Tri-Continental

Tri-Continental is a collaborative evolution that fuses the talents of three wonderful guitar-players, singers and songwriters. There are no musical boundaries present in this one-of-a-kind blues/folk/world music mélange.

Bill Bourne, Lester Quitzau & Madagascar Slim are major players in the Canadian folk, roots & blues music scene who individually and collectively have received 4 Juno awards and 10 Juno nominations. They present a truly unique and critically acclaimed sound that is a great success in terms of soulfulness and presence, intensity and atmosphere.

Tri-Continental won the 2001 Juno Award for Best Roots & Traditional group. Between 1999 and 2019 Tri-Continental released 5 albums and completed several tours in Canada and Europe. In 2018 jazz drummer Michael Treadway joined the band. Tri-Continental was nominated for Roots Group of the Year at the 2019 Western Canadian Music Awards and their newest recording "Dust Dance" was Album of the Year Nominee at the 2019 International Folk Music Awards. Dust Dance reached #1 on national and international !Earshot charts, remained in the Top 10 for 17 weeks and is available on digital platforms, live performances, Linus Entertainment and True North Records.

Together as Tri-Continental, something very special and magical happens with the grand improvisor, the kidnapper of the blues, and the inventor and promoter of the new universal sound.

Tri-Continental is an engagement between artists and friends built on artistic respect and a deep passion for, and knowledge of the blues. This is clearly evident in the music they create, where the sharing and curiosity has led them on a fascinating musical exploration resulting in a beautiful, infectious sound where blues, world, Celtic, folk, flamenco and African rhythms fuse into one. Accentuated by their sweet vocal harmonies and imaginative guitar playing, Tri-Continental's global roots music is a testament to faith, dreams, talent and, most of all, friendship.

“Their sound is impossible to define, unless you want to draw from the obvious geographical origins, Canada, East Africa, the land of blues and roots and exotic metres. And they’re still evolving”.
Roger Levesque - Edmonton Journal, March 2019