Doug Cox and Linda McRae have 60 years’ experience and countless performances between them. The veteran award-winning recording artists, each with a menagerie of stories to tell, a truckload of strings and things in their arsenal and a preponderance of songs, will have you glued to your seat in Key City Theatre April 16, listening to their every word, sometimes laughing, singing along, tapping your toes and humming their melodies for days afterward.

Doug and Linda first shared a stage at the inaugural Stan Rogers Folk Festival, in Canso, NS, resulting in some of the most enjoyable, generous stage time they had ever experienced, so much so that Linda invited him to guest on two of her subsequent recording projects. Doug later invited Linda to be part of his project “Starman: An Acoustic Evening of David Bowie Songs” featuring six of Canada’s finest players. They decided not to wait so long between collaborations and voila their new project was borne.

Doug Cox: There are world musicians, and there are musicians of the world. In the case of Alberta-born Doug Cox, this extremely talented six-stringer happens to be both. Doug was initially drawn to the blues, particularly bottleneck slide guitar. He soon discovered the Dobro, and before long earned a national and international reputation as he skillfully fused a wide range of acoustic roots and Americana musical styles. Doug’s surpassing dexterity with so many idioms has seen him play and record with such diverse superstars as Indian slide guitarists Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt, Tex-Mex kings Los Texmaniacs, British Bluesman Long John Baldry, Austin’s sweetheart songwriter BettySoo and Rwandan The Mighty Popo (to name but a few!).

Doug’s worked hard on his art and his craft, and you can hear it when he plays. You can also see it, in the names of the artists he’s making music with and the places he’s played and when you read between those lines, you know he’s earned the respect of his peers and a lot of very happy listeners. He is also a catalyst among musicians and artists for many fascinating collaborations.

Linda McRae, just like her music is about as real as it gets. That’s a quality you rarely see in this modern music world. A Canadian-Nashville based multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter she has 30 years’ experience touring and teaching both nationally and internationally. From her days as band member extraordinaire to the iconic Canadian Celtic band, Spirit of the West, to everything she has done since, Linda remains an artist full of integrity. Playing banjo, guitar and accordion in an unflaggingly authentic, deeply satisfying, and refreshingly acoustic style with a big dose of soul and skilled musicality, McRae’s unforgettable melodies and thought-provoking lyrics make her a captivating artist.

She has performed in venues as diverse as the Orpheum Theatre with the Vancouver Symphony to New Folsom Prison with the “in house blues band” where she facilitates writing workshops for the inmates.

These experiences lead to the creation of Express Yourself Writing Workshops currently being presented across North America. She is a 2016 BC Entertainment Hall of Fame Pioneer Inductee and 2017 Boston Family Folk Chorale Songwriting Competition winner.

Hometown performers Keith Larsen and Ethan Askey are teaming up to share their energetic passion for Roots and Blues to open the evening, Sunday, April 16 at Cranbrook’s Key City Theatre along with Doug Cox and Linda McRae’s ‘The Stories, the Instruments, the Songs.’

Showtime is 7 p.m.

Obtain tickets.

Key City Theatre

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