Downey playing Olympic venues

Sherman Downey will be competing for the attention of music fans at the Vancouver Olympics this month.

The Codroy Valley native is riding high on the wave of publicity from his recently released debut CD titled "Honey for Bees." With the ECMAs in Sydney, N.S. this march and the Juno Awards in St. John's this April, Mr. Downey has his work for the next few months cut out for him.

Mr. Downey will be one of 20 Newfoundland and Labrador artists and groups performing at various venues during the Olympics. He and his band will play shows at Atlantic Canada House, a showcase pavilion for all the east coast has to offer. He will also play at the Cultural Olympiad, which is a national campaign to showcase Canadian artists.

He said he first got wind of the Olympics gigs in October after a show in St. John's.

"One of the guys working with tourism mentioned that something was coming up for the Olympics. I just chalked it up to chatting after the show," said Mr. Downey.

Later, while playing in Moncton, N.B., the head of Atlantic Canada House approached him and again mentioned the possibility of him playing at the Olympic venue.

The Olympic performances were made official at a press conference in Corner Brook on Jan. 14. Mr. Downey was at the conference along with Premier Danny Williams and members of The Once.

Other Newfoundland musicians invited to play include Great Big Sea, Ron Hynes, Shanneyganock and Tara Oram.

Mr. Downey won't travel alone. He and his five-member backup band will perform as Sherman Downey and The Ambiguous Case.

"We're all kind of excited with the possibility and the exposure. We're not taking it in stride by any means," he said.

Mr. Downey's new CD has been well received by the music community around the province. He said the first shipment arrived on Dec. 23 and there was a mad dash to get them to CD stores in St. John's and Corner Brook in time for the last Christmas minute shoppers.

"We knew there were people wanting stocking stuffers," he said.

He has since held CD release events at The Ship Inn in St. Johns and at the Arts and Culture Centre in Corner Brook.

He and the band will be recording a live performance for CBC radio that will later be available online as a part of the concerts on demand section.

The new album is difficult to pigeonhole into one genre of music. Mr. Downey describes it as folksy-pop that is upbeat with a hint of bluegrass. His backup band includes banjo and mandolin.

With a busy schedule coming up, Mr. Downey and his band are still finding time to work on new material. He said the goal is to have enough new songs for another CD before leaving for the Olympics.

"It's funny because we took the three shows in Vancouver - one was for a half-hour gig, the other was for an hour and the last is for 90 minutes. We're all stressing out because the CD runs just under 40 minutes," said Mr. Downey. "So we've got four new tunes in the can now."

reporter@gulfnews.ca