One of musician Michael Dunn’s favourite memories of his band playing at the Brackendale Art Gallery has nothing to do with music.
It was the late 1970s and the gallery’s owner, Thor Froslev, took Dunn and the rest of his band horseback riding the night after the group had played a gig.
“I had never been on a horse in my life,” Dunn recalled. “I was just hanging on to this saddle nervously… and we took off at full gallop. Within a minute we were crossing a stream in which, as far as I can remember, only the horse’s head was above water.”
Froslev remembers that ride out in the Squamish Valley as well.
“I often took my entertainers out horseback riding,” he recalled. “And when we were riding with Michael Dunn they were kind of scared.”
During the ride, Dunn suddenly turned around and pretended to shoot Froslev, the gallery owner told The Chief, with a hearty laugh.
The pair have remained good friends, both remarked.
Saturday night will be a coming home of sorts when Dunn and his newest band, The Lawless Group, return to the BAG for a performance Dunn promises will have the audience members tapping their toes and nodding their heads to the beat.
The group is made up of multi-instrumentalists Dunn, Edgar Bridwell, Joe Bourchier and Dunn’s wife, Eleanor, who is the lead singer.
The audience will listen to variety of tunes, Dunn said. Expect music from the American Songbook, Cole Porter to Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, with a little blues, country and Gypsy Jazz thrown in for good measure, he added.
“I always like to have a band in which any piece that you’ve played is no real indication of the next one coming,” he said. “There’s something that is going to appeal to everyone in the audience, no matter the demographic.”
The performance will get underway on Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the BAG or XOCO downtown.
The performance is not likely to be followed by a horseback ride this time, however, Froslev said.
