It's not easy to know exactly what you're going to get with Vancouver-based band Blackberry Wood.
The group's sound is an uplifting and unique mix of gypsy and ragtime flavoured with ska, rock and folk, but wrapped around an eclectic and circus-like cabaret feel.
"I like a lot of music from the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s," said Kris Mitchell, originator and ringmaster of Blackberry Wood. "When I listen to that music it sounds more pure. It's archival recordings of people - bluesmen at house parties - doing their jobs playing straight from the heart for people. After that, record companies came in and started putting bands together to sound a certain way. When I listen to that older music, it just strikes me as more pure."
So, Mitchell's motley crew of musicians plays a hybrid and melodic mash-up of all those favourite old time-y sounds.
But just who plays that music and with what instruments is another question, though.
The group was originally a duo until 2004, but it's grown considerably since then.
"Our first gig was a surprise New Year's gig," he said. "One of our friends asked us to put a band together for a gig in front of loggers and surfers in Ucluelet. The next year we were asked back to do the same thing."
Soon the band had grown to include bass and drums, as well as a horn section and more.
"We actually now have about 14 people in the band," said Mitchell. "But we have a core of about five players and the other members join depending on availability."
The revolving line-up does make each Blackberry Wood show sound unique.
"It's like a little orchestra," he said. "I do the arrangements and a lot of the musical vision is mine, but when you have different players it does affect the sound."
Still, the band must be doing something right as, among other things, it's been invited the past two years to perform at the prestigious Glastonbury Festival in the U.K.
"It's one of those festivals that sells out even before they announce who's playing," he said. "It's more about the Glastonbury Festival experience than it is about anything else."
This summer Blackberry Wood plans to return to England for another tour, but again, in a bit of a different incarnation.
"We're not doing Glastonbury this year," Mitchell said. "But we are going to do some gigs and parties in London in May. And we won't have a horn section. Instead, we'll be bringing a fiddle player who will take on all the melodies and rhythms the horn section plays."
Sea to Sky audiences can catch Blackberry Wood's eclectic rhythms and current line-up with horns on April 1 from 8 to 11 p.m. at The Rock Bar and Grill at Chances Casino.
Tickets are $15, available in advance at Trinity Romance or online at squamishmusicfestival.com/pages/tickets.php.
For more on the band go to blackberrywood.ca.
