By Early Music Vancouver’s usual standards, the repertoire for An American Tune, at the Fox Cabaret on Tuesday (April 14), is downright modern: parlour ballads from the mid- to late-19th century. Touching on the popular music of the era, hymns, cowboy and slave songs, and the still vital output of the great Stephen Foster, the program sheds light on the ante-cedents of the singer-songwriter boom that came a century later.

And the cast? Well, the cast is extraordinary. In addition to local hero John Reischman on mandolin, the band includes Scottish fiddle virtuoso Tom Berghan, baroque violinist Brandon Vance, soprano Catherine Webster (left), and the great lute and guitar player Stephen Stubbs. It’s a quietly amazing assemblage of talent, in a groundbreaking program of enduring and influential music.