Jets vs. Flames
2023-04-05 18:30 - 21:30 (America/Winnipeg) | Canada Life Centre
Go Jets!
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Jets vs. Predators
2023-04-08 18:00 - 21:00 | Canada Life Centre
Go Jets!
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Jets vs. Sharks
2023-04-10 18:00 - 21:00 | Canada Life Centre
Go Jets!
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Jets at Wild
2023-04-11 19:00 - 22:00 | Xcel Energy Center, 199 W Kellogg Blvd, St Paul, MN
Go Jets!
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Jets at Avalanche
2023-04-13 20:00 - 23:00 | Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Cir, Denver, CO
Go Jets!
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Mom Jeans WITH SPECIAL GUESTS BEARINGS
2023-04-16 20:00 - 22:30 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
MOM JEANS
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS BEARINGS

MOM JEANS

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS BEARINGS

Door Time: 7:00 PM Show 8:00 PM

18+ / NO MINORS

8 Max Ticket Limit
* Accounts that violate the posted ticket limit may be cancelled without notice.

“Give me something sweet so I can make it through the week/Don’t care if I end up with cavities.”

This is the plea that opens Sweet Tooth, the upcoming third LP from Berkeley’s Mom Jeans. It’s the introduction to a quasi-concept record, a structural departure for the emo punk quartet. Before any of the record’s 13 songs had been written and recorded, the band knew what Sweet Tooth would sound like: late ‘90s and early 2000s pop rock and pop punk bliss. For frontman Eric Butler, that meant revisiting the guitar pop perfection of Weezer and Oasis alongside deep cuts from one-hit wonders like Third Eye Blind, Fountains of Wayne, and Superdrag.

Butler, guitarist Bart Thompson, bassist Samuel Kless, and drummer Austin Carango all arrived at the same description for these sounds: ear candy.

“Those hits by Blink-182 and Green Day, all those bands, it’s just hooks for days and really excellent songwriting,” says Butler. “They really just tried to write incredible songs that would get stuck in people’s heads. We wanted to try our own version of that. Ear candy is the goal, so Sweet Tooth is the record.”

The result of this expedition into the Golden Age of snotty pop punk and cheeky radio rock is a 13-track hit of musical ecstasy, crammed with delicious guitar crunch and infectious melodics beneath boyish romance, teen-to-young adult angst, and gleeful abandon.

Sweet Tooth, which arrives three years after Mom Jeans’ second LP Puppy Love, was recorded in New Jersey at The Barber Shop Studios with producer Brett Romnes (The Front Bottoms, Oso Oso, Dogleg). Butler says it’s the first time the band had a proper, top-to-bottom studio experience, which meant no cutting corners, and an ability to chase a previously-unattainable level of polish. Tyler Povanda (Save Face) and Kory Gregory (Prince Daddy & the Hyena) contributed vocals to the record.

The music on Sweet Tooth marked a departure for Butler from his usual writing style. “I fell in love with bands like Modern Baseball and Front Bottoms and Joyce Manor, so I wanted to write songs like that,” says Butler. “That’s what our first two records were: me trying to stay in that box, cause I think that’s where I felt comfortable.”

The “ear candy” radio bands that inspired Sweet Tooth were never necessarily considered cool in the way Butler’s other influences were. “There’s almost a kind of disdain toward commercial success,” says Butler. “I didn’t wanna think that I was a normie and maybe I’m not, but parts of me definitely are. Parts of all of us in this band definitely are, and we’re okay with that.”

It’s about being able to like something simply because you like it. “There’s certain aspects of not really giving a shit and not having so much self-awareness and not trying to be different and cool, and just letting yourself trust your natural instincts, that just feel good,” says Butler.

Opener “Something Sweet” announces this new worldview in a perfect pop punk flurry before first single “What’s Up?” rumbles in with drums and a Take Off Your Pants And Jacket-ish Tom Delonge riff and Butler’s best Mark Hoppus drone: “I’m such a fuck/I’m such a fucking piece of shit and you hate me for it!” It’s earworm chorus (complete with a choir of “Ooh la la la” behind it) tries to parse through why we feel like shit with so much going for us: “I should be happy/should be thankful for the friends I have around me, the support of my fractured family/But still I’m just pretending that I’m fine when I’m feeling lousy all the time.”

The gleeful folk punk romp “Hippo In The Water” gives way to the sad-sack breakup pop of “White Trash Millionaire:” “If love makes you rich then I would rather be broke instead!” Butler and group vocals declare before a horn-laden outro. Follow-up “Circus Clown” is led by a breezy, saccharine synth melody as Butler, love-drunk, does cartwheels for a crush: “If life’s a circus then I’m the biggest clown/I’ll trade my love for laughs and let you cut me down.”

“Sugar Rush,” “Graduating Life,” and “LUV L8R” oscillate between swoopy-haired emo pop strummers and Warped Tour mosh-ready pop punk, snapping the brain back to the best bits of Under The Cork Tree before the pure Blue Album waltz of “Crybaby (On the Phone).” “If you’re doing a concept album about radio hits, you’re gonna do a Weezer-type situation,” says Butler.

The closing trio of tracks ratchet down the BPM and dime the emotional punch. “I spent the last ten minutes inside my car, tears streaming at the rear view/Looking back I was so stupid, all I ever wanted was you,” Butler mourns on the bawling-in-your-high-school-bedroom chorus of “Ten Minutes.” “Teeth” meanwhile flips the record’s sugary throughline on its side. The record flames out gloriously in harmonized group vocals, bittersweet guitar leads, and pulsing horns before Butler sings, “You’ve got no teeth, you were just talking sweet/You were everything to me but now you’re just cavities.”

Sweet Tooth feels like an eternal dessert-before-dinner, a rejection of the idea that we need to suffer before we get to the good stuff. You’ve got one life. Indulge your Sweet Tooth.

Sam Baardman
2023-04-22 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Sam Baardman at the West End Cultural Centre – Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 8:00pm

The West End Cultural Centre strongly encourages all of our patrons to continue wearing facemasks in our venue. Touring artists are disproportionately affected by COVID-related health issues, and we want to give them every opportunity to continue to perform and tour. By wearing your mask in the venue, you’re helping keep our artists healthy so that they don’t need to cancel shows and tours.
—–
Sam Baardman is a well-known singer-songwriter and visual artist living in Winnipeg. His music reflects his searching and inquisitive spirit that expresses compelling truths about our deepest questions and our most difficult challenges. Fans of Sam appreciate his lyrical depth and superb, singable melodies. It’s no surprise that the Winnipeg Free Press described him as “one of the city’s strongest and most literate songwriters.”
Following the release of last year’s well-received comeback album, Marsh Radio, Sam returns with his fourth full-length recording, Athabasca. The album will be available on all streaming platforms and will be for sale directly from his website.
The Athabasca project began in 2022 when Sam was exhibiting and performing at a conference in Winnipeg he helped host called “Art, Activism and Advocacy”. There, he spoke to a scientist in attendance from Global Water Futures (GWF), a program that supports research scientists who are studying the effects of climate change on water systems. GWF had collaborated with environmental artists in the past, and with their support Sam spent two weeks last fall at the Coldwater Laboratory in the Rockies as well as northern Saskatchewan speaking with scientists about their climate-related work. Sam traveled with GWF scientists to their observatories atop mountains, deep inside alpine forests, up on a glacier, and onto the northern prairies.
“Spending time with these researchers was a life-changing experience. It really opened my eyes and helped me to understand the science much more deeply, but getting to know the scientists was just as important. I discovered a group of extraordinarily dedicated people who are confronting the global environmental crisis head on,” says Sam. “They are in a race against time, in a battle against apathy and ignorance, in a fight for resources, and in a constant struggle to be heard by global leaders, policy-makers, legislators, regulators, and the general public. We owe it to ourselves and to them to pay attention to what they are discovering, and more importantly, to act on it together.”
The result of this science-art collaboration is Athabasca, a collection of environmental songs set to be released on April 22nd, Earth Day, at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg. Environmentalism has been a theme in Sam’s music from his earliest days as a songwriter, and this new album is a culmination of decades of focus on the ecological crisis. The music occupies a space that is neither didactic and preachy, nor naively optimistic. There are celebratory songs about the beauty of nature, but also songs that speak to our bewilderment, hurt, and anger at the dilemma we find ourselves in.

