Name: David Essig in Concert $30
Start: 2025-04-05T19:30:00-07:00
Location: First Unitarian Fellowship of Nanaimo

DAVID ESSIG was introduced to Canadian audiences in 1971 as a "talented newcomer" at the legendary Mariposa Folk Festival. Now, nearly 40 years later, he has an international career as one of Canada's finest interpreters of original, contemporary folk music. Always paying homage to his roots in Bluegrass and Country Blues, David uses these traditions to create timeless new songs.
David is highly respected as a thoughtful and intelligent songwriter, with Canadian folk standards like "Albert's Cove" and "High Ground" to his credit. His work moves from pieces as contemporary as today's news, to songs that sound as if they were rediscovered from old country blues 78's. These are songs that tell stories that will start you laughing and leave you crying.
Equally renowned as an instrumentalist and traditional performer, David is a master of the blues and slide guitar. Whether on the lap-style Weissenborn or the electric slide guitar, his spontaneous style crosses all the borders between country, blues and the avant-garde. With his 5/8" socket and a sound that could peel the petunias off your motherâ€™s porcelain, he is considered one of Canada's finest slide guitarists.
David's masterful songwriting is the theme of A Stone in My Pocket, the milestone double CD project released in 2004 by WEA in Canada and by IRD in Europe. For this project, David recorded fresh new versions of 30 of the most popular and moving songs from his 35 years of writing. He was joined by renowned musicians Oliver Schroer on violin and Tobin Frank on bass. A Stone in My Pocket has received critical acclaim as a landmark recording in Canadian roots music.
In 2007, a collective of alt-country Winnipeg musicians, led by Romi Mayes, Jaxon Haldane, and the D-Rangers, recorded the acclaimed CD Beverly Street: an album of their new performances of some of the best of David's original songs. David joined in for cameo appearances on the CD and contributed the title song for the project.
In 2008, David teamed up with fellow roots performer Rick Scott to record and release Double Vision, a duo CD of original songs that has garnered enthusiastic praise across Canada. David and Rick have toured together and performed at festivals across Canada, adding bassist Shelley Brown as a third member of the group.
While continuing to perform with Essig, Scott and Brown, David's primary focus is once again on his international career as a solo songwriter and performer. He touring in Canada in the Fall of 2010 and in Europe in the Spring of 2011.