Ukulele powered Fort St. John folk/ roots duo Twin Peaks visit Lethbridge for the first time — on May 16 when they visit the Owl Acoustic Lounge.
The duo, featuring pianist/ ukulele player Naomi Shore and ukelele player/ guitarist Lindsay Pratt, placed in the Top 24 out of 4,500 band competing in this year’s CBC Searchlight competition on the stre
ngth of their debut full length album “Trouble” which was just released on May 3.
They released their debut Ep in 2012.
“We got a lot of play on CBC, so that’s a good sign the album will do well,” observed Naomi Shore enjoying a day off from touring in Saskatoon.
This is the first time they have toured outside of B.C. and Alberta. Usually they begin their tour in their home town of Fort St. John and head south into Fernie, out to the west coast and back. This time they are taking a different route and going to Winnipeg.
“ I have a lot of family out there, so it made sense to go there and turn around,” she said.
Their Lethbridge visit will be the first time they have played Southern Alberta.
“Our style is folk and roots music, but there is a lot of bluegrass instrumentally on the album because we met a group called the Cumberland Brothers from Cumberland B.C. at a music festival on Vancouver Island,” she said.
“ We jammed with them and decided to record with them. They play stand up bass and banjo— all of those fancy instruments Lindsay and I don’t play,” she continued.
“ But in real life we’re not so much bluegrass,” she said adding the duo focuses on vocal harmonies for their live show.
“ We both play ukuleles, but the show is more about the harmonies,” she said.
“ Ukuleles are easy to play and they’re fun to play and you can bring them on a plane,” she continued.
“ We used to tour with our guitar player, but her got a real job with health benefits,” she said.
She said they play two different kinds of ukuleles.
“ A friend of mine gave me a ukulele she found at a garage sale for a dollar. She said she didn’t know what it was and asked if I wanted it. It had no strings, so I took it to a music store to get strings on it. But it wasn’t like Lindsay’s, but they harmonize together. It’s tuned like a guitar, but it only has four strings.”
The tour is going well so far. They sold out their hometown theatre to open it up, but only have 10 people at their show in Saskatoon.
“It’s the Lido, an old theatre they turned into a music venue. It seats 300 people and we sold it out,” she said.
“We’re hoping more will come. Lindsey has played ukulele for a long time and also plays guitar. I play piano, so we have different instruments to choose from. And we’re both pretty funny, off the cuff people, so the banter between us is a big part of it. there is lots of interaction with the audience. We like to keep people engaged,” she continued.
Twin Peaks play the Owl Acoustic Lounge at 9 p.m. There is no cover for the show.
