The Lethbridge Folk club hosts the long awaited return of Edmonton based bluegrass band The Bix Mix Boys, to the Lethbridge College Cave, Feb. 13.
“It has been a long time. I think they’ve changed venues,” observed Bix Mix boys banjo player Darcy Whiteside,who is joined by guitarist Logan Sarchfield, mandolinist Terry Nadasdi and upright bassist Jim Storey, who were last in Lethbridge for a Lethbridge Folk club show at the Wolf’s Den back in 2012.
Since then they’ve released one album and have been playing a lot.
“We’ve been playing a lot. We‘ve been doing the Alberta and B.C circuit,” Whiteside said.
“ But a highlight of last year was Cirque du Soleil hired us to play their after party. They were leaving and wanted to do a western theme,” he said.
“ They were great to us. they gave us tickets and we got to meet the performers and the crew. And our mandolinist is a linguistics professor at the University of Alberta and he speaks French, so he was a hero to them,” he said.
In addition to playing bluegrass live, you can also hear Whiteside playing bluegrass on the radio.
“Jim and I have a bluegrass show on CJSR, the University of Alberta radio station and recently I’ve been doing on CKUA on Sunday afternoons. I replaced Peter North in November. I’m really enjoying being with CKUA,” he said, adding there is a tight knit bluegrass scene in Calgary and Edmonton, who the band members often play with.
“ There‘s Back Porch Swing and the Misery Mountain Boys who have played there before. And there’s Nomad Jones.
There’s bluegrass in Calgary too. And we’ve played with most of them. It’s a fun little scene to be part of,” he continued.
He played banjo from a young age.
“My parents had instruments they were tying to get rid of. They had a guitar and a banjo. And I had a big sister. She got the guitar and I got stuck with the banjo, but then I met Jake Peters,” he said, noting he started taking lessons from the award winning guitarist and banjo player as he had moved to his home town of Didsbury.
“Jake is a family friend. He’s a phenomenal picker and he’s really incredibly passionate about music,” he said, adding Didsbury has a lot of talented musicians including Jason and Sheldon Valleau of the Polyjesters.
“ I’m the same age as Jason and Sheldon is a few years younger,” he said.
“ We’re excited to play Lethbridge again. It’s a lot of fun. We’re excited to play some of the new stuff we’ve been working on,” he said.
“We’ve got an old Fred Allen song ‘Hello City Lights,’ and ‘Santa Cruz,’” he continued.
“ We practice every week. We’re all hard core bluegrass nerds, so we’re always bringing in new songs to learn to practices,” he said.
The Bix Mix Boys play the Lethbridge College Cave, Feb.10 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for members, $30 for invited guests including a membership for the year and $15 for students. Cathy Hawley opens the show.
