Music/Spoken Word: The Fugitives Release CD @ the Wise Hall March 9

Vancouverites Barbara Adler, Mark Berube, and Brendan McLeod are singer-songwriters, multi-instrumentalists, and award winning performance poets who have merged their diverse styles into one distinct mixture of poetry and song, backed by accordion, guitar, piano, banjo, and melodica. A group of road dogs, they have toured their unique combination of three part harmony, athletic performance poetry, and skillful musicianship, four times through Europe and twice through Canada since the group's inception two years ago.

Their recent performances include the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (Vancouver, BC), the German National SLAM championship (Leipzig, Germany), Festival Voix D'Ameriques (Montreal, Quebec), the Dylan Thomas Festival (Swansea, Wales), the London High Commission (London, England), and the Isle of Barra Poetry and Song Festival (Scotland).

They have two new albums due this year. One, a music/spoken word album engineered by John Raham and featuring members of the Be Good Tanyas, Po' Girl, TOFU, and the Breakmen. Their second album is a full length spoken word piece funded by the Canadian Council of the Arts Storytelling Project.

"I can see why they're jumping off the tables for you!" Sheryl McKay, North by Northwest CBC.

"The Fugitives are one of the most innovative, exciting, and accomplished groups of musicians and poets I have ever seen…the best show in fifteen years of the festival" - Off the Shelf Festival, Sheffield (UK)

"With superior instrumentation and creative lyrics, they are a band that demands your attention and leaves you begging for more" - Meredith Hambrock, Ubyssey, Vancouver

"Welcome to the land where lyrics and instruments are equals…you will absolutely love this band" - Satellite, Vancouver

"Poetry doesn't get much further from the library shelf than this" - Georgia Straight, Vancouver

"An experience certain to please both literary and musical audiences" - Vienna Literature Festival, Austria

"They are a show you absolutely cannot afford to miss!" - Drek Daa, Founder & Chair, Spoken Word Canada

"The Fugitives are a Sasquatch Marching band walking high wire across the Grand Canyon. At first glance, you expect it to all come crashing down, but upon closer inspection you notice they're flying, and scrutinizing even further, you realize you're floating too." - Randy Jacobs, Artistic Director, 2005 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word

To get tickets to their CD Release Party (happening Friday, March 9th, at the Wise Hall, with the Breakmen) and ensure entry to the show (in case of a sell out) there are a few options:

a) Tickets are currently onsale at Zulu (1972 W 4th Ave.), Highlife (1317 Commercial Drive), and Scratch (726 Richards). They are a mere 12 bucks!

b) For even cheaper (10 bucks) you can send an email to Brendan at: eightmillionbrendans@yahoo.ca and he will bill you through paypal and reserve you a ticket at the door.

c) Or, you can catch them at Rime on Feb.24th or the Chutzpah! Festival (Feb.22-25) and buy a ticket from them in person. This is also only 10 bucks.

Check out their myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/canadianfugitives) for their new music video for 'Haunted'. It looks fantastic! It will be playing at Festival Cinemas in the month of February to promote the CD release. Thanks to Randall Okita and Anthony Bocquentin, who had the vision for it.