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Rich Hope and His Blue Rich Rangers are the real deal

Roots rockers ask the musical question 'Are you ready for the country?'
Rich Hope
Rich Hope and His Blue Rich Rangers offer the full country experience with a lot of rock’n’roll and honky tonk punk thrown into the mix as well.

Rich Hope and His Blue Rich Rangers perform free outdoor show tonight in Edgemont Village from 7 to 9 p.m.

Rich Hope and His Blue Rich Rangers are heading to Edgemont Village tonight, and they're "not particularly polite about their country" music.

"It's the full country experience," Hope says. "It's really a whole lot of rock'n'roll. We come from the Waylon Jennings school of playing country music, which is let your hair down and have some fun."

Hope is part of the Summer Concert Series unfolding at Edgemont Village, Panorama Park in Deep Cove and Lynn Valley Village every Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. this summer.

And for tonight's show, he says the audience should expect a whole lot of fun.

"You always want it to be intimate in the sense that even if it's outdoors and big, or in a club and small, that people are just responding to what you're doing," he says.

Hope's band, His Blue Rich Rangers, is comprised of honky tonk players such as Scott Smith, the "hottest pedal steel man around," Ben Laborie, on rhythm guitar, Erik Nielson on bass, and Adrian Mack, Hope's drummer for the last 15 years.

"We wanted it to be organic," Hope says about his team of musicians. "It's really, for all intents and purposes, a cover band because we just wanted to play old country music because we love it."

But after playing together for long enough, they ended up writing their own new material as well.

"We've got a bunch of originals we do now, but we never really wanted it to be a thing where we had to get together two or three nights a week because no one has that time," he says, noting the band will get together right before the show or a few days before. "It's just to keep everybody together, but mostly it stays pretty organic like that, and that's what also keeps it really fun. You hardly ever get sick of songs. We've got at least two shows worth of songs now."

The band's influences aren't from too much of a bygone era either, but Hope says the first things he ever remembers hearing is from his dad's car, which pumped Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

"You naturally just eventually find your own voice more and more as you keep going, both literally and figuratively," he says about his band's musical influences. "You learn to be yourself and obviously you evolve in a culmination of your influences as you listen to music and different music. You might find yourself getting into different things."

As for Hope's sound, he says his taste for country has come full circle.

"It's always been a part of me," he says. "And for years, when I was in my 20s, I don't know that I shunned it, but I sure was kind of tired of it. I listened to a lot of different music and I've been going back to that now for the last 10 years for sure."

The concert series is put on by the North Vancouver Recreation and Culture Commission, which is in its 22nd year in Deep Cove, 16th year in Edgemont and seventh year in Lynn Valley, according to Anne Rodgers, communications specialist for the commission.

"One of the strengths of the program is that there is great support from the communities and the businesses in the areas," Rodgers says. "They often do displays and add some more excitement to the events. There's always lots of dancing. There's 800 to 1,400 people at each event, so it's really high energy."

Rodgers says Edgemont Village has a new feature this year, as well, which is in the event of rain, instead of being cancelled, the show will move to Highlands United Church.

"(It's) right in the heart of Edgemont Village," she notes. "It's really nice to have that plan in place."

Rodgers says the key message is that there's plenty to do in North Vancouver this summer.

"It's the community's favourite thing to do on a Friday night," she adds about the annual concert series.

Hope is also playing the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival Aug. 9. For more information visit richhope. com. For more info on the concert series go to northvanrec.com.