Folkus Heads into 2020 - theHumm November 2019

Folkus Heads into 2020 - theHumm November 2019

By — Sandy Irvin is the Artistic Director of the Folkus Concert Series

Almonte’s Folkus Concert Series is pleased to be announcing another great season of music for your ears. This year’s season focuses (sorry) a lot on vocal harmony. We will bring you sweet singers, choruses galore, storytellers in song, and there will be laughs along the way too. Folkus receives funding from the Government of Canada and that allows us to take chances on bigger-name artists, to support local artists opening, and to support music in the community. We also couldn’t do anything without our local sponsors, all of whom make it easier to bring you great shows. Treat them like gold, and tell them we sent you. And now for our 2020 line-up…

January 18: The Good Lovelies with The Space Between

The Good Lovelies goodlovelies.com could well be Canada’s sweethearts. A little folk, a little pop, a little country, a dash of hip-hop; fundamentally the Good Lovelies are about beautiful singing, angelic harmony and memorable songs. This will be an intimate show — a not-to-be-missed chance to hear their voices soar in a room designed for singing.

“Kerri Ough, Sue Passmore, and Caroline Brooks [are each] immensely talented vocalists and songwriters in their own right; however, it’s their voices interwoven in harmony — powerful and pure, organic and inspiring — that elevates the Good Lovelies from impressive to peerless.”

Special guests The Space Between will be opening wearethespacebetween.squarespace.com . Hometown girl Sonja Seiler brings her duo project to Almonte. Seiler is joined on harmony and vocals and guitar by Eric Sorenson. Nestling in a rootsy pocket somewhere between Appalachia and Toronto, their sound is clean and pure.

Feb. 29: Campbell Woods & Kate Weekes

This will be a lovely evening of singing and musical storytelling. Celebrate Leap Day with us!

Campbell Woods campbellwoodsmusic.com is a troubadour with roots in the Ottawa Valley, currently based in Montreal. He’s a listener and a storyteller; his songs bring out the secret joys and ordinary tragedies of life with carefully crafted melodies and deceptively simple turns of phrase. He gets compared to Townes Van Zant and John Prine a lot; he also reminds me a little of Fred Eaglesmith.

Kate Weekes kateweekes.com seems to live stories on the way to telling them. She hitchhiked her way to the Yukon, collecting stories along the way. She has been a dog-musher in Norway, toured China with a swing band, and has paddled from Whitehorse to Dawson City. Weekes describes her latest album, Taken by Surprise, as the sonic scrapbook of a bold life lived to the fullest. “Wherever I am traveling comes out in my songs,” she says. For this evening, Weekes will be accompanied by multi-instrumentalist and producer James Stephens.

March 28: Ian Sherwood with Evangeline Gentle

Ian Sherwood iansherwood.com is a multi-award-winning singer-songwriter, storyteller and multi-multi-instrumentalist. He is charming in person and funny as heck on stage between songs. Sherwood has just released his fifth album, Bring the Light. “A born storyteller and a constant creator, his music dances the line between folk and pop. His live performances thrive on intimacy. Whether it’s a theatre show or large festival stage, his persona is irresistible and completely destroys fourth walls.”

Opening for Ian Sherwood will be Evangeline Gentle, a rising star from Peterborough. Evangeline brings a spine-tingling voice and introspective songwriting to the stage. Their self-titled LP, recently released on COAX records, was recorded just down the road at Jim Bryson’s Fixed Hinge Studios.

April 25: A Leverage for Mountains and The Pairs

This will be an uplifting night of vocal harmony. Both bands feature trios of fabulous singers, and when they sing, you can hear how much they love to make music. They really will sing at the drop of a hat — we will try for a double encore!

A Leverage for Mountains aleverageformountains.com are based in Val-des-Monts, Quebec. Nick Loyer, Jay Trepanier and Jay Flynn focus on crisp harmonies and subtle, catchy melodies. They have released a first EP, The Essence Project, and are working on a new album.

The Pairs thepairsmusic.com are a female-fronted folk pop group hailing from London, ON, powered by classically trained vocalists Renee and Noelle Coughlin and Hillary Watson; former punk rock drummer Steve Plimmer adds his own spicy beats. Their unique blend of harmony and rhythm will hug your eardrums and may inspire a little chair dancing at our show. They have just released their first album, Noise.

We look forward to seeing you, whether it’s at our launch party in November (see sidebar), or at the first show of the season at the Almonte Old Town Hall. This year, our season’s passes go on sale November 2 at folkusalmonte.com and at Mill Street Books. Our single tickets will go on sale the first week of January in the same places.

Links for this article at Folkus Concert Series,

 

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By — Sandy Irvin is the Artistic Director of the Folkus Concert Series

Almonte’s Folkus Concert Series is pleased to be announcing another great season of music for your ears. This year’s season focuses (sorry) a lot on vocal harmony. We will bring you sweet singers, choruses galore, storytellers in song, and there will be laughs along the way too. Folkus receives funding from the Government of Canada and that allows us to take chances on bigger-name artists, to support local artists opening, and to support music in the community. We also couldn’t do anything......

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