Big Hank and The Smokin’ Hot Toasters will heat things up with their concert in Parksville on April 6.
The band will play their repertoire of swing and R&B tunes, as well as wish ‘Big Hank’ Lionhart a happy 78th birthday.
“It’s also celebrating 60 years since I started singing, back in ’65,” said Lionhart. “We’ve got some new tunes since the last time we were there.”
The band includes Steve Cross, Mick Woodhouse, Steve Ranta, Dave Emery and new saxophone player Jonnie Bridgeman.
Four of the Toasters have been playing together since the mid-1980s, according to Lionhart. With some members living on the Mainland and the rest on the Island, the band will sometimes use a technology called "Far Play" that allows them to rehearse together remotely by hooking up a "little box" to their computers, Lionheart added.
With six decades of performances under his belt, he chalks up his musical longevity to “loving it and enjoying it so much”.
In that time he has played in at least a dozen bands. He formed the Toasters back in 1983 and within a few years they were opening for the Neville Brothers, John Mayall and Koko Taylor at Expo ’86 in Vancouver.
The band was a mainstay in the Vancouver A Circuit Blues Scene for the better part of 12 years. After Lionheart left Vancouver for Edmonton and then eventually Victoria, the band reformed.
He has twice represented B.C., with Mark ‘Westcoast’ Comerford, at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tenn. and in 2016 the duo made it all the way to the semi-finals. Lionheart is a member of RCA Recording Artists, and has played across Western Canada.
The show starts at 2 p.m. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. Knox United Church is located at 345 Pym St.
Tickets are $25 and are available online through Eventbrite and with cash at local retailers Close to You Boutique, Edge Outdoors and Fireside Books.
