Christmas Crawl with J. Knutson, William Ross Chernoff and Gabriel Dubreuil, End Of The Line, 4193 Lynn Valley Rd., North Vancouver, Sunday, Dec. 11, 1 - 3 p.m. Admission by donation to The North Shore Harvest Project.
Watching Jay Knutson play guitar is a bit like seeing Groucho Marx slip innuendo past the Hays office or noticing Rickey Henderson’s grin after he steals second base; it’s witnessing the joy of someone who’s getting away with something.
Beyond his dexterity and sense of melody, what’s most striking in Knutson’s playing is his delight – he has to stop smiling long enough to sing.
The guitarist has a musical career that stretches back to the days when Spirit of the West was known as Eavesdropper (they changed their name after being inexplicably billed as Eavesdroppings), he’s been an instructor at Simon Fraser University, helping helm their logarithm and blues class, and a founder of the North Shore Celtic Ensemble.
Speaking from his Kitsilano home as the few snowflakes drift to the beach, Knutson reflects on the gigs and glory that piled up in the rear-view mirror.
“Every man’s got to know when it’s time to hang up the skates,” he says. “It’s been a good kick at the can doing what we’ve done.”
In early 2017, Knutson is planning to move to Salt Spring Island and while his musical career won’t stop, it will likely sound a little fainter on the North Shore.
But before he packs his bags, Knutson is doing his annual Christmas Crawl show at the End of the Line Store this Sunday. It’s a casual show, but it’s difficult to imagine the performance won’t carry a little more gravity this time around.
“I’m not saying we’re shutting it down,” Knutson says. “Hopefully the tradition will continue, but it might be without my participation.”
Knutson also took his final bow from Centennial Theatre’s stage with the North Shore Celtic Ensemble, an assembly of dozens of talented young musicians who’ve all come to be indoctrinated in the melodies and tales of Scotland and Ireland.
Asked about that performance and that venue, Knutson laughs before drawing in air as though someone just stepped on his ribs.
“Oh,” he says, “it was a bit emotional.”
Despite being excited about the next chapter of his life – what he’ll do and where he’ll go – the Centennial show reminded him of the generations of kids who picked up fiddles over the past 18 years.
“I was putting on a very brave front to begin with and then towards the end it kind of sunk in a little bit. … But it was a great night,” he says. “It was definitely a high note.”
But just because he hit that high not doesn’t mean he’s getting off the stage – or that he’ll never set foot on the North Shore again.
“It’s not like we’re moving to a different country,” he explains. “I still want to be a part of the community.”
Knutson is hoping to find a little more breathing space on Salt Spring.
“The city’s just getting a little tighter and tighter every year,” he says.
At this point in his life, Knutson says he wants to get out of the city and “take the foot off the gas,” literally and figuratively.
There are also ballooning costs that come with packing musicians and gear into a van and heading up the highway these days. On Salt Spring he hopes to do shows “without incurring that couple hundred bucks every time you get in your car to go back and forth.”
Transportation is less of a problem in Lynn Valley, where the order of the day is instruments you can carry without risk of a hernia.
Over the years, the show has stretched from the End of the Line Store to the Lynn Valley Legion and sometimes even into Lynnmour, but things will be a bit more compact this year.
“With the legion not there anymore we figured the crawl pretty much just starts and finishes at the End of the Line,” he says, explaining they hope to raise money for the Harvest Project.
“In the grand scheme of the fundraising season it’s certainly not CKNW or CBC but at the same time we do what we can.”
Joined by musicians William Ross Chernoff and Gabriel Dubreuil, the setlist is designed to be elastic, ranging from Celtic songs to Spirit of the West tunes to seasonal takes on familiar melodies.
“It’s not like you want to go in and perform a stock show,” he says, explaining they’ll likely feel out the room and “go with the wishes of the people.”
Asked about surprise guests, Knutson laughs.
“Quite often they’re a surprise to us,” he says.
For Knutson, the show is a way to ring in the season.
“It’s not like you have to come for two hours. The whole idea is that you stop by, come inside, have a nice cup of tea, sit down, listen to a few tunes, maybe help out a little bit with a contribution towards Harvest House, and continue on with your Sunday.”
While this may be Knutson’s last Christmas Crawl performance, he’s careful to leave the door open for a return.
“That’s going to be a tough severing but at the same time, I don’t feel like it’s that far away.”
