Ross Douglas, noted B.C. and former Barkerville musician and actor will be performing at the Bear’s Paw in Wells Thursday, July 31, prior to the start of the 10th annual ArtsWells Festival the next day.
To most of the world Douglas is an established Vancouver area musician, who’s produced three independent CDs, acted, wrote toured and sang in such hits as Billy Bishop Goes To War, Angry Housewives, Rocky Horror Show and more.
In addition he’s won international awards for his jazz, folk, and roots song-writing skills, and has fans in a hundred and fifteen countries around the world.
His concert will be at 7:30 p.m. on the Outdoor Stage.
His live shows are a fabulous blend of a wide variety of musical genres. They are played on a varied collection of musical instruments, from keyboard to mandolin. In addition, Ross interjects history, comedy, and theatre in a show that guaranteed to please crowds.
Douglas has produced just three albums of original songs, but each has made a significant impact in the musical world.
Two Directions actually travels in just about every direction musically possible, with songs bent by Folk, Celtic, African, Cajun, and Caribbean elements.
Cariboo Eclectic produced a Golden Prize and Directors Award in the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest, and the song Lovin’ Time was runnerup in the Jazz cateory of the 2003 John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
The third album, The Art of You and I quickly produced three audience favourites — the folksy Town for Tired People, the darkly humorous Ukulele Crime, and the shamelss Hard Not to Talk Like Elvis. In addition Ross Douglas has been awarded Folk Alley’s Artist of the Month, and continues to post in the top 10 of Broadjam’s country, blues, folk, jazz, regional and Earth categories.
Ross is promising to play a wide selection of his Cariboo favourites, including the gold standard of song-writing… “Wells.” from his second album Cariboo Eclectic.
This song describes Wells in its hey-day in the 1930s.
The lyric: “I’d rather be a miner with a smell, than a dis-infected hobo begging nickels in Quesnel,” is just part of a tender and romantic ballad that accurately describes the heyday of Wells during the dirty 30s.