Main Act: My Sweet Patootie
Opening Act: Alicia Toner
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 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
Opening Act: Rob Elder
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)
Ben Kunder
Part carpenter; Part actor; Canadian singer-songwriter Ben Kunder has spent years honing his craft to become a full time musician. On May 26, 2015, Ben ventured closer to making this a reality with the release of his DEBUT solo LP, Golden.With a voice that truly fills your heart and keeps you warm, Ben writes songs that everyone can relate to. His powerful voice is a driving force in his music, guiding his songs by creating impressive and tactful melodies and dynamics.
Exclaim! declared, “Kunder’s extra special voice, along with gorgeous production, lends the record an almost velvety quality.” While NewCanadianMusic said the album: “features strong and warm vocals, nicely-crafted folk-rock songs, and top-notch production and playing,” and the Toronto Star had this to say about Ben – “he’s got the kind of mellow sincerity in his voice to take it beyond generic country-pop.”
No stranger to the Canadian music community, Ben has been writing and producing his music independently for over 7 years. Through a chance meeting with John Dinsmore (NQ Arbuckle), the pair hunkered down at John’s, Lincoln County Social Club studio to co-produce Golden. The album features 9 stunning original songs by Ben, including the first single and title track, Golden. Ben (guitar, vox, and piano) is joined by a group of Canada’s finest musicians for the studio recording, featuring Brian Murphy (Alvvays) on guitar/piano/Wurlitzer, Rich Knox (Dustin Bentall, Danko Jones) on drums/vox, Anna Ruddick (Ladies of the Canyon, Randy Bachman) on bass/vox, and Aaron Goldstein (Cowboy Junkies, Daniel Romano) on pedal steel. Also John Connolly lends his voice, along with Kirty, Maia Davies (Ladies of the Canyon) and Jasmine Bleile (Ladies of the Canyon) for select tracks.
Ben has lived all across the beautiful country of Canada, from his solar powered cabin on Salt Spring Island, BC, where he spent his days chopping wood and chasing deer from the garden, to Charlottetown, PEI, working at the Confederation Centre for the Arts. Now, Ben is back to where he started his journey in his hometown of Toronto. Golden is an album that pushed Ben to new levels, and will surely see him reach new heights in his career.
Sarah MacDougall
Described by the magazine Rootstime in Belgium as ‘One of the greatest talents of our era”, and listed as the “2nd best gig” by the major UK newspaper The Independent, becoming the #1 most played artist on Canadian Galaxie Folk/Roots radio, Western Canadian Music Award winning artist Sarah MacDougall is getting known for her honest and poetic songs, passionate performances, and unique voice. Born in Sweden, Swedish magazine Nöjesguiden declared her “One of Sweden’s best singer/songwriters”.
Since the release of award-winning The Greatest Ones Alive in 2011, Sarah has been touring Canada and Europe endlessly, taking time to work on songs and record between tours. Last winter, she hunkered down under the Northern Lights in Whitehorse and put the final touches on the sonically rich album which was to become Grand Canyon. The album, co-produced by Sarah and Caleb Stull (Field Study, Dominique Fricot, Language Arts), which was recorded in Toronto and Vancouver, features 8 songs and guest appearances from Erika Angell (Thus:Owls), Rose Cousins, Jesse Zubot (Tanya Tagaq, Dan Mangan), Peggy Lee, and Leah Abramson (Abramson Singers). Stepping outside of traditional folk and flirting with sounds that could have come from The Postal Service or Kate Bush, Grand Canyon keeps the acoustic guitar but infuses the sound with heavier drums and richly textured strings and synths.
The songs are about identity, love, fear, hope, growing up, rootlessness, forgiveness. They are written from the point of view of the hopeful outsider, trying to figure out their place and make sense of the world. Grand Canyon sees Sarah challenging herself and pushing new boundaries musically and sonically, and it is an album that will surely see Sarah reach new levels in her career.
Ben Kunder Website
Ben Kunder Facebook
Ben Kunder Twitter
Sarah MacDougall Website
Sarah MacDougall Facebook
Ben and Sarah’s Photos by Scarlet O’Neill
Rob Elder
Rob’s music is real-life-inspired. His energy and stage presence draw people in and keep them like dinner guests at a Muskoka cottage, while his song writing has simmered and aged to a vintage that takes an audience on a vivid trip along his unique perspective of life and love. From smooth acoustic ballads about girls and things, to his ‘jump out of your seats and dance’ multi-layered, live-looping … the music keeps coming and you can’t turn away.