Rickson Makwe
2023-04-28 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Rickson Makwe at the West End Cultural Centre – Friday, April 28, 2023 at 8:00pm

As a singer songwritter and keyboardist Rickson Makwe takes influence from Reggae (such as South Africa’s Lucky Dube), African Rhumba and international pop (such as Phil Collins and Michael Jackson).
In early 1996 at the age of nine Ricky was injured during the war where his injuries left him blind. Even though Rickson has had some major hardships and suffering in his life, it is easy to see how truly passionate and determined he is to live life to its fullest and how he wants to share this zeal for life with others through his music.
He eventually moved from his home country to South Africa where his passion and love of music became the driving ambition in his life. Rickson started his music career in his new home country by touring with a band, playing festivals and recording.
Although things were better in South Africa, he still felt the desire to follow his heart and do everything he could to make the move to Canada. With their knowledge of Rickson’s musical talent and his desire to work in this industry, the UN was able to make it possible for him move to Winnipeg where he now calls home.
Now that Rickson is in Winnipeg, he feels that he has the opportunity to truly explore his creativity. Dance is an important part of Rickson’s performance and experience of music (he himself dances and he also likes to have dancers as part of his live show).
Rickson is looking to give people something fresh and different. He wants to move people with his music, and also understands that the visual element of a performance is just as important as the sound. “People understand now (that) the blind can play music and play keyboards and sing, and yea its normal,” says Rickson, “but I want to show people something different… I want to show that people who are blind can do anything they put their minds to.”

Andrina Turenne
2023-04-29 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Andrina Turenne: ‘Bold As Logs’ Album Release Concert – Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 8:00pm

The West End Cultural Centre strongly encourages all of our patrons to continue wearing facemasks in our venue. Touring artists are disproportionately affected by COVID-related health issues, and we want to give them every opportunity to continue to perform and tour. By wearing your mask in the venue, you’re helping keep our artists healthy so that they don’t need to cancel shows and tours.
—–
Calling Andrina Turenne’s new album Bold As Logs her debut feels like a bit of a misnomer. The Winnipeg singer-songwriter has, after all, graced stages across five continents and has lent her voice—as a member or a guest—to more than 50 albums during her 20-plus years in the music industry. In addition, she has a Juno for best roots & traditional album, awarded to her former band Chic Gamine.
Yes, Andrina has kept great company, but now this prolific Franco-Manitoban Métis artist is poised to share her own music, which weaves between languages as seamlessly as the themes in her songwriting, with a sound that is universal.
Bold As Logs contains 11 soulfully engaging songs in French and English, delivered in the spirit of road trips, kitchen parties, and bonfire gatherings. Andrina may have taken her time to move front and centre, but her time is now—and it was worth the wait. As might be expected, some of the songs have been gestating for many years, although some sprung from more recent ideas captured as home demos and voice memos. Andrina whittled them down to 14, which she sent to producer Grant Siemens (Corb Lund), and along with Andrina’s longtime musical partner Damon Mitchell (formerly of Winnipeg’s the New Meanies), they worked together as a trio to bring to life the album’s final cuts.
“When my last group ceased touring and recording in late 2015, I knew that my next chapter would be a solo one,” Andrina says, noting that during the interim she took on work in theatre and film, and as touring bandleader for acclaimed author and musician Tomson Highway. “It was really great to challenge myself in this way and it built up my confidence as a solo artist, musician and composer. Where I’m at now, it feels like the free-est I’ve ever been creatively. Even though this project carries my name and my stories, I’m so grateful to be sharing these moments surrounded by my oldest musical pals. Being in the studio and making this record, it felt like all the roads I’ve been on led me straight there.”
For the first single from Bold As Logs, Andrina chose to showcase her sultry voice en français with “Tour du monde,” which builds from a simple beat into an anthemic rocker. The end result is a heartfelt story of rebuilding old relationships, with the message not lost in translation: “Some days are easier than others / I turn right, and you turn left / We lose our way / But we return to one another / No need to say whose fault it was / We’ve already forgotten.”
Andrina describes “Tour du monde” as one of the album’s tracks that blossomed through pre-production experimentation, something she also says occurred with album opener “Out Of Luck,” which sets the tone with some serious Curtis Mayfield vibes. Conversely, her deep love and knowledge of traditional Cajun music shines through on “Tourtes printanières,” inspired by the stories of 19th Century Métis hunter and trader Louis Goulet she’d read in one of her father’s old books. Adding further texture to the song is her friend, Grammy-winning Louisiana fiddler Louis Michot. Bold As Logs ends with the delicate “See Me Through The Night,” written on a ukulele while traveling in Morocco when she received word from home about a fallen friend. It was one of the few songs to make the album in its original recorded form, with its emotional resonance fully intact.
Indeed, Andrina’s ability to merge a wide range of genres is the real magic behind Bold As Logs. Although she points to Feist’s chameleon-like abilities as one of her primary musical inspirations, it’s easy to hear the impact of everyone from Nina Simone to Bonnie Raitt to Gillian Welch throughout the album. Still, everything about Bold As Logs sounds indisputably pure.
“When asked about what inspires me, my first thought is always my parents and their friends who taught me the joy of making music with others, singing around campfires,” she says. “That is the very place from which I want this project to grow. I collaborated in groups for nearly 20 years of my life, and I learned so much, musically and creatively. I always loved the give and take of the process and I’m so grateful I get to make beautiful sounds with people I consider family, while learning to navigate the industry and all that comes with it.”

