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Dream Music Festival gathers new friends and old

The 2017 Dream Music Festival brought two nights of stunnning performers to Penticton
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Devon Bjarnason, lead singer of Devon Coyote, the first band called onstage at the 2017 Dream Music Festival. -Steve Kidd/Western News

The Dream Music Festival has wrapped up for another year.

“The music was fabulous and the sound was actually better than we’ve had other years. The stage band was much more organized and had better sound,” said Debra Rice. That’s thanks to guitarist and producer Steve Dawson, who took over organizing and directing the backup performers.

Dawson actually produced albums for other Dream Music Festival participants, including Russell deCarle, and has a longstanding collaboration as the producer for a number of festival host Jim Byrnes’ albums.

More: Dream Music Festival celebrates third year

“I didn’t realize when I put them all on stage that they actually knew each other. It was all under Steve’s wing on that part,” said Rice, adding that Dawson’s organizing helped produce the best music from the stage band they ever had.

“To me, Shakura (S’Aida) and Angel (Forrest) were amazing stars in the bunch, and Russell’s voice is like honey. He seduced everybody,” said Rice. “It was a really good show. We had really great music. The musicians were thrilled to come. They had a great configuration … a lot of them knew each other.”