With all the big stars coming to play for the Canada Winter Games, it's comforting for local organizers to put some of our local talent on the same stage who stand as peers.
It's no coincidence that Marcel Gagnon is the first act the Games festival will present to the fans - Prince George's own Juno Award nominee, a two-time Aboriginal Music Award winner (all for his 2001 break-out album Crazy Maker) one of CBC Radio's Canada Live concert headliners, a featured personality on CTV's First Story program, and all by singing original tunes pulled like salmon from the local rivers. Gagnon is a Lheidli T'enneh First Nation elder, and he crafts songs that tell the aboriginal story.
It's all wrapped up in modern melodies. Although he played a large role in the establishment of the traditional Lheidli T'enneh drumming group that will be on-stage tonight at the opening ceremonies, his own stuff is a hybrid of country, rock and blues.
"I can't wait to play this guitar," he said, pulling a Fender 50 Telecaster out of its nesting case. The 50 refers to the 50th anniversary edition of this model the company made for its half-century birthday in 1996. "This guitar used to belong to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I got it from (star sound engineer) John Sorenson. He won a Grammy Award working with them, he got this guitar somehow from the band, and I really admired it. We made a deal for it after I worked with him on one of my albums."
Sorenson was at the production helm of both The Watchman-Tom Crow album in 2002 and Captured in 2006.
Another key contact Gagnon made during the making of Captured was saxophone headliner Karen Graves. Graves was also in the ensemble gathered by CBC producer Michael Juk for the making of a special edition album in 2009 called New Year's Day - all original songs by Gagnon that had at its thematic core the residential school system imposed on Canada's aboriginal nations.
"I love having sax in my mixes. Here in Prince George we have Justin Frey (Gagnon's usual sax player, but recently a graduate of the Northern Medical Program at UNBC) but he's being a doctor now, and Karen has stayed in touch with me over the years, she knows the songs, I love what she does, so I was thrilled to bring her in for this concert," he said.
When Gagnon isn't being a musician he is an addictions counsellor - himself a recovering alcoholic and sufferer of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder for which he is now one of Canada's leading advocates - and is the Prince George region's resident elder for the federal justice system.
"I just think it's good to be home," he said. "I lived so long in other places, for a long time in Nautley territory, so even though it's been several years now, I still consider it an exciting gift to be living in Lheidli territory. Here I get to be an elder for my people. I'm glad the Canada Winter Games people remembered their elders."
As a reward, Gagnon wants to do something special for tonight's concert. Perhaps, he said, stage diving in snowshoes would be a Canadian first and set the right symbolic tones for the games. Then he gave his quiet, chittering laugh.
Gagnon and his crack band take the stage tonight at 6:15 p.m. at Canada Games Plaza for the free show that starts off the 2015 Canada Winter Games / Cold Snap music festival.
