The McLennans and Music

  Jim and Lynda McLennan have been involved in music in one form or another for most of their adult lives.  Lynda taught high-school music for many years, working with choirs, bands, jazz choirs and was music director for several Mainstage musicals. She has directed church choirs and recently retired after 15 years as the Director of the Big Rock Singers, a community choir in her home town of Okotoks, Alberta. She is also very active in church-music as a worship leader and vocal soloist.   

Jim McLennan has played guitar since his teen years, and often accompanies Lynda when she sings.  Recently he has returned to performing along with his friend Steve Fisher. Check out their performance schedule and join us for a great evening of music.

Music bios for Steve Fisher and Jim McLennan  
Click here for more information in video format.

 



Steve Fisher and Jim McLennan

March 27, 2010

Altadore Baptist Church, 4304- 16 St. SW,Calgary, AB

Fundraiser for water projects in Kenya

Tickets $15

For information call 403-243-4304



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For information on these concerts, send us an email


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Jim's guitar playing featured 
on new  CD

Steve Fisher's new CD, River, includes six tunes that Steve and Jim perform in their concerts.    To find out more, to hear samples of the tunes, or to buy a copy of the CD, visit www.stevefishermusic.ca 

  
Send us an email if you'd like information about times, tickets etc


 

Music Bios

 

Jim McLennan

Jim McLennan was active as a solo performer in the western Canadian acoustic music scene through the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Based in Edmonton, he was a contemporary of artists such as Bill Bourne and Connie Kaldor. Through his performances at festivals and folk clubs, he developed a strong reputation as a finger-style guitarist and arranger, specializing in coaxing piano and big band music out of a single acoustic guitar.

Through his interest in arranging the ragtime music of Scott Joplin, McLennan met American acoustic guitar guru Stefan Grossman and subsequently recorded several of his arrangements for Grossman’s Kicking Mule Record Company.  His music has also been featured in Guitar Player magazine. 

Though McLennan has taken a 20-year hiatus from performing, during which he helped raise a daughter and authored several books about fly fishing, his passion for the guitar remains.  He has returned to active performing, in a duo setting with his friend Steve Fisher.

Steve and Jim play a variety of music in which the acoustic guitar is front-and-centre.  They perform finger-style arrangements of music by people like Doc Watson, Bruce Cockburn, Mississippi John Hurt, Fats Waller, and others.

Steve Fisher

As a member of various Calgary area bands, Steve developed a well-earned reputation as one of the better musicians in the Alberta music scene. He was a member of the Sheep River Rounders and currently plays with the Alberta based bluegrass band Restless Lester.

Steve has performed at most of the venues that feature acoustic music in this part of the country including the Calgary Folk Festival, the Canmore Folk Festival, the Rocky Mountain, Nickelodeon, Bow Valley, Full Moon and Lethbridge folk clubs and the bluegrass societies in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton.  He has also played at many of the bluegrass festivals in Alberta, British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific north-west and has been heard live and on record on CBC and Alberta’s CKUA Radio.

Though well known for his work in bluegrass, Steve is also an accomplished fingerstyle guitarist. As a soloist or in a duo with his friend Jim McLennan, a highly skilled guitarist in his own right, Steve plays arrangements of jazz, ragtime, blues and pop standards in a style derived from players like Chet Atkins, Charlie Byrd, Earl Klugh, John Hurt and Doc Watson. His sets include tunes such as Windy and Warm and Blue Finger as well as songs like Doc Watson’s Deep River Blues, John Hurt’s Stack O’Lee and I Just Want to Be Horizontal recorded by guitar great Bob Evans. 

 

Guitar Instruction

 In the spring of 2009, Jim McLennan will be available to instruct a limited number of guitar students at his home in Okotoks.  This instruction is intended for guitarists of intermediate and higher levels.  Jim is experienced in playing and teaching fingerstyle acoustic guitar techniques, acoustic and electric blues and rock and roll styles. 
For information contact Jim here:

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Jim & Lynda McLennan, Okotoks, Alberta  403 938 6493
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