Multiple award winner Steve Dawson takes the lead during a Tribute to the Mississippi Sheiks at the Coldsnap Music Festival Saturday, Jan. 28 at the Prince George Playhouse, with special guests Jim Byrnes and Del Ray.
"Essentially the show is blues music but it's a real stretch to call it that because in my mind the songs and material we're plucking from is all from this Mississippi Sheiks group and their repertoire is really varied," said Dawson, who got interested in the guitar by listening to the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton as a teen.
"Most people if they think of a blues show they kind of think of one kind of music and this is not really like that. It's got a little bit of standard blues but the really cool thing about this group is that they were really creative, innovative song writers and they were pulling in from different sources of inspiration like rag time and jazz, big band and country music. So really what you get with this band and what we try to capture is all these elements of different kinds of music that were a kind of melting pot of great American music in the early part of the 20th century."
The show brings hard core bluesy music that Jim Byrnes specializes in and more complex rag time that Del Ray plays, Dawson added.
"Del Ray is one of the greatest ukulele players in the world and she also plays a really mean national guitar so she's really quite something to behold," said Dawson, who brings Geoff Hicks on drums and Keith Lowe on bass as his core band.
"Then I'm sort of floating around in the middle playing all kinds of stuff from solo to full band so it's going to be a really interesting mix of different styles all under umbrella of a blues show. It's going to be unlike any other blues show anyone's ever seen before."
Tickets are available at Books & Co., 1685 Third Avenue and at Studio 2880, 2880-15th Avenue or by calling 250-563-2880.
