WESTLOCK – Over-The-Moon, a self-described “natural acoustic” band, will take to the stage this Friday, Jan. 7, to kick off the start of the 2022 portion of the Westlock Cultural Arts Theatre Society (CATS) performance series.
After meeting at a recording session over a decade ago in Calgary, Suzanne Levesque and Craig Bignell found they shared love for acoustic music and partnered up to create Over-The-Moon, an acoustic band that aims for a “natural and organic sound.”
“We produce and record everything ourselves. We wanted to get away from computers and studio tricks so we could make everything we do acoustic and real,” said Bignell during an interview Dec. 29. “We’re not bound by any genre and we aren't concerned about being a success on radio, we just want to tell stories and write songs.”
Music is not the only thing concertgoers can expect for the first concert of the new year. The married duo will share stories about their life on the road to make the audience “feel more at home.”
“We treat our audience like a room full of friends, like if 100 people came over to our house,” Bignell added. “We just want to tell our stories and play music."
After releasing their first album in 2017, the duo began touring across Alberta before venturing across western Canada with concerts in Saskatchewan. In 2019, Over-The-Moon crossed international waters for the East Meets Western tour of China, something both Bignell and Levesque never expected to happen.
Through 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Over-The-Moon remained active by performing backyard gigs and outdoor performances to keep the good times rolling. The time not spent performing was used to create new songs for their recently released album Chinook Waltz which landed at No. 1 on folk music charts in the U.S.
After their show in Westlock, Over-The-Moon will visit the United Kingdom in February to play in England, Scottland, Wales, and Ireland.
The concert will mark the third installment of the CATS Performance Series, following Drew Gregory and the Derina Harvey Band. Country folk artist John Wort Hannam will be next on the list for the series, with a show slated for Jan. 28. For more on the performance series, visit www.westlockculturalartstheatre.com.