Silverstein: Misery Made Me 2023
2023-05-02 20:00 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Livenation

Live Nation is excited to present Silverstein

Timeline:

Live Nation Presale Dec 6 9am – Dec 8 10pm

Spotify Presale Dec 6 9am – Dec 8 10pm

BBM Presale Dec 7 9am – Dec 8 10pm

KF Presale Dec 7 9am – Dec 8 10pm

AMEX Presale Dec 8 10am – 10pm

General On Sale Dec 9 10am

Show Info:

General Admission

All Ages

HEALTH ADVISORY

In the best interest of fans and staff, the Event Organizer will continue to monitor local COVID-19 trends and meet or exceed protocols mandated by local governments. By purchasing tickets to this event, you agree to abide by the health and safety measures in effect at the time of the event, which may include, but not be limited to, wearing masks, providing proof of vaccination status and/or providing proof of negative COVID-19 test. Please note these confirmations will apply to all members of your party before they are allowed to enter the event and to any users of the tickets purchased by you. Check back often for updates to your event venue website as guidelines are subject to change.

May The Fourth Be With You
2023-05-04 18:30 - 23:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

D﻿ouble Feature
R﻿ogue One 6:30 pm
A﻿ New Hope 8:45 pm
$15 includes a 16oz Sookrams, brewed especially for this night.

Jesse Roper with The Bankes Brothers
2023-05-05 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Jesse Roper with The Bankes Brothers – Friday, May 5, 2023 at the West End Cultural Centre

The West End Cultural Centre strongly encourages all of our patrons to continue wearing facemasks in our venue. Touring artists are disproportionately affected by COVID-related health issues, and we want to give them every opportunity to continue to perform and tour. By wearing your mask in the venue, you’re helping keep our artists healthy so that they don’t need to cancel shows and tours.
—–
Based in Victoria, BC, Jesse Roper is a blues/Americana artist with a penchant for writing modern indie infused blues music and delivering bombastic live performances buoyed by his virtuosic guitar playing. His innate and impressive musical talent has served him well in recent years. It has given him the flexibility to play with soul icon Booker T. Jones, rock veteran Colin James, blues belter Beth Hart, and Canadian legend Burton Cummings, then turn around and headline nightclubs and festivals to younger audiences, and look perfectly comfortable in each scenario. The stage is where Roper shines. It has been his home since overcoming crippling stage fright during his early twenties. Fear is a part of Roper’s past that barely seems real today – especially when you see the in-concert image of a six-string soldier, hair matted to his face, tearing up the stage, without a hint of second-guessing.
Roper’s new album ‘Horizons’ marks a sonic high point in his career thus far. Working closely with famed JUNO-nominated producer Gus van Go (Metric, The Stills, Whitehorse, Arkells, The Trews, Sam Roberts) on this new collection of songs has pushed Roper into creating some of his best work. “Recording with Gus and Werner F was on a whole new level. They really cared where the songs were headed and that they ended up just right”, Roper confides. “Everything was broken down to the finest details and nothing was allowed to sit at just ‘ok’. It was all about getting the vibe right.”
And the vibe is certainly right. There’s a depth, a vulnerability, to this new body of work that hasn’t necessarily been at the forefront of Roper’s previous offerings. With a richer infusion of vintage rhythm and blues as background, Roper’s unique, soulful vocals are given space to soar. Like contemporaries Nathaniel Rateliff and Jack White, Roper tells his story with heart.
Adventuresome doesn’t properly describe Roper as an artist, because when the guitar-wielding dynamo sets out to accomplish something, there’s no telling where his mind will wander, or when his energy will go.

Sing Along With Horrible Feeling, Once More! Season 7
2023-05-09 19:00 - 22:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
Please join us for the SEVENTH installment of this “wacky Broadway nightmare”. Think ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’…

… but for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!
Brand new prizes, brand new SURPRISES, same great event!
We show the hit Internet musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, followed by the classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, ‘Once More with Feeling’.
Come dressed as your favourite Buffy/Dr. Horrible/Angel/Firefly/etc. character, and sing along with some awesome tunes as we broadcast these triumphs of musical media on a 27- foot screen at The Park Theatre!
If this isn’t enough to set you quaking in your stylish-yet-affordable boots, we will ALSO be having…
-a costume contest, complete with themed prizes for the winners!
-trivia!
-multiple (10+) door prizes, and
-participation bags!
Come one, come all for some nerdy fun, and let’s open those ‘lacy, gently wafting curtains’ on two of the greatest musicals that redefined what musicals could do!
Tuesday, May 9th, 2023
Doors open at 6:00 PM
The show starts at 7:00 PM
30-minute intermission and costume contest
The Park Theatre
698 Osborne Street

Gender-inclusive washrooms are available on site.
Lots to see and check out at 6:00 PM, including registering for the costume contest, a silent auction for charity, and more!
This event is volunteer-run and organized, and all ticket sales go directly into purchasing participation bags, door prizes, costume contest prizes, and supporting local businesses.
6:00 PM Doors Open
6:50 PM Take your seats!
7:00 PM Introduction & Trivia
7:10 PM Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!
8:00 PM Intermission
8:30 PM Costume Contest
8:50 PM Once More, with Feeling!
9:40 PM Drawing of door prizes!
9:55 PM Closing Remarks

Pinky Patel New Crown Who Dhis Tour
2023-05-13 19:30 - 21:00 | The Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3L 2B9, Canada
MRG Live Presents

Pinky Patel
New Crown Who Dhis Tour
Sat, May 13, 2023
Doors: 7:00 pm
At The Park Theatre – Winnipeg $29.50 – $65.00 + applicable fees
All Ages

James Keelaghan
2023-05-19 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
James Keelaghan at the West End Cultural Centre – Friday, May 19, 2023 at 8:00pm

