WITCH PROPHET

Tuesday, August 1st – 7:30 PM

It’s been 3 years since the release of her Polaris Prize shortlisted album ‘DNA Activation’; an ode to her Ethiopian and Eritrean ancestral roots, fusing Jazz, Hip-Hop, Soul and RnB. Touring across North America performing along side and opening for acts like Lido Pimienta, Sudan Archives, Tash Sultana, Snotty Nose Rez Kids and more.

Now, Witch Prophet returns to the spotlight with a new soul/adult contemporary LP ‘Gateway Experience’ due out May 3rd, on Heart Lake Records. 

A soundscape of vocal layers, loops, raps and harmonies on a bed of hip-hop, jazz and soul-inspired beats produced by her business partner and wife SUN SUN.

TANIKA CHARLES BAND

Tuesday, August 1st – 9:00 PM

Toronto-based 2x Juno Award nominee and Soul music power house Tanika Charles has slowly but surely inserted herself as a staple of the genre both at home and abroad. Her music revels in honesty and attitude, her live show is high energy and endearing, and she continues to win audiences one album, one stream, and one encore at a time.
On April 8th, 2022 Tanika released her third album Papillon de Nuit: The Night Butterfly. Papillon again follows Tanika’s formula of marrying classic soul influences with modern sensibilities and features the songs “Frustrated”, “Million Ways”, and the disco-infused lead single “Different Morning” featuring Toronto rapper DijahSB.

Tanika has embarked on numerous domestic and international tours since releasing her debut album Soul Run, performing in front of many thousands of fans across a dozen countries

PETER & THE WOLVES

Wednesday, August 2nd – 7:30 PM

Out of Calgary’s legendary Bowness district came Peter and the Wolves, a fresh-faced rockabilly outfit shaped by their forefathers’ rowdy, unstoppable urge to shake it up. Led by Howlin’ Pete Cormier, the Wolves were playing the bar scene while half its members were still in high school. Several years and 2 full-length recordings later these Southern Alberta favorites are stepping up with their irresistible combination of originals and well chosen covers and receiving recognition as one of Canada’s top R & B practitioners!

JESSE ROPER BAND

Wednesday, August 2nd – 9:00 PM

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.

SHAWNEE KISH

Thursday, August 3rd – 7:30 PM

Shawnee Kish discovered music as medicine at a very early age. She dreamt about being on stage and starting her journey toward a career in music at 12 years old. Music quickly became a source of self-empowerment for the soulful singer and in 2020 Shawnee won CBC’s Searchlight talent competition. Not soon after, this fierce, powerhouse artist was celebrated as one of North America’s Top Gender Bending Artists by MTV and as an Artist You Need To Know by Billboard Magazine. In 2022 Shawnee celebrated her first JUNO award nomination (Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year) and signed to a contract with Amelia Recordings.

Listening to her chart-topping releases one can easily recognize that, as an artist, Shawnee has been influenced by strong, confident voices of female performers such as Melissa Etheridge, Etta James, Nina Simone and Amy Winehouse. Her deeply personal and always poignant lyrics are rooted in healing. This allows her listeners to find purpose and reason in the stories she tells.

An outspoken advocate for her Indigenous and LGBTQ2+ communities, Shawnee is a proud Two Spirit Mohawk who has shared the stage with some of the world’s biggest names – Lady Gaga, Madonna and Alicia Keys.

Shawnee Kish is clearly an artist with vision, who will spend 2023 lighting up stages across North America and  continue her work with the We Matter Campaign and Kids Help Phone in hopes of empowering youth and providing strength and hope through music.

Originally from Welland, Ontario, Shawnee is now based in Edmonton, Alberta and is married to Olympic rugby player Jen Kish.

THE HARPOONIST featuring GORDIE JOHNSON (of Big Sugar)

Thursday, August 3rd – 9:00 PM

“Have we come here to dance or have we come here to die” (from Good People) 

These words carry the message of the new project led by Shawn Hall and his collaborators. Hall of the acclaimed maverick blues duo the Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer is the progenitor. The new trio includes Canadian icon and award-winning guitar legend Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar on guitar, bass and vocals, and internationally respected singer songwriter Jonas Shandel on drums and vocals. Together they create a powerful biting delivery highlighting Hall’s dynamic big soul vocal. 

Hall has been one half of Canada’s indisputably justified incendiary live propositions. Hall spent 17 years cross-crossing much of the globe sharing stages with blues legend Taj Mahal, Saharan dessert blues group, Tinariwen, St Paul and the Broken Bones, as well as Canadian rock and roll festival favourites the Sheep Dogs amongst most of Canada’s music greats. Toronto-raised, Hall recently nominated for 2022 Maple Blues Harp player of the year and the 2022 Junos for the Live at the King Eddy album. The Live at the King Eddy live show was captured on the Rolling Stones mobile studio. 

Hall’s deeply evocative vocals and harp work have been featured in such shows as Blue Bloods, CSI, Snow Piercer, Jade Fever and many more. 

After 20 years in Canada’s west coast, Shawn dropped down to Austin Texas to live with Gordie Johnson and his family on their ranch to write and record his most personal group of songs. He has created a volume of sensitive, soulful and wildly imaginative new songs. His new music has emerged from New Orleans band stands, life affirming gospel, and groundings in absurdity. From his new song, Good People, Hall sings, “I may not have it together, but together we can have it all”. 

“The grisly vibe hovering like a murky London fog around the very words ‘Harpoonist’ and ‘Axe Murderer’ suits what and how they play.” Peter Goddard, The Toronto Star