Grant Stovel is best known as a radio personality on CKUA where he is co-host of Lunch Box every day during the week and on Notes From Home and on CJSR where he does a blues show, but you can see his alter ego, May 24, w
hen he comes to the Slice as drummer for Edmonton roots/ country band the Swiftys with special guests, Sean Brewer, Treeline and Shaela Miller.
“ We used to play the old Tongue and Groove years ago. I think we may have even slept there once or twice,” Stovel recalled adding he can’t wait to play the Slice.
“Every time I talk to a musician, they say they’ve played the Slice,” he said.
“ I find every time a community has a venue like that, a lot of great original acts come out of it,” he observed.
The Swiftys have been together for 10 years, though they have only released two albums.
“Swifty (frontman Shawn Jonasson) and I were just talking about that. We are getting to our average of an album every five years,” he said.
“We’v definitely put some miles on this band. There was a time we were living on the road, not sleeping and driving,” he said, adding it will be great to play with the band again.
“Swifty’s going to come out a week early and we’ll work on some new arrangements of songs from the albums and some that were staples in the live show,” he continued.
“It doesn’t feel like 10 years, it feels more like one,” he continued adding getting together has become more difficult since Swifty relocated back home to Dauphin, Manitoba.
“We have to have an excuse to get together, either to record or to do a tour,” he said.
“ His parents are there and he has two young daughters. He decided he should move out of the big city to someplace where it is more affordable to raise a family and make a living as a musician. And his parents are there to help,” he said.
“He’s also built a recording studio and he’s working for the Dauphin Country Festival. It’s an absolutely huge festival. He started volunteering there when he was 14,” Stovel enthused.
While Swifty grew up with country, Stovel, who is a prominent figure in Edmonton’s bustling blues scene did not.
“I’m the only guy I know who didn’t grow up listening to country music. My parents never listened to it. In fact I grew up thinking Buck Owens songs were Ray Charles songs, because those are the versions my dad played,” he continued adding Swifty introduced him to a lot of country music, though he observed the two genres are closely related.
“When you listen to Waylon Jennings or Merle Haggard, you can tell those guys listened to the old blues guys or jazz or pop. And when you listen to jazz music, you can hear the blues in it,” he observed.
He met Swifty through the popular blues hangout the Commodore.“Swifty actually came to Edmonton to study jazz saxophone at Grant McEwan College. And he was in Calgary band House of Pain,” Stovel said.
The Swiftys’ tour, which begins on the Thursday in Lethbridge, also brings them to Calgary and Edmonton. It will also give them a chance to mark their tenth anniversary by bringing back some former members of the Swiftys.
“It’s going to be a dream team of Swiftys members from the three piece to the six piece. So we have some friends coming down with us,” he said.
Some of them include guitarist Marc Ladouceur, bassist Moses Gregg and keyboardist Graham Guest, who is also a prominent figure in the Edmonton blues scene.
And of course, Treeline and Sean Brewer.
I’m very excited to play with Treeline and Sean Brewer is coming down. Those guys (Treeline) aren’t going to be Alberta’s best kept secret for very long,” he enthused.
“ And Graham has his debut solo album coming out soon which is songs he wrote himself,” he said.
The mini-tour is going to be a lot of fun.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re very excited to be playing. We’re really looking forward to it,” he said.
