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Pharis and Romero back for Island shows

IN CONCERT What: Pharis and Jason Romero Where: Upstairs Cabaret, 15 Bastion Square When: Sunday, May 13, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7:30) Tickets : $25 at eventbrite.
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Pharis Patenaude and Jason Romero, who met in 2007, have built a successful partnership.

IN CONCERT

What: Pharis and Jason Romero
Where: Upstairs Cabaret, 15 Bastion Square
When: Sunday, May 13, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7:30)
Tickets: $25 at eventbrite.ca; $28 at the door
Note: Pharis and Jason Romero also perform Friday in Duncan at the Cowichan Performing Arts Centre and Saturday on Salt Spring Island at the PitchFork Social

When singer-guitarist Pharis Patenaude lived in Victoria, she was part of a burgeoning folk music movement around the city, which had support from various festivals and venues, including the Spiral Café on Craigflower Road.

The hub of activity in Esquimalt wound up playing significant role in Patenaude’s life. It was there, in 2007, during one of the café’s popular folk nights, that the Outlaw Social singer-guitarist met Jason Romero, a banjo player from Humboldt, California. The couple were married two-and-a-half months later, and now operate a pair of successful operations: J. Romero Banjo Co., a notable banjo-making outfit, and Pharis and Jason Romero, the award-winning folk duo. The Romeros also have two children together, aged two and four.

Theirs is a successful partnership, on all levels. Jason works as a luthier from a shop on their 40-acre property in Horsefly, B.C., while Pharis handles the graphic design and layout of the company’s website. J. Romero banjos are in great demand and sell for roughly $5,000 apiece, but the couple’s music is no less celebrated: A Wanderer I’ll Stay, the couple’s third record together, won them a Juno Award in 2016 for traditional roots album of the year.

“We’ve put every ounce of love and soul into this music,” Pharis said during an interview from the couple’s Cariboo property, flanked by the sound of Jason tinkering away on banjos in the background. “We’re not trying to create anything, these songs just kind of won out.”

Theirs is a refreshing approach to the music business. Despite the success of A Wanderer I’ll Stay, the Romeros occupy a spot well outside of the music industry — by choice, as it turns out. “I’m not interested in this game at all,” Pharis said. “I just want to make records. This weird ‘How do I get noticed on social media?’ thing that’s going on, both of us are distinctly uncomfortable with it.”

Pharis and Jason will have new music with them when they land on Vancouver Island for several shows this week, including a stop Sunday at the Upstairs Cabaret in Victoria. They will be joined for the tour by bassist Patrick Metzger and pedal steel player Marc Jenkins, who both appear on the new Pharis and Jason Romero recording, Sweet Old Religion. Jenkins, a bandmate of Pharis’s when she lived in Victoria, also produced the record during sessions at their Horsefly home.

Sweet Old Religion, the couple’s fourth record but first of all-original material, brings to a close a three-year gap between albums. The couple had plenty to contend with during the break, and were anything but idle. “We had our second baby, and we took a year off touring to build a new house,” Pharis said. “It was this insane year. We barely played music.”

They also endured a devastating 2016 fire that resulted in the loss of their workshop, the majority of their instruments and household goods, in addition to five banjos that were fully completed and ready to be shipped to customers. The Romeros were a month into the building of their new house when the shop fire struck, the result of an electrical short in an air compressor. The blaze resulted in $250,000 worth of damage. The couple and their children were sleeping nearby when the shop caught fire, but were unharmed.

“It was a real reset button, having that happen,” Pharis said. “But it’s a healthy thing for the soul and really puts things in perspective. Nobody got hurt. We were all fine.”

Fundraisers in Victoria and Vancouver were staged to help get the family back on its feet, and volunteer work crews pitched in to help Jason rebuild his banjo shop, which reopened within six months.

The fire is not directly referenced on Sweet Old Religion, even though the songs were all written after the incident. Facets of the harrowing experience are evident, however, though mostly in spirit, Pharis said.

“What shows up more is the overwhelming sense of connection and gratitude and love post-fire. That’s been the huge shift for Jason and I. We would never wish it on anybody to experience what we experienced, because it was madness. But the feeling at the end of it, where you realize how many people truly had our backs, was mind-boggling. That’s what I would wish for everyone in the world to experience.”

With a new house, rebuilt shop and acres of land at their fingertips, their life in Horsefly has never been better, Pharis said. She was raised up in the tiny town of 700 — her children are the sixth generation of her family to do so — and loves that she gets to return to the area after touring the world. That feeling of joy is at the core of Sweet Old Religion.

“It’s an album of love and hope and community and connections and kids on the land. A lot of happy, really big feelings went into this record.”

mdevlin@timescolonist.com