North, south, east, west, we’re the jug band that’s the best… at tightly scheduling in the most performances into one evening.

Southwest, we start off playing to your corner at the Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery of the Jewish Community Centre (950 W. 41st), sounding off like a shofar for a half-hour at 7 pm to ring in the latest instalment of the Pandora’s Collective’s Word Whips, wherein local poets share works written in response to the photos of Judi Angel’s Cambodian journey in the exhibition up there TIKUN OLOM: HEALING THE WORLD.

AN EVENING OF MUSIC, ART & POETRY IN THE GALLERY
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012, 7-9 pm
Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery,  JCC of Greater Vancouver, 950 West 41st Avenue
Free Admission, Everyone is welcome.

This event features THE CREAKING PLANKS as well as Pandora’s Collective poets inspired by the photographs in TIKUN OLOM: HEALING THE WORLD, a photography exhibit of ‘people and places’ in S. E. Asia. The photos were taken by JUDI ANGEL, while on a three month AJWS volunteer placement in Cambodia.

Co-hosts, BONNIE NISH and PAMELA BENTLEY, ROWAN LIPKOVITS and THE CREAKING PLANKS along with poets, FRAN BOURASSA, MAUREEN EGAN, TIMOTHY SHAY, CHRISTY HILL and DIANE TUCKER will dish up an inspiring & entertaining potpourri of sounds, rhythms, poetry and prose.

There will be time for the audience to participate by writing to the exhibit and reciting their poems during the ‘open mic’ portion of the evening. This event is presented by the Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery with Pandora’s Collective and the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library and made possible by the Yosef Wosk Poetry Initiative Grant. For more information, contact Reisa Schneider reisa@jccgv.bc.ca or 604 638 7277

Then we’re off to the northeast — into the Prophouse (1636 Venables at Commercial Drive) to take our belated spin as the features of this month’s occurrence of the Vancouver DIstrict Labour Council cabaret. Rumour has it we’ll be teaching attendees a folk song after our set there starts at 8 pm!

Don’t feel that you have to slavishly adhere to your neighbourhood — maybe the crosstown trip would be good for you! And maybe you’ll enjoy one set by us so much, you’ll wish you could have had twice as much! Well, on this one night, you can.

Juggling two offers we couldn’t refuse, the Creaking Planks plan for a scorching Saturday night whipping down from playing at Phil + Kimla’s wedding up at SFU to open the second anniversary of JEff Younger’s night (third Tuesday of every month!) at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir Street, upstairs)! and he’s programmed some of his favorite acts from the series to join him on the stage there that night.

Here’s the lineup: in addition to having the jug band of the damned back for the opening slot at 10:30 pm, you get a wild and wacky set of unshorn spoken word from RC Weslowski, a set from Joseph Blood and the Blue Tick Houn’ Dogs, JEff Younger’s own inbred redneck orchestra The Family Stump, the WhiskeyDicks (who “blast their way through traditional tunes and modern hits with the spirit of the mad and the thirst of a sailor who just got kicked out of his metal band”) and finally (late into the night) Very Good, the band which won’t have too difficult a time surpassing their name.

Doors at 8:30, admission is $10, $8 for Railway Club members.

PS — pardon the slip in chronology — this show happens the day before the Car-Free Festival mentioned in the prior post.

It’s an improbable and, quite frankly, somewhat foolish weeknight twofer from the Creaking Planks… but with this many good causes at classy venues, who are we to turn down the invitations to make our unmistakable mark?  Starting the night, The Neighbours Organic Weekly Co-operative (NOWBC) hosts a benefit for the CityReach Care Society’s “Food for Families” project.  As well as a potluck dinner and fabulous prizes, the evening presents a slate of performers (kid-friendly up ’til 7:30 pm):

• 6 p.m. D’Arcy Stainton, children’s performer
• 6:45 Lily Jo
• 7:00 Melodious Mandolins
• 7:45 Friends of Thieves
• 8:30 Creaking Planks
• 9:15 Yer Blues

and here’s its poster!

But by the end of that line-up, we’ll already have shuffled up Main Street to help celebrate the launch of One Cool Word magazine’s 13th issue (you remember, they presented our pal Bob Uker back in issue #5 in Spring 2007) at the Biltmore Cabaret (395 Kingsway)! (keep an ear open for the rendition of Dead Man’s Pants from our demo on the accompanying CD!) Here are the rough plans for THAT night…

• 9:30 The Contemporary Lovers
• 10:20 Creaking Planks
• 11:10 Analog Bell Service
• 12:00 Fur Bearing Animals

plus …and special guest models from Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School!

And here’s its poster!

Update! April Smith of AHA Media (backing up Rob “The Delete Bin” Jones’ report for Miss 604 — whew, what a tangled web! — where we are described as “jug band music as played by Tom Waits’ feral stepchildren”) caught us out at the Biltmore and posted a couple of videos of us on YouTube (as well as a schwack of photos from the whole evening on Flickr)!

Here we are performing Creep…

… and here’s our Psycho Killer! The classics always have something new to offer upon revisitation.

The Creaking Planks are proud to once again return to what is by now almost an unofficial home for them, the Secret Location, to contribute a performance at a Seamrippers fundraiser benefiting the Purple Thistle. Also on the bill are Coral & Emily Rose, AmberDawn, Tricksy and her Next Top Stud Contest, DJs Hi Def, Spook Silo, Pork ‘n’ Beans, plus our own Lee Shoal… as well as the long-rumoured square dancing, a pie-eating contest, a petting zoo and more! The Planks plan to go on no earlier than 11:30 pm, as a pack of ‘em are hustling on over from UBC to play immediately following that evening’s production of A Dybbuk! (… and a schizoid change of pace these easy-sleazy country-folk tunes will be, that’s fer darn tootin’!)