For the past few years, musician Jim Byrnes has made a pilgrimage to Squamish from Vancouver to visit an old friend and put on a show. This year is no different. He'll be performing at the Brackendale Art Gallery on Saturday (Oct. 2) at 8 p.m.
"It's sort of a yearly pilgrimage I make in the fall," Byrnes said. "I love coming up there."
Part of the draw to Squamish comes from the fact that Thor Froslev, the proprietor of the art gallery, and Byrnes have a relationship that goes way back.
"Thor and I are old friends," Byrnes said. "I refer to [the Brackendale Art Gallery] as the hall with the mountain king."
But Froslev isn't the only person, or reason, for making the trip up the winding Sea to Sky Highway. Byrnes runs into people he used to know from the city who have moved up to Squamish. "I often see a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time," Byrnes said.
And of course, there's always the music.
This year, Byrnes is bringing two newer faces with him. Steve Dawson, a "guitar virtuoso," and Jesse Zubot, who plays the fiddle and mandolin, will be performing with Byrnes. Both, like Byrnes, are Juno winners, and worked with him on a CD called Fresh Horses, which came out last March.
"They're half my age," Byrnes said. "There's great energy [with them].
"I just let them make me look good."
Working with younger musicians has impacted Byrnes' music.
"I love it. It's really refreshed me in a way," he said, noting he has a new energy.
The album, Fresh Horses, is a throwback to his earlier performing years - a return to the folk acoustic style, which over the years Byrnes abandoned in favour of a big blues band format with instruments like horns and electric guitars.
Now, "I'm sort of looking forward and looking back at the same time," Byrnes said.
He said he started as a "folkie" at his first show in 1964, and has returned to sort of feel with the new album. He has been writing some new material with a black gospel musical style as well. But despite any evolution in sound, the blues music is still foremost in Byrnes' style.
"My music is blues-based, and it always will be."
At the show on Saturday, Byrnes will be primarily playing a Gibson L-5, built in 1948 - "the same year as me," he said.
He plans on performing some Bob Dylan tunes as well as original pieces.
Born in St. Louis, Byrnes has been living in Vancouver since the 1970s. Not only a musician, he is known for his stint as Joe Dawson on Highlander, and has performed in the television show Cold Squad and the CBS drama Wiseguy.
He won a Juno Award in 1995 for best Blues/Gospel Album, called That River.