The West End Cultural Centre strongly encourages all of our patrons to continue wearing facemasks in our venue. Touring artists are disproportionately affected by COVID-related health issues, and we want to give them every opportunity to continue to perform and tour. By wearing your mask in the venue, you’re helping keep our artists healthy so that they don’t need to cancel shows and tours.
-﻿—-
Contemporary folk songs, at their very best, offer an insight into the hardships, attitudes, and resolve of characters and events that shape our day-to-day lives. You can dress these songs up in inspired arrangements and intricate instrumentation but, at their very essence, the archetypal folk song is all about stories. Stories and people. Something such compelling songwriters as Eric Bogle, Si Kahn, Ewan MacColl, and Stan Rogers … all understood and mined so effectively.
James Keelaghan, too, burrows into that same rich seam with equal ability and comparable conviction. To quote Eric Bibb, the award-winning American acoustic bluesman, after listening to Keelaghan perform: “ a joy to hear, just beautiful. Reminded me of the best of the best of another time – Liam Clancy, Tom Paxton etcetera.” Less colourful but more succinct, Dave Marsh, the eminent Rolling Stone critic, simply described Keelaghan as “Canada’s finest songwriter.”
Truly, throughout a career that now spans almost four decades, the Juno and Canadian Folk Music Award winner has created a repertoire of incalculable importance – a unique body of work, either inspired by or drawn from the folk tradition. Ten solo albums flush with enduring lyrical relevance. Take the beautiful but heartbreaking ballad, Jenny Bryce, for example. From any point of view, it’s indistinguishable from the numerous traditional tracks covered on his disc A Few Simple Verses.
What’s more, various other originals from the Keelaghan cannon must surely enter the domain of traditional folklore. Most notably, Small Rebellions (highlighting the 1931 slaughter of peaceful striking miners in Bienfait, SK); Hillcrest Mine (a prelude to the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history); Kiri’s Piano (a triumph over adversity amidst the shameful, racist treatment of Japanese-Canadians during WW II); Cold Missouri Waters (a harrowing portrait of the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire in the mountains of Montana) …
A relentless musical spirit, Keelaghan has surrounded himself with a variety of crackerjack companions down through the years that have largely included the late, innovative, free-spirited fiddler and composer, Oliver Schroer, the exuberant, Chilean, Latino-fusionist guitarist, Oscar Lopez (with whom Keelaghan made two albums under the banner of Compadres), or the ubiquitous, former Spirit of the West anchor and multi-instrumentalist, Hugh MacMillan. Scrupulous audiences from Alberta to Australia bared witness to the sum of these resourceful parts.
There have been several mouth-watering collaborations in the writing department, too. Celebrated names in the folk world such as Karrine Polwart, Jez Lowe, Catherine MacLellan, David Francey, Lynn Miles, Dave Gunning, Cara Luft and J.D. Edwards … all contributed to notable Keelaghan releases.
“I love co-writing,” he says, “it’s the spark that gets me motivated – the fresh approach to a lyric or a different way of forming a melody for a song is so stimulating. Besides, it’s also a great impetus to finish the damn song.”
James Keelaghan grew up in a bungalow in northwest Calgary, AB, with six siblings, an Irish father, and an English mum. His brother Bob would develop into a noteworthy guitarist with the excellent, but now defunct, Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir. From his father, Jim, James developed a love of history. The family record collection provided further inspiration. Traditional folk LPs by the likes of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, Séan Ó Riada, and Harry Belafonte certainly caught young Keelaghan’s ear. He still cites Belafonte At Carnegie Hall as a recording that changed his life at age six!
Incidentally, Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy would live in Calgary in the mid-‘70s where they recorded a weekly TV show that James and his father routinely attended.
“They were stunning performers,” says James. “I can still hear aspects of Tommy Makem’s sound in my voice. He was a fabulous singer, fabulous.”
And so, another link in a storied musical chain was forged. James Keelaghan, as they say, is “a man you don’t meet every day.”

Nick Maclean Quartet featuring Brownman Ali
2023-05-21 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Nick Maclean Quartet featuring Brownman Ali – Sunday, May 21, 2023 at 8:00pm

The West End Cultural Centre strongly encourages all of our patrons to continue wearing facemasks in our venue. Touring artists are disproportionately affected by COVID-related health issues, and we want to give them every opportunity to continue to perform and tour. By wearing your mask in the venue, you’re helping keep our artists healthy so that they don’t need to cancel shows and tours.
—–
This show is presented by the West End Cultural Centre in partnership with Jazz Winnipeg.
-﻿—-
This spring, the multi-award-winning NICK MACLEAN QUARTET feat. BROWNMAN ALI embarks on their extensive, two month national tour across Canada, bringing them from their hometown of Toronto all the way to the Pacific coast and everywhere in between. Led by fast-rising piano star NICK MACLEAN — an 8x Global Music Award winner and one of the most in-demand young jazz piano players in Toronto — this contemplative yet thrilling quartet delivers jazz between the two poles of thoughtful introspection and powerhouse conveyance, taking influences from Herbie Hancock’s primordial 1960’s Blue Note era recordings. Maclean’s quartet heavily features one of Canada’s most provocative improvising trumpet players — BROWNMAN ALI — an internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning jazz iconoclast who has been heralded as “Canada’s preeminent jazz trumpet player” by New York City’s Village Voice and is best known globally as the last trumpet player to play in the legendary jazz-hip-hop group GURU’s JAZZMATAZZ. For this show, Ali & Maclean stand shoulder-to-shoulder with 2 of Canada’s top-tier rhythm section players: BENNETT YOUNG on upright bass (in for Ben Duff), and MIKE RAJNA on drums (in for Jacob Wutzke).
-﻿—-
Come witness these four in full flight, this tour features many nights of deeply exploratory, hard-swinging modern-jazz audiences nation-wide will not want to miss.
This contemplative and often thrilling quartet’s explorations of modern, original repertoire is led by fast-rising piano star NICK MACLEAN – an 8x Global Music Award winner, a Toronto Independent Music Award winner, and one of the most in-demand young jazz piano players in Toronto. The group delivers jazz between the two poles of thoughtful introspection and powerhouse conveyance, taking influences from Herbie Hancock’s primordial 1960’s Blue Note era recordings, while paying tribute to some of the greatest improvisers in jazz history.
Maclean’s quartet heavily features one of Canada’s most provocative improvising trumpet players – BROWNMAN ALI, heralded as “Canada’s preeminent jazz trumpet player” by New York City’s Village Voice. Recognized as an internationally acclaimed jazz iconoclast, he currently splits his time between Brooklyn, NY & Toronto, Canada and is a 2x National Jazz Award winner. This jazz veteran is best known globally as the last trumpet player with the legendary jazz-hip-hop group GURU’s JAZZMATAZZ, having replaced Donald Byrd in that seminal ensemble. Ali & Maclean stand shoulder to shoulder with two of Toronto’s top-tier rhythm section 20-somethings: BEN DUFF on bass and JACOB WUTZKE on drums. The synergy of the 4 is always palpable in concert.
The group has toured across Canada as well as internationally and has been featured in numerous festivals and concert series including the Regina Jazz Society, the Altrincham Jazz Festival, and multiple appearances at the Toronto Jazz Festival both as a featured ensemble and an often requested backing band. In addition to their original material, the ensemble has also mounted several popular tribute series to jazz masters including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry & Cole Porter.
The quartet’s debut 11-track full-length album “Rites Of Ascension” features 6 Maclean-penned compositions, 1 Brownman original and 4 re-imagined Herbie Hancock classics, all recorded at the renowned Canterbury Studios in Toronto. Produced by Brownman Ali, this debut disk was released on October 31st, 2017 and was nominated for CJSF’s ‘2018 Julian Award of Excellence’, it won 3 ‘Gold’ Global Music Awards in the ‘jazz’, ‘band’, and ‘album’ categories, and was featured as one of the Global Music Awards’ ‘Top 5 Albums of Spring 2018’. The group is hard at work on their next studio album slated for release on Browntasauras Records in winter 2023.
The group is anticipating the release of their highly anticipated next studio album ‘Convergence’ which is slated for release on Browntasauras Records in 2023.
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ABOUT JAZZ WINNIPEG
Jazz Winnipeg is a charitable, non-profit organization promoting the art of jazz and creative music through concert presentations and community engagement. As producers of the annual TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival as well as concerts and workshops throughout the year, Jazz Winnipeg is a vibrant and essential organization dedicated to the enrichment of Winnipeg’s cultural community. The 2023 TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival takes place June 14-24, 2023 at various venues throughout the Exchange District and downtown Winnipeg. Stay up to date at jazzwinnipeg.com.

