What Okanagan blues artists lack in quantity, they make up for with quality
The Okanagan Valley has a population of more than 350,000 and a thriving arts scene. So you would think it would be easy to come up with a list of the Top 10 blues artists in the Okanagan.
However, a survey of the artists at the 2018 Winter Blues Festival in Lake Country on Saturday proved it’s not as easy as asking who they would include on their list.
“Do I have to come up with 10?” was the common response. Most could only come up with a few, a half-dozen at most, and these are blues performers who have been in the business for decades.
— Rick ‘Poppa Dawg’ Halisheff, 52, playing blues for 25 years: “You want 10 of them? I don’t think there are 10 blues musicians in the Okanagan. There’s Sherman Doucette. There’s Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne. Occasionally Charlie Jacobsen. Les Copeland. Cathy-Ann (Cat) Wells. Who else is playing blues? I’m sorry. That’s all I can think of right now. Oh my goodness. I can’t even think of 10.”
— Sherman ‘Tank’ Doucette: “Definitely “Blues Boss” Kenny Wayne. The other guys are Poppa Dawg, Les Copeland, Cathy-Ann Wells. That’s pretty much it for blues. I sure hope my name came up because I love doing it, you know,” he said with a laugh.
* Brandon Schmor, 23, blues pianist-vocalist since he was 10: “As far as quality and for being just an all-around good person, Sherman Doucette has to be my favourite. I’ve worked with him before. He’s easy to work with; he is just the greatest fellow; and no one can play a harmonica like him.
“We’ve got that similar vein of interest. I collect antique pianos and he collects antique harmonicas. Mine take up a lot more space, mind you. Pianos, people just tend to give away.
“Kath Raeber of Kath and the Tom Cats (from Vernon) got me going when I was really young. I have enormous respect for her. She has quite the voice. We go ‘way back.”
— Ryan Donn, Winter Blues Fun organizer: “I booked them all tonight. Every single one you could get, I booked them in. All we’re doing for next year is adding in the outside-of-the-Okanagan act.
“I’ve already talked to three of these guys tonight and said: ‘Hey, come on back.’”
BLUESMAN HAS AN AMAZING COLLECTION OF HARMONICAS
Sherman ‘Tank’ Doucette: “I’ve got 1,500 antique harmonicas and I just inherited 380 more.
“You should come over and do a story on me sometime. Honestly, it would blow your mind. I’ve got bass chord harps. One’s with trumpets sticking out the back. Bells on them.
“They did everything with harmonicas to try to sell them to people. They all sound the same but they look different (he laughs).
“Most of them I don’t play because I’m not sure where they came from. It’s kind of like buying somebody’s toothbrush.
“Brass and water don’t mix. You can boil it, but the reeds will pop out and everything will fall apart. I’m more into pre-war harmonicas because they are over 150 years old now.
“That’s longer than electric guitars.”