Desboro Music Hall 2017 Concert Series
All Ages
Doors Open: 7pm, Music Starts: 7:30pm
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 price tickets)
Tragedy Ann
When grit and groove meets softly swaying silk, the thrift-folk of Braden Phelan and Liv Cazzola comes to life. With an electric chemistry and quick-witted sense of humour, they’ve threaded their colours and textures together to create the terrifying two-headed kitten that is Tragedy Ann. Playing with folk and alt. blues yarns, Cazzola and Phelan draw from personal experiences to filter narrative stories of the past and present into their own songwriting. Having performed in 2016 at Live From the Rock, toured Western Canada, and released their debut EP Stumbling – Tragedy Ann is known to make audiences laugh, cry, hug complete strangers, and is the only cure for the common cold. Bring the purr.
Tragedy Ann Website
Tragedy Ann Facebook
Tragedy Ann Instagram
Shawna Caspi
Shawna Caspi is a singer-songwriter with a powerful voice and serious guitar chops. With a commanding stage presence and an inviting charm, she doesn’t need a band to deliver an engaging and energetic show. She has all the sound she needs under her fingertips, with a remarkable fingerstyle guitar technique.
Shawna makes her living singing stories in cafes, theatres, living rooms, and even on moving trains. She has toured across Canada and the north and southeast United States and has played festivals including the Blue Skies Music Festival, the Summerfolk Festival, the Shelter Valley Folk Festival, the Ottawa Grassroots Festival, and the Deep Roots Music Festival. She loves the landscapes of her travels and while weaving them into her songs, she has also been portraying them on canvases. Shawna paints one-of-a-kind works of art inspired by the rich scenery she sees on tour.
Shawna Caspi Website
Shawna Caspi Facebook
Shawna Caspi Twitter
Shawna Caspi YouTube
Cody Zevenbergen
Cody Zevenbergen is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and music instructor based in the Grey and Bruce County area. In October of 2016, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Guitar Performance from York University. His music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including rock, blues, country, and jazz. He has played numerous concerts and festivals in the Grey-Bruce area, including the Summerfolk Arts & Crafts festival, OTHERfolk, and the Lupercalia Winter Multi-Arts festival. Currently, he plays with his hard rock band Frankie & The Wild Years, and continues to do shows as a solo artist.
Opening Act: Graham Nicholas
Desboro Music Hall 2018 Concert Series
All Ages Doors Open: 7pm, Music Starts: 7:30pm
Tickets: Limited Advance: $20, Regular: $25
*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 price tickets)
LONESOME ACE STRINGBAND
The Lonesome Ace Stringband brings grit, skill and abandon to old-time, Appalachian folk songs and fiddle/banjo tunes. The members are Chris Coole on banjo, John Showman on fiddle and Max Heineman on bass. Together they bring a deep respect for the roots of the music, a keen sense of innovation to the performance and material, and a passion for the sound that transcends both. 2018 will see the band release it’s 3rd album “When the Sun Comes Up”, which takes a step away from the traditional repertoire of the first two recordings and features the songwriting of all three members. Since they’re inception in 2008, LAS have developed the kind of instinctual rapport, that only comes from seasoned musicians logging many hundreds of playing hours together. This is old-time music for today’s old soul.
Lonesome Ace Stringband Website
GRAHAM NICHOLAS
With the release of his new album, Dial Tones and Pretty Notes, Graham Nicholas has created an emotionally resonant world inhabited by troubled and love-hungry characters. Never alienated for their insecurities, his characters are instead respected by the empathetic voice of an honest songwriter. The album finds Nicholas honing in on his concise form of storytelling and refining his irreverent sense of humour. Coupling the narratives with a backing band that harkens back to the likes of The Heartbreakers, Travelling Wilburys and The Byrds, Nicholas’ songs have found the right balance of warmth and grit. It was recorded and produced by Graham’s longtime collaborator Aaron Comeau (Skydiggers, Al Tuck) at his studio The Trailer. Not only has Graham Nicholas maintained an extensive and country crossing touring schedule, he has also shared the stage with the like of Ron Hynes, Catherine Maclellan, Old man Luedecke, Del Barber and Daniel Romano.
Join us in between the Strawberry Supper and the Fireworks for a PWYC concert (suggested donation of $20) with Paul J McInnis. You may remember him from our very first Season at the Desboro Music Hall. Come enjoy some music from 7:30 – 9pm at the Hall.
