As winter approaches and the Yukon River finally begins to fill up with ice, it’s pretty clear that there’s a lot of music on tap for Dawsonites over the next few months.
We normally have the pleasure of the Home Routes musicians on what they call the Yukon Trail circuit. So far we’ve been blessed with house concerts from the folk/rock stylings of Matt Epp and his sideman, Brent Warren; followed by the bluegrass pickings of Adrian Gross and Darryl Poulsen, who are half of the Slocan Ramblers.
On Nov. 26 we’re going to hear Miss Quincy, a bluesy rocker who sounds great on her recordings.
House concerts are intimate affairs with just couple dozen folks at most. They are, for the most part, acoustic in nature, but that’s fine, because the folks who attend really come to listen.
The Home Routes lineup is just the beginning, though. Even before those house concerts began, the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture partnered with Jazz Yukon to bring us an evening with Kellylee Evans and her jazz trio (plus one) at the Odd Fellows Hall.
In early October the Australian duo called April Maze performed here. The concert was held at the Anglican Rectory, also known as Stringer House, and was a special treat because performer Todd Mayhew is Bishop Isaac Stringer’s great grandson.
He and his partner Sivan Agam have plans to come back and make a documentary about the Bishop Who Ate His Boots, and they’ve already written a couple of songs to go with it.
The Odd Fellows Hall was packed to hear Martha Wainwright in concert with her husband Brad Albetta on bass and piano, and Yuval Lion on drum kit and programming. And C.R. Avery and Sarah MacDougall will be entertaining us at the same venue just a few days prior to Miss Quincy’s house concert.
I can’t omit the monthly coffee houses, which also take place at the Odd Fellows Hall, usually on the first Saturday of the month, although they’ve been bounced around a little this fall by other events. These evenings feature a wide range of talent from solo acts, to bands, to poetry readings, with performances by young people and folks stretching out to my age. They generally run for about two hours and are a lot of fun. The next one is currently scheduled for Dec. 7.
At around the same time, kids from age six and up will be rehearsing to take on local roles in the Northern Lights School of Dance production of The Nutcracker, with the aid of our Whitehorse friends.
This year’s performance is scheduled for the afternoon of Dec. 7 at Diamond Tooth Gerties. Last year the trip from Whitehorse was cancelled due to weather so we got an abbreviated production featuring only local players. It was quite charming, but it will be good to see the entire show again.
