Concert Series
Spring 2012 Schedule
Chad VanGaalen
January 13, 2012 | with special guests the Cannon Bros.
West End Cultural Centre
VanGaalen is an ambitious musician, and not afraid of experimentation. He spends time recording a spectrum of different music – from the folk-rock sounds VanGaalen fans have come to love, to recordings of trains going by his Calgary home. Diaper Island is definitely his most rocking album to date. This catalogue of songs invites listeners to gently explore VanGaalen’s distinctive creativity.
New Country Rehab
March 15, 2012
Park Theatre
Take one of Canada’s most talented fiddle players, add an intrepid guitarist, season with a percussionist who grooves on saw blades as readily as he does cookie sheets, stir vigorously with one of the most versatile double bass players in the country and you’ve conjured up the tasty and eclectic brew that is New Country Rehab.
The Once – SOLD OUT
March 20, 2012
Park Theatre
As a trio, The Once have kept it uncomplicated, depending on the power of their voices and acoustic instruments. Lead singer Geraldine Hollett, has an instrument of rare power; she is a singer who can still a noisy room, so expressive, she can tell a novel-length story with a few words. Accompanied by Phil Churchill and Andrew Dale on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and bouzouki, they create a perfect blend of voice and melody.
John K. Samson – SOLD OUT
March 27, 2012 | with special guest Shotgun Jimmie
West End Cultural Centre | standing room only on the main floor
John K. Samson will release his first full-length solo album, Provincial, on January 24. The album is an homage to Manitoba, with hymns for the departed and rockers for the living; songs about dying villages, Icelandic longing, snowplows, broken glass, satellites, hockey skates, and staff room romances.
Shane Koyczan – SOLD OUT
March 31, 2012
West End Cultural Centre
A 2011 Winnipeg Folk Festival fan-favourite! Shane Koyczan is one of the world’s premier spoken word performers will be back in Winnipeg with his “experimental acoustic folk” band, The Short Story Long. Their new record Remembrance Year is due out in mid-March.
The Cat Empire - SOLD OUT
April 4, 2012 | with special guests Tinpan Orange
Garrick Centre
2011 is the year The Cat Empire is celebrating the tenth anniversary of their first show as the six-piece band. Since their humble beginnings touring across Australia in borrowed cars and sleeping on the floors of friends, they’ve played over 800 shows, have more than 100 songs to their credit and have sold over one million albums and DVDs.
Joel Plaskett Emergency – SOLD OUT
The Scrappy Happiness Tour
April 21, 2012 | with special guest Frank Turner
Garrick Centre
Tickets
$27.50 in advance.
For those who wondered how Plaskett could follow-up the success of his triple record Three, Scrappy Happiness is the answer. While Three was ambitious, Scrappy Happiness is both ambitious and innovative. The project harkens back to a time when music went from studio to radio to audience in an immediate way – without months of calculation and set up.
Great Lake Swimmers – SOLD OUT
May 4, 2012 | with special guests Cold Specks
West End Cultural Centre
Tickets
$25.00 in advance.
New Wild Everywhere is the follow-up to Great Lake Swimmers’ critically acclaimed 2009 album Lost Channels. For a band whose storied location recordings in out-of-the-way places have brought their output to an almost mythical status, longtime Great Lake Swimmers producer Andy Magoffin was thrilled to be asked to capture the new album in a real studio – Revolution Recording in Toronto – with no extension cords, boat rides, generators or bad weather to mess things up.
Old Man Luedecke
May 28, 2012 | with very special guest Del Barber
Park Theatre
Tickets
$20.00 in advance.
People are drawn into sing-along with his unclenched banjo playing and the infectious beat of his foot thumping. His voice, clear and unadorned, is totally emotive and suits the sincerity of his tunes. Luedecke will play a show at the Park Theatre to support his new EP Sing All About It that he recorded with the band Lake of Stew.
Deer Tick
June 5, 2012 | with special guests The Novaks and Turbo Fruits
West End Cultural Centre
Tickets
$22.50 in advance.
Divine Providence was designed to capture the raw, fast energy Deer Tick brings to the barroom stages on which they play. So much so that, as described on the band’s website, “you can practically smell the sweat and beer” when you listen to the record.
CANCELLED – The Blind Boys of Alabama
June 7, 2012 | with special guests Over the Rhine
Pantages Playhouse Theatre
Due to unforeseen circumstances The Blind Boys Of Alabama have had to cancel their June 7, 2012 show at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre. They will be trying to re-schedule this performance in Winnipeg at a later date. Refunds are available at point of purchase.
The group has recorded and performed with a few country artists, but they never crossed the line and committed to the country genre until now. Take The High Road is a landmark recording that draws from modern and traditional country to enrich the group’s gospel-rooted sound with fresh and illuminating insight.
Beirut
July 23, 2012 | with special guest Little Scream
Burton Cummings Theatre
Tickets
$35.00 in advance.
Beirut leader Zach Condon’s music is often synonymous with the exotic mysteries of world travel. Since Beirut’s last album, 2007′s The Flying Club Cup, sang a love letter to France (with a 2009 stop-off in Mexico for the March of the Zapotec EP) many have asked where his songs would voyage next. Many guesses, but few predicted the inward journey Condon has achieved on The Rip Tide, an album with the most introspective and memorable songs of his young career.
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