Home Routes

Home Routes is about enjoying music at its grass roots. In a nutshell, up-​and-​coming musicians as well as seasoned veterans perform gigs across Canada in small, intimate gatherings at people’s homes. Very community oriented. Very intimate.
Artists deliver the same show in a living room that they would present at a folk festival or a concert hall. The difference is that you’re in a crowd of 20 — 40 versus hundreds or thousands. It’s very easy to chat with the performers during the show and it’s exciting to see everything close up, like the subtle signals musicians send each other when they’re performing in an ensemble or when they do something that wasn’t planned.
Home Routes strives to bring music to rural communities. Artists are booked to perform 12 performances in one of eight circuits that include BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and the Yukon.
I lucked out this evening. A friend of a friend had an extra ticket to tonight’s performance in Calgary featuring Grant Simpson, a stride pianist/​singer/​songwriter and Kate Weekes, a guitarist/​mandolinist/​singer/​songwriter.
Attendees pitched in by bringing appetizers to share and their own drinks. Some brought chairs. After mingling for 45 minutes or so, we all headed downstairs around 7:30 to the hosts’ music room for the performance.
What’s neat about Home Routes is that 85% of your ticket price goes to the artist. The series runs mostly on the generosity of volunteer hosts and the community pitching in when they attend. The remaining 15% goes towards administrative costs, such as maintaining the website and booking-​related costs.
It was too bad the piano was badly out of tune. It was one of those small console uprights that was against the wall. That’s fine for practicing and impromptu performances but it should have been tuned for this performance.
Grant’s strength lies in his storytelling and his lyrics. «Stalin’s Tango» was a witty way to present Stalin’s betrayal by Hitler and his ensuing revenge. «Watch Sylvia Ride» was an inspiring song about a spunky, petite cowgirl who trekked up north with her kids, picked up some homeless kids along the way and ran a ranch. The duets with Kate showed off their chemistry well.
Grant isn’t so strong in his technical and musicianship skills. His music lacked rhythmic, harmonic, dynamic and tonal variation. Perhaps it was his set selection for the evening. Either way, Maestro would have left the room had he attended.
Kate was the star of the show. She recently returned from a string of gigs in Japan. Her songs have beautiful lyrics, melodic lines, while her chords and harmonic rhythms were more varied. She has a very sweet and down to earth singing voice.
I enjoyed all her songs enough to race up the stairs to plunk down my $ 20 for her debut CD. «Land Shaping the People» is her song inspired by paddling 740+ km in the Yukon. It was very easy to envision the river and the trees peppering the landscape for as far as the eye could see. Another favourite was «Red Lantern» which is about leaving a light on for the last dog musher in a race.
The hosts’ home was lovely. They’ve done a good job decorating. It was an treat to just be there. The food was good but then, home-​made appetizers usually are.
I give 5 stars for the concept and set-​up of the program but 3.5 stars for tonight’s performance, which would give it an overall rating of 4 stars.
Tickets are $ 15/​concert, which is extremely reasonable. They also do season subscriptions. Since this is community-​based, they don’t really advertise. Word of mouth is their strongest asset. However, I’m sure if you call or email the Home Routes team, you can arrange to attend an upcoming performance.