It feels like fall already, but we may have some warmer days before winter locks in. And if not, there is still plenty of arts and culture to keep you warmly entertained in the Flin Flon area.
Home Routes / Chemin Chez Nous begins anew this month. The performers will be fantastic, as we have come to expect from this folk / roots organization.
Established in Winnipeg in 2007, Home Routes / Chemin Chez Nous has a mandate to expand the infrastructure for folk music performance through developing home concerts, urban folk clubs and animating new folk festivals in Canada.
Flin Flon has been a home concert venue since 2008. The demand has been so high here that we now have two nights of concerts each month, the only community in Canada where that happens.
There are 13 Home Routes / Chemin Chez Nous concert “trails” in Canada at this time, from the “Aurora Trail” in Yukon, Northwest Territories and British Columbia to the “Maritime Trail” in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.
Flin Flon is part of the “Borealis Trail” Manitoba / Saskatchewan circuit, which just this year is adding Snow Lake as a stop. Last year we added Cranberry Portage and Paint Lake (to replace Thompson), so now there is a real north-central flair to the trail, which also includes The Pas, Prince Albert and La Ronge (Napatak).
Melfort, Greenwater Lake and Annaheim, Saskatchewan, as well as Swan River round out the circuit.
The tours begin in September each year and offer concerts in, September, October, November, February, March and April. The various performers work for two weeks, driving from town to town almost every day and performing in the evening.
Performance hosts provide food and lodging, so their expenses are mostly rental cars and gas. Tickets for each show are $20 and, at the end of the night, all the money goes to the performer. In Flin Flon we set the rate at $10 for students and starving artists.
The doors open at 7 pm and concerts start at 7:30 for all evenings and snacks and drinks are most welcome. Newcomers should not be shy about attending their first concert because these hosts are really friendly and you are sure to know someone at the show. It would be grand, however, if you e-mailed your chosen host to let them know you’re coming. After that, you will be on the e-mail list for all time and will get all the notices for shows, in advance.
One new thing Home Routes is trying for this season is a season ticket pass for $102. This means that you can see all six concerts, paid for in advance, at a saving of $3 per concert or $18 over the season.
The pass is for one seat per artist, either night. If you can’t make a show, there are no refunds but you can give your seat to someone else. The offer is available up to the first concert so, if you’re interested, you can pay for the whole season at the first show.
In previous years, we have had artists such as Shari Ulrich from Salt Spring Island, who later performed with the Flin Flon Community Choir; Alan Gerber of St. David, Quebec, who came back twice to perform at the Trout Festival Cabar-eh!; and Meaghan Blanchard from PEI, who will be in Flin Flon in October at the Manitoba Arts Network Contact Showcase, as part of the Eastern Belles Trio.
For more information on Home Routes in the Flin Flon area, go to www.homeroutes.ca/ or contact the local hosts Ann Ross and Doug McGregor
rossann53@hotmail.com or Tim and Elly Spencer timelly@mts.net
Don’t forget to pick up your passport for Culture Days, September 25, 26 and 27. A full advertisement of that event will be in this newspaper next Wednesday, Sept. 23.
Please also make time to drop in on the NorVA Gallery to choose the “Square Foot” piece of art you will want to bid on at the auction on Saturday, October 5.
Schedule
The Borealis Trail line-up for Home Routes / Chemin Chez Nous 2015-16:
September 21 and 22: Rick Fines, Peterborough, Ontario: finger-pickin’ blues and awesome storytelling on the history of the music
October 21 and 22: October Browne, Toronto (via London and New York): English folk song balladeer and guitarist extraordinaire
November 19 and 20: Scott Cook, Sherwood Park, Alberta: folk, folk-blues, roots, songwriter
February 5 and 6: Coco Love Alcorn, Owen Sound, Ontario: folk pop, R&B, jazz, songwriter
March 5 and 6: Andy Cohen, Memphis, Tennessee: traditional, blues
April 10 and 12: The Young Novelists, Toronto: (Graydon James and Laura Spinks) roots rock
