Saturday, March 23, 2024

7pm

Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON

Tickets: $30

plus $5 shipping & handling

Chad Price is a London, Ontario-born, Toronto-based artist who cleverly weaves classic folk/soul songwriting prowess within a contemporary Pop/R&B music shell. Often drawing comparisons to artists like Leon Bridges and John Mayer, Chad returned to the music scene in 2021/22 with a flurry of new music that has received radio support across the country and led to him being hand-picked as the coveted 2022 Toyota Searchlight winner. He’s amassed over 1M streams and video views in 2022 alone and has legitimized himself as an artist to watch in Canada. As he forges ahead into 2022, set to release his game-changing new album “Introversion”, Chad is poised and ready to join the ranks of today’s Pop/R&B elite.

Source:  https://www.londonmusicoffice.com/artists/chad-price

Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024

7pm

Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON

Tickets: $50

plus $5 shipping & handling

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024

7pm

Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON

Tickets: $50

plus $5 shipping & handling

JUNO Award winning artist Angelique Francis, is a versatile and exceptionally gifted musician. This multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, multi-genre singer song writer and composer has wowed audiences across the globe with her electrifying performances, instrumental abilities and powerful textured vocals. She is known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including Blues, Soul, Folk, Americana, Jazz, Gospel and Rock. Angelique has shared the stage/opened for a large roster of well-known musicians such as Gary Clark Jr, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Keb’ Mo’, Jimmy Vivino, Beth Hart, Tom Cochran, Burton Cummings, Sugar Ray and the list goes on. Her diversity, passion and love of music can be heard in all of her original compositions.

 

“…Francis has serious star power. She played the audience like a revivalist preacher, telling stories, singing uplifting lyrics…  Angelique’s vocals evoking shades of Bessie Smith or Muddy Waters. Also playing both double bass and electric bass as well as blues harmonica…”

– Alayne McGregor, Ottawa Jazz Scene

 

Born and raised in Ottawa Canada, Angelique is a naturally gifted musician, who first garnered attention as a young prodigy. She first took to the stage at age 7 and at 13 years old she made her American national television debut on the Oprah Network, for writing and composing an original theme song for the Gayle King show. By age 13 she was proficient in playing other instruments such as the acoustic guitar, upright Bass, electric guitar and electric bass. By age 14 she was playing at music festivals across North America opening for a variety of acts such as Beth Hart, Trooper and Shameka Copeland.

 

“…Powerhouse vocals, charming personality, and amazing double bass playing. Never speaking to the crowd, but singing all her questions and monologues made for a fun twist to Francis’ performance..” – Sound Check Entertainment

Angelique’s soulful Smoky vocals and instrumental techniques are reminiscent of a bygone era, but with a unique and modern sensibility.  Within her vocal style, you can hear influences of legends like Big Mama Thornton, Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith and many more. Her instrumental abilities call to mind Willie Dixon on the bass, Sister Rosetta Thorpe on guitar, Big Mama Thornton on the Harmonica and Aretha on the piano.

Over the past few years Angelique Francis has established herself as a bona fide star on the Canadian Blues, Soul, Jazz and Folk scene. In March of 2022 she released her most recent album “Long River”. The record weaves through a variety of styles from Blues to Soul and Classic R&B. The acclaimed album showcases Angelique’s signature powerhouse soulful vocals, commanding Bass/guitar hooks and infectious Blues infused melodies.

This highly sought-after musician hosted the 2022 Maple Blues awards (Canadian blues music awards), was awarded with 2 Canadian Blues Music Awards, was nominated for four 2023 Canadian Blues Music Awards, a 2023 Canadian folk music award, a 2022 Ontario folk music award, and was a feature act at the Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea festival (Miami to Jamaica), Grolsch Blues Festival (Germany), Sighisoara Blues Festival (Romania), Massey Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival, Mariposa Folk Fest, Calgary Folk fest, Canmore Folk Fest, Ottawa Blues Festival, Ottawa Jazz Festival, London Home County Festival, Mont-Tremblant Blues Festival, Trios-Rivieres Blues festival, Ottawa Folk Fest, Val-d’Or Blues Fest, Calabogie Blues Festival and the list goes on.