Raine Hamilton with Bicycle Face and Joanna Hawkins
2023-05-28 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Raine Hamilton with Bicycle Face and Joanna Hawkins – Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 8pm

The West End Cultural Centre strongly encourages all of our patrons to continue wearing facemasks in our venue. Touring artists are disproportionately affected by COVID-related health issues, and we want to give them every opportunity to continue to perform and tour. By wearing your mask in the venue, you’re helping keep our artists healthy so that they don’t need to cancel shows and tours.
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T﻿his concert will include American Sign Language interpretation
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Raine is part prairie songstress, part storyweaver; Each song has a story, delivered between songs with humour and grace. Raine invites deep love of the violin into the singer-songwriter genre, writing for violin and voice, as well as for guitar and voice. Joined by cello and upright bass, expect string arrangements that push and pull, that move as they console.
A classical violinist and musicologist by training, Raine and their string trio offer string-quartet-like arrangements of Raine’s original songs. They call this chamber-folk, a hybrid of the classical tradition of string quartet chamber music, with the singer songwriter folk that comes so organically to Raine.
Raine’s latest work, the full-length album Brave Land (2021-22), is a concept album about mountains, and the courage, wisdom, and otherworldly connection they represent. Here, as in Raine’s 2018 album Night Sky, the songs are set to intricate and seasoned arrangements for guitar, violin, cello, and double bass. Once again Raine has worked with string trio collaborators Quintin Bart on double bass, Natanielle Felicitas on cello, and Lloyd Peterson as producer/engineer.
Raine believes that music is for everyone, and that we all have something to share. An experienced educator, Raine offers workshops in songwriting and fiddle tune writing (EN/FR). Raine also offers concerts with American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation, to help make live music and the community that comes with it more accessible to the Deaf community.
Raine is the recipient of the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year! Raine has toured Canada extensively, driving, flying, and floating coast to coast. Highlights include: Performing songs with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (5 times!), performing with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, playing a show in a cave (10 stories below the earth!), playing festivals across Canada (Vancouver Folk Festival, Vancouver Island Music Fest, Atlin Festival, Home County, Filberg Fest, Lilac Fest, Harvest Moon, Trout Forest), playing for passage on Via Rail, and meeting so many amazing humans along the way.

Mike Boguski Trio featuring Jimmy Bowskill
2023-07-04 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Mike Boguski Trio with special guest Jimmy Bowskill – Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 8:00pm

How’s this for a concept? The keyboardist for Canada’s most successful roots rock group takes songs from the most contentious album by a British cult band and records them as instrumentals with his acoustic jazz combo.
That’s likely the simplest way to describe The Michael Boguski Trio’s latest album A Newer Morning (For John), on which the Blue Rodeo mainstay reimagines much of Suede’s 2002 album A New Morning, their final collection prior to a seven-year hiatus, which did not even receive an official North American release at the time.
Michael Boguski is no stranger to making music for worthy causes. In 2018, he and other notable Canadian musicians formed the Cold Manitoba project to benefit the Native Addictions Council of Manitoba. He has also given his support to Toronto’s Regent Park School of Music, which had the side effect of inspiring Boguski to reconnect with his roots in jazz improvisation. Following the release of his 2018 debut solo album Blues For The Penitent, he formed the Michael Boguski Trio and released the album Detour in 2019. Its sole original composition, “King Ramsey,” was a tribute to jazz legend Ramsey Lewis and was recognized by the Jazz Foundation of America.
This is a fundraising event for the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. https://www.cufoundation.ca/

Janice Jo Lee at the West End Patio
2023-07-13 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Janice Jo Lee at the West End Patio – Thursday, July 13, 2023 at 8:00pm

Janice Jo Lee (she/they) is a folk musician based in Tkaronto, Ontario. She is a second generation Canadian settler and twenty-seventh generation Korean. She is a contemporary folk-roots-jazz singer songwriter, composer-sound designer, spoken word poet, theatre maker, and arts/anti-oppression facilitator. Janice is a queer femme truth-teller and satirist. She is interested in using art to build flourishing communities based in justice and joy. Her work explores gender justice, antiracism, friendship, community, ancestry and the Earth.
Lee’s new album Ancestor Song launches in 2023. Audience members describe the songs as having “hypnotic melodies, and powerful narrative themes.” Many songs depict water as a force of healing, power, drowning and destruction.
On stage she performs theatrical spoken word pieces and sweeping songs built on layers of cascading harmonies. With her guitar, looping pedal, trumpet, Korean janggu drum, disarmingly funny candour and poetically-rich lyrics, Lee commands the stage. She conjures warm energy, asks questions about our times, and leaves audiences rejuvenated and aglow.

Florante at Laura
2023-08-26 15:00 - 18:00, 2023-08-26 19:00 - 21:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
The Philippine Heritage Council of Manitoba presents the masterpiece of Philippine literature, ‘Florante at Laura’ on Saturday August 26th.

Francisco Balagtas, known as the “Prince of Filipino Poets” and the “Filipino Shakespeare”, completed his epic in 1838 and it is one of the foundational pillars of Philippine Literature. This is the first time Florante at Laura is being read in full in Canada or in the US.
This production being led by visionary director Ronald Mervin Sison and is a collaboration between The Philippine Heritage Council of Manitoba through President Perla Javate, members of the Manitoba Association of Filipino Teachers Inc (MAFTI) represented by Gennalyn Tan and Vicky Cabrera, and Magdaragat Philippines Inc led by Goldie Garcia. The company cast is composed of local Filipino talent who have selflessly volunteered their time and effort to make this production a reality.

Those Guys at Blue Note Park
2023-08-27 20:00 - 22:30 | Times Change[d] High & Lonesome Club, 234 Main Street, Winnipeg, MB, R3C 1A8, Canada
Those Guys on the West End Patio – Sunday, August 27, 2023 at 8:00pm

This show has been moved to Blue Note Park (220 Main Street, beside Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club). Times and tickets are all the same. If you have any question, please contact the WECC at 204-783-6918 or info@wecc.ca.
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Made up of nine performers who represent a cross-section of the Winnipeg music and theatre community, Those Guys have built a reputation for dynamic, feel-good performances since 2009. Their repertoire, which ranges from The Nylons to Justin Timberlake (and everything in between), features complex (often original) musical arrangements performed without a single instrument. In 2012, Those Guys released their first studio recording, “That Album”. Their follow-up EP, “LIVE!”, was released in December 2014, followed by a holiday album, “This Christmas”, in 2015. Their most recent album, “At Home”, comprised entirely of covers of songs by Manitoba artists, was released in February 2020.
“The guys take on one of my all time favorite artists here. Great job! …they really got it goin’ on and I’m so proud of you all!”
-Jerry Lawson (of The Persuasions and Jerry Lawson & the Talk of the Town)
“To see ‘Those Guys’ live is to love them. They’re brilliant. I had no idea I was into a cappella until they came along… make people happy.”
-Ace Burpee, host of 103.1 Virgin Radio’s Ace Burpee Show (from Ace Burpee’s 100 Most Fascinating Manitobans 2012)

Andino Suns with El Leon & The Strangers
2023-09-09 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Andino Suns and El Leon & The Strangers at the West End Cultural Centre – Saturday, September 9, 2023 at 8:00pm

