Blue Moon Marquee

Blue Moon Marquee write and perform original compositions influenced by anything that swings, jumps or grooves. A.W. Cardinal (vocals/guitar) and Jasmine Colette (Jasmine Ohlhauser) a.k.a. Badlands Jass (vocals/bass/drums) have played for a vast gamut of crowds at jazz clubs, lindy hop dance halls, folk venues, blues haunts, hospitals, prisons, markets, motorcycle joints, dive bars and prestigious festival stages.

The result of 9 years of rigorous crisscrossing Europe and North America is a distinct energy & style from this acclaimed duo. Carving a path through blues, jazz, jump jive, folk, Country, swing and Indigenous soul with an authentic spirit, their sound does not idle easily in one certain category. It stomps and struts through the wilds, conjuring a blend that pulls the different parts of their musical worlds together, taking the tones of early blues, the expressions of jazz, the heart of country, the spirit of folk, the swagger of soul & the rhythm of roll

Their gift is they bring all these elements together without anything sounding out of step. They collect the roots and smoothly braid them with lyrics that often touch on the underbelly of society, woven with elements of Indigenous storytelling and poetic cadence.

Opening act: Carolyn Mark and Britt Hibbert

Carolyn Mark: I grew up on a dairy farm in Sicamous, BC with my Austrian father, my English mother and my Canadian brother. My father, an accomplished violinist, taught me how to play the piano when I was very young. He liked nothing better than to play duets with me for any visitors that happened by. Paying no heed to the musical tastes of the times or our guests, my father would perform for his hostages, launching into a favourite Dvorak or Chopin, poking me in the back with his bow if I appeared forgetful, shy or unenthused. Mortified, I longed for giant flames to eat the piano and my father.

I have since developed a more light-hearted relationship with music. My first band was The Vinaigrettes. We started as an all-girl foursome from Victoria and played together, in spite of a dizzying number of line-up changes, for seven years. We toured our pop – surf – punk – art – country – rock asses across Canada several times, but then, after a few years, Brigette, the smart one of the group, consulted an atlas and we started venturing South when we realized that Los Angeles was closer to Victoria than Edmonton – and the swimming was better! The Vinaigrettes recorded six albums, achieving a modest amount of obscurity, and broke up in 1998 due to “nervous indifference” and “creative exhaustion,” vowing to “sue the industry for abandonment,” and leaving dozens of fans mildly disappointed.