There is no place like home for guitarist Kevin Breit to launch his latest CD, and there is no better place to see him.
Taking the stage at the Elora Centre for the Arts on June 7, the show will be a rare opportunity to be up close and personal with Breit in his most natural state, playing music.
“The CD was initially launched at Hugh’s Room in Toronto,” said Breit. “I thought it would be a great idea to do a launch here too.”
Though he’d never tell you himself, Breit has garnered multiple awards and accolades. He has performed on recordings that have earned 10 Grammy Awards.
Considered a “guitarist’s guitarist,” Breit has recorded with Norah Jones, Rosanne Cash, k.d. Lang, Hugh Laurie, Holly Cole, Amos Lee, Jane Siberry, Molly Johnson, Serena Ryder, Natalie McMaster, Jane Bunnett and many others.
Breit is also a member of the popular all-male quartet, Sisters Euclid, whose album Run Neil Run received a Juno Award for best instrumental recording in 2006. Breit is also part of the trio Folkalarm, recording five CDs and touring throughout Canada.
Breit paired with blues musician Harry Manx, together winning the Maple Blues Award for Acoustic Act of the Year in 2007. He is also part of the Stretch Orchestra, a band that was awarded a Juno for Best Instrumental Recording in 2012.
In Field Recording, Breit invokes the talents of the mysterious Upper York Mandolin Orchestra, giving credit to producer and arranger Thomas Dooley III. True Breit fans will be quick to uncover the mystery at the performance.
“The band isn’t coming,” he said of the 100-year-old Upper York musicians. “They won’t all fit into the Elora Centre for the Arts.”
Audiences will appreciate why these musicians needn’t bother to show up after seeing Breit master the performance.
He jokes, “I am just a mere conduit. I wrote the songs and I played the songs.”
The art centre performance will be backed up by bassist Russell Boswell, who has played with John McDermott, Mary Margaret O’Hara and Corey Hart.
“Russ has played with everybody,” Breit said. “I’m excited to have him join in.”
On drums will be Breit’s brother Garth, an acclaimed musician in his own right who has toured with David Wilcox, Long John Baldry and in the Breit Brothers band.
“The show will be music from Field Recording,” Breit said of the album recorded in his private studio over a period of five months.
“It’s a mandolin orchestra,” Breit said, noting the album features 11 songs with himself on vocals, accompanied by mandolins, mandocellos and mandolas.
“It’s difficult music,” said Breit, who wrote all the songs and orchestration for the album. “It’s for an orchestra of mandolins.”
Describing the album as “thought provoking” with “sometimes quirky lyrics,” Breit has created an album that is as unique as he is. It includes the background vocals of fellow Elora artists Gwen Swick and Trudy Artman.
Through the summer Breit will take Field Recording on a tour to venues throughout Canada, including festivals such as the Frost Bite Musical Festival in Whitehorse.
The June 7 performance at the Elora Centre for the Arts begins at 8pm. Tickets ($20 in advance, $25 at the door) are available at Box Social, the Elora Centre for the Arts or via clairemce@yahoo.com.
For more information, visit www.kevinbreit.com.
