Valdy, the legendary Canadian music star, has developed an accidental penchant for Prince George duet partners and will debut his latest partnership during a show tonight.
Firstly, he and longtime Prince George folk-western icon Gary Fjellgaard consistently tour and record together in a partnership that has become a favourite for roots music audiences from coast to coast.
That act makes a lot of sense. Both veterans of the music scene were massive parts of domestic radio and records back in the 1970s and '80s. Both took turns winning country music audiences then, but both were decidedly from more rustic composition camps. They were a natural fit once they respectively moved to islands in the Salish Sea later in their careers but were hardly thinking about retirement.
"And we're still working. We're going out together again this fall," said Valdy just before takeoff from Toronto on his way to Prince George for his show tonight at Arts Space. But alongside him are a couple of performers, both of them with connections to Prince George, and neither of them that same natural fit that Fjellgaard represents with Valdy.
One is pianist Karel Roessingh who is from Victoria but is known well to local audiences as the piano accompanist of choice for local soul diva Maureen Washington.
"She's a great singer. She's on my last album, singing background vocals for me," said Valdy.
The other is even more steeped in the north and even more puzzling paired with Valdy. Nadina Mackie Jackson was born in Burns Lake, named for the towering mountain beside which her family had a cattle ranch before they moved to Prince George. It was here she began her ascent to become one of Canada's most celebrated bassoon players.
She is the daughter of Allen Mackie, perhaps the world's most famous log home builders. He is arguably the most important figure in the modern resurgence in log home construction thanks to his many books and international courses taught through the B. Allen Mackie School of Log Building that began at the College of New Caledonia.
This is especially relevant because it was because of that log construction instruction that this association between Mackie Jackson happened in the first place.
"My dad was headlining at an international log builders conference and Valdy was the featured entertainment," she said. "I certainly knew who Valdy was as a musician, but wouldn't have recognized him. I bumped into him in the hallway at the conference and he was just an interesting guy with a guitar case, and he was interested in my bassoon playing. Then a little while later I discovered who I'd been talking to."
The two stayed in touch. Mackie Jackson invited him to sit in on a chamber music project she was involved with, and that led to discussions about formalizing some future work together. Now, it is happening, and for Mackie-Jackson it is a double homecoming with stops scheduled in both her hometowns.
They call it Folk to Baroque-Valdy to Vivaldi and it is live this evening at Art Space.
"We didn't have to write anything new, really, just arrange a bunch of stuff," Valdy said. The three of them - Valdy, Mackie Jackson and Roessingh - take turns being the feature artist in what might be the most unorthodox act to come through town this year.
They are playing a few dates in the general region. Along with tonight's show at Art Space, they play Burns Lake on Wednesday, four dates further west, and then Quesnel on Oct. 7.
