Next time you spot a band busking on the street, bend an ear their way and listen. They might surprise you. The California Feetwarmers were performing on the wharf by the Yukon River in Whitehorse, Yukon last summer and as the crowds began to grow the audience really began to swing to their early 20th-century jazz and ragtime tunes. They were in town on their way to the Atlin Music Festival and stopped in Whitehorse for a brief performance. I wanted to capture this moment and asked them if they’d be up for an impromptu photoshoot. I asked Ryan McNally if we could use his yellow pick-up as a stage prop, and the rest they say is history.
“We’re not like a museum piece,” Morrison says. “We’re really a dance band, playing for dancers. That’s what we do.”
The California Feetwarmers are: Josh Kaufman: piano, clarinet, accordion; Charles De Castro: cornet, accordion; Justin Rubenstein: trombone; Lulu De la Rue: violin; Chloe Feoranzo: clarinet; Dominique Rodriguez: bass drum, snare drum; Corey Beers: bass drum; Jeffrey Moran: guitar, banjo, bass; Juan Carlos Reynoso: washboard; Andy Bean: banjo; Patrick Morrison: guitar; Brandon Armstrong: tuba, trombone.