{"id":23228,"date":"2019-03-15T12:40:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T16:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23228"},"modified":"2019-03-21T18:04:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T22:04:48","slug":"soulstack-gets-ready-to-take-the-stage-at-saturdays-blues-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/soulstack-gets-ready-to-take-the-stage-at-saturdays-blues-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"Soulstack gets ready to take the stage at Saturday\u2019s Blues Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their individual musical influences span some thirty\nyears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They approach music from different directions, with\ndifferent styles, and, perhaps a different drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, when the band Soulstack comes together, they\u2019re\nunited by the same goal: to deliver a visceral experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By their own admission, they\u2019re \u201cover the top\u201d and\nproudly so, and this Saturday they are preparing to blow the roof off Theatre\nAurora on the final night of the Aurora Winter Blues Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Winter Blues Festival, a venture of Music\nAurora, takes over Theatre Aurora this Friday and Saturday, March 15 and 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday night\u2019s performance, which runs from 8 \u2013 10.30\np.m. will feature JW-Jones and the Jerome Godboo Band while Saturday night will\nshowcase Soulstack along with the Johnny Max Band. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soulstack, which has its roots as a cover band, now makes\na concerted effort to shy away from what drummer Tom Bona describes as \u201cthe\nclich\u00e9s.\u201d Having released their first album as a group, Big Red, in 2012, they\ntake the concept of originality seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2012, they have been hailed as a \u201cfinely tuned\nmachine burning down the highway from Detroit-influenced fuzz-tinged rootsy\nrock\u2019n\u2019roll to swampy Alabama soul,\u201d but Mr. Bona describes their approach more\nsuccinctly: \u201cWe play the shit out of our instruments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an age range of about 30 years; there are about\nthree decades of musical influences that come into the band,\u201d says Mr. Bona.\n\u201cThe bass player (Darryl \u2018Harpo\u2019 Peterson) is a little bit older, (vocalist,\nguitar player) Jon Knight is a little bit younger and I\u2019m in the middle. When\nwe set forward to create material or play material, it is not coming from five\nguys who went to high school together and all listened to the same music; it is\ncoming from a wide range of musical influences and that\u2019s what I think makes\nSoulstack unique, that wide-range that comes in and becomes one. Everyone\ncontributes their own style and influences and they turn it into something it\ncould never have been otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Bona\u2019s own influences run deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was attracted to the drums from a very young age.\nAlthough his mother wanted to enroll him in piano lessons, he knew his place\nwas behind the drumkit. He describes his stylistic roots as being more pop than\nblues, particularly Joe Porcaro whose collaborations include everyone from\nFrank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney to Joe Cocker and Harry Connick, Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think what happens with a lot of bands is they play in\nbars and [focus on] cover tunes and a lot of bands all play the same songs,\u201d he\nsays. \u201cThey will do a Tragically Hop song, or Brown Eyed Girl, and we\n(Soulstack) never had to talk about that because we knew we never wanted to\nplay those songs seriously. We play music that comes from our heart and soul\nand it effects people differently because everyone says, \u2018Wow, you\u2019re so\ndifferent from any other band we\u2019ve seen.\u2019 That\u2019s why we don\u2019t play the\nclich\u00e9s. We play from our own influence, which combine to make something\nincredibly unique because we\u2019re never trying to copy some other song or music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout their years as a band, Soulstack has brought\ntheir unique style to venues large and small, racking up an impressive list of\nawards and nominations along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of how big their trophy case is, Mr. Bona says\nthat when they play smaller festivals like the Aurora Winter Blues Festival, it\naffords them a chance to get to know a community \u2013 and their audiences \u2013 a bit\nbetter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the bigger towns, you just kind of show up and you\ndon\u2019t get a sense of community by any means,\u201d he says. \u201cWe did about 100\ntheatre shows across Canada and at the end of our theatre shows, we went out to\nthe lobby and as people filtered out, it gives [performers and audiences] the chance\nto share their experience. The audiences actually get the chance to tell\nsomebody they just saw the person who may have inspired them musically, or\nmoved them. That is what I really like about those smaller venues and events\nbecause you can really connect with the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To connect to Soulstack or any of the other bands\nparticipating in this year\u2019s Aurora Winter Blues Festival, come out to Theatre\nAurora this Friday and Saturday. For further information, including tickets,\nvisit musicaurora.ca\/blues-festival.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Their individual musical influences span some thirty
\nyears. They approach music from different directions, with
\ndifferent styles, and, perhaps a different drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-62E","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 14:16:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}