Niagara singer feels the welcoming vibe of venue and Fort Erie area

Rita Visser is far from where she grew up, but says she is fortunate to call Niagara home, a place that has inspired much of her music.

The singer played a solo set at Brimstone Brewing Co. on Saturday, bringing just her vocal cords and an acoustic guitar.

She is also the lead in Rita and the Daydreamers, which is herself and a collective of five other musicians who play a mix of Canadiana, roots music, soul, folk, blues and jazz, she told Fort Erie Radio in an interview when asked how she best describes her sound.

Her second album ‘Northern Daydream’ was released about two years ago and she has material for a third, she said.

Born and raised on the shores of Lake Superior in rural Thunder Bay, Visser has also lived in Calgary and has called Niagara her home for 16 years, living in Niagara Falls and now in Welland.

The region plays a role in fueling her creativity as it is surrounded by the power of water, something she relates back to her coming from four generations of fishermen in northern Ontario.

“It’s really of the utmost importance to me,” she said about being close to lakes and the canal.

Rita and the Daydreamers will begin a tour in April and one of the shows she’s most excited about is at the Algoma Conservatory of Music in Sault Ste. Marie.

Thunderclap, a popular one-man band from Niagara Falls, will be joining her for the ride.

While living back home in Thunder Bay about 20 years ago, she had one of the most memorable times in her musical career, which was singing backup for composer Paul Shaffer, best known as the longtime musical director for The Late Show with David Letterman.

Shaffer is a native of Thunder Bay and revisited his hometown for a street-naming ceremony in his honour, and Visser was invited to be part of a performance that he gave in front of thousands of people.

“It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, but also very, very stressful,” she said, noting how much of a perfectionist Shaffer is known to be.

Visser hopes to one day bring Rita and the Daydreamers to the Sanctuary Centre for the Arts, the larger concert venue attached to the brewery in downtown Ridgeway.

“I love the vibe in the community here,” she said.

“To me, it’s always an inviting place,” she added.

Visser also runs a graphic design and marketing company called Oomph Niagara, as well as Momentos Canada, a business that preserves the life stories of elderly people, she said.

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