Slocan Ramblers to make debut performance in Strathmore

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

Scheduled to pay Strathmore a visit for the first time, the Slocan Ramblers are scheduled to play at Arts on 817 concert series later this month.

Darryl Paulson, guitar player and singer for the Slocan Ramblers, said he is excited to be resuming their tour to promote their new album, as it was interrupted two years ago by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“In 2020, we had started a month-long west coast tour and we got about two shows in and basically everything shut down,” said Paulson. “We started reading online that they were capping audience sizes and gatherings below 30 people and all of our shows, they just had to start cancelling.”

With roughly a month left of shows to play, he said the bluegrass group has a little over 20 shows to play before the end of March. Audiences, he adds, seem just as excited to see them take to the stage again.

“It just feels like a little bit of normalcy even though we all know there’s still a lot left with the pandemic, but it’s nice to get back playing for live audiences again.”

Paulson said although the band did several performances in the United States, where the use of masks was not mandated, it feels unusual to be performing in Canada and experiencing a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy. 

The resumed tour is in support for their album, Up the Hill and Through the Fog, which was recorded in January of 2021, which features all original tracks, save for one Tom Petty cover. 

“That was the first chunk of time we could get into the studio and we probably recorded over two weeks and then went in for and extra (couple) days to add a few extra things,” said Paulson “It’s pretty eclectic in a sense. There’s some straight up bluegrass stuff, there’s some more boogie woogie feel, we all really liked how the Tom Petty cover turned out, we experimented with some stuff.”

For those in the back who may not have heard of the Slocan Ramblers, they are a Toronto-based band which formed in 2009. Their first album was released in 2012 and their first major tour took place in 2013. 

Paulson said the group originally formed very innocently from a handful of guys who just wanted to get together and play some bluegrass music. 

“We all met each other in Toronto and we were all fans of playing bluegrass. When you start playing bluegrass, you find out quickly who the banjo players and the mandolin players are in town and who likes the music,” said Paulson. “I was roommates with our mandolin player, our banjo player and our base player worked together, they were bike technicians. We all met up and we basically got together to play one gig. It was basically, we all just wanted to play some bluegrass.”

Those who are interested can purchase tickets to catch the Slocan Ramblers playing as part of the Arts on 817 concert series, on March 18.