The Thursday Outlook – August 10 to 14, 2017
The Travelling Thornburys are featured this Saturday night at The Leeky Canoe in Meaford. This is a duo consisting of Jon Zaslow and Kevin Campbell. They offer up some great harmonies and tunes that range from The Beatles to The Everly Brothers. Jon as also an accomplished guitarist that has become a regular accompanist for Chris Scerri and has co-hosted many Thursday night jams with him at The Leeky.
At The Barn Coop on Saturday night, it’s a rare chance to see Culture Reject in concert. This is part of a concert series put together at The Barn by Greg Smith, in which he pairs more established artists with up-and-comers. Culture Reject, featuring Michael O’Connell and Karri North, is a band that has a unique and mesmerizing sound. Michael evolved this band out of the popular band Black Cabbage, with which he toured for several years. He now tours annually in Europe to a growing following there. The opener for this concert is Jake Feeney, a young singer-songwriter who seems much more mature than he is. Having been a songwriter since he was six or seven, Jake has a voice similar to John Maher and a beautiful style of guitar picking. This is a show well worth checking out.
Jake Feeney, who is coming up from Toronto for the weekend, is making the most of his visit. After opening for Culture Reject at The Barn, he’ll be heading over to Heartwood Hall in Owen Sound to join a show with Missy Bauman, Andrew Nunno and Marshall Veroni. Andrew and Missy are also making the most of the weekend, playing a more intimate space on Friday night at The Bleeding Carrot in Owen Sound.
Another show worth catching this weekend, especially for fans of swing music, is Beverly Taft in concert on Sunday at the Meaford Rotary Pavilion down at the harbour. She does beautiful renditions of jazz standards with what Errol Nazareth of CBC radio has called “a voice that envelopes you like a warm embrace.” Beverly loves Meaford enough to make the annual trip here from Toronto, where she gigs frequently, to play for free to support the Friends of the Meaford Library.
Austin McCarthy is celebrating a busy summer of gigs in Collingwood this Thursday with a sold out concert at the Simcoe Street Theatre. He has played constantly all summer long with a deliberate goal of polishing his live performance. The Simcoe Street Theatre show is a fundraiser for him to create an EP of his original songs, which will serve as a calling card as he moves his career forward. At the end of August he will return to college but in the meantime he is playing every Wednesday night at the new CROW Bar and Variety in Collingwood. He is the first artist to be featured in what CROW hopes to carry on as a regular feature, in which they give a month-long residency to up and coming artists to allow them to polish their chops and build an audience.
Another artist featured at CROW who is also raising money for a recording is Christoper Mapstone. He is building a career simultaneously in Canada and Australia. He’ll be at CROW on Saturday night and you can check his GoFundMe page to support his album project.
Mapstone recently played the Woodford Festival in Australia which also featured Steve Poltz, who is also in our area this week. Last night he was at the Simcoe Street Theatre in Collingwood, and tonight he’ll be at Heartwood in Owen Sound. Anyone who has seen Steve Poltz considers it an experience not to be missed.
Blues fans should know that the place to be every weekend for the best seasoned blues players is the Harbour Street Fish Bar in Collingwood. This Friday it’s Howard Ross and The Full Count Blues Band. And on Sunday you’ll want to be at Bayview Park in Thornbury for the latest Jazz on The Bay concert with the Fraser Melvin Band. From their countryfied covers of Jimi Hendrix, to their funk interpretations of Bob Dylan, to their own soulful originals, the band draws on a wide variety of influences throughout their set.
As always there’s lots more happening. Check the detailed listings on the right side of the page.
The Brown*s Music at Maiolo’s Restaurant & Lounge on the Patio in Thornbury, Sat. Aug 19th 5pm-9pm
Thank you Bill….
Heather & Doug Brown