Tag Archives: Music

Arts

Will Rendall: Keep On Smiling

Will Rendall released a CD called Keep on Smiling on May 22, 2024. Some Cortes Island residents will remember him as Julia Rendall’s son. He was 7 when he moved to Squirrel Cove in 1976.

He emailed, “I had always liked music but it wasn’t until I heard Billy Joel in 1978 that i became a rock and roll fan. I always thought his lyrics were amazing. I think it would have been around 1981 when I started writing songs. To me lyrics were the most important part of a song. 

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Arts

Getting Ready For Love Fest 2024

Ben Coey is co-producing this year’s Lovefest, which returns to Linnaea Farm on Saturday August 10th.  

“Rex, Amy and Rick have been running and producing the festival for a number of years. They’ve  decided that they need to have a bit of a break from doing it. I’ve worked with Rex on a number of projects previously.  He asked me if I liked to get involved and help out with co-producing and I said, ‘yeah, sure,’” Coey explained.

“I’m good friends with Rex. I’ve toured for many years as a drummer in a band with Rex’s son, Jack. I’ve always loved coming to Lovefest, and played in it a couple of times. I’m spending more time up in Cortes and gradually moving up here. This is a nice way to just get involved with the community.”

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Arts

Dave Blinzinger: The Art, The Islands And Making A Living

Dave Blinzinger has toured Canada, the United States and Europe but, by choice, primarily plays his saxophone at local venues.

“I’m from St. Louis, Missouri. My father had moved up to Cortes Island in the 70s. I lived there from 88 to 1990. At that time, well, there wasn’t very much happening on Cortes. You could go up to the Cortes Cafe on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, hang out with the fishermen and that was about it. So I moved to Quadra in 1990, basically to get a job,” he explained.

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Arts

Bronwyn Claire Asha’s one woman theatre, Celtic folk music & storytelling comes to Cortes & Quadra

Bronwyn Claire Asha is bringing her one woman theatre, Celtic folk music and storytelling show to Cortes and Quadra Islands this weekend. She’ll be playing in Mansons Hall at 7 PM on Friday, and the Quadra Community Centre 7:30 in on Saturday, May 18, 2024.

“I am very excited to come to Cortes. I feel like Cortes and Quadra are both small communities that have a real heart to them and a real community connection,” she explained.

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Arts

The Awakeneers New Single: December In The North

The Awakeneers are still living in Willow Point and have just released a new single. Cortes Currents interviewed them over ZOOM and we had our cameras turned off to preserve bandwidth.

Isa McKenty explained how he came to write ‘December in the North’: 

“It was the day before one of our concerts in the Acoustic Matinee Series. I was supposed to be practicing for that, but it started snowing and I looked out my window. It was so pretty that I wrote ‘December in the North’ instead of practicing. It was actually a year to the day between when I started writing the song and when we recorded most of the tracks that you’ll hear on the recording.”

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