If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Here is our weekly schedule of some of the awesome-est musicians from Surrey and nearby Surrey.
Fresh Music Stage - Market Beets.
July 29 - Sumner Brothers
The Vancouver Province placed the Sumner Brothers' new record in their top 10 for 2008.
CBC Radio 3 has just added them to their play list.
Their music has been described as foot stompin, rockin,rustic-roots, country, folk and blues. Hailing from White Rock, brothers Brian and Bob Sumner have garnered an incredible amount of attention for the short amount of time they have been on the scene.
They have been placed on a compilation album with the likes of The Be Good Tanyas, Jolie Holland, and Sean Hayes.
Samantha Parton of The Be Good Tanyas has called The Sumner Brothers her "new favorite band".
Michael Leahy of the "cool as folk" radio show in Davis California has placed them in the "upper echelon of B.C. songwriters".
We are glad to have Bob and Brian be our first musical group when we opened the market in 2008 (actually it was Bob and a friend of his, we saw Brian later in the summer).
If we are lucky, we might get some samples of the new tunes for the upcoming album.
Here's the link to some videos on YouTube.
August 5th - Silk Road Music
Back again this year are Qiu Xia and Andre, who make up Silk Road Music. They've been on the road performing at summer festivals, and we are pleased they are returning to the Surrey Market again to do a bit of shopping and playing their music!
Silk Road’s performance features traditional instrumental pieces, original compositions and Chinese folk songs, arranged for cross-cultural instrumentation, and performed in both English and Mandarin by duets from both cultures. The music is truly accessible to people of all cultures. In addition to its artistic strengths, Silk Road’s music is also a remarkable window into Chinese culture.
Silk Road Music is one of the few Chinese touring ensembles in North America to have performed at all the major festivals in Canada. Its music has been featured on CBC’s Asian music compilation, at the Philadelphia Museum, the Whitefish Theatre in Montana, the Seattle Asian Museum, BBC international recital in UK, Montreal Jazz Festival, Festival De Quebec, Kentucky Arts Center, and Charlotte, NC. Visit their website.
August 12 - Joe Given
Joe Given is a 17 year old award winning singer, songwriter & performer, from Surrey, B.C.
His style is a mix of pop, R&B, and rock, with flavors of other genres, old and new.
He has performed at over 230 events / venues, over the past few years, including: Spirit of the Sea Festival; Summer Entertainment on Granville Island; Vintage Affair; Merritt Mountain Music Festival; & numerous other community & charitable events, shows, concerts, & private events etc.
His live performances range from 5 minutes, to 2 hours long, & often include cover songs & originals.
Joe has 5 songs on CD Baby & iTunes, & is currently recording more originals. More details are available on his website, along with samples of his music & links to his music videos etc. Please visit Joe's website: www.joegiven.com
August 19 - Chris Meyeston on accordian
Chris Meyeston asked to perform at the Market last year, but the email sort of got lost. But we uncovered it and discovered a phenomenal musician who plays the accordion. Chris does not seem to have a website, but there are a number of YouTube videos on line for him - you can see one below.
This'll be Chris's second time at the market this year, we look forward ot having him back!
August 26 - Jeff Huggins, Singer-songwriter
You may have seen Jeff Huggins performing at some other farmers' markets in the area (Burnaby, Coquitlam...). We took that to be a good sign. We listened to a clip of his musicon CBC Radio Three, and that's another good sign.
When we bing/googled Jeff, and saw that he won a $50 scholarship for being a promising piano player at the 2003 Kiwanis Fraser Valley International Music Festival - we are so much looking forward to Jeff's debut at the Surrey Market. (Oh, and his band played during the JunoFest too this year...!)
Jeff -if you are reading this, please send us a photo - I don't want to steal the one from CBC Radio Three...
September 2 - Fleetwood Strings
Fleetwood Strings may be a duo or may be a trio when they perform at the market this week.
No matter the size, the group includes Jinhee Park (pictured right), a music student from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She and her fellow musicians started playing together recently and they just keep playing and playing concerts, weddings and for your absolute pleasure - the Surrey Urban Farmers Market...
September 9 - Jennifer Kennedy, Acoustic Progressive Folk
Jennifer Kennedy is a singer-songwriter with a beautiful and compelling voice coupled with intense guitar playing.
In 2006, she recorded a solo, acoustic 5 song EP.
That didn’t feel like enough so from Jan 2007 - present, she recorded an acoustic debut CD with friends which is in the finishing stages The CD is called No Casual Goodbyes.
We heard Jennifer a few times lasy season at the market. Join us today, and you can also get a preview on Jennifer's MySpace page.