Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Matt Patershuk Evokes Outlaw Country on Steve Dawson-Produced Debut
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Album launches for Outside the Lights of Town
February 16 – Art Gallery, Dawson Creek, BC
Tickets $5 at the door
March 2 – The Artery, Edmonton, AB
Showtime 7pm
Tickets $10 at the door
March 7 – Wine Oh’s, Calgary, AB (opening for Grant Davidson)
Matt Patershuk’s auspicious Steve Dawson-produced debut instantly transports listeners back to the era of outlaw country and icons like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson.
The small-town Alberta “desk jockey” for a bridge construction company possesses a deep, expressive baritone that occasionally adopts Cash-like phrasing or the rough-hewn twang of early Steve Earle. He’s also got a clearly-authentic sense of kinship with the common man and the imagination to conger up all the archetypal characters of the classic country and western songs. … and then adapt them for the Northern Canadian landscape.
Veda Hille gives musical voice to Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef’s radically-reinvented Peter Pan
Veda Hille and the Bank Dogs. For a hi-rez image, right click the photo and select “save target as” or your browser’s equivalent.
Veda Hille launches the original cast recording for Peter Panties
February 25, 8pm at the Music Gallery
Duo concert with Barry Mirochnick
197 John Street
Toronto, ON
(416) 204-1080
Tickets: $20
$15 for Members
www.musicgallery.org
Veda Hille is one of Canada’s most enduringly original musical artists, known for finding inspiration in random fragments of text and melody and stitching them together with furiously-expressive and often dissonant musical passages.
Niall McNeil is an award-winning actor and playwright with Downs Syndrome, described by the Georgia Straight as a “serious and wildly associative artist” and praised by the paper for his eccentric syntax and forceful language, which combines to form poetry.
Marcus Youssef is a multi-award-winning actor, playwright, author and educator – an advocate of making culture central to the life of Vancouver and of using writing and theatre as tools of political and social change.
These three artistic kindred spirits came together to create the soundtrack for Peter Panties, Youssef and McNeil’s Jessie Award-winning rewrite of Peter Pan, which premiered at Vancouver’s PuSH Festival in 2011.
Hille launches the original cast recording – on vinyl and download – later this month in Toronto.
Christa Couture debuts The Living Record in the Maritimes
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And returns to Montreal and Ontario
Spring launch dates for The Living Record
Feb. 14 – Sakewewak Festival, Regina SK
Feb. 21-23 – Folk Alliance, Toronto ON
March 4 – Grumpy’s, Montreal QC
March 6 – The Spill, Peterborough ON
March 9 – Revolucion, Toronto ON
March 14 – Fables, Tatamagouche NS
March 15 – Lansdowne House Concert, Fredericton NB
March 16 – Lansdowne House Concertt #2, Upper Kingsclear NB
March 17 – The Dunk, PEI
March 19 – Company House, Halifax NS
Christa Couture hasn’t even finished the launch dates for her new album, The Living Record , and already it’s made best-of-the-year lists at CBC Music, The Georgia Straight, and Radio Regent (Corby’s Orbit). In fact, the Straight’s Alex Varty described Couture earlier this year as “criminally underrated.”
Couture is returning to the road next month for the second leg of the album’s launch tour, so audiences in the Maritimes will finally get to see what all the fuss is about. …and audiences elsewhere will get a second chance to see what they might’ve missed the first time.
Ben Sures, Bubba Uno and David P. Smith debut new death ballads during winter tour
Bubba Uno. For a hi-rez image, right click the photo and select “save target as” or your browser’s equivalent.
The Death Ballad Love Tellers tour
Feb. 13 – The Black Dog Freehouse, Edmonton, AB
Feb. 14 – The Hideout Red Deer, AB
Feb. 15 – Wine-Ohs Calgary, AB
Feb. 16 – TBC Canmore, AB
Feb. 17 – Clawhammer Press, Fernie, BC
Feb. 19 – The Railway Club, Vancouver, AB
Feb. 21 – Steffich Fine Art, Saltspring Island, BC
Feb. 22 – House Concert, Lantzville,BC
Feb. 23 – Merlin’s Sun Theatre, Victoria, BC
Three of the West’s most madly-creative underground songwriters will be returning to the stage next month for the Death Ballad Love Tellers tour.
Testosterone’s answer to the Scrappy Bitches of a decade ago, Ben Sures, David P. Smith and Bubba Uno will premiere new songs – death ballads of course – written specially for the tour. …and for a new album they’ll record together when it’s over.
They’ll also accompany each other on guitar, ukulele and accordion respectively while each takes a turn showcasing songs from his solo repertoire.
