For its fifth incarnation, the Banff Community Coffee House returns Saturday (May 11), with a performance at St. George’s-in-the-Pines.
The event, which began as an effort of Volunteer Banff, had two productions in each of 2011 and 2012. This year, on its own, the coffee house hopes to grow beyond its roots, says Katherine Topolniski.
“This will be a new format, where we’re really focused on the performers and creating a valuable experience for them on our stage,” she said. “Valuing our musicians and the creative team that puts this on really only breeds an appreciative audience. We’re very much looking forward to who comes out for this event.”
The coffee house features Edmonton-based singer-songwriter Scott Cook, local musicians Lori Reid, My Invisible Friends and Elk Run & Riot, and storyteller Christine LaRocque.
“We host a touring musician, and then in turn have them host our evening,” said Topolniski, who originally founded the event and remains its producer.
“Travelling folk musician Scott Cook has played the area many times, but when he was presented with the opportunity to play the Banff Coffee House, he jumped on the opportunity over playing some of his usual haunts,” she said. “That’s a really good sign for us, it speaks to the value we’re trying to create for the performers – giving them a venue where the audience is completely captivated on the stage – and they get to play in a 130-year-old building that has been a huge part of our community, not only in religion and community-driven events, but also in music and arts and culture.”
The Outlook spoke with Cook Friday (April 28) from Prince George, where he was en route south, following a tour of the Yukon.
“It was a great time, a real eye opener,” said Cook, noting it was his first time to the territory. “They took me up to Old Crow, which is a fly-in community north of the Arctic Circle. It was cool, I met a lot of interesting folk, rode around on a snow machine – didn’t see any caribou though.”
Cook has played many times throughout the Bow Valley, he said.
“Back in the day when I used to live in Taiwan and we’d tour over here in the summers, we played Banff quite regularly then,” he said. “We were playing roots and reggae and a different kind of show. It’s been a while though. I play Canmore quite a lot.
His last show in Canmore was last year at Communitea, opening for Gabrielle Papillon and Rose Cousins. Over the years, he’s had many great experiences in the region.
“When we played Johnny Ray’s all the time, we’d try to build a crowd from scratch because it was a tourist town. We’d walk around and hand out flyers and chat with people about the show,” he said. “Sometimes even go up to the campgrounds and walk through, see who had beers on their tables and invite those people to the show.
“Hopefully they have a built-in crowd for this coffee house. It’s a nice idea what they’ve been doing, and it’s nice to be part of something rather than trying to make something happen singlehandedly.”
Cook, who plays roots folk music, has two albums under his belt, and his third – one more time around – is set to hit the streets next week.
“I just sent the files off for (one more time around), so right now I’m anxious to get them delivered, hopefully in time,” he said. “It was a long process, it was more of a stripped down album than the previous one.”
On the album Cook plays guitar and is accompanied by banjo and upright bass, a trio he now prefers touring with.
“I wanted a lot more room for the words to land, I didn’t really have a plan going into it as to what the whole record was about, but as I got into putting all the songs together, it seems to me they’re all about the same thing in one way or another,” he explained. “The record’s talking about hope and despair.
“Like anybody else, I have both, in all ways – personally, and politically, at the level of my life and the level of the planet, and everything in between. I don’t write a lot of songs, and like I said I didn’t plan it, but it’s just something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.”
Cook’s music and style will be a welcome component of the coffee house, said Topolniski.
“Scott’s a huge storyteller as well, and that’s a huge part of out night,” she said. “We want to foster diversity with our performers and we’re looking at having novice and amateur and professional artists from the Bow Valley with a professional recording artist to be our host.
“This gives the local talent the potential to learn from their shared experiences and we want to open as many doors as we can.”
In addition to being a great arts event for the community, she said, it’s also a fundraiser.
“We’re selling tickets for $15, to pay for our performers and compensate them, but also to raise money for the St. Georges-in-the-Pines historical restoration project,” she said. “We fancy ourselves as historical activists, as well as creative people, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show goes from 7-9:30 p.m. After that the party moves to Banff Avenue.
“We have the Banff Avenue Brewing Company on as a collaborator – they’re going to be hosting an after party starting at 10 p.m. – and everyone plans to come over from the show to the brew pub, so it should be an interesting night as well,” said Topolniski. “The brew pub will donate $1 from every pint sold, from 10 p.m. to close, to the historical restoration project.”
