Raising our voices with Luke Wallace

It was a little more than a decade ago that a teenaged Luke Wallace first rolled onto Salt Spring. Who was this clean-cut kid with a guitar, singing songs that came straight down the lines laid by Woody Guthrie, Tracy Chapman and Bob Dylan? 

Turns out, he was a diamond in the rough. And ten years on, he’s just gotten more and more clear and bright. 

Were you there when he lit up Fulford Hall with his barn-burning rendition of “Ready for the Revolution”? Did you catch him singing “The Good Ol’ Petrol Game” at a pipeline protest? Or maybe you were elbowing your neighbour and grinning when he played his infamous “Permit Song,” all about building an off-grid tiny house on a hidden mountaintop.

Luke’s songs are so catchy, they jingle around your head like loose change in a pocket. This  summer, folks are invited to become part of his songwriting magic: first at a singing workshop, and then the very next day at a festival-vibe concert on Westcott Farm.

From the front lines of the Site-C Dam battle to the old growth forests of Fairy Creek, Luke has always sung for the good of the Earth: for the trees, for the kids, and for the Nations whose lands he’s travelling through. This past year, the folk rock troubadour has put some serious miles under his boots. He’s taken his songs from India to London to Wisconsin, also zigzagging back across Canada playing festivals, at church halls, with community choirs  and Grade Three classrooms.

Imagine being eight years old and suddenly belting out a chorus that makes you feel brave and powerful — isn’t that the kind of thing that lodges in your soul for life?  Then imagine standing as part of a large community choir in Bristol, and up steps this guy bursting with conviction and hooks so good you can’t help but sing harmony with your whole heart. That’s the kind of infectious groove that Luke incites, wherever he goes.

Salt Spring is about to get a fresh taste of it at the Field Hollers Workshop at Burgoyne Valley Community Farm on July 2, where Luke will teach choral arrangement, harmonies, and songcraft for people who love singing together. Whether you’re in a choir, sing at potlucks, or write your own songs in the quiet hours of the night, you’ll learn how to turn a sweet little jingle into a full-throated anthem — and find vocal nuances for every type of mood in between.

And for Wallace fans old and new, he’ll be giving a very special concert in the fields of Westcott Farm on July 3 — his only show on the island this summer. Workshop participants from the day before will join him on a handful of tunes — and the audience, as always, will be invited to sing, clap, stomp, and holler along to favourite classics and great new pieces he’s written on trains, late night diners and with collaborators from little kids to famous folk luminaries. 

These days, Luke Wallace feels less like the fresh-faced kid who first arrived on Salt Spring and more like a seasoned songsmith: road-worn but still wide open, carrying stories of struggle and solidarity from all over the world. Somehow, no matter how far he roams, there’s still a bit of Salt Spring etched into the soles of his boots: let’s welcome him home and raise our voices, together.

Written by Andrea Palframan