Stomp-clap to blues, diverse lineages converge in the music of Oh Pray Tell at Vines Art Festival
Social justice is top of mind for trio appearing at free all-day celebration at Trout Lake Park August 17
Oh Pray Tell. Photo by Que Frias
Vines Art Festival presents Oh Pray Tell at 3:50 pm at the daylong (Re)Creation Stories event at Trout Lake Park on August 17
UTILIZING THREE-PART harmonies, banjo melodies, and stomp-clap rhythms, the trio Oh Pray Tell calls upon folk traditions to explore solidarity through musical expression.
Performing as part of Vines Art Festival’s daylong (Re)Creation Stories event on August 17 at Trout Lake Park, the three singer-musicians investigate their diverse lineages and personal experiences to craft a profound reflection of what it means to belong within a community.
Oh Pray Tell began as a collaboration between interdisciplinary artists Betty Supple, a descendant of English, Scottish, and Irish settlers, and Sally Titasey, who is of Indigenous Australian and Melanesian descent with ancestry from Indonesia, England, Scotland, and Ireland. The pair were recently joined by Shayna Jones, an African-Canadian storyteller and interdisciplinary artist who was a fan of the duo’s work.
“I work a lot as a solo artist in the realms of spoken word, and I integrate a lot of melody and rhythm into what I do in my spoken-word work,” Jones says in a phone interview between the band and Stir. “There was a deep and immediate resonance I felt when I saw Oh Pray Tell’s work, and I just fell in love with them and fan-mailed them. I was amazed when they accepted my request to come and hang out with them and play. The Oh Pray Tell trio is an expression of that love and resonance.”
A natural complement to Vines’ mission to uplift anti-oppressive artistry, Oh Pray Tell’s music brings attention to local social-justice struggles and histories, as shown in the video for their song “Stand Down, Come In”, released in 2020 in support of Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and land defenders amidst the Unist’ot’en Checkpoint conflict.
The band’s performance at Vines Art Festival concludes its 2024 tour, which kicked off in early August throughout Southern B.C.
“Vines is so rad, we’re so happy to see this festival existing,” Supple says. “There is so much care and intention that’s been put into the way this festival operates. We love that it’s free and accessible in multiple ways. The intention behind the festival goes deep, and their commitment to honouring Indigenous knowledge and uplifting diverse voices is something that deeply aligns with our mission as musicians.
“None of us exist inside of a vacuum,” Supple continues, speaking of the band’s commitment to social justice. “We all exist within the context of who we are, who our ancestors were, and how we walk in the world. Our music acknowledges that and tries to keep that present, because it is our social responsibility to show up and to bring what we have to contribute. What we have is our music.”
Interweaving blues, gospel, and cajun influences, the band explores this sense of identity and belonging to place through the members’ ancestral musical and storytelling practices, merging worlds through their respective heritages and experiences.
“A part of what drew me to Oh Pray Tell was the simplicity of stomp, clap, and harmony being things that are accessible to many human bodies and a way of expressing what’s in the soul,” Jones says. “Being of African-American heritage and a descendant of those who came to this land through the slave trade, music-making that originates from nothing but your body and the groaning in your spirit is what moves me musically.”
“When we come together creatively, we begin a process of digging and looking under the surface of our lives,” Titasey adds. “We have a variety of ways that we do this process together, which involve different rituals and looking for overlapping themes around what is happening in each of our individual experiences, and bringing those together to find a collective expression.”
“We’re with each other inside of these huge moments of life,” Supple concludes. “For me, the most impactful things that are happening between us are these deep moments of artistic resonance.” 
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