Hard Folk^TM

"BeatRoutes 2011 Local Release Roundup"
Chris Gheran's .. release, Calgary, is a deceptive ode to our city. He may have been born into a white-collar middle management dead end, but Gheran fits the singer-songwriter role to a tee – a skill he no doubt honed through years of earnest dedication and busking on the streets of Calgary. If anyone is wondering why Calgary was granted 2012 Cultural Capital of Canada, send them this album.

Sebastian Buzzalino
BeatRoute, December 2011

 

 

 

Updated May 17, 2012

NEWS

• The Doctor is gonna write you a prescription for Delta Blues at Gallery House Concerts on June 8. Chris hosts. Contact Jackie for information about who else is playing at the Gallery.
• Chris will open for Indio Saravanja, winner of the Calgary Folk Music Festival Songwriting Competition, Beaver Tales, on June 10, 2012 at Ironwood Stage & Grill.

  Born in Argentina and raised in the Canadian North, this one time actor/dancer/singer from a blue collar background (see Billy Elliot) was busking in Montreal subways by the age of fifteen, performing as a street musician in Spain by seventeen, and, at nineteen, doing his first real gig in New York, courtesy of his friend Jeff Buckley. By this time he had appeared in countless dance and theatre productions on Canada’s biggest stages and realized that music was his calling. His twenties were spent learning to rock on the Canadian bar band circuit and writing prolifically until an invitation came to record and release his celebrated debut album under the Caribou Records label in 2005. Four albums later, Indio Saravanja continues to add to his well-earned Roots-Folk-Rock tag by re-acquainting himself with his South American heritage with the use of instruments such as the Andean Charango. He now resides in Southern Alberta with his wife and young child.

  Indio has been consistently featured on most national CBC radio shows since his first release, which was voted Best New Discovery of 2006 by Canada’s leading folk magazines, and his music has been on steady rotation internationally on leading college and independent stations. He has performed hundreds of concerts in Canada and abroad, and many folk festivals, the largest being the main stage of the 2007 Winnipeg Folk Festival. Three further albums have since been released: in 2009 (The Caravan Sessions) 2010 (Songster-14 Early Songs) and 2012 (Little Child) with a second release slated for late 2012 (Travel On)

  Indio has opened shows and shared stages for and with Buffy Sainte Marie, Sylvia Tyson, Josh Ritter, Fred Eaglesmith, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings, Bill Bourne, and many others. He most recently won First Place at The 2012 Calgary Folk Festival Song Competition.

  - he is a poet of the finest water, a keen observer with finely attuned literary sensibilities and a thinker of considerable substance..... Saravanja is clearly connected to the larger contemporary global zeitgeist. Big things are coming his way. (Greg Quill- Toronto Star)
• Riley Park fills with music on June 24, 2012, starting at noon.

VIDEOS

• APC Gunner music video by filmmaker Bailey Thalheimer .
• Music video Pieces of Stone by filmmaker Doug Cook.