SURREY — Want some music with that lunch of yours?
The “Noontime Notes” concerts are in full swing at Central City’s outdoor plaza, which looks and feels like a Canadian cottage backyard these days.
Set up in June, the temporary “PARKit 150 pop-up park” celebrates Canada’s 150th birthday with a fixed canoe, painted lake, beaver dam, picnic tables, Adirondack chairs and other elements created by North Vancouver-based landscape artist Amy Tsang.
The “wooden dock” doubles as a stage for “Noontime Notes,” a new concert series launched on July 4 and held every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Last Wednesday (July 19), people gathered to eat lunch in the midday sun and listen to music made by guitar-strumming Blake Havard, a Kitsilano resident who’s been active on the local scene for a couple of decades.
“I have been pushing my single ‘Wanted to Believe You’ to radio for a few months,” Havard told the Now-Leader. “Julian Tuck added it to CBC Country on Sirius XM Radio and it received some play across Canada. I have sent it to U.S. stations as well, and it is beginning to get some play. Breaking things in for the next single.”
Performers booked for the series will play pop, jazz, country, bluegrass and other styles of music, until Aug. 24.
This week’s performers are Chris Rolin (guitar-based jazz on Tuesday, July 25), Whiskey Minstrels (Nolan Murray and Bruce Coughlan playing Celtic/bluegrass/Canadiana, on Wednesday) and Emily Taylor Adams (country/pop, Thursday).
Next week, the featured musicians are Bruce Coughlan (variety, Aug. 1), Karen Lee Batten (country, Aug. 2) and Pat Chessell (Irish/country tunes, Aug. 3).
Other artists on the “Noontime Notes” calendar in August include GB Roots, Brian Zalo, Rollin’ Train Wreck, John Gilliat and Geoff Gibbons; Havard returns to the stage on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
The full schedule is posted at centralcity.ca/noontime-notes.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
