Live at the Rogue
PAUL PIGAT'S BOXCAR CAMPFIRE
& THE ROCKET REVELLERS
Originally aired October 15, 2021
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THE ROCKET REVELLERS
The Rocket Revellers formed in 2012 in Vancouver B.C. playing weekly to sold out shows in Vancouvers Historic Gastown District at the Revel Room for the last 8 years. The dance floor is packed and sounds of western swing, jump blues, gospel and rockabilly come one after another, you have to check these cats out! Members of the band are quite renowned in the roots music scene and have many credits to their names.
Lap steel & Guitar player Jimmy Roy has recorded and toured with Ray Condo & His Ricochets, Big Sandy & the Fly-Rite Boys, Jimmy Roys 5 Star Hillbillies and Petunia & The Vipers to name but a few. His weekly sunday gigs with country star Kelly Haigh are not to be missed!
Guitar virtuoso and producer Stephen Nikleva's album Square Moon release in 2017 was highly acclaimed. His work with Veda Hille, Sandy Scofield, Sarah McLachlan and many others speak to his talent. Stephen & Jimmy Roy have been playing together in many of these same bands and have an incredible chemistry!
Pianist & vocalist Mike Van Eyes is an absolute one-man wrecking crew! He does it all from early jJazz to rock 'n' roll, he is a premier boogie woogie showman! Mike has worked with The Epics, Trespassers, Herald Nix and so many others. Mike also has been gigging and recording with Stephen and Jimmy Roy for decades.
Upright Bass player Joseph Lubinsky-Mast is a busy and highly sought after player currently rockin for Petunia & The Vipers, Wooden Horsemen and the Rocket Revellers. His style and energy are infectious and top notch!
Versatile drummer Paul Townsend plays a multitude of styles ranging from western swing, rockabilly, Roma & Middle Eastern. He has toured throughout Europe and played jazz festivals in Montreal, Paris, Calgary and Vancouver.
Dynamic vocalist Dennis Brock started his roots in hometown San Francisco on the Rock scene with Kristine and Skin & Bonz before developing his passion for western swing, rockabilly and jump blues.
PAUL PIGAT'S BOXCAR CAMPFIRE
Just when you think his music is all lit up like a leaky propane tank in a fireworks factory, Pigat can bring it down to 3am embers with trouble in mind as he steps out and opens up his trunk full of Boxcar Campfire songs to romance you with.
Paul Pigat’s many fans are probably more familiar with him as the front man of the rockin’ Cousin Harley band. You might think that acoustic music is a new diversion for the already multi-talented Vancouver musician. Not so. His love for this type of music started back in high school when he discovered the genius of Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. But not everyone is familiar with this side of Paul … that of emotive singer-songwriter.
Paul Pigat’s Boxcar Campfire CDs are collections of songs about love, heartbreak, and redemption; mostly self-penned tunes along with a handful of creatively arranged covers. At one end of the scale are light hearted ditties, and on the other, dark fantasies of the mind. Although laced with tasteful musicianship, the recordings are a departure in the sense that the songs rather than the playing are the main feature.
Originally created as a way of “bringing it down a bit”, Boxcar Campfire has taken on a life of its own as a recording and touring project. It allows a more reflective and insular shade of Pigat’s creativity to come into play. Those with sharp ears will hear snatches of everything from Debussy to Jimmy Rogers blues inflections thrown into the mix, but — as always — the sounds Pigat creates are all his own. With long gone days of railroad steam trailing out back of his head as he sings of possums in the pot and holes in his heart, this music gets you in the mood to hit the open road.
Paul Pigat started playing the guitar at 11 years of age and was gigging steadily in downtown Toronto by the time he was 12. Through a lifetime dedication to live performance, recording and study he has developed into a superb instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and instructor, with an acute fondness for vintage guitars and amps. As well as headlining his own shows, Paul has appeared and/or recorded with Neko Case, Jim Byrnes, The Sojourners, Carolyn Mark, Ndidi Onukwulu, Michael Kaeshammer, Zubot and Dawson, CR Avery and many more.
Paul’s style is deeply rooted in the playing of Les Paul, Merle Travis, Doc Watson and Mississippi John Hurt, with a modern twist to create a style that is exhilarating in its intensity, at the same time both fluid and precise. His creative use of tone and dynamics is a hallmark of everything he plays. His superb talent as a guitarist is matched by his songwriting and his vocal abilities; a warm baritone equally at home singing flat-out rockers and or laid-back folk songs.