One of the Cariboo’s rising young singer/songwriters, Marin Patenaude, will open for international singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in June.
But before that happens lakecity residents will have an opportunity to hear Marin sing some of the songs from her first CD at the Gendun Drubpa Buddhist Centre’s fundraising banquet coming up this Saturday evening at the Elks’ Hall.
“I am honoured to support the Buddhist centre in Williams Lake,” Marin said of the invitation to be the guest artist. “I appreciate many of the elements of Buddhism.”
Marin and two of her Follow Through band members, drummer Kenton Loewen, and lead guitarist, Cole Schmidt, will open for Sarah McLachlan at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver on June 27.
Marin’s Follow Through band also includes Darren Parris on bass and Tyson Naylor on keys and the record guest star artists Peggy Lee on cello, Jesse Zubot on violin and Scott Smith on pedal steel.
Marin said Schmidt was working for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival when McLachlan put out a call for artists to open for her show. He submitted two songs from the record and McLachlan subsequently chose them to open for her.
While Marin says she might be a little nervous when the time comes, she is looking forward to the performance.
“It will be great actually,” Marin says.
Marin will also be singing backup vocals during the Vancouver festival with the Khari Wendell McClelland Band that will be opening for Ms. Lauryn Hill at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on June 26.
Ms. Lauryn Hill is best known from The Fugees hip hop, and soul project, Marin said. She notes Khari also sings with the Sojourners.
Marin left Horsefly and the Williams Lake area a year ago for Vancouver to pursue her music.
She and her Follow Through band received a copy of their first album by the same name in March but she says they won’t have an official launch of the CD until the fall.
Loewen and Marin produced the album at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver. All but one of the songs on the album were written by Marin, the other by Loewen, who produced the album with her.
Marin says her songs on the album are inspired by “love, heartbreak, and an organic, natural lifestyle.” She describes the album as emotional folk with rich instrumentation and sentient lyricism.
In early March, Marin toured across Canada from B.C. to New Brunswick and back with Loewen and his musical project The Crackling. They performed at 17 house shows and four concerts held in art galleries and bars. This summer she will be performing at various music festivals including The Field festival in the Slocan Valley on the Aug. 12 to 14 weekend.
Marin developed her love for music early on, singing and playing music with her dad Geoff Patenaude, mother Emily, and siblings Pharis (Romero), Ciel and Cole.
“I’ve been singing from the time I could talk, really,” Marin says. “There was so much music in our house growing up in Horsefly.”
Music at home and community concerts were reinforced with performances at the Cariboo Festival and Arts on the Fly.
Marin’s sister Pharis and her husband, Jason, Romero, who live in Horsefly, won a JUNO this spring for their album A Wanderer I’ll Stay.
Marin says Cole will also be recording his own album soon.
Before returning to Vancouver last year to pursue music, Marin spent three years back home in Horsefly and Williams Lake working for a couple of years as executive director of the Potato House Society and helping to organize and perform with family and friends at the Arts on the Fly festivals.
She visits home often and enjoys working on a little house for herself on the family property which incorporates a lot of recycled materials and simple living away from the bright city lights.
“It never gets quiet and it never gets really dark in the city,” Marin says.
Tickets for the Gendun Drubpa Buddhist Centre’s second annual fundraising auction and dinner featuring authentic vegetarian dishes of India are $50 and available at the New World Café and Kit and Kaboodle or by calling 778-412-7780.