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New Video!
If you'd like a taste of the Wheaties in action at a recent St. Patrick's Day concert, check our Blue Frog video!
Over A Quarter Century of High Energy Folk-Funk Fusion!
Kootenay Folk! Please JOIN US on Saturday, January 21st at 7:30 pm, for a rollicking midwinter Kootenays concert of insanely great folk music tunes and songs from around the world!
On that night, we are invading Kootenay River Secondary School Auditorium, at 223 18th Ave. in Creston, for our first major concert of the year. This concert, our first in Creston, will kick off a wild Celtic celebration season honouring Robbie Burns Day, and continuing through "Irish New Year's Eve" (aka. St. Patrick's Day) in March.
However, a big focus at this concert will be on the Slavic side of our repertoire, epecially the many Ukrainian folk tunes and circle dances which we have arranged and performed for many years. This year, we have some new ones done in our usual irreverent style. Slava Ukraini!
Come prepared for a rousing revue of the best of our tunes from the past 25 years, along with some great new topical songs and instrumentals. Some of our original numbers have evolved so radically over the past two decades, you might not even recognize them! Folk music truly is a living, breathing creature — in our case, breathing fire~~~!
And, of course, we'll have ample quantities of our recent CDs including After The Battle, our third, and our fourth, Can't Draw the Curtain. See our Discography page for samples.
ADVANCE TICKETS are available online from The Creston Concert Society (incuding some great discount packages) or in Creston at Kingfisher Books (250-428-0553), or at Fly in the Fibre (250-402-6072).
Single Tickets are $25 for adults or $12 for 18 and under. Doors open at 6:30 pm, concert starts at 7:30 sharp.
Hope we see you there!
The Year in Review
What a great year this has been! We played a some great St. Patrick's Day gigs, including the legendary Blarney Stone in historic Gastown. What a night that was! Thanks too, to the fantastic troupe of Irish dancers , Eire Born, whose terpsichorian fireworks lit up the room to complement our high energy Celtic music throughout the evening.
This is a real milestone year for us! The Wheat in the Barley played its first ever Celtic and Slavic tunes at a seaside pub in White Rock a little over 27 years ago, and to celebrate these decades of doing unspeakable things to fiddle tunes, we gave a special concert and threw a party last year on June 25th in White Rock.
Of course it would have to be at our favourite venue, the White Rock Elks Club, where we've also graced the stage in their fine upstairs lounge many times over the years.
We were delighted to have two new friends join us for the concert, calling themselves St. Cecilia, who sang a very moving set in the first half of the show. These fine singer-songwriters graced the opening set on harp and guitar, and added a very special flavour to the evening's festivities.
It was especially gratifying that, also in April, the band was honoured by White Rock City Council with a special plaque commorating these past 20 years of playing great traditional (and not so much) acoustic music for so many live music events throughout White Rock and the surrounding communities. White Rock, we love you too!
Over the past dozen years we have had the honour to perform at some wonderful events all across western Canada. Major concerts in 2014 in Princeton and Osoyoos, on Cortes Island, at Char's Landing in Port Alberni, in Langley, Clearwater, Revelstoke and Kamloops, culminated in 2014 with a rollicking mainstage appearance at the fabulous Canmore Highland Games. Can't wait to return, with our kilts on!! On the way home, we stopped to play an exciting evening in at the St. James Gate Irish Pub in Banff. Now that was a righteous road trip!
The biggest highlight of our tours in 2015 was a sold-out concert on May 1st at the gorgeous Kelowna Civic Theatre, situated right on the lake shore, where we were given a rousing welcome from nearly a thousand excited new fans. One of them happened to be ace photographer Guy Scott, who kindly gifted us a huge file of live action shots, a few of which you'll find on our media pages.
Concert Highlights from 2016:
Sunday June 26th, 2016: We were honoured to be part of the closing act as the Dovbush Dancers presented MOSAIC, an exciting evening of Ukrainian dance and culture.
Friday July 1st: Canada Day!
Historic Sicamous threw a huge Canada Day party on the warm sandy shores of beautiful Shuswap Lake, to celebrate their town's colourful local history. The Wheaties were there on the main stage to bring everyone a taste
of the best in Canadian folk music from coast to coast to coast, and beyond.
Wednesday July 13th: We were delighted to give a free outdoor concert at Trout Lake Community Centre, as part of the Vancouver Parks Board's summer concert series. What a great time to have a family picnic in the park while you listen to a live concert!
BC Day Weekend: We once again headlined at the 30th annual White Rock Sea Festival, on the main stage on the beach. What a great summer it was! And on into the fall and spring, we are back into our school concert season.
See you soon!
The Wheaties