Portland’s Foghorn Stringband is starting their latest Pacific Northwest tour on our side of the border with a house concert at the Beaton’s residence on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
“We play quite a lot, a lot when we get together,” said Nadine Landry, the band’s only Canadian and bass player who also happens to be based in Whitehorse when not on the road. “We tour almost every month or every second month.”
For the tour, Landry will meet up with bandmates Caleb Klauder, Stephen “Sammy” Lind and Reeb Willms before heading to Qualicum.
Klauder, who sings and plays mandolin, and Lind on the fiddle were the founders of Foghorn Stringband. The core duo started working together in 2000 and played with various bandmates before meeting up with Landry in 2008. Singer and guitarist Willms then came down from Bellingham in 2011 to turn the trio into the quartet it is today. “Between us, we’ve got tons of repertoire,” said Landry, listing off influences from Appalachian, Mid-west, Cajun and old country music.
“We call it ‘old-time music,’” she said. “Rural music, dance music … it’s just really high energy.”
“They’re great singers and instrumentalists,” said show organizer Joyce Beaton.
As for the band’s name, Landry is pretty sure the name comes from Foghorn Leghorn, the blustering Southern rooster of Looney Tunes fame. In fact, she’s pretty sure the band was called Foghorn Leghorn for a while before she joined, but they changed the name to avoid copyright infringement.
According to the band’s website, Foghorn Stringband is also influenced by many of the musicians they’ve played with. They’ve shared stages with Dirk Powell and Cajun legends Joel Savoy and Jesse Lége at festivals including Fire in the Mountain, ROMP, Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, Celtic Connections and Pickathon.
Still, Landry said the band is looking forward to playing a small venue in Qualicum Beach. “House concerts are a great atmosphere,” she said.
Landry also added that the night won’t include a set list. “We like to cater to the audience,” she said. What the audience can expect, however, are “good old fiddle tunes, good interaction with the audience” and new songs off of their unreleased and unnamed eighth studio album, which they recorded in Hawaii last November.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and will be at 384 Mant Road, Qualicum Beach. As with many of the house concerts, there will be a party and jam session after the show for the audience and the band.
Tickets for the concert are $20 and can be purchased from the Beatons at 250-752-1162 or beatonqualicum@gmail.com.