ON STAGE
What: Blue Moon Marquee
Where: Hermann’s Upstairs, 751 View St.
When: Friday, Dec. 6, 9:30 p.m. (doors at 8:30)
Tickets: $19 at the Royal McPherson box office (250-386-6121), the Victoria Jazz Society Office (250-388-4423) or rmts.bc.ca; $22 at the door
The two members of Blue Moon Marquee have put more kilometres on their converted Dodge Caravan this year than they would care to contemplate, the third consecutive year that singer-guitarist A.W. Cardinal and bassist Jasmine Colette have effectively lived out of their van while on the road.
But there is a silver lining for the Cowichan Valley gypsy-blues band. The duo will perform Friday at Hermann’s Upstairs to raise funds for what could turn out to be the trip of a lifetime.
Blue Moon Marquee is set to represent the Pacific Northwest next month at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, where they will compete in the solo-duo category with more than 200 contestants from across the world.
Regional competitions in Canada and the U.S. send their winners to the challenge each year. “It’s basically a massive showcase,” Colette said. “Tons of artistic directors and festival bookers will be there. The whole competition thing is kind of weird and we feel a little strange about it, but to win would be incredible. It opens up so many doors.”
The Victoria Blues Society, which has sent local performers to the competition in the past, did not stage a regional competition this year, so Cardinal and Colette entered themselves into the Washington Blues Society competition in Everett, Washington, which they won after two rounds of performances. “We found out there was a 200-mile radius, so we technically could compete,” Colette said. “It was quite the journey both times, to get down there. We had all sorts of snags along the way, including overzealous border guards who almost didn’t let us through.”
They were crowned winners in September, shortly after returning home from their third tour of Europe — a pace that is anything but abnormal these days. Before settling on Vancouver Island in 2014, they were vagabonds, Colette said, working a variety of short-term jobs in a revolving-door of locations.
They left Alberta “many, many years ago” and now make their home just outside Duncan at the artist-friendly Sungoma Art Centre, a 29-acre enclave that is home to 40 residents from all walks of life.
It was after a particularly harrowing tour that took them from Calgary to Dawson City, Yukon, one snowy February that they made the move to Vancouver Island, and they have never regretted the decision, Colette said. “We found a really great community up here. It worked out perfectly. We’re hardly here. But when we’re on the porch, Sungoma is where the porch is.”
The core of the eclectic group has always been Cardinal and Colette, who are a couple off stage, too. They pick up guest players in cities along the way to complement their Tom Waits-ian, Django Reinhardt-ish sound, even when that city is Victoria.
Saxophonist Morgan Onda and keyboardist Torben Holm-Pedersen will join the band Friday for the second of two sets at Hermann’s Upstairs, profits from which will cover the costs associated with traveling to Memphis in January for the International Blues Challenge.
Being independent artists in an industry where costs mount non-stop can be difficult, Colette said, but the success of their new album, Bare Knuckles & Brawn, which topped the national blues and roots charts, has been helpful.
“The first couple of years we were together, we would take odd jobs, and have to stop playing once in a while to go and work,” Colette said. “We have both done a million jobs, but for the last four years, we’ve only played music, which is pretty amazing.
“It’s a hustle and a heavy grind, and we’re on the road constantly. It’s pretty exhausting, but really exciting and amazing. We definitely know how fortunate we are, so we’re trying to stay humble and stay grateful.”
