Red Ride Tour with Nick Sherman
By Michelle McChristie
On May 16, a collective of Aboriginal musicians will hit the road, taking their showcase of artists across the country in what is described as an eclectic community of culture. From a cellist and violinist to a guitar god and grunge goddess, Red Ride Tour: The 4-Way will embark on a two-week tour across Turtle Island from Vancouver to New York City, with a stop in Thunder Bay.
The tour is anchored by singer-songwriter/classical grunge rocker Kristi Lane Sinclair and compose/cellist Cris Derksen. Sinclair was raised on grunge in the backwaters of British Columbia, and her musical roots are reflected in her sophomore album The Sea Alone—an intoxicating mix of grunge, folk, and classical. In her low, hard-edged vocals, Sinclair sings about heartbreak, great loves, and the sea. She has earned two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations and has had two songs from her latest album chart on both Earshot! and the National Aboriginal Music Countdown. Derksen is a Cree cellist and composer known for building layers of sound into captivating performances. Weaving her traditional classical training and her Aboriginal ancestry with new school electronics, she creates genre-defying music. Derksen’s critically acclaimed debut solo album, The Cusp (2010), won the 2011 Canadian Aboriginal Music Award for instrumental album of the year, and was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award, and an Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award. Her sophomore album The Collapse was released in 2013.
“This is our fourth year in a row taking indigenous acts on the road across Canada, and each year it grows,” said Sinclair, the brainchild behind the Red Ride Tour. During different stops on the tour, Sinclair and Derksen will be joined by acclaimed Aboriginal musicians, such as Juno Award-winning rocker George Leach, and, in Thunder Bay, singer-songwriter Nick Sherman.
The Red Ride Tour stops at the Apollo on May 24. For details visit redridetour.com.