BIO
If he were alive 100 years ago, Paul J McInnis would have been found strumming on a street corner, singing his songs about roads, girls, and small towns. His closest friends would have been pickers, singers, poets and painters. He would have enjoyed a simple life surrounded by the things he loved. Today, 100 years later, not much is different. If you look for him, Paul can be found strumming on a street corner in some small town, singing songs about roads, girls, and the things he loves. He may slip into his local pub on the way home for a pint with some old friends. It`s a simple life. Paul J McInnis’ music is his own. It is literate, joyful, melancholy, and timeless. He prefers to play in the moment; recording live off the floor with open mics and no overdubs. Mistakes happen, he’ll say, but so does magic. The resulting albums are collections of some of those magical mistakes, all written and arranged by Paul and performed beautifully with some of his closest friends on mandolin, harmonica, accordion, cello or whatever instrument is close by. It is what Paul believes music should be: simple and real.
To remind you of his music, here is the video clip of Paul’s last visit to Desboro Music Hall:
Opening Act: Will Melville
Desboro Music Hall 2018 Concert Series
All Ages Doors Open: 7pm, Music Starts: 7:30pm
Tickets:Regular: $25
JACK PINE AND THE FIRE
Jack Pine and The Fire is “driving”, “masterful”, “dynamic”, and all acoustic – upright bass, Dobro, Mandolin, and Drums – A gritty alt-folk-Canadiana string band with 5 heavy right hands, haunting harmonies, and all the feels. Nominated at the 2019 JUNOs and the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Awards, their newest album Left To Our Own Devices explores all our relationships – with ourselves, with each other, and with the earth. Jack hollers and howls like a lone wolf, spitting wry words and tall tales, while strumming his mandolin furiously, then softly. His sings songs of lost souls and forgotten truths, with lyricism that blends vivid and powerful imagery with quirky wordplay, dark humour, and biting social commentary.
Jack Pine and the Fire Website
Jack Pine and the Fire Facebook
Jack Pine and the Fire Twitter
Jack Pine and the Fire Instagram
WILL MELVILLE
Will Melville is Toronto-based singer, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and music teacher. Will started learning classical violin at the age of 10, and went on to play in the McMaster University Chamber Orchestra. He’s been writing songs, singing, and playing guitar since he was a teenager in his band Dr. Love and the Love Brigade.Over the years he has had the privilege to work with and learn from esteemed Canadian musicians including Dave Clark (Rheostatics), and Lewis Melville (Skydiggers, Banjo Mechanics). His songs are lyric and melody-driven in the world of roots, folk and country. You can catch will performing as solo act, singing with Toronto group Moonlight Flood, yodelling and playing anything with strings with the eclectic & enthusiastic Cilantro Collective, and performing with various other acts around Toronto. Also check out his work with the experimental Andy Krangus Collaborative.
Opening Act: Annie Sumi
Desboro Music Hall 2018 Concert Series
All Ages
Doors Open: 7pm, Music Starts: 7:30pm
Tickets:Regular: $25
ANDREW COLLINS TRIO
Mando maestro Andrew Collinsfinds himself –through no actual fault of his own –at the epicentre of Canada’s burgeoning acoustic/roots music scene. He didn’t invent it –but he’s certainly been a contributor, having co-founded seriously noteworthy Canadian bands like the Creaking Tree String Quartet, the Foggy Hogtown Boys and, more recently, his namesakeTrio. That’s not to mention the fact that this prolific, robust performer –comfortable on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mandola and mandocello –composes, produces, arranges, writes and teaches across multiple genres, including a popular collision of folk, jazz, bluegrass, celtic, and classical.As Collins gathers up innumerable JUNO nominations (5) and Canadian Folk Music Awards(7)won byhisvarious ensembles, he’s zeroing in on the work he does with Trio-mates: fellow string guru Mike Mezzatesta,whose versatility shinesthrough on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and mandola, and in-the-pocket James McEleney holding it down on the bass, mandocelloand vocals. Showcasing a dizzying number of styles and instruments on stage, Collins and Co. appear tolive by the old adage, “idle hands are the devil’s workshop”, likely keeping them just ahead of his grasp.Bending and blending genres, these musical shape shifters land somewhere between the re-imagined worlds of Béla Fleck and Newgrass invader, David Grisman.They just released a new double album, grafting 11 vocal cuts (tongues) to 11 instrumentals (grooves) to create a seamless finish with their cleverly monikered double album, Tongue & Groove. Each cut is milled to perfection and represents a back-to-basics visitation on what the band does best –spontaneity of the stage and rapid-fire, improvisational exchanges.
