Keith Floen is in between gigs at the Calgary Stampede.
As band leader and keyboardist with The Travelling Mabels — an Albertan country/folk act that includes his wife, Lana, and mother-daughter duo Eva and Suzanne Levesque — Floen knows the circuit well.
This year, the award-winning band booked four open-air shows at the Stampede, playing three at the Fluor Rope Square in the Olympic Plaza as well as at a private residence.
Last Friday, their final set in the square opened a western movie night.
“It’s always lots of fun being in the heart of the downtown,” he told The Tri-City News last week. “They’re free concerts so we tend to get all demographics out, from young ones and up.”
Their music strikes a chord in Calgary as it does in Coquitlam.
Next week, the Mabels are back on the Evergreen Cultural Centre turf for a repeat of their 2015 Music on the Grill performance.
“We had a lot of fun the last time we were there,” Floen said, noting their July 28 gathering will be “full of the usual: new music, new jokes and good banter. For those who haven’t seen the show, it’s a lot like a sit-down kitchen party.”
But Floen admits being the only man in the band can, at time, be like herding cats “but it’s great. It’s lots of fun and we get along really well.”
Their formation happened by chance.
In 2008, the Floens flew to Winnipeg after their friend, Suzanne, was nominated for her bass playing at the Canadian Country Music Awards.
During a party there by Royalty Records, all four were invited to jam despite never having previously performed as a group.
Back home, they started the quartet, The Travelling Mabels, named in honour of a blue tick coonhound that Eva had fallen in love with while in the U.S.
And since then, the Mabels have recorded three CDs — the latest being Postcards (available for download on iTunes) — toured and opened for Prairie Oyster, Ian Tyson and Charlie Major, and in 2012, were voted the ACMA Group of the Year.
This summer, the band’s got two more Alberta dates (Coquitlam is their only B.C. stop), playing at the Longstock Music and Arts Festival on Aug. 19 and for the Strathmore Music Arts Society on Sept. 8.
“I don’t notice a big difference between Alberta and B.C. crowds,” Floen said. “We just have a nice little conversation where there’s a lot of give and take. We go pretty easy.”
• Tickets to see The Travelling Mabels at the 10th annual Music on the Grill are $55 for the barbecue diner and concert, or $35 for the show only at 8 p.m. The series is presented by Greenline Dental and the Evergreen Cultural Centre. Call the box office at 604-927-6555 or visit evergreenculturalcentre.ca.
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
@jcleughTC
