Those who fancy David Francey will hear his unique slice of folksy Canadiana during his set at the Sunshine Music Festival this coming weekend.
Playing both days in his second appearance at the festival, Francey said he’s looking forward to returning to Lang Bay.
“It has been a while since I played there,” he said. “I just remember it being incredibly beautiful and I liked the festival. It’s an incredible place.”
Francey said he thinks Chris Coole, banjo, guitar and dobro player, will be joining him, and he expects to play a number of selections from So Say We All, his latest album.
“But I always do a backlog as well,” Francey said. “There are certain songs; you know, people have known my work for a long time. They just love to hear them and I never tire of playing them. I try and hit all the bases that I can.”
Francey said his appearances onstage in Powell River will be shows where he tells the audience a little bit about the selection, “hopefully there will be a little laughter at that,” and then he carries on to sing.
This style rapidly evolved for Francey. At the beginning of his career, he finished the first song he’d ever played and there was “this horrible silence.”
“I realized that something is going to have to happen here. I hadn’t planned on any of that so I just winged it. It’s just become what I do.”
Francey said his audiences seem to appreciate the little bit of background they receive when he’s introducing the song.
“It makes the song ring for them a little bit better. It’s just a story about the song but for whatever reason, it sets a time and place for them.”
The bottom line for Francey, when he’s writing music that creates the time and place, is that he has to be moved by whatever it is he’s writing about.
Francey toiled in the building trades for years before becoming a professional musician and found the men he worked with very interesting.
“The fact you can work all day together with these guys, they really become a big part of your life and a big part of your family,” he said. “When you work with the same guys for 11 years on the same construction crew, you get to know each other very well.”
It inspired him to write some great music, for which he has been nationally recognized.
Francey has won three Juno Awards; emblematic of the top recognition a musician can receive in Canada. He has been nominated for two more. He doesn’t take the honour lightly.
“It’s huge, that’s for sure,” he said. “That’s a big part of what keeps you going.”
Francey feels very lucky to have the opportunity. Folk music is all about telling stories.
“That’s what I like to do as a writer,” he said. “Part of the thing that behooves you to write is to chronicle your times. I like to think about a pretty full life in this time and I’ve written about some parts that didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’ll just try to keep on doing that, to tell you the truth.”
Also joining Francey at the festival are The Boom Booms.
The Boom Booms, a West coast soul and R&B band, are spending their sixth summer together. They formed as a band in 2008, but they have known each other for since they were children growing up.
“It’s definitely family band style,” he said.
Aaron Ross, the Boom Booms’ lead singer, said the new album, called Love is Overdue, features soul music and R&B, predominantly.
“We’ll be playing most of the album as well as songs from our first album,” Ross said.
He is looking forward to playing for the Powell River festival audience. He said the Boom Booms have been lucky enough to play at some of the larger festivals.
“It’s nice for your resume but it’s a bit intense,” he said. “It’s nice to decompress and play the small, local festivals.”
The Boom Booms are not strangers to the laid-back style. The band is playing at several intimate settings during this trip, including Gabriola Island, Salt Spring Island and Cumberland.
The band thrives on the kind of intimacy with the audience that is such a big part of the Sunshine Music Festival.
“The closer, the better,” Ross said. “That can totally transform the show. Our show definitely transforms when the audience is tuned into what we are doing and reacting to it.”
