Skip to content

Enjoy a little bluegrass at Clawhammer in Fernie

Award winning vintage roots duo, Pharis and Jason Romero will be bringing their world renowned banjo music to Fernie on Sunday.

Award winning vintage roots duo, Pharis and Jason Romero will be bringing their world renowned banjo music to Fernie on Sunday.

After collecting a 2012 Canadian Folk Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year and a 2012 Independent Music Award for Americana Album of the Year for their duo debut, ‘A Passing Glimpse,’ Pharis and Jason Romero are heading back on the road to launch the album’s follow-up, ‘Long Gone Out West Blues.’

Jason and Pharis met back in 2007 at an old-time fiddle jam in Victoria, where Pharis was living at the time.

Pharis was raised in Horsefly in a musical family steeped in the old-time tradition. Her ancestors go back five generations in the town. Her great grandfather was its first postmaster. Her great grandmother was the first teacher. Pharis started singing with her family’s country band when she was just four. She studied classical music, earned her ARCT, and competed in classical music festivals when she was young. The B.C. Folklore Society called her a “historical treasure” for her work reviving old-time folk songs.

Jason has been playing the banjo for more than 20 years and is a master of every style – clawhammer, fingerstyle, bluegrass, you name it. He was a fixture on the bluegrass and old-time scene in Arcata, California before joining Pharis in Canada.

The duo are playing at Clawhammer Press and Gallery in Fernie on February 10.