Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Apr 09/99) - What a lineup! The Gumboots and Modabo. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Well these are the two musical groups that will be ringing in spring next weekend, April 16 and 17.

Most Yellowknifers know all about the Gumboots. Bill Gilday, a music leader in Yk for some 20 years, formed the group in 1984.

Though they started out singing traditional Canadian folk songs, long-time history teacher Bob MacQuarrie eventually began writing songs about the North and people of the North.

Gilday, who writes the music and does vocal arrangements, and MacQuarrie, lyricist, first collaborated on The Resurrection of Billy Adamache -- about the Kugluktuk resident's disappearance and miraculous reappearance some time later.

The group currently has five members -- all of them singing and playing a wide variety of instruments. Besides Gilday and MacQuarrie, The Gumboots includes the talents of Rich Hintz, Chic Callas and Ray Bethke.

According to Callas, the group has slowly developed a reputation across Canada, even around the world. Not bad considering they rarely have the time and opportunity to meet all together, all five at once.

"We do get requests," says Callas. "I get mail at home from Belgium, from South Africa, from all over the place."

The group has released two CDs, the last one five years ago. They've been working on a third, slowly, but the same problem of managing to unite all five members of the group presents itself. But they manage to get together for their spring concerts.

Annual Gumboots concerts always involve special guests, who play half the concert. Last year, it was Canadian folk legend Valdy. This year, Modabo -- who played Folk on the Rocks, will join them on stage.

The three who make up Modabo, from Fredericton, N.B. -- Darrell Grant, Jon Weaver and Mike Doyle -- are witty fellows, not only entertaining their audiences with their own brand of high-energy acoustic folk music, but also regaling the crowd with little stories that lead up to the song.

The name Modabo, according to a short history of the band, came from a CODCO skit (CODCO was a Newfoundland comedy troupe with a national show on CBC).

"In the skit, a crew is shooting a stylishly enigmatic TV commercial for a product called Modabo. Modabo is chic. It's high end. You need it...whatever it is. In fact, they intended to shoot the commercial, then decide what the product might be. Image is everything, content is irrelevant."

And so Modabo was born, a product to fit the bill.

Modabo was a hit at Folk on the Rocks, and this concert will be a rare opportunity to see them again...or if you missed them, an opportunity to see them for the first time.

The Gumboots/Modabo concert, sponsored by David Dempsey of Financial Concept Group, is at 8 p.m. on April 16 and 17, at NACC. Tickets, on sale at the Birchwood Gallery, are $12 for students and seniors and $18 for adults.