Event: David Suzuki’s Blue Dot w/ Folk-Popster-ER Nurse Derek Olive

By News Division in Boomvox · August 18, 2015 · No comments

What does a guitar, a bike and an olive have in common? This August singer songwriter Derek Olive embarks on a 10-city, 3000km music cycling tour in support of the David Suzuki Foundation’s Blue Dot movement. With a Masters in Music and as an Emergency Room nurse, Olive isn’t just driven, he’s pedal powered to make a change.

“For all I was trying to do in my daily life, compost, ride my bike year round, recycle, buy used, buy local, don’t buy, I was feeling that all my choices didn’t matter and all I could do was complain. I decided that I needed to take action beyond my daily life; I started planning a music cycling tour to support the Blue Dot movement”, Olive says.

The core foundation of the Blue Dot movement is to recognize every Canadian’s right to breathe fresh air, drink clean water, eat safe food and have a say in the decisions that impact their health and well-being. This growing movement of Canadians is calling upon all levels of government to fully recognize these fundamental rights through local declarations, bill of rights, and eventually an amendment to Canada’s Charter of Rights.

“I’m thrilled to see Derek take on this cross-Canada challenge in support of the Blue Dot movement. We’re grateful for this support and his personal commitment to share the Blue Dot message with even more Canadians”, states Sophika Kostyniuk from the David Suzuki Foundation.

Derek’s careers intersect seamlessly in the recording studio, hospital corridor and on the environmental troubadour’s trail. His new album Mystery & Dust is not only a celebration of life, but also a call to the urgency of making sound judgments in our lives. Sounds like a tall order, yet Mystery & Dust pulls us towards a better place, recognizing we all can and must do our part, from our little corner of the world, shaking a little dust off with a quality of music that cuts to the heart of the matter.

Folk-popster Olive’s originals are stylistically reminiscent of Bruce Cockburn, Stephen Fearing, Dave Matthews, if not a hint of Van the Man, Himself. The song “Inventing the Sun” came to light during a bike ride, inspired by the tiniest of plants defiantly bursting through highway cement. As paradoxically resilient as nature can be, it is the other, fragile side of that very same coin that Olive illuminates, as showcased brilliantly in the hypnotic and highly percussive string work on the lead track, “Paper Wings”.

Olive’s arresting lyrics are brought more to the fore by his buoyant vocals and the superb assistance from compatriots Joe Grass (mandolin), Zoé Dumais (violin), Kevin Warren (drums/engineer), Rémi-Jean LeBlanc and Sébastien Pellerin (acoustic bass). The mandolin and banjo-peppered title track – a duet with Annabelle Chvostek (of Wailin’ Jennys fame) and a full chorus – seems a ‘thank you’ for our place in the world, small as we are.

There’s no second guessing on this album or the Blue Dot movement—like the decisions made in the ER, the songs and message are borne of immediacy, bent on making a difference and a real connection, while serving up some hope along the way.

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