Access Winnipeg

Sweet Alibi "Make A Scene Tour"
2022-04-24 20:00 - 22:30 (America/Winnipeg) | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada

Sargeant and Comrade
2022-04-23 21:30 - 2022-04-24 00:30 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
WCMA 2021 Break-Out Artist of the Year; Polaris Prize Long Listed for debut album Magic Radio. Yolanda Sargeant is the Queen of Lo-Fi Soul.

Yolanda Sargeant is the Queen of Lo-Fi Soul. A genre that she and her producer Comrade (Evgeniy) pioneered after not being able to find an appropriate label that fits their eclectic style. The duo infuses jazz, soul, funk, dancehall, hip-hop, as well as other genres into a unique sound that combines the old with the new. Sargeant’s rich vocals take center stage while Comrade’s production takes you on a multi-layered, genre-bending journey from beginning to end.

After a successful first release Magic Radio (Breakout West – Breakout Artist Of The Year Award, YYC Soul/RnB Recording of the Year Award, Polaris Prize Longlisted) Sargeant X Comrade are back with another full length LP “The Elephant In The Room”
Genres: Lo Fi Soul, Neo-Soul, Hip Hop, Dancehall, Experimental, Nu-Jazz, Lo Fi House,

The Elephant In The Room (released Dec 03, 2021) is Sargeant X Comrade’s 2nd full length album.

Lost Frequency
2022-04-23 20:30 - 23:30 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada

Mark Reeves
2022-04-22 21:00 - 23:59 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
Beloved Winnipeg blues and R&B artist well-known for his incredibly vibrant live show.

Beloved Winnipeg blues and R&B artist well-known for his incredibly vibrant live show.

Mark is one of those artists who’s been around, building steam, making records and touring in support of some of the world’s best-known roots artists.The past two decades have seen Mark stream through a journey from busker to seasoned performer with masterful chops and the kind of mesmerizing stage presence that most artists never achieve in a lifetime. Turning heads because of youthful talent, he won a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music at 19, paid his dues in the blues clubs, made a record with Los Lobos producer Keith Keller’s at Keller’s mansion in New Orleans, won a sackful of awards, and warmed up stages for everyone from Robert Cray and Blue Rodeo to Colin James and Jesse Winchester.It’s been said that if Bonnie Raitt and Lyle Lovett had a love child, Mark Reeves would be it. Fans of Lovett and Martin Sexton will eat up Reeves’ hard-earned positive vibe, rock solid rhythmic groove and kick-ass Motown horn section which adds a pleasant double-espresso kick to the mix.Anybody who loves R&B will immediately be inspired by Mark’s infectious, dance-all-night grove thang, but there are profoundly beautiful moments here, and unpretentious lyrical wisdom that makes you sit back while you catch your breath.

The Function - Lost & Found
2022-04-22 20:00 - 23:30 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada

Harry Manx
2022-04-21 20:00 - 23:00 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Harry Manx at the West End Cultural Centre – Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 8:00pm

