Concert-goers to the final Music on the Grill show in Coquitlam will be served up 20 years worth of music from Tiller’s Folly on Saturday night.
The award-winning folk/roots band is marking the milestone by showcasing its repertoire at a string of performances this year including at the Evergreen Cultural Centre Aug. 19 (of which the “Grill” portion is already sold out).
White Rock resident Laurence Knight (bass/vocals) said the Coquitlam crowd can expect to hear favourites as well as songs from their latest album Stirring Up Ghosts and a new tune, titled The Far End of the Road.
That track, which is expected to be included on their upcoming full-length CD, is a historical tune composed by Coquitlam-born Bruce Coughlan (vocals/guitar) about the Gold Rush.
It tells the story of how miners and their families sold everything to seek fortune in California, B.C. and the Klondike — after all the good claims had gone in the mid-1800s. “They were basically slave labour until they tried to get enough money to get back home again,” Knight said.
History is a subject Tiller’s Folly enjoys singing about but the band also likes to dips into environmental awareness topics close to their heart.
Recently, it teamed up with Spirit Media to produce a music video for the Bring Lolita Home campaign in support of the Miracle March for Lolita initiatives.
Lolita — or Tokitae — was the only survivor of five juvenile orcas captured in Penn Cove, Washington State, in 1970 and has lived in a tank since then.
Tiller’s Folly is also due to perform a commissioned song about the impact of Snake River dams on the salmon runs in the Columbia River system. “Some of these dams are so cost inefficient and the southern resident orcas have been affected because of the lack of salmon,” Knight said. “It’s very sad.”
The group also hopes to cover one of Canada’s most iconic folk numbers, The Black Fly Song, written by Wade Hemsworth in 1949 about the building of a hydro-electric dam in northern Ontario, in which the river flow was reversed.
Knight said it’ll be Tiller’s Folly third time at the Evergreen. “Coquitlam treats us very well,” he said, adding with a laugh, “and the band keeps getter better and better. As with fine whiskey, we keep distilling the product.”
• Show tickets for Tiller’s Folly — with opening act Dawson Rutledge — are $35 by calling the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) at 604-927-6555 or visiting evergreenculturalcentre.ca. Music on the Grill is presented by Greenline Dental and ECC.
