Banjo pickin' Caroline at home with her cat Minou | PC: Carey Bergman

Caroline Shooner

“I’ve always liked music and singing, I can’t imagine life without music,” recalled Caroline. Many Quebecers learn songs in childhood and that was Caroline’s beginnings with music, having grown up in that part of the country. After bugging her parents for a while, she got a guitar when she was about 13 years old. In her 20s, she was part of a duo called Her Sweet Time. “We lived in Victoria and performed in small scale tours, making enough to pay for gas to get to the next gig,” said Caroline. In that same period, Caroline picked up the banjo after going to Roots Festival and she was inspired by the Be Good Tanya’s. “They were the soundtrack to that period of my life.” Caroline’s love for singer songwriters and folk music stemmed from a beatnik hippy history teacher who introduced her to Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. They became her first anglophone inspirational artists.

Just like the other Haida Gwaii Coffee House contributors we featured last time, Caroline thought the pandemic would be an opportunity to play more but in fact she has been playing less. “It’s nice to have people to jam with,” she said, “I’d like to have campfires and play with friends this summer.” Longer term, she would like to see the coffee house culture come back into fashion and have people become involved in this community of music, since virtual events can’t replace live events that bring people together. “That’s where community health is happening.” says Caroline. “It’s part of what keeps people well and helps them find a way forward”. Caroline is grateful for the journey so far and looking forward to discovering more music that’s been brewing underground in the last couple of years. Check out Her Sweet Time tunes on Apple Music.

Roly Thompson

This singer songwriter, a veteran in the Western Canadian music business, was recently featured in the Studio Sessions with the Old’s Cool band. “We did a medley of three of my original songs about the need for, fear of and inevitability of change.”

Roly grew up next to an air force training base on his family’s farm, about one hour north of Calgary. His involvement in music started in his home town where his dad, a WWII veteran, was in the Legion. His father was a pretty good piano player and his family had a band growing up, playing popular music of the day. The Legion started a marching band and his oldest three kids joined. “I was the snare drummer; my sister was the tenor drummer and my brother played the bagpipe. There were about 20 kids in our local marching band and we would play parades.” From playing in the marching band, Roly evolved into playing rock and roll. His drum instructor from the air force was a very good jazz drummer. “I learned a lot from him and played drums and toured in rock bands until the mid 1970’s” After retiring from the rock & roll lifestyle, Roly went on to folk music – harmonica, acoustic guitar, vocals. “The lyrics and the simplicity (you can actually hear the lyrics!) is what I find most inspiring.”

Roly had started making a living as a single musician, playing music on the road in the mid ‘70s. As he recalls it, “It ended in 1983 when I returned from a three month tour in Alaska. While I was away, bars had made the conversion from live music to sports bars and all of a sudden, I was replaced with MTV... that affected every musician I knew. The world had changed, and that was the end of my career making music.”

Roly was in a duo in Calgary in the early 2000’s and they produced a CD called “That’s How You Learn.” They wanted to do some touring with it but the other half of the duo died just before the CD release party, which turned into a wake. “We were aiming at folk clubs and Home Routes (volunteer hosts open their houses or small halls to have a show) – they book folk musicians across Canada. That was the second time my music career ended!”

Roly moved to Haida Gwaii after attending the pole raisings at the Haida Museum and Heritage Centre, in 2001. “I played all of the towns on Highway 16 back in the 70’s and early 80’s, but never got to “the Charlottes” until meeting people who actually lived here at the Smithers festival in 2000. I played a bit of music in a blues band when I lived in Tlell, but became much more involved in local music when I moved to Queen Charlotte, about seven years ago. I’m in a band called Old’s Cool with Charlie Robertson and George Farrell. I’m the front man, I do vocals and play guitar and harmonica. We play folk and country, mostly cover songs. When I play the coffee house open mic though, I try to play my original stuff.” Roly, Charlie and Clyde Greenough have been coming together to play a bit of jazz as well. He also played drums with Wayne Harris’s band called Exit Strategy.

His next project is playing at Ocean View Pub event, The Beat Goes On. You can also catch him playing at folk clubs in Duncan and Victoria on his way down to Mexico or at an open mic in Mexico! “I still have a fantasy of doing another recording with new material.” In the meantime, you can hear him on ReverbNation and YouTube by typing in “Roly Thompson.”

The Beat Goes On - Monthly Open Mic at OCEAN VIEW Pub & Grill

Daajing Giids Queen Charlotte / 3200 Oceanview Drive

• April 29th and May 28th / 7:30-10pm
• open to any performer
• comedy, music, poetry or any performance art
• organizer Jim and tech guru Bill do the sound and MC
• Get paid to perform! ($100 for individual or $200 for a band; need to play for 1 hour)

For more info contact Jim at 778-686-0554 and check them out on FB/The Beat Goes On.