LAC LA BICHE - The BC-based trio The Washboard Union will be bringing their unique style of bluegrass, country and rootsy music to the Bold Center stage on Oct. 24.
The Lac La Biche stop is first show of the award-winning Canadian group’s 19-date ‘Grab the Wheel and Go Tour’ that will see them play gigs from northern Ontario to Vancouver Island.
The Washboard Union is comprised of Chris Duncombe on the banjo, Aaron Grain with lead vocals and acoustic guitar, and David Roberts, who is the group’s washboard and mandolin player.
Duncombe, who lives in Kelowna, says the band is looking forward to playing in Lac La Biche.
“We’re excited to come,” he told Lakeland This Week. “It’s the first date of the tour, so people are going to get to hear brand new music we’ve never played live.”
Many bands have unique and interesting names. The Washboard Union, Duncombe says, came from an old washboard that hung on the wall in the rehearsal space during the group’s early years. While the band has moved on from that first rehearsal space, the washboard has moved with them.
“It was an old washboard that we still carry today which is over 150 years old…her name is Mabel because of the grandmother who originally owned it,” he said with a chuckle, explaining that the washboard served as the rhythm section for many home-grown bands and family sing-alongs in the early roots and bluegrass music.
The group doesn’t only carry around laundry equipment, they’ve also got an armful of music awards they are proud to have earned.
The Washboard Union has nine Canadian Country Music Awards, a Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year, as well as a SOCAN Country Song of the Year. As songwriters, the members have also won 30 awards from the BC Country Music Association.
You could say the band with the washboard for a mascot has really cleaned up on the awards.
Duncombe says that while the band’s music has evolved and earned success over its decade together, they haven’t lost their roots. Duncombe says roots-based instrumentation has always been a signature part of the band’s style, with a banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar on stage.
The songs the band members write and perform, he said, are uplifting in nature.
“We sometimes call it simple music for complicated times,” he stated.
As far as the group’s musical influences are concerned, Duncombe and his bandmates have synthesized many musical sounds from the country, rock, roots and bluegrass artists that they grew up with, which has found its way into their own sound.
At the core of this sound, Duncombe added, is the group’s three-part harmony.
“From our very first days as a band, that ability for singers to be able to bring three voices together to make it sound like one always sort of made the hair on our arms stand up,” he said. “We realized that the three of us singing together you know, those were the moments we loved the most, and so we really focused on making that a central part of our music.”
To date, The Washboard Union has made four albums, with the most recent one, Westerly, being released this year. The Washboard Union, Duncombe says, was born in the mountains of British Columbia, and the essence of the band’s most recent album reflects those roots.
Once the ‘Grab the Wheel and Go Tour’ has concluded, Duncombe said, the band, who also toured all summer, plans to take a short break before heading Down Under to play a series of gigs.
“We come home for Christmas, and then we’re off to Australia,” he said.
The Washboard Union show on Oct. 24 at the Bold Centre starts at at 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online with links found at the Lac La Biche County website. Direct links to The Washboard Union's website and to ticket sales can also be found in the digital version of this story at www.lakelandtoday.ca
