Events

 

 

Apr
22
Sat
2017
Opening 2017 Season: My Sweet Patootie @ Desboro Music Hall
Apr 22 @ 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm

Main Act: My Sweet Patootie

Opening Act: Alicia Toner

Desboro Music Hall 2017 Concert Series

All Ages
Doors Open: 7pm, Music Starts: 7:30pm

Buy Tickets

Tickets: Advance: $20 ($17.70 +HST), Regular: $25 ($22.12 +HST)

*Advance tickets are only available up to the Box Office hours the weekend before the show or we run out (Note: there is a limit of 25 advance tickets)


My Sweet Patootie is contemporary roots and ragtime at its best; bringing tight harmonies, monstrous guitar, sizzling fiddle and percussion together in one perfect package. Founded in 2007 by Canadian Folk Music Award winners Sandra Swannell and Terry Young, the trio has a growing international reputation. From original swing to funky fiddle-tune arrangements to exquisite ballads, they deliver a must-see show that Driftwood Magazine describes as “two parts exemplary musicianship, one part vaudeville comedy”.

Their vintage-style song writing is rooted in folk, americana and jazz; heavily influenced by the likes of Chet Atkins, Lenny Breau, Les Paul & Mary Ford and the Andrews Sisters. Throw in a penchant for light-hearted satire and their love of artists like Patsy Cline and Hank Williams and you get a sound that Young likes to call “Green Acres for the New Millennium”.

Terry Young is described by Penguin Eggs as an “acoustic guitar god”.  BBC critic James Harrox calls his playing “virtuosic”, while FATEA magazine describes it as “jaw dropping”. He has taught advanced finger-style guitar clinics and has written about his technique for Chicago’s Plank Road Folk Music Society Magazine. He is a talented multi-instrumentalist who toured from 1999 – 2009 with the group Tanglefoot; performing on guitar, mandolin, banjo and pennywhistle. Terry is a classically trained singer and holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Ontario.

Sandra Swannell is a classically trained violinist/ violist, but her style owes much more to the influences of Joe Venuti and Stephane Grappelli. Her diverse musical background ranges from recording with Canada’s legendary Stompin’ Tom Connors to writing a series of musical sketches for string orchestra. She was the principal violist of the Georgian Bay Symphony and fronted the Celtic art-rock band The Shards before joining the group Tanglefoot in 2005. Sandra has taught violin/ viola clinics for festivals, schools, community orchestras for many years as well as her own private studio.

With the departure of group’s original drummer Bradford Nowak in 2015, My Sweet Patootie became a truly international band with Welsh percussionist Anthony Thickett joining for UK tours, and Canadian Paul Clifford for North American tours.

Paul Clifford is a drummer, percussionist, songwriter and producer now based in Ontario. Musically growing up on the west coast of Canada, Paul played in various jazz/ blues bands, theatre productions, reggae bands, and toured/ recorded with the Vancouver folk-roots ensemble The Be Good Tanyas. Music education includes the many pilgrimages to New Orleans, Cuba, jazz studies on Vancouver Island, busking the streets of Europe with his tiny drum kit, and years of touring/ recording with the north american roots trio Groanbox. Based in the English countryside of Kent for ten years, Paul worked as a record producer for Smugglers Records, was the musical director for the vaudevillian theatre collective The Private Widdle Social Club, and kept active in the local and London blues scenes. His education continues.

The band’s name “My Sweet Patootie” is a slang term of endearment which became popular in the 1920s meaning a “hot dame” or a “sassy sweetheart”. Several ragtime titles from the jazz-age reference the expression, as do the lyrics of “Everybody Loves My Baby” (1924) by Spencer Williams and Jack Palmer. More significantly for Young and Swannell is “Sweet Patootie Blues” (1928) by Arthur “Blind” Blake, who was well known for his complex and intricate finger picking. The name was chosen to capture the vintage flavour of their music as well as the satirical edge in much of their song writing.

MSP released their third album “Good Day” in May of 2013, their first full length album as a trio. Peter Cowley’s review in FATEA magazine describes it as “infectious good humour and superb playing and singing, a delightful combination of jazzy guitar, Hot Club violin, luscious strings and horns and harmony vocals”. The CD was produced, arranged, engineered and mastered by Young & Swannell at their own Nowheresville Studio located in an historic one-room school house near Meaford, Ontario. “Good Day” is their most ambitious project to date and features each member’s skills as multi-instrumentalists, yet still remains true to their live sound as a trio. Other recordings are Patootified!”(2010, self produced) and “Nowheresville” (2008, produced by Canadian gospel-blues legend Ken Whiteley).

The trio has performed thousands of shows including theatres, festivals and clubs in Canada (Ontario, Manitoba and British Colombia), the United States from the eastern Seaboard to the Midwest, and the United Kingdom. My Sweet Patootie is played regularly on CBC, NPR, and BBC Radio. They have performed live-to-air concerts on; the nationally-syndicated WFMT “Folkstage” in Chicago, IL; WVBR’s “Bound for Glory” in Ithaca, NY; and BBC’s “The Drift” in Blackburn, Lancashire.

In 2014 My Sweet Patootie performed at the Mariposa Folk Festival and were guest artists with the Georgian Bay Symphony, performing orchestrated versions of their original songs. In 2015 they launched their fifth 2 month-long tour of England and Scotland and their eighth North American tour.

My Sweet Patootie Website
My Sweet Patootie Facebook
My Sweet Patootie Twitter

My Sweet Patootie Photos by Wayne Simpson


A critically acclaimed singer, fiddler, actor, musician, Alicia Toner has been wowing audiences with her diverse skill set for years. Classically trained in violin and voice with a diploma in Music Theatre-Performance, this unique performerʼs journey has taken her all over Canada and to several European countries.