“Mysticssippi” blues man Harry Manx has been called an “essential link” between the music of East and West, creating musical short stories that wed the tradition of the Blues with the depth of classical Indian ragas. He has created a unique sound that is hard to forget and deliciously addictive to listen to.
Harry forged his distinctive style by studying at the feet of the masters, first as a sound man in the blues clubs of Toronto during his formative years and then under a rigorous tutelage with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in India. Bhatt is the inventor of the 20-stringed Mohan Veena, which has become Harry’s signature instrument.
Harry played slide guitar for many years before meeting Bhatt in Rajasthan,in fact he had been living in another part of India for many years already, but he started at the beginning under Bhatt’s tutelage, unlearning most of what he knew about playing a slide instrument. He learned Eastern scales and eventually ragas, deceptively complex and regimented musical patterns that form the basis of Indian composition. Learning the voicings of Indian music is a subtle art that comes with time. Harry spent most of twelve years in India learning that. It was later on that Harry decided to explore the connection between Indian ragas and blues scales which eventually led to the Indo-blues hybrid that has become his style.
Born on the Isle of Man, Manx immigrated to Ontario with his parents when he was a child. He started working with bands as a ‘roadie’ at age 15 and gradually worked his way up to becoming the regular sound man at the well-known El Mocambo (blues) club in Toronto. There he worked with a slew of blues legends. Harry admits that blues is still at the heart of much of his work. “I’ve always had one foot in the blues from those days … what I got from those artists is a groove. That’s what I’m particularly interested in is the groove, and that’s the way I play blues”. “I went to Europe when I was 20 and started making money as a busker,” recalls Manx. “I’ve worked mostly as a musician since then, though I did some theatre work for a while. I was a one-man band with a drums and a cymbals for a time too. It was really a lot of fun”
Manx’s time in India has imbued his music with an intangible spiritual quality. “the song reveals who you are, it’s the vehicle for your message, your inspirational ideas or your story,” explained Manx. “Like many people I’m interested in my own development as a person and that’s represented in my songs, I’m searching for truth through art and spirituality. My songs are a synthesis of everything I’ve absorbed, all my experiences and I share that. I’m glad that it means something to people.”
“Indian music moves a person inward,” he explains. “It’s traditionally used in religious ceremonies and during meditations because it puts you into this whole other place (now, here). But Western music has the ability to move you outward, into celebration and dance. There are some ragas that sound bluesy, and there are ways to bend strings while playing blues that sound Indian. I may be forcing the relationship between the two musical cultures, but I keep thinking they were made for each other. That leads me to more and more experimentation. The journey has been great so far.” Manx is a prolific artist, releasing 12 albums in a 12 year span with no signs of stopping. He has received seven Maple Blues Awards, six Juno nominations, the Canadian Folk Music Award in 2005 for Best Solo Artist and won CBC Radio’s “Great Canadian Blues Award” in 2007.
His most recent original release, “Om Suite Ohm” was voted by the Montreal daily La Presse as one of only 4 CDs to watch for in 2013. Guitar Player Magazine called it “his most fully realized work to date”. Blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and throw in some compelling grooves. It’s a recipe that goes down easy and leaves you hungry for more.
—–
COVID-19 Protocols
The West End Cultural Centre will continue to require that patrons wear facemasks and show proof of vaccination for all events in the venue.
We will continue to evaluate this policy as circumstances evolve.

Ben Caplan
2022-04-21 20:00 - 23:00

Sookram's Double Header Night w/ Friday & Dazed and Confused
2022-04-20 20:00 - 23:30

Leanne Pearson - Welcome Home Tour | With her Full Band
2022-04-20 20:00 - 23:00
Factor Canada and the Park Theatre Presents

The Park Theatre, in Partnership with Factor Canada Presents
Leanne Pearson – Welcome Home Tour
performing with her full band
Wednesday, April 20th, 2022
Doors 7 pm | Show 8 pm
Tickets $20 plus fees in advance
________________
Leanne has been described as level-headed, sweet, funny, quirky, a bit different and very talented. She has a positive attitude and an infectious smile that brightens any room she enters. This country rocker walks on stage with a pretty dress, cowboy boots and a big smile, then shatters your expectations as she tears up the stage with her edgy stage presence.

Leanne took home Music Video Of The Year for “Hot Pursuit” and Album Of The Year for “Pull It Off” at the 2019 Manitoba Country Music Awards. Leanne also took home Female Artist Of The Year at the 2018 Manitoba Country Music Awards.

Corb Lund
2022-04-19 20:00 - 2022-04-21 22:30 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
Corb Lund brings The Hurtin’ Albertans along with him on his Back To The Barrooms Tour 2022 as he returns to his favourite small venues.

Pre-sales of General Admission tickets are now complete. There will be some tickets for each night released to the public on Friday Nov 26 at 10am. Get ready, folks, they will go fast!

