The holiday season is upon us and the Sooke Folk Music Society is presenting it’s December Coffee House this Saturday, Dec. 15, which is bound to have a Yuletide bent. Our feature this month is singer/songwriter, Jim Moffat, who is bringing along his friend, Mike Sampson from Los Gringos.
After growing up on the streets of Chatham Ontario, attending high school and finishing with no fixed address, Moffat attended numerous universities in the U.S. and Canada with a goal of football and wrestling. Being a Zodiac pilot for Greenpeace “Save the Whales” landed him a short term in a Newfoundland jail for anti-sealing protests, he then turned his attention to playing music.
With his first test being in Calgary, at the 1st Studio 1/ Keen Craft (Long and Mcquade) music award, he walked away with top prize as a member of the duo “Bow River Lumber Company.”
Moffat has opened for Utah Phillips, Rosalie Sorrels, Connie Kalder, Michael Lewis, and Scott Parsons, to name a few. His style and musical influences include such all-time-greats as Stan Rogers, Harry Chapin, Chris De Berg, John Prine, and James Taylor.
Moffat has been around folk festivals, having played the Home County Festival in London Ontario, Blackfalds Folk Festival in Alberta and Vancouver Island Folk Festival and others. He has been featured in L.A. at the Pier 1 Show, and was a band member with groups such as Hero, Panic and The Bow River Lumber Company. His first love has always been a singer-songwriter writing music to bring images to his listeners’ minds.
Moffat is a believer in social media and has a fan list of 350. His Facebook profile has over 1,600 fans and grows every day. This has all happened since December last year. ReverbNation lists Jim as number two in Victoria, 25th nationally and 296th globally in the Folk Listings. Not bad for a songwriter who only started to pursue the rankings less than a year ago.
Recently, Jim has been instrumental in creating and hosting the “Art of the Song” songwriters’ group in Victoria. Moffat is now playing both solo and as a duo with Mike Sampson. As a duo think: “Jim Croce meets Godzilla, beautiful guitars, full wonderful vocals and just a touch of the monster to keep it interesting.” When solo, he’s all Jim Moffatt.
Please join us this Saturday, Dec. 15 for our festive coffee house. I have it on good authority that there will be much seasonal music happening, so bring your voices. The place is Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Murray Road. Doors open at 7 p.m. with open stage at 7 :30, feature at 9.