Big Sugar’s latest tour in support of their most recent CD “ Yardstyle” may be acoustic, but it is a whole lot bigger. 
“ There’s between eight to 12 of us on stage. There’s a core of eight and if we know musicians in the town we’re playing, they join us on stage,” described Big Sugar frontman Gordie Johnson from “somewhere in snowy Ontario” two weeks into the tour.
They will be bringing, peace, love and reggae music to the University Theatre, Monday, Feb. 23 as part of the Geomatic Attic’s University concert series.
“ It’s definitely the largest tour we’ve ever done. Kelly Hoppe and I have done solo acoustic tours, but this is definitely different. It’s 12 guys on stage with hand drums and acoustic instruments,” he continued adding the acoustic tour and Yardstyle album are natural extension of their songwriting process.
“ That’s usually how we write songs. We sit around and play acoustic instruments. There’s nothing plugged in,” he said.
“We’re not rearranging anything. We’ve always had a reggae influence but we also have a lot of blues and jazz influence. We really pull it all together. We’re going back to our first album and playing those songs,” he said.
“ We’re definitely going off on a different tangent,” he said.
“Yard Style” includes several Big Sugar hits done acoustically including “Little Bit of All Right,” “Eliminate Ya,” “ West Coast Hobo in A Boxcar Blues, “ Eliminate Ya” and “ Turn the Lights On.”
They have a variety of electric powered hits including “Digging a Hole” and “ All Hell for A Basement”, “On the Scene and “Ride Like Hell.”
He noted they have a new electric album already recorded.
“It sounds like Big Sugar— loud, proud and funky,” he said.
He has also been producing drummer Stephane Beaudin’s band, The Respectables’ new CD.
“ So we’ll release that in Quebec,” he said.
He has also been working with Govt. Mule and their frontman Warren Haynes.
”I talked to him the other day. He has an acoustic album coming out too,“ he said.
And as a bonus, on this tour Big Sugar is raising money with World Vision for the small Ethiopian village of Jarso.
“We have a partnership with World Vision. We’re sponsoring a village in Ethiopia. We want to make sure every single child there is getting an education. So that’s been the highlight of this tour,” he said adding World Vision sets up a booth at each of their shows with picture of all of the children. So far response has been very positive.
“ Every child should be sponsored by the end of the tour. There’s no despair here. There are real people you can see. You can really see the difference it makes. You can see that this is a solvable problem. We can really help to see that this happens,” he said estimating there are approximately 200 children in the village.
“ It has been really rewarding,” he said.
They are excited to return to Lethbridge.
“ There is this great Ethiopian restaurant there. They always feed us well. I hope they are still in business. The whole band always marks Lethbridge on their calendar because of that,” he said.
Tickets for the show, which begins at 8 p.m. at University Theatre cost $40 in advance and $45 for adults, $42.50 for students and seniors.