Corb Lund has received multiple CCMA, Juno, and international award nominations and wins. A rural Albertan hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with a long family lineage of ranchers and rodeo people, Lund is about as authentic as they come. Embracing both his Western heritage and his indie rock past through his music, Lund has been known to filter a range of cowboy themes past and present through his unique lens – from rough-and-tumble tales of lawless frontier saloons to the somber realities of running a modern family ranch.
Lund released his highly anticipated album Agricultural Tragic via Warner Music Canada on June 26th, 2020, his first album of original songs in five years, to much acclaim; the album debut inside the top 5 in both the US and Canada. It was named #7 on the No Depression Readers’ “50 Favorite Roots Music Albums of 2020” with the publication saying, “Eloquent and plainspoken, the excellent Agricultural Tragic finds the affable country rocker exploring his roots as a rancher and rodeo rider while striving to adapt this traditional identity to the challenging modern world… Corb Lund radiates authenticity from first note to last.” The Associated Press said “The result is a distinctive sound — call it Country & Northwestern — that romances the region from which Lund hails,” American Songwriter stated, “The songs on Agricultural Tragic sparkle with a kind of authenticity that only someone who lives that life can project” while Saving Country Music said it was “…some of the most compelling country and western music you can find.”
Most recently, Lund has been actively leading protests against the Alberta provincial government’s plan to allow open-pit coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
This fall, Lund re-released “This is My Prairie”, featuring some of Alberta’s biggest country artists like Brett Kissel, Paul Brandt, Terri Clark and more, which some are calling an anthem for the fight against coal. More music is imminently on the horizon for 2022.

Hawksley Workman
2022-04-18 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
WPG Folk Fest Presents Hawksley Workman

Doors: 7:00 PM

Show: 8:00 PM

PLEASE NOTE: Any purchase of concert tickets through third-party sites or resellers is at your own risk. Tickets should only be purchased through winnipegfolkfestival.ca or someone you know and trust to reduce risk.

—

ABOUT

Hawksley Workman is a JUNO Award-winning and Gold Record certified singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Since his ground-breaking self-produced indie debut For Him and The Girls (1999) through to chart-topping singles of 2020, Hawksley has careened between major label international smash hits to Canadiana soaked indie releases. Boasting a catalogue of 17 solo records, Hawksley’s genre-defying style strings together folk, chart pop and irrepressible cabaret. His show-stopping vocals on songs about weather, love, heartbreak and tales of end-times have garnered him a league of devoted fans.

Performing over a thousand shows worldwide, Hawksley has headlined prestigious venues like Massey Hall and The Olympia in Paris. For a uniquely Canadian artist Hawksley has built loyal fan bases in the UK, France, Norway and Australia launching many successful tours, demystifying and delighting fans while drawing on an enviable catalogue of mischievous favourites, glammy stompers and heartfelt hymns to small-town Canada

JD Edwards Band
2022-04-16 21:30 - 2022-04-17 01:00 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
Winnipeg’s favourite rock, roots and soul party band!

Bluesaplooza
2022-04-16 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Park Presents

Park Theatre presents
Bluesaplooza, Saturday, April 16th, 2022
Featuring
Blue Noise
DB and the Deadbeats
Curtis Newton
the Chris Ghidoni Band
doors open @ 7:00
show @ 8:00
Advance Tickets 25.00 plus fees

Cancer Bats + Comeback Kid
2022-04-15 20:30 - 2022-04-16 00:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Cancer Bats and Comeback Kid at the Park Theatre

Ninjacat Productions and The Park Theatre present
Friday, April 15th, 2022 at the Park Theatre
CANCER BATS
COMEBACK KID
with guests tba
Doors 730 Pm | Music 830 pm

Bullrider BAD THURSDAY
2022-04-14 21:30 - 2022-04-15 00:00 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
A wonderful mix of high energy guitars, tight bass lines, captivating rhythm sections that make you wanna dance, and it’s even legal now!!

A four piece Indie Rock band based out of Winnipeg Manitoba. With a wonderful mix of high energy guitars, tight bass lines, captivating rhythm sections that make you wanna get up and dance, and strong emphasis on songwriting makes this band a stand out creature on its own.

