photo: Denis Buchan

Twilight Hotel (2:45 p.m.) – folk/blues duo, presents dark road songs that sizzle on and seduce off stage. Two guitars or a guitar and accordion, two rich vocals, two composer-lyricists: Twilight Hotel fills a whole band’s bill with only two members. Their music is intentional story songs and emotive sketches, lyrically striking the bass chords of human needs. They have been compared to such memorable folk duos as Ian and Sylvia and Johnny and June because they radiate that certain elusive chemistry that can only come from two people in love singing together.

Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury are both from Winnipeg, Canada, but met in 2002 at the Trout Forest Music Festival in Ontario, about 400 miles away. On Valentine’s Day 2008 their musical partnership accelerated when they became engaged. Touring 200 nights a year, they play such diverse places as New York’s Madison Square Park and the Kerrville Folk Festival. At the 2008 International Folk Alliance Conference they were nominated for the Emerging Artist Award and played the Conference’s Awards Show that aired on satellite radio.

Twilight Hotel's critically acclaimed 2006 release, Bethune, was nominated Best Americana Album at the American Independent Music Awards in 2007. Their recent album, Highway Prayer released in May 2008, opens with the rockabilly song “Viva La Vinyl,” that conveys that genre’s fun danceable feel and comes in optional, separate vinyl. On a recent Folkstage, the duo talked about their love of vinyl and the medium’s comeback among young artists and audiences.

Rich Warren, host of WFMT's The Midnight Special, said of them, “Twilight Hotel, a most winning pair. Dave and Brandy are not only musically talented and engaging, but they are innovative, fresh and original. They somehow manage to blend a Parisian cabaret sound, vintage rock, country, and their original style into one cohesive, highly entertaining sound.”

For more information about Twilight Hotel, visit their website at TwilightHotel.ca.