“Social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history.” – Salvador Allende
Andino Suns grew out of the desire for Andrés Davalos to recreate the music he’d grown up listening to at home. His parents were exiled to Canada when a fascist dictatorship took over their homeland, Chile, in the early 70s. Though they found peace in Canada, Andrés’ parents missed terribly the way of life from which they had been violently uprooted. They continued to surround themselves with their Chilean culture, passing it down to their children through stories, traditional Andean music and folk dances, and media. It’s no surprise then that a worldview of political activism, hope, and love, underpins the music of Andino Suns.
The folkloric music of his childhood marked Andrés indelibly, and by 2009 he had written a handful of Spanish songs with traditional Andean influences. He recruited his friend, Andrés Palma, also a son of Chilean exiles who were similarly uprooted to Canada. The two of them, recognizing the potential for greatness that lay in those songs, invited other equally inclined musicians to join them. The music they made, a fusion of traditional Andean instrumentation and modern Latin grooves, culminated in their debut self-titled album, which they recorded and released in 2013.
Bolstered by the success of their first album, Andino Suns set about entertaining larger audiences. The songs, upbeat and fit for the dance floor, ignited festival crowds including JUNOfest in 2013. At this early stage in the band’s development, concert goers recognized hits from that album. Cantando el Pajaro, a song about love at first sight, continues to be a crowd favourite.
Their live performances were, and continue to be, effervescent, brimming with fiery instrumentation and dynamic vocals. Though their earlier songs were predominantly in Spanish, their talent and authentic musical energy captivated audiences young and old; music is indeed a universal language.
“A wild and wooly molding of Ennio Morricone and Manu Chao” – Roddy Campbell, Penguin Eggs
A year later, Andino Suns returned to the studio to record their sophomore album, It’s Time to Rise. Though not a departure from the overall Latin tone of their first album, It’s Time to Rise was experimental and diverse, adding songs in English, and blending together a whole host of genres — rock, reggae, and a smattering of Eastern European beats. The result was a genre-defying sound that wowed festival audiences in Saskatchewan and all through Canada, including Heatwave Music Festival in Prince George, BC; Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg MB; Western Canadian Music Industry Awards in Victoria, BC; Festival Musique du Bout du Monde in Gaspé, QC. In addition to playing festivals, Andino Suns have showcased at Breakout West, Folk Alliance International Conference in Kansas City, and Mundial Montreal.
It’s Time to Rise earned Andino Suns their first Western Canadian Music Awards nomination for World Recording of the Year in 2015. In 2017, following the release of their third album Madera (2016), the Suns were crowned World Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards.
Madera, Andino Suns’ most ambitious album, marked a return to their traditional Andean sound but was equally rooted in the vastness of the Canadian prairies. This duality, the cultural hyphenation of the band, is further celebrated on this album with multiple collaborations with local talent. Singer-songwriter Megan Nash joins Andrés Davalos in singing Madre, – Spanish for Mother – the second song on Madera. Megan’s and Andrés’ voices complement each other beautifully in a song that’s airy and memorable. Other home-grown appearances on Madera include The Dead South, Keiffer McLean, Scott Richmond and members of the Regina Symphony Orchestra. Daniel Emden, a Montréal-based percussionist of international repute co-produced the album.
“Unable to understand or speak Spanish, I can still feel the passion of Madera, this album of eight songs from Regina group Andino Suns.” Bill Robertson – Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
The Fall of 2017 saw Andino Suns release a new single, Tiburón. Performed in French and Spanish, Tiburón’s gypsy jazz tone and the Quebecois French accent are an homage to the city of Montréal from which band member Cristian Moya had just returned after a two-year stint spent honing both his musical and French language chops.
Andino Suns have succeeded in creating a musical energy that is a gathering place for all – the labourer, the intellectual, the spiritual, the aged, and the young. Theirs is the kind of music that, even if silenced, you’d continue to hear it.
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El Leon and The Strangers aims at making you rock, dance and think critically. They write and sing original songs that go from the whimsical and fun part of life to the thoughtful and sometimes unsettling lyrics about social realities. It is a band formed by South American rockers established in Winnipeg. Together they fusion Rock with folk elements from each of their cultures of origin, using a myriad of world instruments such as hand drums, charangos, quena, accordions, among other. During their first year the band played almost every venue at their local scene of Winnipeg. In 2019 the band released their first single called “Cumbia Baby” produced and engineered at Private Ear studios in Winnipeg. Promoting that single they played in various out of province venues including The Marquee, Calgary, AB, The 40 Brandon, MB, and Fiestaval Latin festival in Calgary. In that festival they opened for the Chilean Rock Legend “Los Prisioneros”.
Other Winnipeg highlights include successful performances at Folklorama, Reggae and Socca Festival, collaborations with other groups at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival. The band is preparing to hit the road in a full swing western Canada tour in 2020 and the upcoming festival season, with the release of their new self-titled EP. Their ambitious schedule for the near future includes releasing 10 songs during 2020 and completing their first ever Western Canada Tour.

Alexis Normand with Burnstick
2023-09-21 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Alexis Normand with Burnstick – Thursday, September 21, 2023 at 8:00pm

Alexis Normand’s music in French and English has been recognized across Canada to critical acclaim. Drawing inspiration from the infinite horizons of her Saskatchewan home, she explores the dualities of a francophone identity on anglophone soil. Formerly of the internationally-touring trio, Rosie & the Riveters, Alexis now uses her velvety voice as the centerpiece of a candid approach to the contemporary folk world that suits her so well.
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Burnstick’s folk music is brimming with the kind of chemistry that could only come from a husband and wife. Nadia, a Francophone-Métis singer-songwriter, and Jason, a Plains-Cree guitarist, blend their voices to push the boundaries of contemporary folk music as they weave together the unique sounds of Weissenborns with intriguing vocal harmonies. Their witty banter and delightful stories create magic as they command the stage with their telling performances.

Elijah Woods
2023-10-02 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Elijah Woods at the West End Cultural Centre – Monday, October 2, 2023 at 8:00pm

With each new release, multi-Platinum, 4x JUNO-nominated pop singer-songwriter and producer elijah woods delivers endless reminders that there are layers to his artistry that even he has yet to discover. woods’ instantly catchy melodies, tongue-in-cheek lyricism, and signature production (from the comforts of his home studio) all point to reasons why he’s spent over 35 weeks on Billboard’s Canadian Emerging Artist chart, remaining inside the Top 5 for 20 weeks including five consecutive weeks in the Top 3. His debut solo single ‘lights’ hit #8 at Top 40 and AC radio in Canada and was recently certified Canadian Gold. His 2021 debut solo EP look what i made highlights woods’ incandescent pop vibe and includes ‘lights’ and previously released singles ‘someone new’ and ‘first night’ featuring JUNO Award winning pop songstress JESSIA.
woods’ 1.1M TikTok followers enthusiastically encourage his clever ability to showcase a different perspective on a previously recorded hit; his early 2022 release ‘fingers crossed’ served as a response track to Lauren Spencer Smith’s Platinum-certified viral smash of the same name, with woods’ version surpassing 7.7M streams and rising. His latest single, the uniquely robust neon summer bop ‘ilu’ continues to drive his momentum, currently climbing the radio charts and garnering international attention across DSPs.
Most recently, woods confirmed (without a doubt) his ability to reach and connect with audiences, captivating crowds of over 20K fans at his first ever hometown show at Ottawa Bluesfest. Perched on the cusp of worldwide buzz with huge, kaleidoscopic music that vividly distills his talents as a songwriter, musician, and overall entertainer, woods is set to drop the feel-good summer anthem “everything everywhere always” on August 19, 2022.

