/reddeerartscouncil
Featured Member
Healing Blues provide musical balm for our troubled times, says Red Deer Blues Society Co-Founder
Healing Blues provide musical balm for our troubled times, says Red Deer Blues Society Co-Founder
More younger people are getting into blues music, said Susan Dahlseide.
Besides offering them catchy beats, she believes blues songs deliver raw, emotional lyrics that can be a soothing salve in this politically turbulent era.
Blues artists sing about hardships, but resilience is part of the music. “It’s about oppression, but more than that, it’s about rising above it,” said Dahlseide, co-founder and treasurer of the Red Deer Blues Society.
The non-profit group was founded at the close of the pandemic in 2022. Dahlseide and other local musicians noticed that while folk, rock and other genres were making a comeback, local performance opportunities for blues music were lagging, mostly due to venue preference.
Several local musicians, including Dahlseide, Tyler Boutin, and Charlie Jacobson formed the society to help launch more blues concerts in Red Deer.
The Vat Pub became a supportive base of operations for shows that range from jump-jive and juke-style blues and boogie-woogie to Memphis and Motown revues.
Among the 16 bands featured, so far, at society events are some local favourites, including The Charlie Jacobson Band, Dahlseide’s Blue Honey, Juke Blues Band, and Clearwater (with Mike Szabo and Curtis Phagoo). Award-winning, out-of-town blues artists were also brought in, including Troy Turner (Tina Turner’s nephew), the Motown Tribute Orchestra with Thomas Alexander, and Johanna Sillanpaa’s Amy Winehouse tribute.
Dahlseide grew up in a musical family in the Cold Lake region. Nearly everyone played an instrument on her mom’s Cree/Métis side, she recalled, and her Norwegian dad was a honky-tonk piano player.
She started off singing in all genres. But, as a teenager, she was won over by the emotional intensity and authenticity of the blues.
With her Indigenous family background, Dahlseide said she could personally relate to its themes of oppression and rising above.
“I’ve had cousins and brothers who were picked up by police for seemingly no reason and carted off somewhere… They would come back and we would have a good laugh,” she recalled.
“It’s down-to-earth, honest music (and)… I go for the deep, not for the trite… I think when people get bored of other types of music that might not be as interesting, they go for the blues.”
The local swing dance club and other dance groups are among those who regularly attend the society’s concerts and Dahlseide feels audiences are getting younger all the time
| Susan Dahlseide, Co-Founder of the Red Deer Blues Society |
This summer, Central Albertans have two opportunities to attend society concerts: The Austin Trio will perform on July 12, while the Ray Charles Tribute Orchestra will play on Aug. 16. Both events are sponsored by The Vat Pub.When Sylvan Lake
