Welcome to the groovy toe-tapping musician by the name of Jack Garton. I walked into a concert hall at Ignite The Arts in 2023 and people were bouncing, swing-dancing, kicking their legs and popping their hands. To be frank, I will day-dream watching this crowd and lusting to kick and pop like they do – but this is also one of the reasons I have my camera. Because who else will be there to experience their enjoyment?
Jack Garton rotates between both a trumpet and accordion as he sings. As stated on his webpage he is “a blend of folk and roots, steeped heavily in rockabilly and doo-wap.” I find this perfectly said.
I walked into this Ignite The Arts show and the crowd was filled with an array of music and art lovers from around British Columbia. Ignite The Arts brings together musicians young and old, artists of so many kinds, interactive workshops, and families with little ones experiencing all this in their wee yout. How extraordinary to see this kind of collective exists. That kind of happy-go-merry about life that cults do, but instead of containment, all these wonderful people are scattered geographically, creating their “thing” and bringing it into a proper Spring honouring festival.
(Fog Fotág / Facebook)
You’ll have to give me some patience, because up until I started working with the Co-op Radio Show “No Apologies Necessary” my idea of festivals was different. My music tastes were just leaving electronic, dub, house for the time being and venturing into having a curiosity towards the amount of time it takes for someone to learn an instrument. Hearing music where someone played an instrument in a way that blew my mind, because you really have to decide you love this growing up to be so amazing now. You have to pick music. So suddenly I was being localized to the amazing folk musicians that lived in my city. Then moved somewhere affordable to hone their tune, and just focus on their instruments.
It was a glorious daydream that I like to picture exists. But walking into this room seemed to affirm that to me.
Jack Garton had transported this room of people back in time, and everyone was jolly and merry in a way that was entirely genuine. Giving back dance and joy to the musicians that spent all their time creating this music. It was different from the festivals I’d been to previously. Later I would see Jack Garton performing again with a musician who played a saw with a bow. I was enthralled with what artists were doing with their time.
“The musical saw is a flexible handsaw played by holding the handle between the knees and bending the blade while bowing along the flat edge.” -Wikipedia Definition
My recording below encapsulates my experience of Jack Garton. In fact the tune “Move The Mess Around” begrudgingly remains stuck in my head every time I clean my apartment:
In a Vancouver Sun article Garton said, “I keep connecting with the music that my grandparents, particularly my mom’s parents, were listening to. That was a lot of rockabilly and country from the 1950s.”
Having recently released the new album, Original Skin, Jack Garton is on route for a summer of music performances. On May 17th, 2025 he will be on Galiano Island for the Galiano’s Farmer’s Market. If you’re looking for something closer to Vancouver then on May 24th, 2025 he will be performing at the Clarke Theatre Cafetorium in Mission, BC! Jack Garton has previously played as part of Petunia & The Vipers, and has collaborated with the amazing pianist Adam Farnsworth. We will likely be seeing a great amount more of him in the future!
Shout out to all the social media posts of his lovely family! I couldn’t even picture what it would be like growing up with a trumpet playing, accordion jamming, take me to a sweet all-ages folk festival family.
For more about Jack Garton click the links below:
Written by Volante Matheson, Radio Arts & Entertainment at BCIT
Contact: vmatheson1@my.bcit.ca