By Mike Redfern

On Saturday night, May 13, the new stage at Kimberley’s Studio 64 will host its debut performance when the Jason Buie Band comes to town.

Vancouver-based guitarist, singer-songwriter Buie has been playing the blues, funk, rock and soul around Canada, Europe, the USA and Japan for the last 15 years. He has appeared with such greats as John Mayall, Jeff Healey, Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, and the legendary Powder Blues Band. His appearance Live at Studio 64 follows a series of gigs at Calgary’s The Blues Can and Edmonton’s Blues on Whyte before he returns to the coast.

Jason Buie has three CDs to his credit, the latest, Driftin’ Heart, will be released this May. His first critically acclaimed CD, Urban Blues, is still getting regular play on Galaxy and other satellite networks. He toured his second release, Live at the Blue Gator, across Europe with considerable success in 2009.

Buie plays a 1973 Fender Stratocaster that he is lucky to still own. It was stolen in a break-in in 2010 but, six years later, a blues fan who had bought it in a second-hand store and all but forgotten about it, read about the theft, called Buie, and returned it to him. Nice guy! Cleaned up and with new strings, it’s still Jason’s instrument of choice.

This concert is the fourth and last of this spring’s Live at Studio 64 series. The last two concerts, featuring the Silver Screen Scoundrels and The Sultans of String, were performed upstairs in the theatre to sell-out crowds. With this concert the series returns to Studio 64 to christen the new portable stage. It was purchased this year with the help of a grant from the CKCA, fund-raising events, and donations from local supporters, in order to improve visibility for cabaret guests seated towards the rear of the studio.

Advance tickets for the Jason Buie Band concert are $22 KAC members, $24 non-members, available from Centre 64 and online at snapdeastkootenay.com, or $26 at the door. The show starts at 8 p.m.

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