Two Hours Traffic and Boys Who Say No (Tuesday, March 26)

Fortnight Music presents Two Hours Traffic and Boys Who Say No
Tuesday, March 26 (Doors 10:00 p.m.)

$10 in Advance/$12 at the door, AA/Lic

Tickets at The Cornerstone or Ticketbreak 

Two Hours Traffic

Two Hours Traffic’s specialty has always been unforgettable pop melodies. Now, with a revamped lineup and a new producer behind the board, the award-winning Charlottetown band has honed its craft and created its catchiest, most focused album to date, entitled Foolish Blood. Over the past decade, they’ve earned a short list nomination for the Polaris Music Prize, come out on top at the East Coast Music Awards, graced magazine covers, landed TV show placements, and toured across Canada and around the word. Having accomplished so much already, Two Hours Traffic is only getting better.

Boys Who Say No

It’s like Pop music falling down the stairs.

Toronto’s Boys Who Say No have been building buzz with their playfully unpredictable brand of quirky and infectious party pop. They blast out a frenetic live show that is sure to impress. The boys are very excited for the upcoming release of their first full-length album, “Contingencies.” 

Having shared the stage with indie heavyweights like, Japanther, Cuff the Duke, Chain and the Gang  , Chad VanGaalen, Two Hours Traffic, Bloodshot Bill, Bry Webb and Attack in Black the boys are very excited to be hitting the road again this spring in support of their new album.

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Abigail Lapell (Tuesday, March 19)

Abigail Lapell
Tuesday, March 19, 9:30 p.m. (no cover)
Part of Birds on a Wire

Drawing from a deep well of folk, indie and traditional influences, Abigail Lapell has made music her whole life. The Toronto singer has won over audiences of all musical stripes with her contagious melodies, evocative lyrics and heart-stopping voice—a combination that draws comparisons to early Cat Power, Sandy Denny or a stormier Natalie Merchant. 

Over the past few years, Abigail has toured extensively in Ontario and Eastern Canada, been featured at NXNE, Pop Montreal, Winterfolk (Toronto), Sappy Fest (Sackville, NB) and In the Dead of Winter (Halifax), and shared stages with Rae Spoon, tUnE-yArDs, Snailhouse, Ember Swift, Greg MacPherson and Jim Guthrie, among many others.

Come see her at the Bookshelf ebar Tuesday night.

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Yukon Blonde with Lucy Rose (Thursday, March 21)

Fortnight Music Presents Yukon Blonde with Lucy Rose
Thursday, March 21 (Doors 10:00 p.m.)

$18 in Advance/$22 at the door, AA/Lic

Tickets at The Cornerstone or Ticketbreak

Yukon Blonde

The signature hook-heavy arrangements and lush "ooh-wah" harmonies that earned Yukon Blonde critical nods for their self-titled 2009 debut have certainly soaked into their latest output.Yukon Blonde was named one of the "10 Canadian bands destined to break in 2010 by the CBC, and Chart called the band the best of the 2010 Canadian Music Week festival. Yukon Blonde's career has so far been marked by their on-the-road ethic. Last fall they embarked on a thirty-plus date tour supporting Good Old War, as well as several headlining runs down each coast. This summer the young B.C. band played at Milwaukee Summerfest with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and the last year and a half has seen them rack up nonstop tour mileage both in North America and Europe, including festivals such as SXSW, CMJ, and the Popkomm Festival in Berlin along the way.

Lucy Rose (formerly of Bombay Bicycle Club)

Lucy’s journey began, when she hopped on a train to London leaving behind the house in which she grew up in rural Warwickshire and struck out for the big city and the big time.  Armed with an acoustic guitar and an unstoppable dedication, Lucy played every open-mic night imaginable, she met people on the way who are still with her now and with their support and her graft she learned the ropes.  As her songs and sentiments spread their warmth through the iciest of hearts, Lucy became that most modern of phenomenon; she went ‘viral’.  Her biggest videos have clocked up over 800,000 views and on average, her sessions and videos are receiving 250,000 views each.

“Each song is a confessional of her most tightly clasped secrets.” The Fly
“A voice that could melt the stoniest of hearts.” Q Magazine
“One of the country’s most promising new voices.” Sunday Times (Culture)
“Kicking up a storm in her own right.” NME
“The song writing candour evident has seen Lucy Rose tipped for… solo success.” Daily Mirror
“Lucy Rose is absolutely outstanding!” Edith Bowman, Radio 1
“Absolutely beautiful.” Fearne Cotton, Radio 1
“I was only a matter of time before the second wave of British nu-folk pioneers made it to the U.S., and Lucy Rose is sure to be among its first breakout stars.” Vogue.com

- Spencer Shewen, Fortnight Music

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Lowlands, Woodshed Orchestra, and Raven Shields (Thursday, March 14)

Fortnight Music presents Lowlands, Woodshed Orchestra, and Raven Shields

Thursday, March 14 (doors at 10:00)

$8 at the door, AA/Lic

Lowlands

Lowlands started as a house band to entertain the admission lineup at the Great Hall in Toronto. The instrumentation of the group perfectly supported the songwriting of Gordon Auld and Abe Del Bel Belluz and eventually they started to bring their country, delta blues, bluegrass sound into venues, art openings, and coffee houses across the city. After a slight lineup change, the band relocated to Guelph, Ontario, where they have received critical acclaim among friends and fans and have garnered attention from festivals, promoters, and industry professionals.

