Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

New Duo from Victoria's Oliver Swain and acclaimed Seattle based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Eli West.
A gifted mulit-instrumentalist, Eli has also grown into one of the Pacific North West's great songwriters in the Americana style. Eli's reputation has grown considerably in the last few years through his collaborations with John Reischman and Cahalen Morrison.

Across the Haro Strait
When Islands Folk Festival Artistic Director Kelly Nakatsuka brought Oliver Swain and Eli West together for the first time on the Tzouhalem stage in 2018 a lively musical conversation lit up. They shared their perspectives on traditional Appalachian and Mississippi Delta music and indulged in some tangential modern songwriting and performance styles. Like any good conversation there was plenty of good humour and a genuine curiosity in the other. Their set brought down the house down and moments afterwards while chatting backstage 'Across the Haro Strait' was born. This short tour and recording session might just be the shape of things to come in westcoast Americana.
While Oliver Swain may be well known to BC audiences, Eli West has been toiling away south of the border, developing a style and creativity that oozes understated talent. And his work has not gone unnoticed. A busy touring artist with stops from North Carolina to Japan this spring, Eli has also been tapped by BC's top Bluegrass musician John Reischman and now regularly appears with The Jaybirds and in a duo with John that recently returned from a successful tour of Australia.
More praise for Eli West
‘Making music the world needs’ – Tim O’Brien
‘West is an artist overflowing with ideas and music’ – Green Man Review

‘Eli West is an exceptional singer, guitar player and musician, really deep stuff’ – Martin Simpson

"I had such a wonderful time playing music with Eli West and am so happy our first notes together are documented here on this beautiful recording.” - Bill Frisell



Award winning roots artist Oliver Swain Has as been a celebrated musician for years, held in high regard in acoustic and folk music styles for both his astonishing instrumental and vocal abilities, though he seldom gives the genre a fully traditional treatment. Oliver Swain strays towards the whimsical, the spiritual, and the socially conscious side of what he likes to refer to as "chamber folk odyssey", and it's these beguiling and provocative elements that make him unique as an artist and songwriter. Devon Leger even called him "The Zen Rock Garden of old time music" No Depression

"This is genre defying at it's best...beautifully played and performed, each song a mini masterpiece" Paul Jackson, Fatea magazine UK

"Since I first discovered him, Oliver Swain has been one of my very Favorite artists, especially in a live setting" Tamara Kater, Director at Folk Music Canada