Time: 8 p.m.
Tickets: $20 members, $25 non-members
http://www.pharisandjason.com
http://www.pharisjasonromero.bandcamp.com
Striking duet singing with acoustic and National guitar and banjo on originals and well-loved songs from others.
Biography
Quite
simply it would be a crime if this album were to linger forever in a
banjo music backwater - it must surely be a contender for the North
American folk album of the year. 9/10.
– Americana UK
... a
record that is further proof that the epicenter of Appalachian mountain
music may very well have moved to the Pacific rim.
– Driftwood Magazine
With songs that are deceptively simple, their voices blend in harmony
and hover in the air before taking up permanent residence with the
listener.
– Folk Alley
This is by far one of the best Folk albums I have heard all year. Listening to them is a pure joy.
– Christine Linde, KBCS
Pharis and Jason sing like birds and play wonderful old time music.
Listening to their recording, I hear a banjo and a guitar, and imagine
these two sweet and talented people opening the door to their cozy home
in the wilds of British Columbia. The wind howls and the rain drives
outside, but inside is a warm fire and a music from the true vine.
– Tim O'Brien
Pharis and Jason Romero have that duet sound that I love; the close,
tight, enmeshed harmonies, so that sometimes you can't tell who's doing
what—but you don't care. It's the whole that creates the feeling and
gives you the chill bumps. Great songs and spare, tasteful
accompaniment. I loved it.
– Alice Gerrard
I like this CD a
lot. It makes me think of the music I grew up on back in Kentucky.
Great songs, and some really great playing too!
– Ricky Skaggs
--Christine Linde, KBCS
Coming from a thousand miles and a border apart, Pharis and Jason
Romero met in 2007 at an old-time fiddle jam. Both had been playing
music for decades – Pharis her whole life – and both were drawn to early
country, old time, blues, bluegrass, and fiddle-banjo music. In 2010
they moved their home and the J. Romero Banjo Company north to Pharis'
hometown, the small interior B.C. town of Horsefly. In this wilderness
hamlet they build their finely crafted banjos, and write and sing dreamy
old time country – and lovingly hard-cut music – playing guitars and
clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo to the songs and tunes, new and old,
they adore.
Writing songs about ageless characters, hard
living, loss and love, Pharis’ songs have been played on radios around
the world, and she was called a “historical treasure” by the BC Folklore
Society. On stage from a very young age with her family's country music
band, she was a co-founder of the western Canadian outfit Outlaw
Social, an award-winning and innovative roots-folk band that released
two celebrated albums from 2005 to 2009.
Jason was a fixture on
the Arcata, CA bluegrass and old-time scene, and is "one of the best
old-time banjos players I've ever heard " (hearthmusic.com).
Jason and Pharis played with the acclaimed Haints Old Time Stringband,
with fiddler Erynn Marshall and mandolinist/guitarist/songwriter Carl
Jones. The Haints released their debut recording, Shout Monah, in 2009.
"They play and sing superbly" (fRoots), and Shout Monah was named one of
the best banjo releases of 2009 (Banjo Newsletter). SingOut magazine
said “This is a very special recording, one that [we]’ll return to time
and again.”
In 2010 Jason and Pharis went on to release their
concept recording Back Up and Push. This instrumental album of fiddle
tunes by nineteen celebrated west coast old-time fiddlers with guitar
and banjo back-up earned them the accolade "old-time duo of Canada"
(Penguin Eggs).
2011 brings the release of their first duo
album, A Passing Glimpse. A beautiful collection of songs lovingly
sourced from old recordings or written by Pharis’ hand, it's an album of
acoustic & National guitars, fingerstyle and clawhammer banjo, and
plenty of singing.
Aside from building and performing, they
also spend much of their year teaching at music camps and workshops
including BC Bluegrass Workshops, Fiddle Tunes, Voiceworks, Fiddle
Works, 108 Mile Bluegrass Camp, Georgia Straight Guitar Workshop, and
others. Calgary blues/ folk singer Erin Ross will be opening.
The Wolf’s den has a new location.
Lethbridge folk Club hosts a bluegrass jam on the first and third Friday of the month as well as an open mic in the second and fourth Friday of the month at their new location 1502 - 2nd. Avenue South, or MJ’s Cycle