Jordan Klassen & David Vertesi
2023-10-11 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Jordan Klassen & David Vertesti at the West End Cultural Centre – Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 8:00pm

When Jordan Klassen set out to write his sixth full-length record, Glossolalia, he tapped into a new creative well. In the midst of recording the record, he found himself continuing to write, coming away from the process with two distinct yet complementary bodies of work. Marginalia now rounds out the collection from this period. The Vancouver based singer-songwriter and producer composed Glossolalia mostly with guitar, creating a subtly blossoming record that perhaps nailed his “fairy folk for troubled times” approach better than ever before. The arrangements on Glossolalia were reduced to the bare essentials to support Klassen’s voice with minimal production. While troubles are not a thing of the past, times are now different, and thus, Marginalia is the other side of the musical coin. It is smoother, fuller, and more elegant than its predecessor.
Marginalia is about the edges of life, away from what is in the mainstream. Technically it is a writer’s term; where we make notes and write insights in the margins of a page. There may be footnotes or annotations, doodles and drawings, but the marginalia allows us to see things with a new understanding, and to make connections that may have gone unnoticed. Marginalia often comes from a stream of consciousness, where we uncover things that aren’t in the direct line of sight. They are what we see by the light of the moon rather than in direct sunlight; inspirations that may have come from the same place in our minds, but with a contrasting feel to them, like a photo negative.
In folklore, the moon is supernatural, affecting humans with its gravitational pull, causing magical transformations, and being blamed for peculiar behaviours. Similarly, Jordan wrestled with this album, creatively, directionally, and internally, questioning its purpose and direction. It has strong metaphysical overtones as a result. Interestingly, the record does not present as disjointed or as having sprung from a place of self doubt. Lead single “Cocoon” highlights this metaphor where Jordan states, “If love is a madness, then I am howling at the moon”. However, he’s not carried away by this legend, as he then counters and assures himself, “You’ve got facts, but I’ve got songs that sweep me away to where I am never wrong”.
While not “folky”, Marginalia is poetic like its sister record, but more melodic and less stripped down than what Klassen has produced before. From the contemplative opener “You Yourself”, which pulls lines from an orthodox prayer, to the emotional closer “Vanya”, a song written as a gift to his sister during a season of hardship, Jordan Klassen once again has impressively demonstrated his ability to evoke an incredibly deep poetic auditory experience. Songs primarily are led from piano with sweeping orchestral arrangements. Diverse keyboard tones are used to move songs forward while also setting an emotional atmosphere, perhaps best expressed in “Old Flame”. Klassen writes about his sobering awareness that he has spent “Half my existence pushed out on a ledge”, as he acknowledges the persistence of his own mental battles. One can easily visualize the songwriter recognizing the emotional power of memories, like a bad relationship that still has power over him even as he tries to break free. “Live Another Life” also expresses the emotional struggle with intrusive thoughts that haunt the songwriter and tells a different narrative where “All the conversations (are) never true”.
In the same vein as the sun-moon metaphor, Marginalia is at times a mirror of Glossolalia. “Casey” is the name song counterpart and companion piece to the penultimate track of the latter, “Niko”. Whereas “Niko” is tongue-in-cheek, addressed to a specific person, “Casey” implores a being outside of the situation to step forward, in a divine intervention. The tracks “Greener Hills” and “King of the Empire” also reflect the theme that everything apart from the spiritual is ultimately a heartbreaking and futile pursuit, insufficient to satisfy the longings of the soul. In a similar way, “Overstep” addresses the human need for connection. We became used to social isolation and accustomed to what once was considered strange for us. Thus we need to push ourselves and each other to “overstep” our bounds.
Marginalia draws itself towards a close with “Where Else Would I Go?”, which lifts the listeners’ spirits after all the emotional jousting of the record’s course. He acknowledges that “The push and pull have taken their toll”. It was written as Klassen saw many of his friends become disillusioned, and leave their faith. He realizes that this is something he could never do, and is reassured that the spiritual realm forms the foundation of his existence, like the divine is “tattooed on my soul”. And so what once was perhaps obscure in the margins is now replaced by an epiphany that “the ink’s getting clearer and what I can read is surprising”. Jordan Klassen’s ultimate message is that what feels intangible can be revealed by peering into the marginalia. The sacred is manifested all around us, “in touch and taste and smell”, there for us to discover if we look for it.

Still Crazy: The Music of Paul Simon
2023-10-13 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Still Crazy: The Music of Paul Simon – Friday, October 13, 2023 @ 8:00pm

Still Crazy: The Music of Paul Simon, a flagship concert experience from Retrospective Productions, featuring nine world class musicians paying homage to one of the most celebrated American songwriters.
Still Crazy is a powerhouse retrospective on the life, career, and music of Paul Simon. The show draws heavily on the most acclaimed era of his career, from his self-titled album, Paul Simon in 1972 through to 1990 with The Rhythm of the Saints, however it doesn’t fail to include fan favourites from his seminal work as a part of the Hall of Fame folk-duo, Simon and Garfunkel. Whether a long-time fan or a first time listener, there is truly something here for everyone. The dyanmics of the show range from whisper-quiet, intimate moments, where the band breaks down to only voice and accoustic guitar, and climb all the way to the full-out, horn section-led dance anthems from the hit album, Graceland.
The show was thoughtfully curated and carefully arranged by up-and-coming producer, Aaron Shorr. Shorr is a life-long fan of Paul Simon and the creation of this show was truly a labour of love. “This is music that has been with me since I was a young kid… When I was in high school I got my driver’s license and I had a copy of the Simon and Garfunkel Concert in Central Park. I listened to it in the car, over and over, I must have worn the tape out. Later on I got really into the record Still Crazy After All These Years. It became a record that I listened to constantly. I listened to it when I got my heart broken, listened to it when I got my bell rung… It became one of those albums that I could turn to, like a magic pill. Albums like that become your friends.”
The orchestrations and the approach to the music capture that same respect and reverence. There are subtle turns and re-imaginings, but all are deeply influenced by a tremendous amount of research. In preparation for the show, Aaron poured through every album Paul Simon had ever been a part of, including all the live recordings he could find, from official concerts to bootlegs. He read and re-read every article, book, interview, and biography. Finally, to cap it off, Aaron flew to New York to attend the very last stops on Homeward Bound – The Farewell Tour. The penultimate at Madison Square Gardens and the very last tour date of his career in Flushing, Queens, in the very same neighbourhood that Paul was born and raised.
With Paul Simon’s retirement from from the road in September of 2018, the curtain falls on one of the most illustrious recording and touring careers in modern music. Still Crazy: The Music of Paul Simon, is poised to grab the torch and carry his legacy onwards.

