Paul Tessier
For The Morning Star
If you love the blues, get ready for Blues At Its Best, with two amazing acts on one stage, Friday, Sept. 16 at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre.
Kal David, Lauri Bono & The Real Deal and the Angel Forrest Trio will be bringing top-shelf, award-winning blues to Vernon.
David and Bono have been wowing blues audiences for more than 30 years.
David grew up on the south side of Chicago, which he calls “the baddest part of town. Maybe that’s where I got all that blues.”
David remembers being influenced by what was on the radio in his early years.
“Radio in Chicago had highly segregated radio stations back then. It was either Pat Boone on one side of the dial or Bobby “Blue” Bland on the other side of the dial, so I just started gravitating to blues, R&B, soul and gospel,” he said.
David started playing music in high school.
“Music is all I’ve ever done to make money,” he said.
Along the way, he started his own band.
“We toured the country a whole lot. My first band had a now famous member, Peter Cetera, a friend of mine from the south side of Chicago who went on to become the lead singer of Chicago and went on to have an illustrious career.”
In 1977, David met Bono in Woodstock, N.Y.
“I was singing jazz at the time,” said Bono. “After I met Kal, I started singing blues. A few years later, we moved to Palm Springs, Fla., and both worked for Etta James for three years, which was a wonderful experience because she was an idol of mine.”
Over the years, they’ve worked with B.B. King, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Rivers, John Mayall and the Blues Breakers and many others. Bono also did a short stint with Bette Midler.
Now they’re looking forward to bringing their brand of soul and blues back to Vernon.
“We’re actually coming up with a horn band, The Real Deal, so we might just blow the roof off the place,” said David. “Get ready for a great night of blues.”
Forrest vividly remembers her first time singing with a band on stage.
“A friend had noticed me singing after a couple of glasses of wine one night at a bonfire. He asked me to do a set with his band just for fun,” she said. “We rehearsed songs like Honky Tonk Woman by The Stones and other bar standards. I sang them all right in the rehearsals, but when the show started, for some reason I just got into it, let it all out and just let it rip. After the first song, I just remember the applause and the two guitar players looking at me in amazement. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. I truly didn’t know I had it in me.”
More than 25 years later, Forrest often doesn’t rehearse and prefers raw spontaneity.
“When you get up there, it’s a whole different ballgame. Something happens. I don’t know what it is. It’s some sort of magic.”
The Québec blues belter has won the Maple Blues Award for Female Vocalist of the Year in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and is probably best known for her past Janis Joplin tribute shows.
“I still get called Janis from time to time,” she said. “I’ll probably do a couple of Janis songs at the show because I love doing Me and Bobby McGee and Piece Of My Heart. But we’ll be doing lots of other classics and some original stuff too.”
Forrest will be accompanied by two hot guitarists, her husband Denis Coulombe and Ricky Paquette, who she describes as “a 25-year-old guitar virtuoso.”
She’s anticipating a memorable blues evening.
“I’m really excited to play in Vernon and share the stage at the end of the evening with Kal David and Lauri Bono. It should be a great jam at the end of the show with incredible musicians.”
Widmen Entertainment and the Vernon Folk-Roots Music Society present Kal David and Lauri Bono & The Real Deal and the Angel Forrest Trio Friday, Sept. 16 at the Vernon Performing Arts Centre. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. All seats are $55. Info and tickets are available at the Ticket Seller, ticketseller.ca or (250) 549-7469.