A Chicago-based performer who got his start in Parksville will bring his acclaimed Buddy Holly tribute concert to Sechelt’s Rockwood Pavilion this month. Zachary Stevenson launches a B.C. summer performance tour with his Aug. 9 rock ‘n’ roll revival.
The Buddy Holly Concert is a two-act show backed by Vancouver-based, rockabilly/surf trio the Interstellar Riders.
Stevenon’s friend, guitarist Joe Rotundo of the Interstellar Riders, is a Coaster. “He’s been telling me for years, you’ve got to bring the Buddy Holly show up,” said Stevenson. “So we’re finally doing it.”
Stevenson is a graduate of the University of Victoria’s theatre program, and has starred in more than a thousand performances of the Buddy Holly Story across Canada and the United States.
“I think [Holly’s music] is timeless — and on the other hand, his music is very much a time capsule,” Stevenson reflected. “He kind of epitomizes the independent rock and roll musician of the fifties. But I think in many ways he also created the blueprint of pop rock and roll that was to come.”
Holly died in 1959 at 22, in an airplane crash that also claimed the lives of rock ‘n’ roll pioneers Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper” J. P. Richardson.
“When I’m writing my own songs, if I kind of get a little hung up, sometimes I still look back to Buddy Holly,” said Stevenson. “And I think, okay, what would Buddy Holly do? And he’s usually just keeping it simple: three chords and a feeling.”
Tickets ($40) for the Aug. 9 concert are available at Strait Music in Sechelt, the EarthFair store in Madeira Park, and MELOmania in Roberts Creek.
Library outreach par excellence
The Gibsons Public Library recognized its retiring outreach coordinator with an outpouring of gratitude during a gathering on July 25.
Lise Kreps had occupied the role for three years after relocating from the Burnaby library system. Kreps upended staid library stereotypes by featuring scores of engaging and topical presenters, including Indigenous Elders, 2SLGBTQAI+ advocates, filmmakers and folk musicians. She fostered a literary community of writers and readers who routinely gathered in the library’s Mainil Room, and whose highlights were regularly featured in the Coast Reporter.
“Her enthusiasm is contagious and has translated into our library programs and offerings being engaging and very abundant these past years,” said Heather Evans-Cullen, the library director.
Residents of the Christenson Village care facility expressed particular appreciation for Kreps’s role as a library liaison to their community. Kreps provided residents with technical support for e-readers and sagacious book recommendations.
Kreps announced that retirement will grant her new freedom to augment her already-sizeable service to the Coast arts community.
Popular novelist added to festival
The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts has announced a late-breaking schedule change. The unexpected cancellation of novelist Kyo Maclear led to a replacement presenter of renown: bestselling novelist Iona Whishaw.
Whishaw is a former educator and social worker whose mother and grandfather were both spies during their respective wars. Her 2024 novel Lighting Strikes the Silence recently achieved the top position on the B.C. bestseller list.
Whishaw will be featured in a solo event on Friday, Aug. 16 at 4 p.m. Tickets for Whishaw and other festival luminaries remain on sale at writersfestival.ca.
The Creek goes Celtic
Free waterfront music continues this weekend with the Music in the Landing series at Winegarden Park in Gibsons. On Friday at the marina gazebo, charismatic singer-songwriter Lowry Olafson performs at 7 p.m.
On Saturday afternoon at 3:30, blues and jazz by the Rough Huis ensemble will feature Verna Chan on vocals, Paul Steenhuis, Dave Roughley and Sacha Fassaert on guitar and John Rule on drums. That evening at 6:30, the Karen and Budge quartet (Karen Graves on reeds and vocals, Budge Schachte on guitar, Al Johnston on bass and Kristian Braathen on drum) plays a mix of breezy summer sambas and swing.
In Sechelt, more music starts on Saturday at noon in Hackett Park. Featured performers are The Atchies (an alt-folk rock group fronted by Derek Atchison who delivers heartfelt lyrics with soulful grit backed by nostalgic soundscapes) and Kanky Tyger (a high-energy post punk psych-rock band that create sonic space funk grooves that defy genre boundaries).
At Slow Sunday in Roberts Creek on Sunday, Aug. 4, music from Ireland, Wales and Scotland takes centre stage. The Beachcombers Ukulele Group Singers start the program at 11:45 a.m., joined by the ukulele singing group the Mother Pluckers. Four unique groups follow: the Electric Tartan (featuring digital bagpipes), Reg and Lynne Dickson (sampling popular Maritime repertoire), the Harmony Hall Fiddlers, and the Shamrockers ensemble: Kevin Crofton (guitar and vocals), Boyd Norman (bass), Heidi Kurtz (fiddle, flute, voice), Sheila Allen (fiddle), James Law (fiddle), and Graham Walker (percussion, vocals, and more).
Organizers have listed kilts and tartan socks as suggested spectator apparel.
