Folk Society brings in foot-stomping jams

Paul Tessier

Special to The Morning Star

Shred Kelly is a alternative folk band known for igniting dance floors and belting out sing-along anthems inspired from the mountains around Fernie, British Columbia.

The Vernon Folk-Roots Music Society is thrilled to have Shred Kelly perform live at the Vernon Lodge and Conference Centre March 22.

Tim Newton plays banjo for the group and remembers how the band came into being, almost by happenstance.

“It all started in 2009,” he recalls. “We had all been living in Fernie, just being ski-bums. We’d all moved there from different parts of the country separately, just to be in Fernie. I was running a jam night as one of my jobs at one of the local bars and I’d just taken up the banjo. I was just kind of learning it and bringing it to these jam nights. Through these jam nights, I met the rest of the band. We would all do stuff on stage and they started playing with me when I’d play a few songs on the banjo. It eventually became a weekly thing. People started dancing to our tunes and we could see something was happening.”

Then the self-proclaimed ski-bums got their first break.

“We got offered our first real gig opening for another band at a bar down the street,” he said. “We packed a huge dance floor and that was really the beginning of us being a band.”

The band rapidly developed a loyal following around Fernie.

“For the first while, we just played in Fernie and we never imagined this as a career”, Newton explains. “Then late in 2009, someone told us that there were openings for bands to play in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. All we had was a MySpace page and some home recordings of our songs but we got accepted to play on a stage right in downtown Vancouver, which was featuring bands from the Interior of British Columbia.”

Newton chuckles as remembers their first real road trip.

“We piled our gear and ourselves into two cars and headed to Vancouver. It was at that show that we first felt,’ Wow! There’s a spark here. We need to go on tour and make a record.’ That was the first real push into what we are today.”

What they are today is a young band with a great reputation for their live shows.

“We put on a fairly high energy show, which is a fusion of folk and rock and it usually gets people up and dancing — so it can be a pretty sweaty, fun dance floor,” Newton says. “We’ll be playing songs from our entire album roster including lots of the new ones, which we feel are the best we’ve written. Expect some very fast banjo picking on my part and a lot big beats on the kick drum. We want to make it a dance party. Our shows are a very positive, happy, joyous celebration on stage and in the crowd.”

They’ve been touring steadily since 2009. One of the highlights was doing a set at the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

“That was so huge for us,” Newton says. “In our eyes, it’s one of the biggest and best folk festivals in Canada and that was probably our biggest crowd to date. It was also right around the time we had come out with our last album, Sing To The Night. We encored with that song and it went over really well so it was a very proud moment for the band.”

Shred Kelly has also toured in Germany and their next tour in April will include Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and England.

They’ve also just released a new album called Archipeligo.

“We’ll have cds and special edition white vinyl copies at the show as well,” Newton says.”We’re really looking forward to playing in Vernon. It should be a great, foot-stomping time.”

The Vernon Folk-Roots Music Society presents Shred Kelly at the Vernon Lodge and Convention Centre March 22. Tickets are $25 and available through www.ticketseller.ca, 250-549-7649, The Bean Scene Coffee House or at the door. Cash only. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Beer, wine and food will be available. For more information, visit www.vernonfolkroots.com, check out the Facebook page or e-mail info@vernonfolkroots.com.