This is the year of milestones for me as I soon enter my eighth decade. It was fifty years ago that I first began bringing music and other events to our community as an impresario, when the Shuswap Coffee House began at the newly opened log youth centre in Salmon Arm. Working with Jake Jacobson and others, we began with open mics and soon I was booking well known acts as well as much appreciated local artists.
We formed a non-profit society, and our membership grew as more music lovers came to the shows that featured musicians and bands from the lower mainland and throughout Canada. In succeeding years, we tied into the Northern Music Circuit, thus musicians included a stop in Salmon Arm on their tours. When we hosted dances, there was a demand for serving beer, so we used the Gleneden Hall and in 1978 we produced shows at the newly renovated building for Shuswap Theatre next to the Tappen Co-op. Some of the bands we booked included Pied Pear, Stringband, and Dan Rubin’s Flying Mountain.
I also became involved in Shuswap Theatre when it began as an actor, set builder, sound technician and once as a director. When Shuswap Theatre moved into its current building, the Coffee House was there too for concerts, while we continued to use Gleneden Hall for dances. By 1981 my time was needed more at our property in Lee Creek where I was building our new log home, so Linda Tanaka took over as the artist director. She brought in some extraordinary groups including Sukay from the Andes, Barde, who played a sold-out concert at J. L. Jackson, and the Tannahill Weavers, who played in Vernon.
By 1982, audiences had begun to dwindle, and we ended our multi-year run with a reggae dance party at Gleneden. A few years ago, Jake and a new team revived the Shuswap Coffee House, which now sponsors an open mic at the Gleneden Hall on the third Saturday of the month.
Throughout the rest of the 80s, my focus shifted to our home base, where I occasionally helped produce our local festivals and dances. The nineties were devoted to environmental projects, which included producing events such as talks, films and conferences. Perhaps the biggest show that I ever worked on was in the late nineties, when I booked three bands for a dance at one of the old EXPO buildings in Vancouver as part of the annual BC Environmental Network’s annual meeting.
Music promotion began in earnest in 2010, beginning with the Shuswap Watershed Celebration, followed by dances at various halls including several New Year’s Eve shows, and the sold-out Joel Plaskett concert at the Salmar Classic. One memorable event was when we brought the Shuffle Demons along with the Salmon Armenians to the Gleneden Hall in 2013 for an epic dance party.
In 2014 we launched our own backyard music and theatre venue, The Passion Bowl, which was used for a summer drama camp for six years and is used every summer for private dance parties featuring both local and popular bands from afar.
The North Shuswap’s free outdoor summer concert series, Friday Night Live began in 2010 and has expanded in size and scope every year. When a new team took over in 2019, I joined as the artistic director to book the bands and do the publicity. After a three-year hiatus due to COVID, we resumed hosting great bands at these weekly mini festivals complete with food trucks and a night market.
After Ted Crouch, who had been producing some great concerts, and I heard about Salmon Arm’s new Song Sparrow music hall in 2020 we decided it was time to launch an organization to host concerts and dances. Thus, Celebrate Shuswap Society formed. We hosted our first show in 2022 and when Ted decided to pursue other interests, I took on the artist direction. Since then, we have hosted 17 fabulous shows, thanks to many generous sponsors and our very dedicated team of volunteers.
My fifty years of producing music shows has been just one of the unique ways that I volunteer my time to contribute to our community, which includes writing these columns. There is nothing like bringing joy to friends and audiences with great live music. I am always on the lookout for new bands, especially those who play some original tunes, as one of my goals is to never book the same band twice at each venue. Already this year is looking ever more successful, with two of the three upcoming Celebrate Shuswap shows, Honeybear and Jesse Roper, already sold out!
POSTSCRIPT
None of the events I have produced or helped produce would have been possible without the help of many volunteers over these last 50 years. These volunteers over the years have included friends, neighbours, members of the various organizations involved and sometime just the people who come to enjoy the show and stick around afterwards to help clean up. I am most grateful to the most important helper and co-worker of them all, my wife Kathi, who has been there all these years to help organize, staff, cook and bake delightful meals and desserts and sometime design posters. Key to making the events of the past few years so successful are these two leaders who look after much of the organizing, including finances, helping find sponsors and staffing at the events, Bill Holtby for Friday Night Live and Howard De Long for Celebrate Shuswap.
In many ways, environmental work is also includes being an impresario, because activism includes organizing events, protests, documentary shows, conferences, and workshops as well constantly promoting an agenda that focuses on protecting the environment. After I helped form the Shuswap Environmental Action Society (SEAS) in 1989, we held countless events such as the protests that sealed the fate of the proposed marina at was then called West Beach near the mouth of the Adams River.
When I asked about my volunteer work as an Artistic Director, I often explain how I depend on serendipity to find new bands. In reality, that means always being on the lookout for musicians who play the type of dance music that I think will bring the most joy to audiences. A case in point is the band Honeybear, who are playing for Celebrate Shuswap on Feb. 14th at Song Sparrow Hall. I heard their song “Work in Progress” on CBC and instantly loved the group and then did a search and found out they were playing at a winery. We went and enjoyed them immensely and soon booked them to play here. This band is now really going places as their upcoming tour across Canada is sold out and they are listed as one of the top 10 new bands in Vancouver.
We have been to every Roots and Blues festivals since it began (except of course in 2023 due to the Shuswap Firestorm). Often I connect with musicians and book them to play at one or more of the venues where I book shows. In 2012 we grooved to Coco Jafro and then booked the band at our Passion Bowl in 2018.
In addition to organizing events, I often make videos that appear on my YouTube channel, including every Passion Bowl show, many Celebrate Shuswap shows, and highlight reels from Friday Night Live. Check out my channel, which has a total of 154 videos, including ones of ski trips, hikes, and environmental events. Click HERE
MORE PHOTOS FROM PAST SHOWS AND EVENTS:
