January hasn’t been a very busy month for Canadian folk musician Valdy.
“I took some time off,” he said from his home on Saltspring Island. “I’ve had a couple of gigs, and I’m working on my taxes – which is just not an enjoyable process – but overall it’s not been a busy month.”
However, his schedule will start to ramp up beginning on Saturday (Jan. 31), when the multi Juno Award-winner and Order of Canada recipient returns to Squamish to again host the annual Eagle Festival Wing Ding at the Brackendale Art Gallery (BAG) starting at 7 p.m.
“After that, I have three new projects that I’m going to start working on, which are a holiday album, a love song album and a jazz album,” he said.
Valdy, born Paul Valdemar Horsdal, kicked around in several different indie bands during the 60s, but really wove himself into the fabric of the Canadian music scene when the singer, guitarist and songwriter went solo. He’s most known for his hit “Play Me a Rock and Roll Song,” but over his long career he’s released 14 albums (four of which went Gold), 22 singles and been nominated for a Juno Award seven times. He’s toured the world, earned a plethora of awards, guest-hosted a late night TV talk show, had his music featured in a Steve McQueen movie, and even played a character on The Beachcombers.
But, he hadn’t recorded a real jazz album in all that time, despite his love for the genre.
“I actually cut my teeth on Henry Mancini,” he said. “And I’ve run into some really fine players both here and in Toronto, and I’ve worked with jazz musicians before, so I’d really love to record an album with some old standards.”
But there won’t be anything standard about his planned holiday offering.
“I don’t plan to just cover Christian holiday songs,” he said. “I would like to have an album that covers songs for Hanukkah, Ramadan and the holiday songs from a range of religions. I think all those songs deserve to be heard by people of other religions.”
Valdy said he might just treat the audience at Saturday’s Eagle Festival Wing Ding to some of the new material he’s been working on. “I plan to play some of the songs people know me by, as well as perhaps some new material and a few covers,” he said. “And this year I don’t have the full band with me, but I am bringing up percussionist Jim Salmon. It is always a lot of fun to perform at the art gallery… and I think people really enjoy it.”
Tickets for the Eagle Festival Wing Ding are $35 and include dinner (salad, salmon bisque and dessert) at 7 p.m., or you can just attend the concert at 8 p.m. for $20. Tickets are available at both BAG and Xocolatl.
For more on Valdy, go to valdy.com.
