The Bragg Creek Performing Arts (BCPA) 2012-13 season kicks off Sept. 29, with a double-bill headline — High River’s fingerstyle virtuoso, Calum Graham, and Edmonton’s Colleen Brown.
Beginning at 8 p.m. at the Bragg Creek Centre, both artists and accompanying musicians (Brown with her four-piece band) will be showcasing their respective new releases to those attending.
Twenty-year-old Graham released his sophomore album, Indivisibility, Sept. 26.
A relatively new singer, the young musician said he is comfortable about where he’s at right now in the music — learning, growing.
“I’m 20 years old. I have so much to learn and so much to experience and I can’t wait,” said Graham. “I’m still experimenting with music, as always, but I’m getting closer to really knowing what ‘my sound’ is and I’m working on redefining that.”
Playing acoustic fingerstyle guitar since age 13, Graham has now been working with popular area vocal coach, Brian Farrell, for two and a half years.
It’s an accompaniment to a style of guitar that Graham has been drawn to ever since he was a young teen, enamoured with how much sound can be produced by one instrument.
And now, as he continues to build the blocks of his independent career as a musician, Graham is turning to collaborative projects.
“I’m working with a band to make a blues/jazz/funk album to spice things up,” he explained. “I’m also moving out to Toronto where I’ll be experimenting with some friends of mine in other genres — like hip hop and electronic music. I hope to collaborate a lot more, too. It’s a great thing when people from completely different backgrounds can congregate and create something that blends both of their styles together.”
A statement that his Saturday night stage mate, Brown, might not disagree with.
The award-winning, multi-instrumentalist is also armed with her third release, DIRT — not dissimilar to her 2008 album, Foot In Heart, (re-released, 2010) both of which were recorded with Ian Martin at Edmonton studio, the Twilight Living Room.
“There’s definitely more bari(tone) sax on DIRT. Both (albums) document some pretty bloody heartbreaks in a storyline arc,” said Brown.
“Foot In Heart was really about romantic heartache and DIRT encompasses some of that and some existential crisis...That’s something I really like to make a challenge for myself with — when writing music and I suppose my general life perspective: how can I pour my feelings into this without taking myself (and life) too seriously?”
The 30-year-old songstress, whose jazzy vibe and classically trained soprano voice is packaged under the all-encompassing realm of folk is perfectly content with where she’s at in her music.
“I’m starting to appreciate my own value, and for some reason, I couldn’t do that very well through most of my 20s,” said Brown. “There certainly has been a shift then, in the last little while for me, and it’s mostly that I trust my gut now.”
Touring extensively with her band, Brown is looking to book a spring Euro tour, which would mark her first time taking her music beyond Canadian borders.
Learn more at colleenbrownmusic.com and calumgraham.com.
To purchase tickets, go to braggcreekperformingarts.tix.com.