Andrew Collins Trio Website
Andrew Collins Trio Facebook
Andrew Collins Trio Instagram
ANNIE SUMI
Annie Sumi is an ethereal-folk artist with a unique ability to capture the subtleties of nature and spin them into melodies. Her latest release, “In the Unknown”, is a collection of stories that speak to the journey of the human-Spirit. Since the release of her debut album, she has received nominations for “New/Emerging Artist of the Year” (Canadian Folk Music Awards, 2018), “Best Singer-Songwriter” (TIMAs, 2015), “New/Emerging Artist of the Year” (Hidden Roots Collective, CFMAs, 2017), and more. This year, with the support of the Ontario Arts Council, Annie Sumi carried these landscapes of sound across Canada, coast-to-coast, and Central Europe. Her live performance is a journey into the permeable nature of the heart; she is a vulnerable vessel that consistently leaves it all on the stage, and inspires the audience to feel something.
Main Act: The Unseen Strangers
Opening Act: David Lum
Desboro Music Hall 2020 Concert Series
All Ages
Doors Open: 6:30pm, Music Starts: 7:30pm
Tickets:Regular: $25
THE UNSEEN STRANGERS
The Unseen Strangers have ambitiously cultivated a musical identity shaped by good old-fashioned bluegrass, the limitless barrage of contemporary musical influences, and a curious sense of humor.
Newgrass ambassadors, The Unseen Strangers favor innovation over convention. For their newest album, Stranger Places (April 1st, 2016), the band challenged the limits of what they are capable of, exploring the gamut of what can be done with strings. The result is a collection of fun, stunning songs featuring inimitable instrumental performances.
The seven-part instrumental kick off “Ice Jam” launches the listener on an expansive journey through nine original songs, including the three-piece horn section funkiness of “Old City Jail” and the psychedelic newgrass epic “Square Trance”. The Strangers also pay homage to their bluegrass roots on “Wicked Lover” and the freight train inspired barnburner “New Railroad Blues”.
For Stranger Places, the band simplified their approach to the studio with quick, concise live off the floor sessions. The band teamed up with Toronto, ON based engineer and producer Andrew Collins (Creaking Tree String Quartet; Foggy Hogtown Boys), recording the album over several months in 2015.
The band was started in 2008 by Adam Shier, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and driving force behind The Unseen Strangers. Adam fell in love with the sound of Bluegrass while attending college in Halifax and was soon recruiting his best friends to be in a Bluegrass band. The band quickly recorded an album and were excited to win a Music Nova Scotia Award in 2009 for Bluegrass/Country Album of the Year. The group has grown immensely from these small beginnings but a similar goal remains, to play new energetic bluegrass music with respect to the incredible lineage of its tradition.
The Strangers approach to bluegrass is open-ended yet inclusive; they’ve been on the roster for several forward thinking festivals, including Delfest (hosted by bluegrass legend Del Mccoury), where they won the band competition in 2013. The Unseen Strangers continue to add to their diverse festival resume while consistently developing their sound both onstage and in the studio.
“They have music that engages all the senses and leaves listeners longing for more.”
~ Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine
“Stellar mandolin, guitar and banjo shredding that sounds straight out of Tennessee”
~ Exclaim! – ON, CANADA
“These guys are good”
~ CBC Radio –
“The Unseen Strangers aren’t pretending to be cowboys. They’ll interrupt themselves for an instrumental breakdown of I Like To Move It…”
~ The Globe and Mail – ON, CANADA
“Unseen Strangers pushes the limits of stringed jam-band wildness to new heights. ”
~ The Aquarian – NJ, USA
“The expressiveness heard in their lovely ensemble brings a natural quality to their sound, forming a honest and genuine relationship with the listener.”
~ KAOS Radio – WA, USA
“At their most creative, the music is nearly irresistible, leaving you wondering what’s next and always coming through with a new turn to relish.”
~ Grayowl Point
“Interesting Music”
~ Pete Wernick – “Dr. Banjo”, Hot Rize
“Bluegrass Band Competition Winners 2013”
~ Delfest – MD, USA
“Country/Bluegrass Song of the Year 2012”
~ International Acoustic Music Awards
DAVID LUM
Born and raised in Vancouver, David made his way across Canada, spent a decade in Winnipeg before settling in Hamilton. Infusing a blend of contemporary folk and roots, his influences include renowned Canadian singer/songwriters such as Bruce Cockburn and James Keelaghan, as well as American blues artist Keb ‘Mo and folk-rock duo The Indigo Girls.
His songs are as varied as the landscapes he has travelled through, and his versatile guitar style traverses folk, blues, pop and everything else in between. His intimate voice will draw you into his world, filled with tales of quiet desperation, longing and triumph of the human spirit.