>>PREVIEW
NAOMI BURKHART WITH RONNIE HAYWARD AND KEVIN HERRING
Tuesday, December 13
The Soda
It seems like a huge leap in a very short time. A few years ago, young Bragg Creek singer Naomi Burkhart had to work up the courage to perform in front of people as part of a challenge course at her high school. Now, she will be singing the blues in front of a larger audience while backed up by Ronnie Hayward and Kevin Herring.
And while public performance has been difficult, Burkhart is interested in a bigger challenge. The gig, at which The Guerrilla Funk Allstars, Los Tu Madres and Oyama will also perform, is a benefit concert to raise money so that the singer can live for six months in Bolivia, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. While there, Burkhart will work to aid women’s rights, basic education and the environment in the South American country. The project is sponsored by AFS (American Field Service) Interculture Canada, which has been helping match volunteers with causes in other countries since 1947.
It’s hard to say which Burkhart is more excited about, singing with a musician of Hayward’s stature or heading off to volunteer in Potosi, the highest city in the world.
"I thought that a benefit something or other or some kind of thon – like a marathon of something – is a good way to raise money really fast. It was congruent with this Ronnie Hayward thing because I started going to his open mic after he started urging me to sing, and when he finally got me up onstage, he kept saying, ‘You’re blowing everybody away, what are you worried about?’" Burkhart says.
While she has only been turning up to sing at Hayward’s open mic night for a couple of months, Burkhart’s connection to music is more enduring. Her grandfather was a jazz drummer in San Francisco in the 1960s. Her father, Bix, is a respected photographer who lends his talents to the local scene, and has infused her with a love of music from an early age. The smoky-voiced Burkhart, who jokes that she has a picture of Billie Holiday sewn tightly into her shirtsleeves when she performs, has quite a list of local performances she has attended from an early age. She reconnected with Hayward, after his return from his recent Canadian journeys, at a party thrown by her mother.
At the party, the young woman was persuaded to sing one song, and was fortunately well-rehearsed.
"Singing is very fun and the only instrument I have time to practice because it’s with me all the time and very affordable. I practice for two hours every day while I am commuting," says Burkhart.
Now that her voice is helping her raise money to travel and help the poor, Burkhart will probably appreciate it more than she did when she was so timid about performing in front of her high school peers. And, unlike some other instruments, she doesn’t need to buy it an extra seat on the plane. |
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