Bluesman playing The Dream Cafe
Since bursting onto the Canadian music scene with his 1994 self-titled album, David Gogo, a six-time Juno Award nominee and three-time recipient of Guitarist of The Year at the Maple Blues Awards, has racked up a long list of accolades and accomplishments.
Gogo is having the CD release for his 15th studio album, “17 Vultures,” this Saturday at The Dream Café in Penticton.
He has made a name for himself as an incredibly skilled and dynamic performer, effortlessly ripping up the stage as a lead guitarist. However, over the last decade he has built a solid reputation with his acoustic performances as well. His solo shows not only display his diversity as a guitarist but also as a performer, sharing entertaining stories from the road between his songs.
Usually he opts to keep these two sides of his abilities separate, but after listening to The White Album by The Beatles, he chose to accentuate both in his new album.
“In the past, I was afraid that if I mixed my acoustic songs with my more rocking material it would confuse people. I don’t think I was giving people enough credit, as I was listening to The White Album by The Beatles recently and thought ‘Well, the diversity shown on this collection didn’t seem to hurt,’” he said.
“17 Vultures” features five original songs by David Gogo and a selection of cover songs from a crosssection of musicians, including: The Beatles, Barbecue Bob, Doug and The Slugs and Bob Dylan.
It’s backed by a core rhythm section of Pat Steward on drums (Bryan Adams, The Odds, Colin James, Jimmy Barnes) and Ben Dwyer (the son of jazz legend Phil Dwyer) on electric and upright bass. The albums collection of songs range from traditional blues to heavy contemporary influences.
Doors open Saturday at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 8. Tickets are $19 and $29.