The Thursday Outlook – Sept. 21 to 25, 2017
At Kimberley Hall, just down the road from Meaford, a special art show is running all weekend and on Saturday night it will include live music from some local favourites. East Back Line, with Paul Woolner, David Marshak, Beaker Granger, and Tom Thwaits, will be on hand along with Chris Scerri’s new band Horseshoes & Handgrenades with Jon Zaslow, Beaker Granger, Erik Vandeweerdhof and as a special guest, violinist Victoria Yeh. The music is just part of a weekend-long celebration of local visual artists billed as “Apple and Art”.
If you can time it right, be on Hurontario Street in Collingwood today at 12:30 and you’ll be treated to a special pop-up concert with Tyler Yarema and Chuck Jackson at one of the pianos that are set up on the sidewalk. This is part of the promotion for a show that these two blues veterans have planned at The Historic Gayety Theatre on Oct. 5th.
Saturday night on Hurontario street it’s the annual Collingwood Art Crawl which includes live music in the evening from the Mike McCarthy Band.
Tonight the Celtic Music lessons offered by Will Henry at the Meaford Public Library begin at 6:30. The course will run through ten weeks, every Thursday evening.
Head to Owen Sound at 7:30 tonight to catch another of the 3-songwriter showcases that are becoming the best value around for fans of original music. Dave Hawkins, Bill Monahan and Bill Dickson will be at The Bleeding Carrot with a Bluebird Café style presentation of shared stories and songs. It’s a tiny venue, ideal for this type of intimate performance, but if you don’t already have your tickets you will want to get there early to pick them up at the door.
Fans of opera will want to be at The Marsh Street Centre in Clarksburg on Sunday afternoon for the 16th annual Opera At The Marsh presentation by Walter Kornelson. This longstanding tradition features Lenard Whiting, Vanessa Grant, Wendy Dobson, Andrew Tees, Brenna Robins, and Kate Carver in a program that runs from 3 to 6 pm.
Another interesting performance on Sunday afternoon will be at Heartwood where Summerfolk is holding its Open Showcase, a programmed selection of performers aspiring to be part of next year’s festival. This is an adaptation of what they used to call the “Last Chance Saloon”. Each performer has twelve minutes to try to impress Summerfolk’s artistic director. This is a free event open to the public.
It’s a special weekend for Heartwood, celebrating their second anniversary with some of their favourite bands, including the Julian Taylor Band, Pat Robitaille, The Celebration Army and the Bobcat Family Band. It’s a party you’ll want to attend but if you can’t make it, Heartwood has arranged through Orchard TV to stream the celebrations live at http://live.heartwoodhall.ca/
CROW Bar and Variety has a couple of bands this weekend that return regularly to our area, and both of them combine great music with excellent original songs. It’s Freeman Dre and The Kitchen Party on Friday and The Shuvs on Saturday (The Shuvs will also be at The Bruce Wine Bar on Friday).
The Harbour Street Fish Bar is departing a bit from their usual blues offerings on Friday night, presenting classic rock with a hard edge from Bottoms Up, featuring Darren James Smith and Shayne Thomas. Darren James Smith, formerly with Harem Scarem, was also an on-and-off member of Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel, built around led by former Ozzy Osbourne and Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee.
The Garafraxa Café has another interesting show this Friday, making it worth the drive to Durham. Jeffrey Straker is a songwriter and piano player from Saskatchewan with an impressive track record that includes a music video chart that charted in the top 10 on Much More Music Canada and international tours as far as Peru, Mexico and Chile. His debut recording in 2012, “Vagabond”, was produced by Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Danny Michel. The Toronto Star reviewer gave it a 4 out of 4 rating while Xtra magazine said the album was “like the unexpected yet surprisingly down-to-earth lovechild of Neil Young and Elton John”.
Summer has arrived just in time to greet autumn and there are countless live music choices out there to suit your taste.
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