A Carberry native's now living in Denmark and travels the world performing in concerts. Reg Downey is back in his home region this week celebrating his new CD release. He's currently living in Denmark with his wife and children. He teams up with pianist Andréas Flensted and performs duets. Downey explains their music.

"We go by Reg Downey and Andréas Flensted. But often people call us Reg and Andréas. We have a mixture. It's ballad style, pop, and classical. We do gospel, but we also do things like Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Flensted's from Denmark and says they perform as a duo.

"Most of the songs we play are duets, and usually Reg will have the lead on most of them, and then I play piano and bring harmony, or sometimes I sing a verse. I'm classically trained, but I've done all kinds of styles."

The duo performed last night in Sidney Community Hall and will be performing this Saturday

Their new CD includes Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Love Me Tender and two new songs they wrote, and more. There a hymns medley including In the Garden, and Tis So Sweet to Trust In Jesus. He notes they've been doing performances both inside and outside the church. We're leaning more and more to be outside church walls to bring the presence of God to people. Downey says many people aren't accustomed to visiting a church, so it's better and more comfortable for them to hear material they know and then hear some Christian-based or gospel songs. He says this makes for a nice atmosphere for people to relax in, and gives God a chance to touch their hearts.

Flensted says he met Downey about 18 years ago and worked together when in one another's neighbourhood. He notes 14 years of that period Downey lived in Canada with his family. Downey explains this means they've worked together about four years in total. He notes the last six months saw them ramp up that teamwork and worked toward a recording. He notes they were here back in June and had amazing responses to their music. Having the same goal, Downey says they wanted to get out and do music. He explains they have a synergy between them and people enjoy their music. Downey says people have remarked how each of the duo really brings the other to another level.

CDs from solo projects of Downey and Flensted as well as their new collaboration project"People were really touched deeply in our concerts. Some experience I've had with my CD's include remarks from people saying they won't remove his CD from their CD players. One guy said to me just a few weeks ago that there are two CDs in their car and both are mine, and they're all that are allowed to be played. He said if she gets in the car and he puts something else in, mine has to go back in. That makes me shake my head. And then he bought our new one. And people are already telling us they're fully enjoying the new one. Again, they say it's all they play in their car. So, it's kind of cool."

Flensetd says they travel to other countries having played this year in Canada, Norway, and Denmark of course, this year.

"Canada is special because it's Reg's home country, and a lot of his old friends come to hear us, and that's always lots of fun. But I love traveling no matter where we go."

Downey adds they held eight concerts in six days in the Faroe Islands, and met the most amazing people. He says the Islands are above Scotland and above the Shetland Islands, in the middle of the Atlantic between Iceland and Norway. It's in a gulf stream that brings a beautiful climate. Downey says the people were thrilled with their concerts there, and the duo had the chance to do interviews on radio, and now their music plays on their radio. He says they went to Norway a few weeks after that, and made some television appearances. He notes they then decided to do a music video of the song 'You Raise Me Up'. Downey says some men drove from Latvia in a minivan with a full-size piano in the back. He explains they carted the piano up a mountain on a bridge by some rapids, and filmed for two days. Downey adds  they're waiting for that to get finished now.

They held a CD release concert in Denmark a few weeks ago, and are just trying to get out their music out as much as they can. Downey notes they've already performed in Neepawa, Carberry, Brandon, and Sidney. Saturday evening they're in Gladstone at Gladstone Christian Fellowship at 7:00 p.m. Sunday morning has them at Bethel Baptist Church on Roseberry Street in Winnipeg in the St. James area.

Reg Downey