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Getting to the musical roots

Vancouver-based folk country group, Headwater, to headline eighth annual Brackendale Bluegrass Festival
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What: Brackendale Bluegrass Festival

When: Friday, April 30, 8 p.m. to Saturday, May 1

Where: Brackendale Art Gallery

Cost: $20 each day + $10 for Saturday's jam session; $35 two-day tickets

Going into its eighth year, the annual Brackendale Bluegrass Festival seems to be gathering steam, bringing new groups from outside the community into its fold to feature during the two-day event.

The festival features an assortment of bands that fit under the loose umbrella of bluegrass, a genre with deep roots, an amalgam of country, ragtime and jazz that features fiddle, five-string banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin, upright bass and resonator guitar, coupled to create toe-tapping, twangy rhythms and melodic harmonies.

And this year, the first day of the festival is headlined by Headwater, a West Coast acoustic roots group featuring Jonas Shandel on guitar, banjo and vocals, Matt Bryant on mandolin and vocals, Tim Tweedale on steel guitar and Patrick Metzger on upright bass.

On Monday afternoon, the group was in the midst of shooting a music video for their "manly, folk-version" of Katy Perry's hit, I Kissed A Girl, which also features Shandel's $25 1981 K-Car. Sound intriguing? You should be able to check it out on YouTube in about three weeks.

Shandel and Bryant have been making music together for almost 10 years, though for the first few they were members of an electric group.

"Basically, I was playing drums and Matt was playing electric guitar and we had a bass player and a singer, and we just couldn't find a reliable singer and we were kind of playing music that audiences weren't really attracted to, because it was kind of wanky, progressive rock," Shandel said with a laugh.

They found they needed to make a stronger vocal connection with listeners, so they decided to unplug, go acoustic and take over the songwriting and vocals themselves.

"Finally, we fired our band and decided to just start writing our own songs and singing them."

The decision naturally led them to transition to an entirely new sound of country-infused folk.

"It came kind of naturally, and we worked at it pretty hard. I think because of the kind of music we were listening to - we were listening to really good songwriters, good lyricists and stuff - we just sort of took a lot from them and kind of followed the path," Shandel reflected.

These days, they find themselves listening to indie artists like Jose Gonzalez and TV On The Radio and the same classic rock artists like Peter Gabriel and Tom Petty that got them started.

Eventually, they incorporated a steel guitar and bass into the mix, with the addition of Tweedale and Metzger to the band.

"That actually helped us cement the sound together; like the country-ish sound," he said, quickly adding: "But we don't consider ourselves a country band because if you strip down the instrumentation of the songs, you've basically just got yourself like a rock song, so you could play our songs in any style.... We just happened to have picked up the banjo and mandolin and that sort of dictated the sound."

To date, the group has released two full-length albums - My Old Friend in 2006 and Lay You Down in 2008 - which explore themes of love, loss and death, subject matter that seems to translate very well with a country, folk feel.

Shandel and Bryant write separately, bringing the solid framework of each song back to the rest of the group for feedback and help with arranging. And since Metzger and Tweedale are both trained musicians, they bring a wealth of theory, skill and knowledge to the table.

With a two-year gap between their first two recordings, it only makes sense that another album should be out soon. And sure enough, their third project is already in the works; they're even hoping that established blues/roots musician Colin Linden will be producing.

But the writing process has been delayed by their touring schedule.

"We've been touring so much and being in Europe, I was just finding it hard to write so we're just now kind of coming down and taking it easy and trying to get some inspiration going in writing some new material," Shandel said.

They're preparing for a tour of Switzerland in the fall, showcasing their sound to the European audience, who seems to connect well to universality and warmth of their sound.

"People, once they hear us live, I think we really sort of woo them into something. I think the reaction is always the same from audiences."

Their recent list of gigs proves that they are, in fact, willing to play pretty much any event. Last summer, they played shows in Cowichan Bay, the Juno Awards street party, the Victoria Folk Club, Vancouver International Jazz Festival and Banff.

"Last year was a great summer," Shandel reflected.

Next up, they'll be in Brackendale, taking centre stage at the homegrown bluegrass festival that aims to cultivate an awareness and appreciation of bluegrass music.

On top of the entertainment offered up by this year's groups, Headwater, Backspin, 5 On a String, and Sue Malcolm and Highrise Lonesome, there's also a fun, collaborative component to the festival in the Slow Pitch Jam Session that takes place on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

To purchase tickets, contact organizer Cam Salay at 604-935-9434.