For their first show together, two acclaimed songwriters will duke it out on stage in a melee of melodies.
Musicians John Wort Hannam and Chris Ronald will perform a “trade-off of songs” concert and spar as songwriters at Nanaimo’s Unitarian Hall.
“It’s all in fun and it’s all tongue-in-cheek,” Hannam said. “But it’s set up like a ‘song smackdown’ sort of match.”
Joining them on stage as an accompanist will be multi-instrumentalist John Ellis who will ‘referee’ each round and select themes from a hat. The ‘match’ will consist of 10 rounds altogether, and will likely feature themes such as ‘a song that took you the longest to write,’ ‘a song you wrote for a partner,’ or ‘a social commentary song.’ Audience participation will play a crucial role in the determining the match winner.
“It’s not really about winning,” Hannam said. “Chris and I were trying to think of ways to include the audience somehow, and we really ran with this idea of it being a duel.”
The Sparring Songwriters concert will be the first of its kind Hannam has ever performed, and the musician said he’s really interested to see how well it flies.
“And if it’s fun, we’ll for sure do it again,” he said, adding that future renditions may even include a belt, spotlight and ring on stage. “It keeps growing … I feel like we’ve created a monster.”
In a previous life, Hannam worked as a teacher before shifting career gears around the turn of the century. The transition to do so, the musician said, was super easy as he found the skill sets for both paths quite similar.
“They’re the same thing – when you’re teaching, you’re a performer … and maybe it’s a bit of a stretch, but I think when you’re a performer, you’re also a teacher. It’s a lot of the same skill sets, being able to stand in front a group of people and communicate well and express yourself properly,” he said.
Since performing full-time, Hannam has garnered a Juno nomination and a CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award. This year, the musician won two Country Folk Music Awards for Solo Artist of the Year and for his latest album, Long Haul, Contemporary Album of the Year. Hannam won his first CFMA Contemporary Album of the Year award in 2010 for Queen’s Hotel.
Hannam and Ronald will perform Sparring Songwriters at Nanaimo’s Unitarian Hall on Saturday, Dec. 9, starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.eventbrite.com.
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