The last of our series of three videos. Each video has featured three artists performing 2 songs dedicated exclusively to the Harrison Festival and the people of Harrison Hot Springs.
One thing that unfortunately has been lost since this pandemic began has been the opportunity to verbally acknowledge the land on which the Festival gathers and is based out of. Even though the video contains performances from across Canada, we would still like to acknowledge the land on which it has been compiled and produced.
“We would like to acknowledge the sacred land on which we gather, as the unceded territory of the Sts’ailes Peoples.“
“Uprooted”
This is our last video of our pre-taped video series, the Still Running Online Concert Series”, featuring three performances that share little in the way of their musicality and tradition, but all exemplify passion and pure talent. We named this video Uprooted to acknowledge the state and feel of the entire performance industry right now. Please enjoy Emmanuelle and Pastelle LeBlanc of the celebrated PEI trad band Vishtèn, Steve Dawson & Fats Kaplin from Nashville, and the soaring vocals of Blick Bassy.
Emmanuelle and Pastelle LeBlanc of Vishtèn
For over a decade, the Acadian trio Vishtèn has dazzled audiences with its fiery blend of traditional French songs and original instrumentals that fuse Celtic and Acadian genres with a modern rock sensibility and indie-folk influences. Lauded as “traditional but fiercely up-to-the- moment” (Penguin Eggs), this band from Canada’s east coast has been recognized as an ambassador of Francophone culture around the world.
“These young francophone musicians have impregnated their traditional repertoire with all the richness of their heritage that distinguishes the character of the east coast on this continent.”
Alain Brunet, La Presse, Montréal
Steve Dawson & Fats Kaplin
Over the past two decades, Steve Dawson has become such an indelible fixture on the Canadian musical landscape that it’s tempting to take him for granted. The music that flows out of him on pedal steel, slide, and acoustic guitar is so natural and authentic that it’s possible to forget all of the toil that went into producing it. Behind the seemingly endless stream of award winning work (he has produced and/or played on more than 80 albums since the turn of the millennium, 7 of which have won Juno Awards), is one of the hardest working musicians this country has ever produced. Whether he’s turning heads on the concert circuit with his incendiary playing, or pulling the best possible performances out of the many artists that he works with in the studio, Dawson is always striving to take things to the next level. Over the course of his performing career he has delved into blues, jazz, Hawaiian, rock, and experimental music. Over the course of his career he has collaborated with many top notch roots musicians, including Fats Kaplin, who he is playing with on this special video performance.
Fats Kaplin is an American musician, born in New York City. He is best known as a fiddler, but also plays guitar, button accordion, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, an Arab oud, and a Turkish cümbüş, among others. He has worked with artists such as Jack White, Trisha Yearwood, The Tractors, Nanci Griffith, Pure Prairie League, John Prine, Roy Bookbinder and Beck. He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee and is married to musician Kristi Rose. In 2003, he started playing with fellow country artists and Nashville residents Kieran Kane and Kevin Welch, as Kane Welch Kaplin.
Blick Bassy
Bassy was originally a member of Macase, a multi-lingual outfit based in Cameroon, but left the band and relocated to France in 2005. But after recording two well-received solo records exploring the musical connections between Cameroon and France, Bassy looked for new creative directions. He formed a trio with trombonist, Fidel Fourneyron and cellist, Clement Petit and opened up a musical palette that included gypsy swing, salsa and Parisian style jazz.
The more they played together, the more Bassy’s musical ideas came full circle. When he began writing new songs about the places he missed in the Cameroon of his childhood, Mississippi bluesman Skip James’ music surfaced and began to permeate everything he played – and what began as an inspiration evolved into a heartfelt, genre-defying tribute album, Akö. Bassy’s latest album 1958 was released in March 2019 and is dedicated to Ruben Um Nyobe an independent cameroonese leader that was assassinated by the French Army in 1958.
Enjoy this free video and please consider making a donation to the Festival Society.
The Festival Society is providing these videos free of charge for the public, but we still pay the artists for their performances. Needless to say, any donations that you, your family or business might be willing to make would be greatly appreciated. Like the buttons we sell on the beach, this helps us keep quality arts and culture accessible to everyone! Thank you in advance. Donations over 25 dollars are tax-deductible as well!
If you missed out First two videos “Off and Running” and “Roots to Routes” check them out here!
A big shout-out to our funders!
