On March 25, Winnipeg-based Dirty Catfish Brass Band (DCBB) are bringing their horns (and other instruments) to Fort Frances for the penultimate show of the 2024-25 Tour de Fort passport season.
When some people hear the term “brass band,” their mind might go to a Salvation Army-style band playing Christmas carols on the corner by their red kettle. But according to band member and multi-instrumentalist Kyle Wedlake, that’s not the sound DCBB will be bringing to Fort Frances as they tour across Northern Ontario.
“If you hear ‘brass band,’ we’re like a New Orleans-inspired brass band, so not an English Brass Band,” Wedlake said.
“We’re not going to be sitting down and playing classical brass arrangements, we’ll be doing dance party, funky New Orleans style music, so it’s very high energy.”
Together almost 14 years, DCBB will be traveling as an eight-piece group across northwestern Ontario starting in Red Lake tonight, March 19, and going as far east as Geraldton with stops in Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Thunder Bay in between, before turning back to cover Atikokan and Fort France. The band will then be returning to Manitoba for a few shows in their home province.
In addition to Wedlake, who plays two sizes of saxophone, and trombone, there’s a rhythm section consisting of a bass player, drum player and keyboard player, as well as a lead singer who also plays trombone and harmonica, and two trumpet players.
The band will be featuring mostly New Orleans parade music as well as some originals on the tour.
“Every once in a while we do reimagine some kind of pop tunes and soul classics, but I think we probably won’t be doing a ton of those style of covers,” Wedlake said.
“It’s kind of up in the air, we just kind of put a set together, we’ve got probably three or four hours of music that we’ve learned over the years that we can be pretty flexible with to see what’s resonating with the audience.”
For those looking for a comparable, Tour de Fort has previously hosted My Son the Hurricane which has played previous concerts in Fort Frances.
While people in Fort Frances don’t have much opportunity to hear this style of music very often, Wedlake says that those who are unfamiliar with the style usually really enjoy it. Fort Frances residents who have been to Winnipeg Jets games may have heard them during intermissions or in the concourse as well.
“The music itself is way more accessible than people might think,” he said.
“It’s more focused on joy and positivity and those human emotions we all connect with. While there’s elements of jazz involved, it’s less like what you might hear in a jazz club and while there’s lots of improvising, it’s mostly about getting your feet moving, lifting your soul, real joyful expression.”
Wedlake says that often the audience resonates with the trust the band has between themselves.
“We’ve kind of found that the trust we’ve built on stage and the connection we’ve built within the people on stage really resonates with the audience,” he said.
“I think people can really feel that passion that we carry and usually we have a really great exchange of energy between the audience and the performers.”
Tickets for Dirty Catfish Brass Band at the Townshend Theatre are available at tourdefort.com, Ski’s Variety or the Fort Frances Public Library for $25. The show is on Tuesday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m.
