Rock This Country brings Country and Blues sounds to Chapter One

Rock This Country is Sri Lanka’s newest Country and Western band. Having formed in June they comprise of five members. Founder of the band Viraj Perera is on keyboards while also adding some vocals, lead male singer Dexter Batcho plays acoustic guitar, female vocalist is Terri Bertus, Willie Jayewardene plays bass guitar, Ashan Indrajee is on lead guitar and Heshan De Silva plays drums.

While they dress the part of a band from the Deep South of America they also play easy rock and blues. They formed when Viraj, Dexter and Terri were in another band that played funk and soul. “We all had a long time desire to form a Country and Western band, my mother was a country singer and after a discussion the dots connected naturally and the rest is history,” said Terri.

They have so far had ten gigs at various venues in Colombo including a wedding at the Hilton and are now regulars at QBaa every Thursday. Were you will be able to hear them play hits from Kenny Rogers, The Bellamy Brothers, Willie Nelson to name but a few.

When one of their fans met Chamila Samarakkodi, owner of newly opened restaurant Chapter One in Rajagiriya, they came up with the idea of producing an  evening which combined graceful music with a stylish four course fusion meal on the manicured lawn garden.

The appetiser consisted of tea infused salmon, grilled Swiss cheese with citrus salad followed by a fusion surf and turf. Chicken breast stuffed with prunes marinated with brandy, placed on top is prawn thermindor accompanied with potatoes and tempura vegetables. Dessert was rather lavish while also overcomplicated, macaroons blended with beer, chocolate mousse blended with tea with an array of fruit sauces and jellies.

All scrutinised under the watchful eye of executive head chef Tyrell Wasalathanthrie For a total of Rs 3000 the night was quite affordable if you take into fact the extravagant meal, peaceful ambience and good vibes.

Terri has such an incredible mighty country voice that it takes over when she is on stage. At one point of the night several young kids stopped running around the garden to creep up to the stage and began to dance to the melodic country beats.

Pix and text by Dilantha Dassanayake