I’m just back from the Roots & Blues Festival. Had a great time immersed in the variety of wonderful music that was available. I saw bands from the Ivory Coast, Japan/Germany, the UK, the U.S. and of course, many from Canada.

Of all these musicians, I was mostly looking forward to seeing/hearing Jake Soberlak from Kamloops.

He was slated to play in a couple of “workshops” and also a show of his own. Soberlak has grown a strong following after performing in a few local shows in the last six months or so. He is both a fine musician and a student of the blues genre. He plays guitars and harmonica. His first “workshop” got partially cancelled, early, due to some quite amazing lightning, but it might have been a blessing in disguise. Monkeyjunk is one of Canada’s most popular Roots & Blues bands. During their performance, they mentioned that Jake had missed his opportunity to play earlier and they invited him to join them.

I believe his large Kamloops following were happily surprised to hear this. Soberlak played some fine guitar with Monkeyjunk and the band members appeared surprised and really happy. He did a really good job up on the Main Stage.

On Sunday I caught the last half of his show on the Barn Stage. He played an acoustic set with guitar and harmonica and another man joined him on guitar. He drew a large audience in the early afternoon.

His set included tunes from some of the original blues musicians such as Robert Johnson. Soberlak must be an “old soul.” At seventeen years of age his music has the feel of one that has been playing and living the music for years. It was great to see him at the 2026 Roots and Blues Festival. I am hoping for more good things from him in the future.

Jake Soberlak has an album coming out September 11 called I’m In Trouble. The lead single is “You Gotta Leave.”