WCMA and CFMA Nominees the Blue Warblers Bring Edgy Smokey Mountain Standards from the Campfire to the Hearth
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The Blue Warblers – “Rails to Roots” tour
The Rails: Via Rail Westbound train Feb. 2-5.
The Roots (Home Roots tour)
Feb. 5 – Prince George, BC
Feb. 6 – Hudson’s Hope, BC
Feb. 7 – Fort St John, BC
Feb. 8 – Grande Prairie, AB
Feb. 9 – Valleyview, AB
Feb. 10 – Dawson Creek, BC
Feb. 12 – Mackenzie, BC
Feb. 13 – Prince George, BC
Feb. 14 – Fraser Lake, BC
Feb. 15 – New/South Hazelton, BC
Feb. 16 – Prince Rupert, BC
Feb. 17 – Terrace, BC
Feb. 18 – Smithers, BC – The Old Church
Feb. 20 – TBC, Vancouver, BC
Sit back and relax in the comfort of your neighbour’s home, feel the music in your heart, your spine, and even in your knees, and let the Blue Warblers transport you back to the early days of Appalachia. … or possibly a Yukon campfire.
Following an autumn that saw them nominated for both a Canadian Folk Music Award and two Western Canadian Music Awards, the duo of esteemed Yukon artists Kim Beggs and Natalie Edelson is heading out on the road next month to play a series of intimate house concerts in B.C. and Alberta — along with a few other shows along the way. It’s part of the Home Roots house concert circuit, which books A-list roots talent into carefully-selected living rooms across the country.
Pharis and Jason Romero launch Long Gone Out West Blues
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Feb 8 – St. Basil’s Cultural Centre (Full Moon Folk Club), Edmonton, AB
Feb 9 – The Wolf’s Den (Lethbridge Folk Club) Lethbridge, AB
Feb. 10 – Clawhammer Press and Gallery, Fernie, B.C
Feb. 11 & 12 – House concert and workshops, Nelson, BC
Feb. 13 – House concert, Parson, BC
Feb. 14 – Carlin Hall, Salmon Arm, BC
Feb. 15 – Lorenzo’s, Enderby, BC
Feb. 16 – Medici’s Gelateria, Oliver, BC
Feb. 17 – Kelowna Folk Club House Concert, Kelowna, BC
Feb. 20-24 – North American Folk Alliance (official showcase Friday)
April 5 – St. James Hall (Rogue Folk) Vancouver, BC
May 9-12 – La Grande Rencontre, Montreal
In the tiny hamlet of Horsefly, B.C. – population 700 – lives a pair of musicians with a pair of extraordinary claims to fame. Jason Romero is widely considered to be one of the greatest banjo-builders in the world, with a client list that includes Jerry Douglas and Ricky Skaggs. He and his wife, Pharis – an alumnus of the highly-regarded old-time act Outlaw Social – also happen to have a vintage roots duo that’s experiencing a meteoric ascent in the folk world.
After collecting a 2012 Canadian Folk Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year and a 2012 Independent Music Award for Americana Album of the Year for their duo debut, A Passing Glimpse, Pharis and Jason Romero are heading back on the road to launch the album’s follow-up, Long Gone Out West Blues. Read the rest of this entry »
Cory Weeds, Steve Davis to premiere simple-yet-sophisticated swing during January tour
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Tour dates
January 11th/12th – Cory Weeds’ Cellar Jazz Club, Vancouver, BC
January 17th – Wine Ohs, Calgary, Alberta
January 18th – Ye Olde Jazz Bar, Medicine Hat, Alberta
January 19th – Yardbird Suite, Edmonton, Alberta
January 22nd – Upstairs Jazz Bar, Montreal, Quebec
January 23rd – National Arts Center, Ottawa, Ontario
January 24th – The Rex, Toronto, Ontario
January 25th – The Jazz Room, Waterloo, Ontario
January 26th – The Aeolian Hall, London, Ontario
Jazz and children’s music might seem worlds apart, but award-winning sax virtuoso Cory Weeds doesn’t mind admitting he’s been listening to a lot of “Baby Beluga” since his first child was born three and a half years ago. In fact, he’s happy to acknowledge that it’s probably playing a role in his composing.
Weeds is known for soulful, swinging, good-time groove and bop, and he says he sometimes marvels at how music that’s as simple as children’s music can make people feel so great.
It’s that passion for creating feel-good, simple-yet-sophisticated compositions that’s at the heart of Weeds’ new project. … well, that and his love of combining the sounds of sax and trombone.
