By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The South Okanagan is in for an aural treat with the return of one of Canada’s top musicians and her band for a one night show at Osoyoos’ Sonora Community Centre on August 8.
Frequently described as a multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, multi-genre singer, song writer and composer, Angelique Francis has clearly established herself not just in Canada with a string of awards including the 2023 JUNO Award for Blues Album of the Year, but firmly established her musical cred around the world.
Speaking to the Times Chronicle from her home in Ottawa, even her phone voice is beautifully crystalline and melodic. Off the top Francis promises an August show in Osoyoos that will be “very energetic”, adding it will be a blues dancing event.
“We’re really looking forward to giving the audience an opportunity to join along in that music making with us by singing along, clapping along, and various other call and response activities, in addition to providing some great grooves that will help them dance throughout night,” she says.
Francis and her band frolic in the broad pool of roots-based music, which she describes as a “fusion of multiple different roots-based genres which includes blues, jazz, rock and roll, folk, gospel, soul and various other genres including Americana.”
Having first taken to the stage at the tender age of seven and playing the summer music festivals by age 13, she credits her musical family. “Growing up I’ve been very lucky to be in a musical family where we created music and jammed together after dinner every night.”
It’s perhaps not surprising then that a number of her band members are in fact her family. “I have my sister Kharincia on saxophone. She plays bari, alto and tenor sax. I have my sister Kira on trombone and keys. My sister Kayla recently joined us on trumpet, percussion and backing vocals, and my father’s on drums as well.”
The combination clearly hits the right notes as this was the same band configuration that produced the Juno Award winning album “Long River”.
“I feel very lucky to be in that space where we can create these beautiful musical collaborations, but also be able to know each other so well. We are able to experience all these things together as a family and just make the most of it wherever we go.”
She notes that when she was young music was an outlet for her and something that enabled her to express herself and her emotions.
“I realized how powerful music is as a communication tool and connecting with others, and that’s why I took up music – the ability to meet amazing people along the way and help people get through a difficult time by, you know, dancing their worries away.”
Angelique Francis
Francis is already well into the next album, having released few tracks including a single only a few days ago titled “Dance For Me” and back in April she released a track featuring Grammy-nominated artist Eric Gales on guitar titled “Train Coming”. Her new album “Watch Me Grow” is set to drop this summer.
Her musical career has afforded her opportunities to play with a legion of musicians and when asked if there was one that was particularly memorable she doesn’t need time to consider.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be able to play with so many wonderful, wonderful musicians. One of my, you know, I don’t have a favourite because there’s so many but I felt very lucky to be able to have performed with the legendary Buddy Guy last year at the Ottawa Jazz Festival.
“My sisters and I went up on stage and played with him and it was just an improvised tune – the audience loved it! And being able to be on stage with someone that I’ve looked up to for such a long time was a very significant experience,” she says.
Francis says there is a strong community of Canadian blues musicians, of which she is glad to be part. “I think what is so wonderful about the blues is its connection to so many different genres. And you know, I take advantage of that with my music, and my last album was really an exploration of the different kinds of blues and blues influence.”
And because blues forms the basis, the roots, of so much of modern North American music she gets the opportunity to perform at many different music festivals. “We perform at folk festivals. We perform at rock festivals, we perform at jazz festivals, we perform at Americana festivals. And so I find that even though there is a dedicated blues music community and blues music industry, there’s a lot of crossover between the other genres because it’s at the roots of it all.”
As for her creative process she says, “I love exploring new ways of writing songs, and I think depending on the song, the process can be different. And so there’s a lot of times where songs come to me from the inspiration of things that I read, of experiences that I have, from people that I meet. And a lot of the time, it’s a storytelling process as well. And so these are things that you just kind of gain with experience.”
And because she has so many different instruments under her belt, the song can start with a number of different things she says, adding “we can even start writing a song from just the rhythm itself with a drum beat.”
Summer is clearly a busy time for Francis and her band with music festivals non-stop across the country all summer long. Their western tour will start at the Calgary Blues Festival on August 4, before taking them to Nelson, here to Osoyoos before heading to Vancouver and Nanaimo. And then it’s off to the Philadelphia Folk Festival after that.
The final question to Francis is “Why Osoyoos?” It seems a reasonable question to ask given the small size of the local audience and her significant presence in the music industry.
“It’s such a wonderful community. And every time I visit, I feel like I’m discovering new things about the place, but one of my favourite things are the people that are there. It’s such a warm and welcoming community, and I can’t wait to come back and visit and play a different kind of performance this time with the blues dancing event.”
Francis and her band will be playing at Osoyoos’ Sonora Community Centre on Thurs. August 8 – doors open at 6:30 p.m., music at 7:30 p.m. Tickets – $25 each or groups of four or more can get tickets for $20 each – are available at Elvis Fine Jewellery in Osoyoos.