Rob Elder Website
Rob’s Photos by Amber Vee Photography
Opening Act: Doris Folkens
Desboro Music Hall 2018 Concert Series
**Please note this is a Friday concert (Friday June 1)**
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)
OVER THE MOON
Canadian roots/swing duo Over The Moon‘s Suzanne Levesque and Craig Bignell are awarding multi-instrumentalists/vocalists that met, fell in love, got married and discovered their voices blend so well together that people often tear up upon hearing them sing.
Living on a ranch in the foothills of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, it’s inevitable there will be a strong sense of place- and the rhythms of the land when you start to make music. When the couple released their debut album, the resonances were there for all to hear. reflecting the pulse of life, lived in a territory that is both dirt-hard rugged and beautiful.
Their music is a wild ride from 40’s sounding western swing and Appalachian old-time, to cowboy blues. Simple and sweet, all of their material has a common thread that speaks of the Canadian west and on their UK release, reviews were glowing. American Roots UK saying it was “Exceptional” and Country Music People adding “There’s so much to enjoy here.” The editor of Maverick Magazine told readers “You will love this” Elmore Magazine, New York “We knew we were on to something special”
Over the Moon Website
Over the Moon Facebook
Over the Moon Twitter
Over the Moon YouTube
DORIS FOLKENS
Born in Burlington, Ontario, Doris Folkens grew up playing a piano which survived the bombing of her grandmother’s house in Hamburg during WW2. She began playing guitar- a more portable instrument- during university. After graduating and settling into a health care career, she went on to study songwriting with Berklee College of Music, where she strengthened her skills at writing songs about family and community.
Her debut, old-time inspired album is produced by Toronto’s 7x Canadian Folk Music Award winning mandolinist, Andrew Collins, and arrives Spring 2018. Her music is already receiving recognition from the Ontario music scene- she’s the 2017 recipient of Folk Music Ontario’s “Songs from the Heart- Humorous” Award. A rare singer/songwriter, the vibrant narratives of her folk songs will evoke nostalgia for who you are and where you came from.
Doris Folkens Website
Doris Folkens Facebook
Doris Folkens Instagram
Doris Folkens YouTube
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)
PIPER HAYES
Piper Hayes is a Canadian folk pop singer-songwriter and social activist based in Hamilton, Ontario. She has toured her original music extensively across North America, Europe, the U.K., and Nepal. She teaches workshops on mental health, vocal empowerment, and songwriting all over the world. She often teams up with the Canadian Mental Health Association, using contact education to reduce stigma around mental illness. She has released two EPs, a live album and most recently a full-length album to much critical acclaim. She is a two time nominee of the Ontario Arts Council’s Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award in 2016 and 2017. Nowadays she performs, tours and writes with her partner Carson Ritcey-Thorpe. On December 8, 2017 Piper released her debut full-length album ‘Piper & Carson’, which is designed to be listened to start to finish. It is a compilation of intentioned tracks; a reflection of the couple’s last few years; and a moment in time. Recorded live off the floor at Thorpe’s Organics and produced by Chris Bartos.
Piper Hayes Website
Piper Hayes Facebook
Piper Hayes Instagram
Piper Hayes Twitter
PAT MALONEY
A true red and white travelling songwriter, Pat Maloney has performed a thousand times in the last few years all over Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. He’s a casual strummer who sings in a rich baritone, stomping away and whistling like no other. Three full length albums deep, Pat’s catalogue is diverse in character & feel. A committed genre hopper, his music is inclusive and free of pretension. The one thing his songs have in common is that they all tell stories. Real stories, with real heart and a healthy sense of humour. His favourite bartender once said his voice makes her want to sip a nice bourbon and fall in love. He told her he would add that to his next bio.
Pat Maloney Website
Pat Maloney Facebook
Pat Maloney Instagram
Pat Maloney Twitter
JESSICA PEARSON & THE EAST WIND
After their first international tour of Ireland, release of their Debut EP ‘Grave and Garden Songs’ in July 2017 and summer tour across Ontario, Jessica Pearson and the East Wind show no sign of slowing down. This Folk Canadiana Trio from Ottawa have since taken the stage at JunoFest, RBC’s Bluesfest and Manitoulin Country Festival as well as played with Hillsburn, the East Pointers, Murder Murder and Ten Strings and a Goat Skin! Jessica Pearson and the East wind’s music infuses Americana and Celtic sounds into their folk roots story telling.
Recently signed with Willow Sound Records, Jessica Pearson and the East Wind’s dynamic live shows take you on a journey with heartwarming melodies, spirited story telling and haunting three part harmonies! The band is known for its strong audience engagement during shows and magnetic personality.
Jessica Pearson & the East Wind Website
Jessica Pearson & the East Wind Facebook
Jessica Pearson & the East Wind Instagram
Jessica Pearson & the East Wind Twitter