With each member having their own unique talents, brought in from numerous other projects, BULLRIDER reflects a well rounded and more sophisticated style of songwriting, which shines through each of the tracks from the “Hidden gems…” album. “Writing this record, from idea to completion, was like watching a picture come into focus. As different as we all are, it just makes sense. With this many compatiable writers in one room, it’s exciting to see what we can make happen next.”, says lyricist, Bobby Desjarlais.

With a slew of notable show experiences (Canada Day @ The Forks Wpg, Harvest Moon Festival, Dauphins Country Fest, ManyFest.) on a wide range of stages, BULLRIDER draws on a complete pallet of emotions – from fun loving chorus’, dark and heartbroken versus, to haunting and even psychedelic bridges. BULLRIDER’s debut album, ‘Hidden Gems and the Love of Another’, is set to release early November, 2018.

“If you are interested in alt rock music, Bullrider is a rising band that you need to check out. They can write some of the most infectious hooks we’ve heard in recent memory.”- Eartothegroundmusic

Comprised of Ben Ferguson (Ash Koley), Chris Peluk (Alverstone, Mad Young Darlings), Tom Sinnott and Bobby Desjarlais (The Bokononists, Attica Riots).

Comeback Kid and Cancer Bats at the Albert!
2022-04-14 21:00 - 2022-04-15 01:00 | The Royal Albert, 48 Albert Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1E7, Canada
Comeback Kid and Cancer Bats at the Albert!

Ninjacat Productions presents
Thursday April 14 2022 at the Royal Albert
Comeback Kid
Cancer Bats
Withdrawal
Meantime

Doors 8pm – Show 9pm
Tickets $25 advance – $30 door

Bad Thursday 2022 w/ The Perpetrators and Fu Fu Ch
2022-04-14 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Bad Thursday, 2022

Bad Thursday 2022
w/ The Perpetrators & Fu Fu Chi Chi Choir
The Park Theatre
Thursday, April 14th, 2022
Doors 7 pm | Show 8 pm
Tickets $20 adv
The Perpetrators front-man and founding member Jay Nowicki is rated one of Canada’s tastiest guitar players. Together with the “meat-and-mashed-potatoes” rhythm section of Ken McMahon and John Scoles, they deliver a tight, raw and intense blues experience that is sure to make you get up and shake it.
The Perpetrators’ albums have garnered WCMA awards and Juno nominations. Their ability to stay grounded to their Winnipeg roots, coupled with the raw energy and extreme talent makes this one of the best groups to come out of Canada.
The Fu Fu Chi Chi Choir is a ten-piece alt-folk band hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba

A Tribute To Lucinda Williams feat. Madeleine Roger and Sierra Noble
2022-04-12 20:00 - 23:00 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
Lucinda Williams Tribute feat. Madeleine Roger, Sierra Noble, Liam Duncan, Kris Ulrich, Austin Parachoniak and Joanna Miller.

Hot Water Music
2022-04-12 20:00 - 23:00
F7 Entertainment Presents

Hot Water Music
Tuesday, April 12th

Orit Shimoni
2022-04-11 20:00 - 22:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
The Park Theate and Wit’s End Presents

Orit Shimoni w/ Friends
Keri Latimer and Jaxon Haldane
At the Park Theatre
Monday, April 11th, 2022
Doors 7 pm | Show 8 pm
Tickets are $25 plus fees in advance
or $10 advance for fellow musicians and students

All The Right Lights
2022-04-10 19:00 - 21:30 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Live at the Park Theatre

All The Right Lights
Sunday, April 10th, 2022
Doors at 6 pm
Show at 7 pm
$10 plus fees in advance

Andrew Neville and The Poor Choices plus Mulvey St Maniacs
2022-04-09 21:30 - 2022-04-10 01:00 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
A classic Winnipeg double highball: Andrew Neville and The Poor Choices plus Mulvey St Manics. Bottoms up!

