The North Island Concert Society reduced its schedule from six events to five for the 2010-11 season. But it will make up the difference when it closes out the schedule with a double feature Saturday at Port Hardy Civic Centre.
Veteran bluesman Tim Williams headlines the society's final 2010-11 performance, which begins at 7:30 p.m. with a rare opening act. Local artists Richelle Andre and Matthew Benedict will bring their acoustic folk to the stage to kick off the evening.
Williams, a 40-year veteran of the North American roots/blues scene, will then take the stage to showcase his trademark guitar and vocal approach to the blues, from its traditional roots to its incorporation into swing, western, bluegrass, rock and roll and even Hawaiian music.
Now based in Calgary, Williams grew up in California and was inspired in his formative years by the wealth of folk, hillbilly and western swing, rock and Hawaiian music that exploded there in the 1960s.
That led to his discovery and immersion in the traditional blues of Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Son House and Blind Willie Johnson, which he continues to interpret in his own songwriting today.
A Williams solo concert is a tour of a blues memory lane with many side paths, including early country, hillbilly and bluegrass, Mexican and Hawaiian, ragtime and rock and roll.
Well-established as a master of multiple string instruments, including guitar, dobro and mandolin, Williams has produced a guitar instructional DVD and has appeared at numerous guitar and blues workshops.
He is a veteran of performance in coffee houses, concerts and festivals world-wide and has also worked as a session musician and producer since relocating to Canada in 1970.
His CDs currently in print include 2004's Passed Through Here, a complication of tracks from previously issued recordings; 2007's Songster, Musicianer, Musical Physicianer; and a pair of recordings released in 2010 — When I was a Cowboy, which harkens to his father's and uncles' music when they grew up in Montana, and Tim Williams Live - Evenings Among Friends, another re-issue of an album that had gone out of print.
Tickets for Saturday's show are $20 and are available at The Hobby Nook, Port Hardy Museum and Cafe Guido in Port Hardy; at The Flower Shoppe in Port McNeill; and in Port Alice by calling Gail Neely at 250-284-3927. More info is available at www.niconcert.ca