The Fortunate Ones are on their way back to Saskatchewan.
The Newfoundland team of Catherine Allan and Andrew James O’Brien enjoyed nine shows during the first leg of their Organization of Saskatchewan Art Councils tour.
They will now be back for the second leg with a show in Humboldt on April 5.
O’Brien says that they got to see amazing places with lots of history and amazing people who were excited to hear new music.
“I’m sure it will be the same on the next leg.”
It is always a tough decision on who to bring to the OSAC’s Star’s for Saskatchewan tour but Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery Director, Jennifer Fitzpatrick says the passion, storytelling, and harmony of the Fortunate Ones made them stand out among the 15 performances they had to choose from at the OSAC Showcase.
“The fact that we have a Juno nominee is really exciting for us,” says Fitzpatrick. “People will be really pleased at the high caliber of the performance.”
Both O’Brien and Allan come from musical families which made for very influential upbringings.
“We were lucky by the time we came together,” says O’Brien. “We already had this great history lesson in great music and we brought it together.”
O’Brien started off playing solo but heard Allan singing one night with her brother who just happened to be rehearsing with O’Brien.
“Once I heard (Allan) sing...I just thought, ‘that will make everything better if she sings with me.’”
That was in 2010 with the Fortunate Ones being formed three years later.
O’Brien could not imagine doing anything else after he started singing with Allan. It was the most obvious and natural thing to do, he says.
“It just seemed like overnight when she came on board everything just got bigger and it’s been growing rapidly until then.”
Discovering what to name themselves involved a long list of possibilities, says O’Brien but looking at their career so far, they really are fortunate to be handed this amazing opportunity to play and create music, he says.
“The response has been great. We’ve just been honoured and lucky to do what we do for a living.”
Meeting new people and sharing their music is exactly what they want to bring to Humboldt, along with some crowd surfing, laughs O’Brien.
For them, the concert is a great way to put away whatever baggage they have from the day and just share in this, “communal musical experience,” he says.
“We want to make them feel they are sitting at our kitchen table.”
Just like the east coast, everyone O’Brien has met has been humble and kind and that makes them want to come back, he says.
This will be the last performance of the OSAC’s Star’s for Saskatchewan four part concert series.
The positive reaction from people after every performance has been overwhelming, says Fitzpatrick and they hope to bring the same level of high caliber performance to the next concert series starting in the fall of 2017.
