Charlie A'Court is keeping a 10-year appointment with Prince George. The award-winning bluesman last played in PG a decade ago when he opened for Sue Foley at the Treasure Cove Showroom. Now he is the headliner on his own tour and is raising the roof on Art Space tonight.
A'Court is from the east coast and despite the thick layer of music talent all over Atlantic Canada, he has managed to pick up the 2009 honour as Top Entertainer at the Nova Scotia Music Awards, then followed that up with two East Coast Music Awards this year. He won his 2013 ECMA trophies in two entirely different categories - R&B/Soul Recording of the Year and Blues Recording of the Year - because he doesn't confine his music to a single genre. Want further proof? He also won a 2007 ECMA for Pop Recording of the Year.
Not only does his compositions and performances pop out of the musical map, he also popped out of the Canadian geography when he made it into the semifinals of the famed global International Songwriting Competition (a song tournament so vaunted, the 2014 list of judges includes Sarah McLachlan, John Hiatt, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tom Waits and many others).
He credits the legendary musicians in his parents' record collection for teaching him not only to appreciate music but to perform it from within the very fiber of your being - BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Albert Kind and the greats of the soul stage.
"I was discovering singers like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke and I remember being so profoundly moved and almost not old enough to know why," D'Acourt said. "These guys would wail in a way where every note mattered. They sang without apology and played guitar like it was their last day."
His mind was opened even more, perhaps laying the foundation for his ability to handle multiple genres, by one legend in particular.
"Eric Clapton really opened my mind as a musician," he said. "He was taking blues and showing it could be contemporary. Clapton's music showed me that my music could balance between blues and adult contemporary songwriting."
The awards and accolades keep piling up for his latest album Triumph And Disaster, and since he has already stormed the gates of the east coast he is now headed west. Prince George audiences can see the man from MacCallum Settlement, outside of Truro, tonight at Art Space.
Tickets are available in advance at Books and Company, and at the door. Admission is $20 adult, $10 student.
