Tiller’s Folly - Canadian folk band stirs up ghosts at McKenzie

Tiller’s Folly

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets — $6 for EOU students with IDs, $13 for general admission — are available at the EOU Bookstore and Sunflower Books.

For more information, call 962-3704.

The band is currently playing an instrumental role in the BC150 Rivermania festival. The event honors the Fraser River and its people and communities and recognizes the 200th anniversary of Simon Fraser’s historic Fraser River journey.

The celebration started Aug. 24 in Prince George and ends in Steveston, B.C., Sunday, which is also B.C. Rivers Day with Tiller’s Folly playing concerts of its trademark historical bluegrass at the beginning, the end and many points along the way.

Tiller’s Folly features multi-instrumentalist and La Grande native Nolan Murray.

River communities will host events that honor Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal history and culture. From pit cook demonstrations and drumming circles to lantern festivals and live musical performances by Tiller's Folly, BC150 Rivermania is pulling out all the stops.

The band’s new album, “Stirring Up Ghosts,” brings to life such memorable historical characters as Gassy Jack, who ran a landmark bar on the Vancouver, B.C., waterfront. Also making an appearances is a character well known to Tiller’s Folly fans, the rabble-rousing miner Ned McGowan.

The band combines music with a goal of fostering awareness of Pacific Canadian culture, history and the colorful characters of the region.

The new album’s opening song, “The Ghost of Simon Fraser,” is a lively ballad that tells of the explorer’s trip 200 years ago.

The compelling “Songs and Stories of Historic British Columbia,” as the album is subtitled, give plenty of room for the trio to show off their Celtic/folk talents. Resident historian and vocalist Bruce Coughlan began writing songs about the province to fill a void, and the band has been going strong ever since.

Bassist/producer Laurence Knight completes the trio whose folk songs are said to echo works by Stan Rogers and Gordon Lightfoot.

The band has seven albums under its belt, and in July was invited to perform at the Canada Day party in Ottawa, where it sung “Lost Together” with Blue Rodeo.