Annie Lou returns to Bowen Island
With a 2010 Juno nomination, a 2010 Western Canadian Music Award nomination, and two 2012 Canadian Folk Music Award nominations, and appearances at coast-to-coast Canadian folk festivals, Annie Lou has become a familiar sight not only on Bowen Island but on the Canadian roots music stage.
Annie Lou started when northern songwriter Anne Louise Genest found herself drawn to the stringband sounds and story songs of old time mountain and traditional country music. Although born and raised in downtown Toronto and hunkered down in the woods outside of Whitehorse for the last twenty years, it was in these older musical traditions that Genest found her muse and set out to explore her original music in the context of oldtime stringband sounds. “This music has a profound edge to it - there in the voices and in the playing is the lament we all carry as people, just trying to get by in this beautiful, terrible world.” says Genest. “Joy and grief are two sides of the same coin. The older music expresses that tension so perfectly.”
Now, fresh on the heels of two Canadian Folk music nominations and chart-topping radio play with her new album, Grandma’s Rules for Drinking, Annie Lou is taking the band on the road and Bowen is one of those stops. The album features beautifully crafted songs that range from rousing and boisterous to gentle and poignant. They map a homescape of hard-drinking grandmas, rural dancehalls, blue collar fashions and the deep snows and silences of a Canadian winter.
Annie Lou’s stringband instrumentation translates into foot-stomping fiddle and banjo, driving guitar and upright bass, and great big vocals. Built around Genest’s original songwriting, Annie Lou is firmly rooted in both the past and the present. New and original, yet old and familiar, Annie Lou is Canadian roots music at its finest.
Touring with Annie Lou in 2012 are Anne Louise Genest (guitar, vocals, banjo), Kim Barlow (vocals, banjo), Andrew Collins (fiddle, mandolin) and Max Heineman (upright bass, vocals).
BIMA is pleased to present Annie Lou on January 20, 8 p.m. at Tir-na-nOg, as part of the Roots on the Rock series. Tickets are on sale at Phoenix on Bowen for $20 and $22 at the door.
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