The unexpected duo of Doc MacLean and Albert Frost stopped in Forest Grove on their CanAfrica Blues Tour on Monday, Oct. 15, to treat an intimate crowd to their unique blend of blues.
Albert Frost, who hails from the Cape Town area in South Africa, said he first jammed with MacLean when he came through his town on one of his tours.
He said it took one minute of playing together for them to realize the collaboration worked.
“It’s basically a blues stream of consciousness,” he said. “I have an African tinge to my guitar playing and Doc is a fantastic storyteller, so we have these completely different styles that somehow work together.”
He said the contrasting styles mesh well because the musicians are never fighting for the same space.
“We both experience music as a sacred thing, so we take it very seriously and we mean everything we do and that comes across in the performance.”
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For Frost, coming to Canada for the first time and touring with MacLean has been both a whirlwind and a culture shock.
The 60-stop tour has taken the duo from South Africa to Toronto, then out east to the Maritimes before working their way westward.
MacLean, who said he’s been up and down Highway 97 for about 40 years, said it was a treat to be able to get off the highway to visit the Grove.
“It’s so nice that there’s something here and [that] you guys are doing live music. It opens more things for more people when you have a venue.”
The duo played to a small gathering of folks in the Forest Grove Community Hall, their performance completely unaffected by the small venue or the light crowd.
“We play places big and small all over two, three continents, really, from concert halls to tiny little holes in the wall, so every night is great for us,” said MacLean. “We enjoy every show.”
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Local harmonica legend Dan Thompson stepped in front of the lights to join the duo for a song.
“I’ve been dreaming about this all week,” he told MacLean during the set break.
As MacLean thanked him and signed his poster, Thompson raved about the experience.
“To play with journeymen is just a pleasure, because you know everything is going to go right, won’t be any mistakes,” and if there are mistakes, he joked they could just call it jazz.
“It was a real pleasure, I’ll tell ya.”
The show was put on by Forest Grove locals Astrid Hensey and Steve Roy of Momentum Productions.
Hensey and Roy have been putting on local shows for about eight years. Their profits have always gone to the artists and venues. They’ve never taken a penny for themselves.
“We just do this for the love of doing it and just to have live music in our community,” said Hensey.
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She said the people at the Forest Grove Community Hall are trying to book more shows and events in their venue and that they were a dream to work with.
“It’s really important to have all sorts of art in the community and we don’t get that opportunity here in 100 Mile unless somebody does it. So we’ve been doing it for years and we could really use more support.”
The best way for people to support live music and keep performers coming to the area, she said, is to simply come out to shows.
Kerry Tunnacliffe came to the show with her husband, daughter and some friends.
She said the show was “awesome” and featured “really great talent” and that “it’s worth the effort to come out.”
beth.audet@100milefreepress.net
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