The Woodshed Orchestra

The Woodshed Orchestra is an ecstatic, soul-filled, communal, multi-headed celebration emancipation experience. The Woodshed will take you higher and make you feel the love you need to succeed. Yes it will. The Woodshed will light up your tree, push all the right buttons, stroke your ego till you come to your senses, and make you start to sing and dance with visions of sugar plum love making times dancing in your mind that seem so real to the taste, touch, and feel that you’ll shout in happiness and cry tears of joy for being alive.

Raven Shields

After more than four years of working with her band Dear Sister, Raven Shields has decided to also make a record on her own and release her first EP, Matches. So far, this endeavour has been quiet but focused, with great attention to the songwriting and the dynamic of her current lineup of musicians. With Raven Shields on acoustic guitar and banjo, Aaron Comeau (also of Dear Sister) on electric guitar, and Joshua Van Tassel on drums, each song has been carefully arranged, each with unique percussion and the stark yet effective power of a trio.

Matches was recorded live off the floor, all in one day, and it aims to capture the true nature of the trio and the energy that only a live performance can offer. The EP will be released in the spring of 2013, with a record release tour to follow.

- Spencer Shewen, Fortnight Music

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Fred Eaglesmith (Thursday, March 7)

Fred Eaglesmith

Thursday, March 7 (9:30)

$25 advance tickets; $30 at the door

Throughout the years since his first album in 1980, Fred Eaglesmith has usefully managed to both transcend and blend such genres and categories as rock’n’roll, country, folk, singer-songwriter, Americana, blues and bluegrass to fashion his own distinctive brand of literate, melodic and rhythmic rocking elecro-acoustic North American music. Along the way he has gathered a unique set of accomplishments: a Juno Award for Best Roots & Traditional Album, had his music used in films by Martin Scorsese, James Caan, and Toby Keith, writing a hit #1 on the bluegrass charts (“Thirty Years of Farming,” recorded by James King), wowing David Letterman in his U.S. network debut in 2010, and finding his songs included in the curriculum at two colleges. His followers are so devoted that he is the host and centerpiece of a number of music festivals in the U.S. and Canada. He also inspired the Roots on the Rails rolling music fests and hosts its excursions on scenic railways as well as, last year, at sea. When not writing recording and performing music, Eaglesmith creates visual art that is exhibited in commercial galleries and museums.

In addition to having his compositions featured on best-selling albums by country singers and writers like Keith (“White Rose”), Jackson (“Freight Train”), and Lambert (“Time To Get A Gun”), such fellow songwriting talents as The Cowboy Junkies, Chris Knight, Kasey Chambers, Mary Gauthier, Todd Snider, and Dar Williams have all recorded Eaglesmith songs.

Catch Fred and his Travelling Steam Show for a raucous night at the eBar.

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Scarlett Jane (Tuesday, March 5)

Scarlett Jane, hosted by Ambre McLean
Tuesday, March 5 (9:30 p.m.)
No cover

Scarlett Jane is one of the most exciting new collaborations in recent Canadian music--the marriage of the distinctive songs and beautifully haunting voices of Andrea Ramolo and Cindy Doire.

Stranger, their debut recording, captures their strength and their vulnerability, and a progressive roots sound that embodies the raw and candid demeanor of Lucinda Williams, the moody sensuality of Stevie Nicks and Nick Cave, and the tender playfulness of Dolly Parton. It’s a rootsy folk/noir sound with enough country-edged rockin’ wailers to keep dancers moving, and gorgeous ballads and moody set-pieces to satisfy the indie-pop fans.

Scarlett Jane appears at the eBar as part of the ongoing Birds on a Wire series, which features female singer-songwriters.

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Oh Susanna & Birds of Chicago (Thursday, Feb. 28)

Oh Susanna & Birds of Chicago

Thursday, Feb. 28 (10:00 p.m.)

$15 advance tickets (available at the Cornerstone or ticketbreak.com), $18 at the door

In a career spanning just over a decade, Oh Susanna has released five critically acclaimed records noted for their contemplative, thoughtful, folk-inspired songs that transport listeners into an imaginary emotional landscape. Whether applauding a young woman’s need to stand tall in the face of dire circumstances, expressing love and tenderness to a dying loved one or embodying the anger of a soldier’s widow, Oh Susanna’s songs aim straight for the gut. The timeless themes of love, loss and longing are expressed in soaring melodies and vivid lyrics. These songs beg careful listening.	Birds of Chicago is a collective based around JT Nero and Allison Russell. Whether touring as a duo or with the full family band, Nero and Russell have emerged as two of the most compelling new voices in North American Roots music. Nero’s fractured country-soul voice wrapped in Russell’s silver and gold tones, is a fine thing. Not too perfect, not at all saccharine, you’ll hear echoes of mountain gospel, street corner doo-wop, and classic soul. Accompanied by just a banjo and a guitar, it’s haunting. Fired by the band, it’s a full tilt revival.

(Getting a "Video Player Too Small" message? Just click on the YouTube icon at the bottom of the screen to watch the video on YouTube.)

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