Author: Carey Rutherford
Swallowed by the mutual loves of words and music (but far too chicken-shit to perform them with a band), Carey’s writing career started slowly as a freelance writer in 2003, starved him nearly to personal bankruptcy until 2008, and changed directions while writing for FastForward, Beacon Calgary, GayCalgary, and Examiner magazines. With the death of many old-school periodicals, and the explosion of musical diversity in Calgary, the modern approach to writing about live music performance in the Calgary region presented uncluttered landscapes for the focussed passion that Carey’s conversations with musicians, drag queens, festival producers and small animals has uncapped. He was moulded by the brilliance of paper-based periodicals old and new (Life, rolling Stone, Swerve! and Adbusters etc.), and sees the info-verse as needing creative, empathetic, but clear-eyed Agents to communicate these performances.
Souljah Fyah’s Jammin’ The Republik
Janaya’s children keep surfacing in the room behind her while we speak. So the phone conversation ranges between the ebullient creative professional, in her 10th year of performance in the band she founded, and the teacher/mom who tells me I’m lucky my daughter has turned 16: “If she did okay through 14, you’re okay.” Unexpected emotional support before we dig into the history of Soujah Fyah.
“Our first show would have been in 2002; I started the band in 2001, so we passed our 10th anniversary in April! We’re very …