Born and raised in Fredericton, NB, she caught the performing bug early, touring with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, with whom she played Carnegie Hall, and singing/ playing fiddle in the Celtic/folk quartet HATband. Since moving to Toronto 10 years ago and studying Music Theatre, Alicia has appeared in over 30 productions across Canada and Europe including the Dora Award Winning production of Assassins(TIFT/Birdland) and the hit musical Once(Mirvish) that brought home many Doras and much critical acclaim. For the last four years, she has been a staple of the Charlottetown Festival, lending her incredibly versatile voice to roles such as Cinderella in Cinderella, as well as many featured vocalist roles. Most recently, she was seen in the wildly successful new Canadian Musical The Chasse Galerie.

An East Coaster at heart, Alicia felt the pull of the Maritimes and, in 2014, made Charlottetown her home. Since then, she has shifted her attention to her first love; music. In June of 2015, Alicia went into the studio with Stuart Cameron, Peter Fusco and Blake Manning to record her first four track EP. The following Spring, with the help of FACTOR Canada, she completed her full-length debut album “I Learned the Hard Way” to be released this June, 2017.
Alicia Toner Website
Alicia Toner Facebook
Alicia Toner Twitter

Dec
3
Sun
2017
Interro Quartet @ Desboro Music Hall
Dec 3 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Please join us for a Winter Chamber Music Concert.  We have always thought the acoustics in the Hall would be perfect for a small quartet.  Interro Quartet is a string quartet featuring violin, viola and cello.

Interro Quartet combines passionate performances with a curiosity to explore new sounds and venues in chamber music. The group’s repertoire includes works of classical music giants, as well as new compositions by emerging and established Canadian composers. Featuring award-winning graduates of University of Toronto, the Interro Quartet includes violinists Adam Despinic and Steve Koh, violist Maxime Despax, and cellist Sebastian Ostertag.

The mission of the Interro Quartet is not only to make quartet music accessible to those who seek it but also to broaden the spectrum of audiences through diverse programming. To complement this mission, members of the Interro Quartet are also avid educators and clinicians, dedicated to supporting education programs that encourage new ways for artists and listeners to share, experience, and incorporate chamber music into their daily lives.

Interro Quartet Website
Interro Quartet Facebook
Interro Quartet Instagram

Individual bios:
Adam Despinic, violin
Steve Koh, violin
Maxime Despax, viola
Sebastian Ostertag, cello

Oct
19
Sat
2019
Citizen Jane with David Stone @ Desboro Music Hall
Oct 19 @ 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Opening Act: David Stone

Desboro Music Hall 2018 Concert Series

All Ages

Doors Open: 7pm, Music Starts: 7:30pm

Tickets:Regular: $25


 

CITIZEN JANE

DYNAMIC CHAMBER FOLK-POP DUO, CITIZEN JANE, PUSHES BOUNDARIES FOR STRING INSTRUMENTS IN POPULAR MUSIC.

CITIZEN JANE is a Canadian folk-pop duo that lovingly crafts songs about our society’s potential to evolve in the current political climate (though the occasional love song is inevitable). Percussive and lyrical bowed strings marry with rhythmically driven guitar and powerful, interwoven vocal harmonies to create a sound that is two parts daydream; one part grunge.

The duo’s upcoming album, High Tide (June 2019), infuses their organic folk sound with subtle electronic flavours, colouring traditional influences with a contemporary pop aesthetic.

Hailed a “delight” by Folk Radio UK, Reenie and Lea spark a uniquely intimate connection with all audiences, and love including layered sing-alongs in their live performances.

Their debut album, In the Storm, was released in the fall of 2017, to exciting reviews:”exquisitely performed… an accomplished chamber folk-pop album of grace and elegance”

– Folk Radio UK

“diverse and multifaceted”

– Curve Magazine

“In the Storm illustrates an effortless take on folk-style music. Their honest poetry and musicianship… makes for brilliant artistry.”

– Permanent Rain Press

The duo consists of married couple Reenie Perkovic (vocals, guitar, mandolin) and Lea Kirstein (viola, cello, vocals), who met while studying classical music on the west coast. The ladies have since made a home in Toronto’s vibrant music scene, while continually touring across Canada and the States, with upcoming tours in Europe.

Reenie grew up in the Toronto area, after her family escaped the civil war in her birthplace, Sarajevo, Bosnia. She went west to study percussion and composition at UVic, where she wrote contemporary classical works that were read by the Victoria Symphony. While studying, she continued to play guitar and lead pop bands, touring locally and playing festivals. Reenie was a semi-finalist in the 2016 UK Songwriting Contest, and has released 3 solo albums. She has opened for Juno-nominated Alysha Brilla, and Annabelle Chvostek (Wailin’ Jennys).

Lea is an acclaimed violist and fiddler, who grew up in Victoria, BC, where she studied viola and music education at UVic. Classical musician by day and fiddler by night, Lea discovered new ways of melding the two styles into one. Her passion for these genres took her across Canada & the U.S. with the Folk Arts Quartet. She has recorded with Juno-nominated artists Oliver Schroer and Teresa Doyle.

The duo is passionate about building community & education, and frequently offers workshops at schools, camps, and festivals.

 

Citizen Jane Website
Citizen Jane Facebook
Citizen Jane Twitter
Citizen Jane Instagram


DAVID STONE

David Stone is a Canadian singer/songwriter and musician, born and raised on the shores of Georgian Bay, Ontario.

“David Stone’s songs are carefully written and could easily stand alone as poetry. The fact that he can accompany them with strong melodies that lend themselves to sing-alongs, a voice just this side of gravelly, and delicate guitar work when the occasion calls for it makes Stone a quadruple-threat.” – Rachel Cholst (Adobe and Teardrops).