The Envision Financial Twilight concerts have reached the midway point of the summer season of concerts.
On Friday, July 14, The Clayburn Blues Band kicks off the weekend with their own unique blend of music.
Formed in 2016, the players are: Colin Daniel on guitar, drums and vocals; Stew Conway on the bass guitar; and Randy Mathers on drums, vocals and percussion.
This rocking blues band’s name was inspired by the band’s fathers and grandfathers who spent much of their lives working in the mines and brick plants in Clayburn Village, downtown Abbotsford and Kilgard.
One of the tracks on their first CD, “Clayburn Blues,” touches on a portion of their story.
The local band play a blend of musical greats from Robin Trower, John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughan, as well as many of their original tunes.
On Wednesday, July 19, the Twilight Concerts Series salutes 30 years of the Mission Folk Music Festival with a little preview of the popular weekend. Award-winning singer-songwriter Emily Stam and Italian accordion master Filippo Gambetta take to the stage at 7 p.m.
Folk Festival volunteers will be on site to help celebrate and provide information about this wonderful event that has filled the park for so many years. The Mission Folk Music Festival runs from July 21 to 23 in Fraser River Heritage Park.
Stam is a Toronto-based fiddler, pianist and accordionist who creates, performs, records and teaches in both trad and non-trad folk music. She has toured with the party-punk-super-band the Lemon Bucket Orchestra as well as accompanying Canadian fiddlers Anne Lederman and James Stephens in the iconic band “Eh?!”
A familiar face with the Folk Festival audiences, Gambetta is an Italian multi-instrumentalist and composer. Hailing from Genoa, he began playing the diatonic accordion at the age of 14. His music is steeped in Northern Italian folk idioms but also taps Nordic, Celtic, Balkan and other global inspiration.
The concerts take place rain or shine. The concerts are free and everyone is welcome.
The Twilight concerts are part of the District Of Mission’s 125 celebrations. Concert audiences can pick up their 125 Passport at the Envision tent on site at Fraser River Heritage Park and receive an official stamp. Collect all the stamps and be eligible to win some great prizes.