Red, white and blues

Murray Porter celebrates his Juno Award.

Submitted photo

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What do you do for an encore after winning your first Juno Award after more than three decades in the music industry?

Well, if you're North Van's Murray Porter, a singer-songwriter known as the "Mohawk Blues Piano Man," you land a new gig, a big one.

This weekend Porter will be packing his trademark black fedora and heading to Washington, D.C., to play at the Smithsonian Institution as part of the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities on Monday.

"It's pretty cool," says the gravelly voiced musician.

Porter will perform at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian during a gala event featuring First Nations music, dancing and food.

"Oh, it's huge," he said when asked about being selected to be part of the entertainment at the Native Nations Inaugural Ball.

And while the president won't be attending the event, Porter will get a chance to watch him take his formal oath of office on a live feed at the museum, which is just blocks from the swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol building, before playing two 45-minute sets on Monday evening.

"[Barack Obama] seems to be a man of integrity and I appreciate that," says Porter, noting that the U.S. president can also "sing pretty good."

Performing in Washington is the latest high note in Porter's career.

Last April he won a Juno in the Best Aboriginal Album Category for Songs Lived & Life Played.

At the time, he  told The Outlook, "It was an amazing feeling — redemption, you would say, of thirty-five years of hard work."

For more about Porter, go to myspace.com/murrayportermusic.