North Graffiti’s “Modern Relics” Album Release Party
2022-04-09 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
North Graffiti’s “Modern Relics” Album Release Party

Saturday, April 9th
Doors @ 7pm
Show @ 8pm
Tickets are $12 in advance plus fees

Call it Boutique Punk. Call it Punk & Roll. Pulling together sounds of The Clash, Against Me! & The Gaslight Anthem – North Graffiti adds a modern flair to a vintage aesthetic.
April 8th marks the release of their debut album “Modern Relics…and other ways to remember our time together”. The following night, they’ll take the stage at the Park Theatre to celebrate in full swagger.
Rounding out the night will be the incomparable Mobina Galore as well as The 12/21.

Manitoba Metalfest 2022 fundraiser
2022-04-08 22:00 - 2022-04-09 01:00 | Good Will Social Club, 625 Portage, Winnipeg, MB, R3B 2G4, Canada
Manitoba Metalfest 2022 fundraiser!

Ninjacat Productions presents
Friday April 8 2022 at the Good Will Social Club
“Manitoba Metalfest 2022 fundraiser” featuring:
ARCHAGATHUS
REGURGITATED GUTS
SOLANUM
TOILET PIG
$10 tickets available on Eventbrite and at the door.
Doors 9pm – Music 10pm

The D.Rangers plus The Wrigley Brothers (aka Double The Trouble)
2022-04-08 21:30 - 2022-04-09 00:30 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
The Band That Built The High & Lonesome Club, plus an 18th Birthday Celebration opening set by The Wrigley Brothers (Double The Trouble).

Plants And Animals
2022-04-07 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
MRG Presents Plants and Animals

Park Theatre
April 7th, 2022
Doors 7 pm
Show 8 pm

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra - The Last of the Blue Devils
2022-04-07 19:30 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: The Last of the Blue Devils – Thursday, April 7 at 7:30pm

In the 1920s thousands of dance bands were scattered across America. Toiling in obscurity, these territory bands played an endless series of one-nighters no more than a days drive from their headquarters. Sporting names like The Twelve Clouds of Joy, The International Sweethearts of Rhythm, The Bostonians (from Kansas), and The Blue Devils these groups were seldom recorded and would travel from gig to gig until the money ran out often leaving musicians stranded hundreds of miles from home. More than just colourful stories about life on the road, Territory Bands played an important part in shaping jazz history, eventually ushering in the Swing Era and an explosion in mainstream popularity. Join the WJO as we explore some of the rarely-played music from that era alongside hits from the wild and raucous Kansas City jazz scene.
—–
COVID-19 Protocols
The West End Cultural Centre will continue to require that patrons wear facemasks and show proof of vaccination for all events in the venue.
We will continue to evaluate this policy as circumstances evolve.

Nashville MB Songwriters Round
2022-04-07 19:30 - 22:00 | Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main St., Winnipeg, MB, R3C1A8, Canada
Our monthly Nashville MB Writers Round continues, this month featuring Tyler Del Pino (host), Madeleine Roger, Celia Palli, and Roman Clarke

Sk8 Skates Presents Stone Cold
2022-04-06 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Sk8 Skates Presents

Sk8 Skates is stoked to present the first Winnipeg Skateboard video premiere in 2 years! We have 3 different videos for ya. 2 Live N’ Die in WPG by Dillan Lavallee, WRECK 11 Bill Acheson and Tyler Geurts, and the new Sk8 Skates video “Stone Cold” by Kian Smeall featuring Fane Smeall, Erik Penton, Issiah Parasian, Sean Coughlin, Kian Smeall, and more. Videos are all filmed in Winnipeg, with Stone Cold having a lot of other clips in Canada including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Gonna be a crazy night, all 3 videos are bangers.
Tickets are only $5 so get them before they’re gone!

