One of the newest bands in the borderland will take to the stage at Rainy Lake Square next Wednesday, Aug. 19, with two of Fort Frances’ top vocalists leading the way, a talented bass player and a drummer who is a member of the Ontario Bar.
Red Right Return features vocalist Brittany Hayes, Ken Kellar on guitar, Ben Sletmoen on the bass and Don Taylor on the drums.
The genesis of the band dates to the period when Hayes first started working for Taylor as a legal assistant.
“When I first applied here, I put on my resume my experience with the band Distant Legacy, and so sitting right here at this very table, my second interview, which was with Mr. Taylor, we started talking about music, so I learned that he was a drummer,” Hayes said.
“Then Kenneth—it’s always been my dream to get to play in a band with Ken Kellar. And Ben Sletmoen, what a rock star. So, when Ben and Ken had decided that they kind of wanted to put something together and we were going to try to give it a go, I harassed Don for a couple of years.”
Taylor first went for a jam session and played on a set of bongos and a cajon, a small box drum. Eventually he gave in and purchased a full drum kit, and the band started rehearsing in the back room of his law offices.
“So, between the credit card and Amazon…” Taylor said, seated a few feet from the new drum kit he bought when the band started.
Then the band needed a name; some of the more nautically inclined around the area might understand the meaning, but here’s how they explain it.
“Well, we were tossing around names, and that was a struggle,” Taylor said. “We had struggled for several weeks to come up with a name, and then bounced several things around, and weren’t getting anywhere. And I just mumbled something, and I think I said ‘red right returned.’ I was thinking I’m coming back from the lake. Okay, so it’s a nautical term, but you can take whatever meaning you want from it.”
Red right returning refers to the navigational convention that when returning from open water into a harbour, river or channel, you keep the red markers on your right (starboard) side.
The band played their first gig at the Fort Frances Legion in February and have played there a few times since, and have played other events including at a UNFC trunk sale as well.
They bring an eclectic sound to whichever venue’s stage they take.
“We cover anything from very classic country like ‘Tennessee Waltz’ and ‘Walking After Midnight’ all the way up to Ella Langley, in terms of contemporary music,” Taylor said. “We’ve got some classic folk like Gordon Lightfoot. We’ve got some focus on Canadiana, and my leaning is sort of classic rock, prog rock, we do a bit of rock like ‘Seven Nation Army,’ ‘Space Oddity,’ and ‘Wish You Were Here,’ and more contemporary stuff (at least I consider it contemporary, it’s probably considered a classic) but Goo Goo Dolls and a little bit of everything.”
Providing the low end of the band’s sound, Hayes says Sletmoen is a strong bass player who brings the rest of the band up a level.
“His technical abilities, not to mention his musicality on the bass guitar, are absolute insanity, and he doesn’t even seem to realise that,” she said.
“He’s the most humble musician you’ve ever met in your entire life. What he can do is absolutely incredible. It’s next level, and I think he absolutely forces all of us to come up a level, and I think we’re all still kind of striving to get there.”
“And, oh, also he brings the funk. Let me just say, Ben brings the funk to the band. I really enjoy that.”
For his part, Kellar praised what Hayes brings to the band, including understanding an audience and what they might want to hear.
“All of us have performance experience of one kind or another, but Brittany has, by far, the most stage experience as part of her previous band Distant Legacy,” said Kellar, who is also the editor of the Fort Frances Times.
“So not only does she have a good understanding about what songs go over well, which ones don’t, which have been played to death by other bands in the area, she’s also had a lot of practice when it comes to owning the stage. I see a lot of performers, myself included, who tend to stick to one spot and hide behind our instruments, but Brittany makes every stage her own and knows how to engage with the audience.”
When they hit the stage next Wednesday at Rainy Lake Square, the band will be playing a few different songs they’ve been working into their repertoire, including a Brittany Hayes original.
“We’ve definitely got a little bit of everything, lots of Canadiana; if you’ve heard us play before, we’ve got a couple of standards,” Hayes said. “We’ve added several new tunes, including an original song we’re going to be playing. I debuted it at the Hallett a couple weeks ago; Kenneth and I played it up at Barge Fest in Minaki, but this will be our first time playing it as a full band. It’s called ‘Small Town Northern Summer Night.’”
Taylor says he appreciates the work the Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre has put into hosting the summer concert series in the square.
“It’s fantastic,” he said. “I was talking to someone from the museum because we went and watched Thinking of Pinky play, and they’re hoping to bring it back next year, but it’s an opportunity for local bands to have an open-air venue which you don’t get very often. With a bit of protection from the elements, it’s a chance for some local vendors to get out, and it’s free for the community. It’s great to get people out, and I think the crowds have been really good; it’d be nice to see some more dancing.”
If you miss Red Right Return at Rainy Lake Square next Wednesday, they’ll be popping up at the Rainy River Walleye Tournament in just a few weeks, and Hayes and Kellar will also be performing as a duo at Boston Pizza in late August.
