonymous with today’s blues scene and Jim has also had a successful career as an actor in film and television. We were excited to talk to the local legend about his beginnings in blues in Missouri, his foray into country music, his acting career and living in Vancouver.
On Jim’s beginnings in St. Louis, Missouri…
“I got quite a incredible musical education as a kid which I didn’t really realize at the time but it was just on the radio and then you’d go out on my way to school, you’d pass all these places that had blues people and R n B people were surrounded and Chuck Barry lived in my neighborhood. We would go as a teenager, there was a bowling alley in my neighborhood, the Imperial lanes and attached to it was called the Club Imperial and they would have teen nights and the house band there was Ike and Tina Turner. Music was part of my family, my mom used to love to sing and they encouraged both my sister and I to take piano lessons in Kindergarten. Music was part of what we did and as a boy, I had a soprano voice and I used to get featured at concerts at church. Singing has been an important part of my life always and growing up, surrounded by blues music I kind of gravitated that way but I love all types of music. I’m not the type of person that has to be into the blues, music comes from the heart and soul and I love it. When you’re a kid you don’t realize what you’re getting, but it was part of my childhood and teengage-hood when I finally started playing the guitar and it had a huge influence.”
On how he writes and collaborates on music…
“The really best songs come to you from somewhere else. If you sit and have to take too long to change this and that, it doesn’t really have the flow. Sometimes the best songs I’ve written are something I’ve written down on a napkin in a restaurant in 5 or 10 minutes, lyrically anyway. Sometimes I’ll have the idea of the music in my head and I’ll put the two together. Sometimes I’ll have an idea of what I want it to sound like but I’ll take it to other artists. Over the years I’ve had a number of collaborators. I will have an idea of something and they will bring their musical talent and we’ll put together a collaboration and turn it into a great song.”
On finding inspiration through travel and being direct…
“In my film career we’ve been to a lot of places in Europe and I found that I wrote my best tunes like when I was working in Paris because I would think about everything and make it as simple and to the point as I could so you could convey the message. When you’re in a new country you’re trying to learn their language and then you go back and figure out what you’re really trying to say. Going back, the best music I’ve written has been in foreign lands. When you think about Hemmingway, his greatest skill was writing in simple, declarative sentences. Other great writers use flowers and the language and I love that too. But there’s something I really like about simple and declarative sentences and what am I really trying to say. Part of it is I’ve got to a certain age where I’m really not trying to impress any more, you get a point where you really want to convey that. We are a shared humanity and shared emotions that we all find important and that we feel, and that’s what I’m trying to get at.”
On his foray into country music…
“[Country] was something I grew up, for example on my country album I do the song the Marty Robins song Big Iron, that song came out when I was 12 years old. I would sit with my guitar in the basement and I would try to play along and pretend that I was performing it, so all these years later I decided to record it. It was something that I grew up with and it’s really close to the heart. They tell really good stories and it’s about finding our common humanity. I’m not trying to make hit records or make it to the cover of the Rolling Stone, I just want to share with people my love for certain music. We were on the road and sticking in all sorts of music, and some music came on and I was like, I love this stuff, lets make a record and it was a decision we made that way. I’m just trying to share my love and I know a lot of people share that same love. I’m at the point where I just want to do what I want instead of pleasing a record company. I’m just digging into my soul and sharing that with people.”
On his second career as an actor…
“A lot of people don’t know but I majored in Theatre in university and my focus when I was young I wanted to be an actor and then I had this accident and I lost both my legs and I couldn’t get hired, it was always like “don’t call us, we’ll call you” but I’m quite stubborn and I kept at it and in the meantime I developed a career in music. A lot of people think I just fell into the acting thing but it was all part of my plan. In 1987, I landed a part in the tv series Wise Guy, it was a great show with a cult following and then I got hired on Highlander, they promised me 4 episodes and I ended up being on the show for 5 years…”
On which he prefers, acting or music?
People ask me what do I like more but it’s like asking me which one of my kids I love the most. As an actor, I’m not trying to impress anyone I’m trying to find that human bond that we all share so these are different ways to a similar goal; I find acting and music intertwined. They are unique but have the same goal. Film is a lot different than stage acting, (which is) like performing live. You can’t yell cut or try it again (in film). You can sometimes act things out that you can’t express in music and vice versa. When you’re live, you give out your emotion and energy and the audience feeds you back with their emotion and energy and it becomes a larger than the sum of it’s parts.”
On living in Vancouver…
“I came (to Vancouver) to go the hospital when I first lost my legs for prosthetics and rehab and I fell in love with the city and people we good to me and accepted me, and I came back to life here so I give back. And my wife was raised in Vancouver so this is our home. I still go back to St. Louis, I have lots of family there—I was the only one that left and I get to travel between the music and the acting and I’ve been around the world to enjoy and appreciate other cultures. But there’s something about getting off the plane in Vancouver and it’s a great place to be. If I had the money, it would be nice to have a place in New York or Paris or Barcelona, but there’s nothing like Vancouver, which is what keeps me coming back.”
On Music on the Grill…
“There’re a lot of people I used to see in the clubs downtown, people have moved from the city and then I’ll go to these shows and there’s a lot of people I haven’t seen in years and it’s nice that we can still get together and make music and have fun and it’s a great chance to make new friends too. It’s nice that people move away and can still get together and jam to great music. We’ll mix it up (at Music on the Grill), we’ll do some blues, country and gospels. I like to tell stories about the song of how I wrote it or something about the artist’s backgrounds or I tell some jokes. I like it to the a situation where we’re sitting around the campfire, I like to create that intimacy and that’s what we will attempt to do and I think it’ll work out really well. People are there to hear the music so we plan to take them on a journey.”
Find out More About Jim Byrnes upcoming shows Here.
Music on the Grill’s first set of evenings with Babe Gurr and Jim Byrnes is this weekend, but even if you miss this weekend’s festivities there are still two more evenings of great entertainment on July 19th with Carlie and Julie Kennedy and August 9th with Zakiya Hooker feat. Chris James. Tickets are $52 for dinner and a concert, or $32 for a concert only. Subscriptions and group rates are available. Contact the Box Office at 604-927-6555, or buy tickets online at www.evergreenculturalcentre.ca.