The All Saints After Dark series picks up the pace with two shows on consecutive Thursdays beginning Feb. 26.
The Sharon Bailey Band takes the stage first at the Park Drive church, performing songs from Bailey’s recently released album Turn This Thing Around, which spent two weeks on the top 10 !earshot National Folk/Roots/Blues Chart, along with artists such as William Prince, Mavis Staples and Steve Poltz, and has hit other national and international radio playlists.
Joining the Salt Spring singer-songwriter for the Feb. 26 show are the album’s producer Adrian Dolan on keyboards, violin, mandolin and background vocals, Adam Dobres on guitars and background vocals, Sam Schuette on bass and Tyler Gerow on drums.
Doors open at All Saints by-the-Sea at 6:15 with an earlier-than-usual 6:45 p.m. concert start time.
Then on Thursday, March 5, After Dark hosts Leeroy Stagger, with opening act Tommy Van Solo, also known as Tommy Van Deursen.
Stagger, from Vancouver Island, will be joined by fellow musicians Ryland Moranz from Alberta and Victoria’s Tyler Lieb (who also played on Bailey’s Turn This Thing Around).
“They will perform songs from Leeroy’s upcoming album, Pilgrimage, as well as a slew of older songs intermixed with tales and stories from the road,” states After Dark press material. “The songs rove with the acumen of ancient peoples exploring variegated landscapes, goosed along by flashes of old-school punk iconography, a kinked chord reminiscent of the harmonies and optimism of the 1960s, and raw rockin’ rhythms that shake your butt while they shake up your mind.”
Salt Spring’s Van Deursen is known as a founding member of two bands — The Boom Booms and Small Town Artillery Collective — “and has seen much of the world out of the window of vehicles on the edge of repair with a guitar in his hands.”
Showtime for the Stagger/Solo evening is 7 p.m.