Gary Comeau grew up on the East Coast, lives on the West Coast and has tried his hand at almost every style of music in between.
Like something out of a folk song, Comeau originally came to the West Coast when he and a friend hopped a train across Canada to Vancouver in his late teenage years.
“I ended up staying and not going back to Nova Scotia for 14 years,” Comeau said.
Comeau now plays with the Voodoo All-Stars who shuffle through a range of instruments, styles and genres.
“The Voodoo All-Stars are a real diverse cross-section of things, but it’s real kind of roots are in Americana,” Comeau said.
He uses the term “roots” lightly as the All-Stars manage to dabble in blues, Latin influence, singer-songwriter styles and East Coast fiddle medleys to name a short few.
“From song to song the style will change,” Comeau said.
Comeau has played an array of different musical styles from song to song and band to band including 1930s jazz to bluegrass and country fiddle. He said he is probably most well known for his Louisiana-style fiddle playing, but Comeau can hop behind the piano, mandolin, guitar and accordion comfortably.
“It’s the love music. For me, each instrument brings out a different style,” Comeau said.
He likes the mandolin for blues and bass songs, the piano goes with everything, but Comeau plays it mostly for the Latin feel, and the fiddle and accordion bring out his Louisiana blues style.
Just as diverse as his playing styles are Comeau’s musical tastes.
“It seems to go in cycles with me,” Comeau said.
He grew up listening to Bob Dylan and roots singer-songwriters and branched out from there.
“I’ll go back to that for awhile then all of a sudden I’ll listen to instrumentals like jazz, and I’ll be there for awhile and think this is the greatest. Then all of a sudden I’m listening to Caribbean music and Cuban music,” Comeau said.
His ever-changing rotation causes some trouble with managing his CD collection.
“What usually happens is I’ll think I got to get rid of all these CDs and records because I’ll never listen to them anymore, that was something I was into 15 years ago,” Comeau said. “Then I don’t, and then it’s like a few years later I’m like, oh man, I want to listen to that, Ray Charles or somebody I haven’t listened to in years. It’s such a great thing. I feel like such a kid.”
His latest foray has been a new appreciation for the technical precision of classical music.
It’s a never-ending journey for Comeau.
“In being part of the musical landscape, I mean, you could live to 199 years and still only scratch the surface of it. That’s what’s so cool about it. I would never ever think ‘OK, I’m a certain age, I’m going to retire now and go play golf,’” Comeau said.
Gary Comeau and the Voodoo All-Stars are hosting a full spectrum of musical styles at the Dream Café for two nights Jan. 30-31.