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Kalan Wi!

Today is National Aboriginal Day. The Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre has activities all day long, including an artisan market, outdoor BBQ and children’s crafts and scavenger hunts.

They will also feature a performance from local Mt Currie/Pemberton band, Kalan Wi, who the Province called “more local than global” but with a worldbeat sound.

Celebrate starts with “Lil’ Wat Soul,” a chant that sounds so innocent but which is seductive. There is an emphasis on light reggae on most of what follows but “Lil’Wat7ul” is a tug of war between insistent rhythm and another breezy chant, “Grandmother Song” is an affecting folkie ballad, the title track rocks and the closer more or less summarizes the album being built on a reggae foundation, buoyed by an aboriginal chant that summons that worldbeat term.