Ken Yates with Jadea Kelly
2023-10-15 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Ken Yates with Jadea Kelly at the West End Cultural Centre – October 15 at 8:00pm

Channeling pain into beauty, Ken Yates’ fourth album is a breathtaking triumph of the human spirit. The cool-hued Cerulean captures the artist’s intimate reckoning as he grieved his dying mother, giving listeners a vivid window into the rollercoaster of intense thoughts and emotions that accompany such a personal, yet universal experience. The result is a transcendent record that surges with tightly held energy and intimate moments. The listener hears the artist growing in real time, moving towards a space of acceptance and peace as he himself moved to the country, began therapy, and wrote the songs he needed to hear.
Cerulean may be born from grief, but it is not musically grieving: its surefooted and softly radiant arrangements shine with the quiet hope of a soul put through the wringer. “This is the first time that I’ve made a record where I feel like the songs were going to be written whether I wanted to release an album or not,” Yates explains. “I was writing because I needed to. I never would have described songwriting as a cathartic process in the past; it was just something I liked to do.”
With three albums under his belt, the Ontario born songwriter spent the past decade establishing himself as a talented folk artist with a penchant for thoughtful lyrics and evocative melodies. He won two Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2017, and supported Passenger on both the European and North American legs of his recent tour.
Nonetheless, Cerulean feels like a hard reset on Yates’ art and artistry. Reuniting with producer Jim Bryson, the album firmly steps into indie folk and alternative territories – he cites Big Thief, Andy Shauf, and The War On Drugs as a few of his inspirations. Thematically, this is Yates at his most honest and raw. “The record begins with a tone of paranoia facing the daily fear of what the world is becoming,” he explains. “As the album progresses, the songs begin to look more and more inward. Moving through the anxiety and bitterness I was feeling. Still, there’s a lot of positivity in it. Maybe I was trying to take a step back to remind myself of all the good things and the full spectrum of color in my life. My wife and I moved out of our apartment in Toronto to the country, got a dog, and found a bigger space where I was able to make a little musical corner for myself. I started seeing a therapist too. That, along with working on this record, helped pull me out of the foggy bitterness I was in.”
“Reflecting back now, I can almost hear myself processing what I was going through in real time, to the point where even the track listing was obvious– an accurate timeline of the feelings and emotions I was dealing with”.
Cerulean opens with “The Big One (ft. Kathleen Edwards),” an achingly poignant song that starts, quite poetically, at the end. “A friend kept talking about The Big One, a high-magnitude earthquake expected to strike the Pacific Northwest. In the last couple of years it feels like we have all developed a slight doomsday mentality, myself included; feeling like the world might be ending. Of course, we’re not really sure how, so that song is reckoning with the ‘armageddon’, and a realization of how trivial a lot of our personal relationships or conflicts can be when we are staring face-to-face with the end. The only thing to do is ride out your last few moments with the people you love.”
Yates dives deeper into himself as Cerulean progresses, searching for meaning in the world and working through everything from insomnia, denial, and nihilism, to hope and appreciation. The artist envelops himself in a blanket of plaintive, somber introspection on “Best of the Broken Things,” a comforting ballad in which he gives a pep talk to his own reflection.
An album standout, he paints a portrait of relatable restlessness on “Don’t Mean to Wake You” (ft. Stephanie Lambring), a warm and driving folk rock reverie. Yates finds himself lost in a pool of thoughts that gnaw at him so much that he has to turn over and wake his partner. It’s as much an attempt to save himself from himself, as it is a gentle cry for help.
The dynamic and driving “Honest Light” similarly finds him reassuring himself, this time from within. “My wife always refers to golden hour as ‘honest light’, when the light illuminates all the dust on your floor and the crumbs on your counter”, Yates explains. “I had the line, ‘life is like a cheap wine, it don’t get any better with time.’ I merged the title and line together as sort of this acceptance that things are not alright, but you’ll be alright.”
This mature recognition of life’s imperfection proves the lifeblood of Cerulean, and every time Yates seems to be on the verge of sinking, he swims – held afloat not only by his own inner strength, but also by his community. Cerulean is a group effort, with features from singer/songwriter contemporaries including Kathleen Edwards, Stephanie Lambring, Katie Pruitt, and more.
“Although these songs were born in a period of isolation, it turned out to be my most collaborative album yet. There are full band arrangements on every song, and a few of my favourite artists lended their voices, which really brought this record to life”.
After forty minutes spent exploring a world of vulnerable depths and soaring sonics, Cerulean closes in a moment of tranquility. “The final song, ‘Cerulean’, is about searching for balance – an equilibrium. We move through this endless colour wheel of emotions every day, but you have to find those small moments of peace and acceptance, and reassure yourself, ‘I’m okay.’
Yates’ mother Beverley passed away in August 2021.
“I’m strangely in a better headspace now than I was a year ago when she was still with us,” he admits. “I may owe that to taking a hard look at myself through the lens of these songs”.
Now that he’s on the other side, Yates says this album proved a transformative experience – allowing him to grow, while giving him some much-needed resolution to the past few years.
“I feel more open than ever, at peace with where I am as an artist,” he reflects. “This is the first time I’ve had a real personal story I wanted to tell. It does feel like I’ve had a moment to reset my life, and now I can start to share that with the rest of the world.”
Loss is a shared human experience. Through Cerulean, Ken Yates not only puts the full scope of his own healing process on display, but he also reminds us that we’re not alone in our pain – and that with time, we may just find our way to acceptance.

Carefree Highway: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot
2023-10-20 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Carefree Highway: A Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot – Friday, October 20, 2023 at 8:00pm

Like a lot of Canadian musicians, I grew up in awe of Lightfoot’s catalog of songs. He fully deserves his place in the list of the world’s top singer-songwriters. He made common themes universal without losing a Canadian sensibility. He could make straightforward narratives about shipwrecks and railroads universal. His love songs are often tinged with loss and regret. Some of them are deceptively simple, but contain subtleties that reward repeat listening. His significance to me is similar to the Group of Seven, in allowing us to look at our country with a fresh perspective. If you go deep into the catalog there are some some incredible gems that often didn’t make it to radio. We’re going to celebrate some of those alongside the better-known hits. And we’re going to bring our own ideas and versions to the party. Lightfoot’s work is ready for fresh interpretations from younger musicians and new audiences.

Matt Foster
2023-10-28 20:00 - 22:30 | West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, MB, R3B1Z8, Canada
Matt Foster at the West End Cultural Centre – Saturday, October 28, 2023 at 8pm

Matt Foster’s True Needs must be heard to be believed.
The album has been described as a masterful sonic paradox, a quiet storm both stunning and profound, managing somehow an under-the-covers intimacy that is also inexplicably vast and without horizon, full of space and hushed subtleties
Matt’s live band is a tour de force, an acte majeur of intimacy, speaking their own language, bodies and music both stirring the room, and casting a deep reverie in the crowd. The hurdy gurdy in particular, in the hands of Quintin Bart, is compelling beyond words. It becomes acoustic medieval synth, evoking an eerie timelessness. Every creak and groan of the show makes for theatrical, cinematic experience. This one’s not to be missed!
Expect to be transported, expect the cinematic, expect music and visuals like a balm and poultice for anxiety and loneliness. Expect to and walk out, having truly gathered and come together.
