Jason & Pharis Romero - Full of Heart in Horsefly

Canadian folk music duo and three-time Juno award winners for “Traditional Roots Album of the Year” Jason & Pharis Romero have made Horsefly not only their home, but part of their hearts.

“I love this region because of the people, because of the wilderness, because it’s a really fantastic place to raise a family and to think about what the rest of my life might look like,” says Pharis.

Meanwhile, Jason’s non-musical passions also come shining through. “I love this region because I’m a fisherman…every direction I’ve got a lake or a river full of trout. We love hiking, we love backpacking, and there’s not that many humans here, and that’s why a lot of people come out here, is to enjoy the wild places that still exist. I don’t want to be anywhere else than here.”

When not recording albums, Jason & Pharis focus on their passions of creating instruments and playing together.

“For work, we have a banjo company, so I make high-end, kind of custom banjos for folks all over the world, and we play music together,” Jason elaborates.

Pharis’ passion for what they do is hard to hide, “I make stuff with my hands all day, that’s what I do for a living, and I cannot believe that I get to do that for a living. So I feel like every day I have at least one heart-bursting moment, at least once a day.”

The community is ideal for the musical duo, where they love both where it lives in the province, as well as the people who call it home. Jason says, “I really like the idea of Horsefly, I like where we sit geographically, I like that we’re at the end of a road, there’s very few towns that are at the end of a road.”

And, as with most small towns, there is an easy way to feel right at home and feel like a local – Pharis and Jason tell anyone who is coming for a visit to wave, “The whole area and the town has a vibe. You know what I love? Is that you can tell someone is not from here – if they don’t wave, they’re not from town. It’s a silly little thing, but it’s like everyone who lives here waves.”

Pharis perfectly sums up why they love living and working together in Horsefly. “It’s such a great community. My heart is so filled up on a daily basis – I feel like being here and where we are is we get to make choices, and we have the privilege to make choices to be able to help other people, to be able to move forward with our lives, to be able to live in the best way that we can, and just let the magic of this area sink into you.