The three-time Juno-nominated band, Sultans of String, is performing at the SRSS theatre tonight. 

Sultans of Strings plays many different genres such as Celtic reels, Flamenco, Django-jazz, Arabic, Cuban, and South Asian music.

Chris McKhool, the violin player from Sultans of String, says they perform music from all over. 

"We've taken music from around the globe, so if you hear a belly dance tune, you'll know why.” 

They have three guys on the tour. Chris McKhool on violin, Kevin Laliberté on guitar, and Drew Birston on bass. 

McKhool says the three of them coming together from very different backgrounds makes for an interesting lineup of music. 

"Being a violin player, there's no way I could resist learning some Celtic East Coast fiddle tunes. And before we formed Sultans of String, I also played with a Django-jazz group.” 

He says Kevin Laliberté is really into fun and upbeat jazz.

“As well as he spent almost a decade traveling around the globe with Jesse Cook as his guitar player, so he's got that Rumba flamenca thing down from Spain.” 

Then they have Drew Briston, who spent years on really big pop stages.

“And he's the one guy who actually went to school in music, so he's the guy when we need the notes written note once in a while he does that for us."

They are very accomplished musicians that like to have plenty of fun. 

“It's a joy and a privilege to play music for a living, and we try not to take ourselves too seriously,” he says. “If you're not having fun, what's the point of being a musician? Then you might as well be any other kind of occupation that you're not enjoying as much.” 

There are elements of comedy and unexpected twists mixed right into the middle of their performances.

"Half the time, Kevin's trying to crack me up with some kind of little musical riff or a quote from another song,” he says. “People catch him playing a little bit of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin in his guitar solos.”  

McKhool says they’re going to sing a few songs and play a lot of instrumental pieces. 

"Clap along, we have a couple of sing-along numbers, and you're going to hear three people on the stage sound like six people. That's our goal.” 

The event starts at 7:30pm tonight, Jan 19th. You can get tickets online or at the Steinbach Arts Council. 

 

With files from Corny Rempel