Gillbilly is our 1st annual Old-time pickin’, Fly-fishing festival weekend in Fernie, BC. Workshops, jams, concerts, and food will set the tone for this laid-back weekend (September 30-October 2) as the trees shift into fall colouring. For more details go to the Gillbilly 2016 page.
This just in: we have an exciting new addition to the Gillbilly 2016 lineup: We’d love to welcome Eli West to the event. Eli is a tasteful and versatile guitar player & singer who came into the public eye as half of the duo Cahalen Morrison & Eli West. In 2016 Eli released a solo album with contributors like Bill Frisell… Below is a little video of Eli and Bill playing ‘Lonesome Valley’… what a tasty little sonic treat!
Eli often performs with Ben Winship, one of our other esteemed musicians. Ben is known for his mandolin work with The Growling Old Men and recently The New Reeltime Travellers. Below is a video of Ben and Eli performing ‘Pocket Full of Dust’ at the Targhee Music camp in 2014.
Rounding out the lineup is Chris Coole. The genesis of the whole idea began one night with Chris showing up at our door looking for a good place to get a beer. Turns out just about every banjo player we know likes to visit Fernie to do some fly-fishing… so we thought “why not make it a thing?” and here we are. Chris is one of Canada’s most highly regarded acoustic musicians. He cut his teeth busking on the streets of Toronto for ten years (!!) and is a foundational part of The Foggy Hogtown Boys, Canada’s Bluegrass royalty. More recently he has been supporting David Francey on tour as a multi-instrumentalist, and playing with his old-time trio The Lonesome Ace Stringband. Chris has performed in Fernie several times over the past 4 years as a solo act, with the Foggy Hogtown Boys, and most recently with the Stringband. We’re extremely excited to welcome Chris back for some fishing and picking. Below is a video of Chris performing one of my favourites; his original song ‘Old Dog’.
All tolled, this is an amazing all-star lineup that should give listeners, pickers, and fisher-people a great weekend! If you just want to catch the concerts we will have tickets available for Friday night and Saturday night concerts only for $25 for 1 night or $40 for both nights. To get in on all of the happenings including wine & cheese reception, fishing and picking workshops, fish taco feed, and hosted jams, register now for only $85.