Sarah Harmer
2022-04-05 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Winnipeg Folk Fest Presents

Doors: 7:00 PM
Show: 8:00 PM
PLEASE NOTE: Any purchase of concert tickets through third-party sites or resellers is at your own risk. Tickets should only be purchased through winnipegfolkfestival.ca or someone you know and trust to reduce risk.
—
ABOUT
Are You Gone – the first album in a decade from Sarah Harmer – is a deeply personal and momentous collection of songs motivated by life’s beauty and love’s mysteries. Two decades since her heralded debut “You Were Here”, Sarah returns with a deepened, electric exploration of nature and human nature.
From the opening frame of “St. Peter’s Bay,” Harmer conjures the essence of the album. An ‘end of the night, end of the love affair’ story set against a hockey game on the frozen bay off of Prince Edward Island, the song pits the hardness of winter against the fragility of the relationship. As guitar melodies and drums swell into a haunting and bittersweet refrain Still we had a good skate, didn’t we babe, “St. Peter’s Bay” makes instantly clear that this is Harmer’s most sonically detailed and darkest record to date, still crisply capturing the glint of outdoor ice in the northern night.
Are You Gone is also about stepping away – quieting one’s own voice for a matter of time, and using that force in different ways. If you’re too tucked away, and you can’t see the sun, Harmer muses on the breathtaking “Just Get Here,” imagining the Canadian poet Al Purdy’s A-frame cottage, a haven for writers in 1960’s rural Ontario. Like generations of poets before her, Harmer gleaned the magic of the place while visiting a writer-in-residence there in summer 2019. “I decided on the album title while staying for a night,” Harmer recalls, “thinking about time and time capsules, and our need for isolation but also for community,”
On “What I Was To You” she recounts an early friendship with beloved rock star Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip. Harmer traces an effortless melody with emotional range that deftly rolls between the late Downie’s ambling, ecstatic solo work, and the oblique chorus blasts of his band. Looking back on stories of the fellow musicians’ time coming up together in the Southern Ontario scene, “What I Was To You” simultaneously captures the intimacy of their friendship and the feeling shared by the legions of souls touched by Downie, during and beyond his lifetime-
Are you gone?
Good for you to go
I hardly know what that took.
So long, I’ll be walking with you if you happen to look
Harmer nurtured the twelve songs of Are You Gone close to home. Some lingered for ages – like the undeniable melody of “Take Me Out” – while others appeared behind the barn at dusk like the sweet, autumnal “Squeaking Voices,” and the homebound “Little Frogs.” Each story paints a different picture over the course of this album’s making, threading Are You Gone with both personal intimacy and the shared strands of life. Featuring eleven originals and one cover, the eerie “Wildlife” by Kingston songwriter Dave Hodge, Sarah co-produced the album with Marcus Paquin (Aidan Knight, Arcade Fire, Timber Timbre) in Toronto, Montreal and Kingston. Long-time musical collaborators included Jon McCann on drums, Ben Whiteley on bass, Gord Tough on guitar, and Christine Bougie, Kevin Fox, Benji Perosin and Jason Euringer on steel, cello, trumpet, stand-up bass and harmonies. Howie Beck recorded additional tracks and mixed the album in the spring of 2019.
On album centrepiece “The Lookout,” Harmer takes us to a tempting height, Something to be warned about knowing with certainty that the ground will fall away. With spare piano and the strain of distant strings, the entire album suspends in this moment – a heartbreaking chorus doubling as reprieve, with a closing refrain that hangs in the breathless space: The beauty of the place was blocked by the way I held you too close
The melody for penultimate track “Shoemaker” was written looking out the porthole of a ship in the Canadian high arctic in 2015 while on an educational trip with students from around the world in, and developed after Sarah discovered an old book and census of her great-great Glaswegian grandfather who made an immigrant’s crossing to Canada in the early 19th century. “Shoemaker” calls to mind the softly ominous, slowly shifting chords of Sparklehorse before transforming into a gorgeous, crescendo show of Sarah’s vocal range.
“See Her Wave” wraps the album with an acoustic shanty send-off to another dear friend who moved on. See her wave she’s on her way. These songs are the inner ramblings of twilight, conversations with the critters in the air and on the lawn, floorboard creaks of a loved one in the next room. Some are restorative and some rock. Within them there are answers to where Sarah has been and what it means to come back now. Whether to the loyal fans that have followed Harmer’s work over the decades or to the newly initiated, Are You Gone is a resounding statement of purpose and a dedication to the indelible spirits around us
