It’s our 199th show and to wrap up our 25th edition, the Viree Blues Moosehead team features none less than Canada’s Queen of The Blues! Nominated “Best Performer of the Year” four years in a row (2013 to 2016) at the Maple Blues Awards, the top Awards of Canadian Blues, our next guest is once more considered this year for a 5th title, as well as “Entertainer of the year”. It’s on next January 15, on the gala’s 21st edition that we’ll learn if this title-holding record will be shattered ... by her ... who already owns it! Angel Forrest chose to come visit us with two of Canada’s top guitar virtuosi, Denis Coulombe & Ricky Paquette, with whom, by the way, will represent the Quebec at the prestigious Memphis International Blues Challenge.
Grand Lady of The Blues with an international career of some 30 years, all around Quebec, Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, Japan and Morocco, with 9 recorded albums, Angel Forrest, often compared to Janis Joplin and to Melissa Etheridge, always had “The Blues” streaming through her life and through her music. In 1996, she started her musical career with a first album “Secondhand Blues” consisting of many Blues classics. But it’s during an tribute performance which was to revisit the legendary Janis Joplin’s repertoire that the public truly took notice of her power. She then decided to immortalize her performance on an album titled “Angel Sings Janis Live” (1997).
“Etrange ce qui derange” (2001), and a first recording of her own compositions in English, titled “Here For You” (2005), followed, of which she sold 30 000 copies. Three other albums followed among which her Christmas album, “Wonderland” (2007), 7 singles of which played non stop on Rouge Fm and on Rythme Fm. Then, two others followed: “Come Alive”(2010) and “Mother Tongue Blues”(2014), this one named “Album of the Year” in Quebec and in nomination for a similar award in Canada. In 2015 she recorded “Live love” followed by the Concept production “Angel’s 11"(2016) where she performs 11 original compositions with 11 of Canada’s top guitarists she worked with during her career. This album was not only awarded the Maple Blues Award for “Recording of the year”, but the award for “songwriter of the year” as well!
Fiery, electrifying, passionate, this spirited artist sings giving her all like no one. More entrancing than ever, Angel Forrest, with her powerful and husky voice, her poignant renderings, her harsh voice texture and her extraordinary charisma won the hearts of thousands of loyal fans all over the planet. She could be seen performing at festivals throughout Canada and Europe among which the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Tremblant Blues Festival, Blues sur Seine, the Edmunston, Victoriaville, Trois-Rivieres as well as Kuujjuaq Blues Festivals. She also had the chance to share the stage with many artists like Jarvis Church – The Soul Station, The Beach Boys, Burton Cummings, Shawn Phillips, Thornetta Davis, Larry McCray, Eric Burdon, Dennis DeYoung – Styx among others.
For those who don’t know her guest ... a native of our region, let’s say that he has been present in Viree Blues World since the very beginnings but could not be featured in our standard venues to perform his first show as he was too young, so not the legal age to be accepted in bars yet! So we organized a first, a “Sortie Viree Blues” outside so that we could still feature his super talent. He was with us as well when we started at Bar Le Petit Chicago in 2010. In spite of dazzling career successes, he chose to retire from the Blues stage to explore other horizons ... rockier ones ... Some among you probably heard of a certain Ricky Laurent, a performer from the Outaouais, which had been chosen to replace Aerosmith’s lead singer, until legal disputes wrecked the plan. Indeed, it was the very same Ricky! After much successes touring through Quebec, Canada and the United States, after having opened with his band for shows by Johnny Winter, Babe Ruth, Bruce Cockburn, Steve Hill, Finger Eleven, Frank Marino, CCR, James Cotton, Colin Linden, Krash Karma and Buddy Guy to name only those and after having worked with many artists, he decided to carry on with both promising careers: One under the name Ricky Laurent, a promising rock artist on English stages and the second, that of always, that of the youngest Blues Legend on the Blues stage to this day and one who shall keep performing at Viree Blues Moosehead: Ricky Paquette. Always full of catching energy, our young prodigy with his faultiness technique and out of common versatility is not walking away from his first passion, The Blues which brought him multiple always more prestigious awards and fame and recognition from his peers and most importantly from his fans. For the past few years, Ricky Paquette has started working with artists like Angel Forrest on her Angel’s 11 project and he is now the guitarist of Leboeuf-Deschamps as well as of Martin Deschamps.
Still as passionate as on her debuts, Angel Forrest with her life partner and guitar virtuoso, Denis Coulombe and with Ottawa region’s guitar star, Ricky Paquette, wrap up this 25th edition of Viree Blues Moosehead, on Wednesday, December 13, 2017, around 8h00 p.m. at the famous Bar Le Petit Chicago, 50 Promenade du Portage, in Old Hull. A reviving music break in the middle of the week! Unfortunately, VIP tickets (reserved places to the show) have been “sold out” for a month, and general admission last week, but general admission tickets are still available at the door, always for only 20$. You can also take advantage of our profitable, practical and so pleasant Diner & Show package, at Outaouais’ #1 restaurant, according to TripAdvisor, Chez Fatima (www.chezfatima.ca), with it’s excellent and generous morocan cuisine, just one block from Le Petit Chicago, which will also reserve your places at the show for the price of a regular ticket, by making reservations at 819-771-7568. But as only very few packages are still available, you must act quickly. In the meantime, you can find supplementary information on our guest by visiting: www.angelforrest.ca or www.rickypaquette.com . You should also visit our own web site which provides you with links to all of our guests sites and lots of other most interesting information at: www.vireeblues.ca . For inquiries, please do get in touch with us at: info@vireeblues.ca . Be sure to get all the up-to-the-minute information on this show by taking part in the facebook event for this show at: www.facebook.com/events/1974285586180818/ and please do join and “like” us on our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/vireeblues . Then, we hope to see you all on our 26th edition of Viree Blues Moosehead for our 200th show in February!
