Marin Patenaude and her band, the Follow Through, played to two packed, appreciative houses at the Central Cariboo Arts Centre on the weekend and were thrilled with the warm welcome they were given.
The Safety Meeting concerts Friday and Saturday night were the first performances in the lakecity for Marin and the Follow Through, who released their first album by the same name last year.
“I had a great time,” Marin says. “It is always an extreme pleasure to play with the Follow Through and they had a great time and really enjoyed the audience.
“They could tell there is a great community here.”
Marin says it was also a treat to have her sisters Ciel and Pharis (Romero) singing harmony with her. Ciel sang both nights and Pharis joined them for the Saturday night concert.
“It was wonderful. There was a pretty large smile on our father’s face,” Marin says.
She also had fun bringing the Follow Through band members out to visit her dad, Geoff Patenaude in her home town of Horsefly and touring them around the area on snowmobiles.
“It was the first time riding a snowmobile for a couple of them,” Marin says.
The Follow Through band members, who include Barry Mirochnik, their new drummer, Darren Parris on bass, Cole Schmidt on guitar and Scott Smith on pedal steel also had an opportunity to check out Geoff’s collection of guitars and antiques and (remove new) chain saws in his shop.
She thanks Murray and Sharon Hoffman for their generous hospitality and putting her band members up in their home for the weekend.
Before returning to Vancouver this week, Marin met with the Arts on the Fly festival committee to continue plans for the return of the popular festival to Horsefly in July.
Marin and Brandon Hoffman are serving as the artistic directors for the festival this year.
Marin and the Follow Through will be among the groups on the play bill.
She is also working on grant applications so that the Follow Through might be able to tour across Canada and hopefully Europe in the future.
Admittedly, she says it is very expensive to tour with a full band and impossible to do on ticket sales alone unless you are a well known band.
Perhaps some of the exposure Marin received as the opening act for Sarah McLachlan last June at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival will pave the way for her Canadian and European tour to come true.
“It was fabulous. A really, really beautiful experience,” Marin says of the concert with McLachlan held at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
“Sarah is the kindest human you could imagine. Just all love. And it was a dream come true to sing in such a beautiful theatre.”
Marin is a frequent visitor to Williams Lake and Horsefly, but now makes her home in Vancouver where she continues to perform, write new songs, and sing harmony with other groups.
She will be singing harmony on new albums in the works with The Real Ponchos, who have performed at Arts on the Fly in the past, and on a new recording that Sam Tudor is working on.
Among her new projects Marin is developing a touring trio with Cole Schmidt and Peggy Lee, who worked on the Follow Through album.
The trio plans to perform at festivals and other dates around Vancouver and the province this year.