Victoria musician Oliver Swain is enjoying a busy summer of playing folk festivals in all over the west coast and larger centres like Vancouver, Winnipeg and Calgary.
“That's what I do. I finish my tour in the Spring and play folk festivals in the summer. Then I record something new in the fall and winter when things aren’t as busy,” he said.
He just finished playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival last weekend, and stops by the Owl Acoustic Lounge, July 24 with long time songwriting partner Glenna Garramone en route to the Calgary Folk festival on July 27.
He loves playing folk festival.
“ It’s where musicians promoters, government, funding, non profit groups and volunteers all come together,” he said.
He usually plays with the Big Machine whenever possible, depending on the gig, but won't be bringing them to Lethbridge other than keyboardist/ guitarist/ singer and long time collaborator Glenna Garramone.
“ We’ll be playing our own songs, some Big Machine songs. and we just released a CD of Leonard Cohen songs,“ he said.
“ It’s going to be great. She’s an alto and I love singing with altos,” he said adding he admires here inflection and vocal techniques.
“ I don’t have siblings who sing. But singing with Glenna is the closest thing I have to singing with siblings. She’s a great classically trained vocalist and plays guitar and piano,” he said adding he will be mostly playing banjo and some upright bass in Lethbridge.
He said he doesn’t know the set list yet other than it will include their arrangements of Leonard Cohen songs, their own music and some brand new music plus Big Machine music.
“ We can play three shows in a row and they will all be different,” he said.
So far the highlight of the summer has been playing a couple of workshops in Winnipeg, meeting new friends, reconnecting with friends from New Orleans and forming some new relationships.
“We formed some relationships that will flourish,” he said.
He noted their audiences respond well to their Leonard Cohen covers.
“They respond in different ways. Some people really like the poetry, other people like how we arrange them,” he said.
There is no cover for the July 24 show, which will begin at 9 p.m.
