Backporch Banjo will return to the Zocalo Café this Friday.
Bluegrass music with an old-time, toe-tapping sound is one way to describe their special combination of Scruggs style and clawhammer banjo, finger-picked guitar with stand-up bass, mandolin and vocal harmonies. Their repertoire includes traditional bluegrass, old-time and original tunes.
It has been a busy summer and fall for Backporch Banjo. The four-piece band, based in Courtenay and Qualicum, was kept busy playing all summer.
Highlights included performing at the first Lighthouse Bluegrass Festival, where Backporch Banjo shared the stage with Canada's premiere bluegrass band, the Foggy Hogtown Boys and, from Colorado, the international bluegrass supergroup Long Road Home featuring Peter Wernick a.k.a. Dr. Banjo.
Later in the month Backporch Banjo performed at the Chemainus Bluegrass Festival, sharing the stage with mandolin wizard John Reischman and the Jaybirds.
Following these events, they performed at Canada's longest-running bluegrass festival, the Coombs Bluegrass Festival, sharing the stage with Mark Phillips and 3rd Generation from Oklahoma, and from Chicago, Special Consensus — one of bluegrass's longest-running touring groups.
Having firmly established their band on the bluegrass festival circuit, Backporch Banjo is now busy at Meadow-Woods Studio, preparing for the release of their debut album, slated for early 2012.
The band features Earl Purvis on upright bass, Linda Thorburn on Scruggs banjo, Bob Slater on guitar and Kazimea Sokil on mandolin and clawhammer banjo.
Backporch Banjo will play in Courtenay at the Zocalo Café this Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is by donation.
— Backporch Banjo