The follow-up to 2011’s Just Like That, which spent more than 12 weeks on the JazzWeek charts, sees Weeds teaming up with New York trombonist Steve Davis – the king of crowd-pleasing compositions that are infinitely more intricate than they sound. Read the rest of this entry »
Joanna Chapman-Smith Rediscovers her Voice – Literally – on Love Me Deeply
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Joanna Chapman-Smith launches Love Me Deeply
Saturday, January 12, 8:30 pm, at Hugh’s Room
Tickets $17 adv. / $20 at the door
Information and reservations: 416-531-6604
For Joanna Chapman-Smith, losing her voice in the fall of 2008 led to her finding her voice in more ways than she ever imagined.
Love Me Deeply is the upshot of that experience.
Embroiled in the existential crisis that grips any singer who suddenly can’t sing, the Independent Music Award-winner and nominee for the 2012 Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award began reflecting on the power of the voice in our lives: how it conveys our emotions and articulates who we are in the world and in relation to others. And how, when we lose it, it’s a sign that we’ve lost something of ourselves.
That’s where she was at when she started writing the album. The timing coincided with the end of a relationship, so the songs weave the theme of a voice lost and found with the theme of love lost and found.
Love Me Deeply is also a showcase for Joanna’s restored and strengthened vocals – more pure-sounding, mellifluous and versatile than ever before – and an elegant and sophisticated opus on how our voices make us who we are. Read the rest of this entry »
Ex Canada Council music chief returns to recording with Crazy Shades of Blue
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Album launch:
Thursday, January 10, 2013
9 pm, at C’est What
Tickets $10
Featuring:
David Baxter on guitars; Josh Turnbull (Young Mother) on drums; Alan Kelley (Kelley’s son, also of Young Mother) on bass; and special guest, guitarist Brian Blain
Album launch set: 9:30 pm
Post launch set and jam: 11:30 pm
During his decade-long tenure as head of the music section at the Canada Council for the Arts, Russ Kelley helped countless young musicians figure out how to make a record.
Now he’s going down that very path himself.
Just a year after retiring from his Council post, Kelley is returning to his recording and song-writing career with Crazy Shades of Blue – and it turns out the man who penned a #1 hit in 1972 with Renée Martel’s “Partir Au Soleil” (a French version of his “Elaine”) can still write circles around some of the young whipper snappers he used to mentor as an arts administrator.
Kelley’s richly varied collection evokes classic blues, jazz, soul, and pop, all sung with a soul-drenched raspy vocal style that recall’s Joe Cocker’s. The sonic pallet ranges from the melodic, feel-good acoustic blues of “Sometimes it’s so Simple” and “Somewhere Later Down the Road” to the soulful rocker “Signs of Love,” the melancholy folk song “I Disappear,” the swinging title track, and Kelley’s own heartfelt rendition of his pop hit, “Elaine.” Read the rest of this entry »
Alex Cuba’s “Static” builds on the awesome reception of his last album
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Ruido En El Sistema / Static in the System launches Oct. 2
Initial launch dates:
October 25 – McPherson Playhouse Victoria
(Special benefit for Community Living Victoria with Alex Cuba and Kuba Oms)
November 2-3 – National Arts Centre Fourth Stage, Ottawa
November 4 – Neat Café, Burnstown
November 9 – Koerner Hall, Toronto
November 10 – Market Hall, Peterborough
February 7, 2013 – The Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON
February 8, 2013 – Hilfield Strathallan College, Hamilton, ON
February 9, 2013 – Gibson Centre, Alliston, ON
February 12, 2013 – La Basoche, Gatineau, QC
February 13, 2013 Northen – College Auditorium, Kirkland Lake, ON
February15-16, 2013 – Centennial Hall, London, ON
Over the course of just three albums, Cuban-Canadian musical revolutionary Alex Cuba has smashed through conventional boundaries of language and genre and achieved considerable Canadian pop music success – while simultaneously putting Canada on the Latin music map south of the border.
On Ruido En El Sistema / Static in the System, the Grammy nominee and Latin Grammy-winner hurtles once more down the musical road-less-traveled, rocking out, tripping out and speaking out like never before, while laying down hooks that are as addictive as Cuban tobacco.
Having delicately peeled away the complexity of Cuban music to rediscover its soul – and having begun the process of remaking it in his image by infusing it with flavours of the pop, rock and funk he listened to as a teen in his homeland – Alex takes both processes to the next level on Ruido, simplifying his melodies to make way for soaring pop hooks and driving power chords, and expanding his sonic palate yet again.
Read the rest of this entry »