“…The best word I can use to sum up the performance I witnessed was WOW. Francis and her band put on an energetic show that transformed the Claridge Homes tent into a scene straight out of New Orleans.” – Sound Check Entertainment

#undertheunionjack  #smalltownbigtalent @aylmerperformingarts

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023

7pm

Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON

Tickets: $30

plus $5 shipping & handling

Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023

7pm

Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON

Tickets: $30

plus $5 shipping & handling

Multi award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, pianist and CBC Music national radio host Laila Biali has headlined festivals and venues spanning five continents from New York City’s Carnegie Hall to Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and supported international icon Sting. Her 2020 album release, Out of Dust, received rave reviews and was nominated for a 2021 JUNO Award. Laila was also honoured by SOCAN Music with the Hagood Hardy Award for Excellence in Songwriting. In 2019, Laila’s eponymous release won her a JUNO Award (Canada’s GRAMMY) for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.” The year prior, she was awarded top prize at the Canadian Songwriting Competition in the Jazz category. Laila was also the youngest-ever double winner at Canada’s National Jazz Awards when she was named “SOCAN Composer of the Year” and “Keyboardist of the Year.” She received her first JUNO nomination for Tracing Light (2011), and a spot on DownBeat Magazine’s “Best Albums of the Year” for both Live in Concert (2013) and Out of Dust (2020). In September of 2017, Laila was brought on as the host for CBC Music’s national radio show, Saturday Night Jazz, a weekly show broadcast to millions of listeners across Canada. While Laila continues to earn high honours in the jazz world, her signature sound transcends genre as she “masterfully mixes jazz and pop, bringing virtuosity and unpredictability to songs that are concise and catchy” (Washington Post). Her latest release – Your Requests – showcases personal arrangements of jazz classics requested by her social media community and features guest vocalists Kurt Elling, Emilie-Claire Barlow, and Caity Gyorgy as well as instrumentalists Anat Cohen, Grégoire Maret, Kelly Jefferson, Michael Davidson, George Koller, Larnell Lewis, Ben Wittman and Maninho Costa.

“Biali’s voice – spanning registers – is pure and warm. She’s also fearless on piano and, above else, in her imagination.” – DownBeat Magazine

“There’s no boxing Laila Biali in … Capable of making you laugh and cry all at once.” – All About Jazz

“Biali provides the positive, come-together messaging we need in these challenging times.” – Parade Magazine

“… moving, inspiring, and life-affirming songs.” – SOCAN Music

Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023

7pm

Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON

Tickets: $50

plus $5 shipping & handling

Our most fundamental questions—about how to exist in this world we share, and how best to love the people we love—so often keep us awake at the end of the day, at a loss for answers. From the plaintive opening notes of David Myles’ It’s Only a Little Loneliness, the New Brunswick-based songwriter testifies that he’s no exception: “I could try to explain what goes on in my brain, but I’d have to pretend that I knew,” he sings on “Certain.” On his introspective 15th studio album, Myles establishes himself as a seeker—of paths, of new sonic expressions, of God. Concrete answers, however, elude him the same as they elude the rest of us. All of that seeking reveals one clear conclusion, though: we are bound to each other. “But it’s late at night, and I’m reaching for the light,” he continues over soft, arpeggiated guitar on the album’s opening track. “And I want to spend my whole life with you.”

“It’s the kind of thing you say to yourself when you’re feeling a bit down: ‘It’s only a little loneliness,’” Myles says about the album’s title on a drive through northern New Brunswick. “But then at the same time, you know—it’s actually quite a big thing. It’s overwhelming. You try to tell yourself it’s not a big deal but it feels quite fundamental. And you realize, ‘I need people. I need a community. I need my friends. I need my family.”

That’s clear from songs like the sweet “If I Lost You,” simultaneously uplifting and heavy as Myles deals with the fact that everything must end, and what that means for relationships based in love. On the smoky “Mystery,” he addresses the enigmatic magnetism of opposites attracting, reminding listeners that those who are different from us broaden our perspectives and make our lives richer.

Sometimes it takes something massive, though—a rending of the fabric of one’s reality—to see our interdependence on one another clearly enough to inspire profound changes. In 2018, Myles came down with a sudden illness that had him worried that his life and ability to make music were in jeopardy; in 2020, the world changed overnight, upending his life and career along with everyone else. “My worst fear was to have the career drop,” Myles says. “And then, for reasons beyond my control, it dropped for me. And I didn’t die. And it didn’t all fall apart.”

It took a lot of soul-searching to get to this point, where he could look back on the past few years and understand what it had taught him. During this period his bandwidth for putting on any kind of airs was completely depleted, and he realized that with the time he has, he has to be 100% himself, which meant following those thoughts that kept him up at night, learning how to best express them, and confronting them through music. “All of a sudden, I could talk about God in my songs, and I could talk about the mystery of relationships and love and confusion and loneliness,” Myles says.

In 2021, the Juno Award winning album That Tall Distance offered an instrumental expression of Myles’ feelings about these questions. It’s Only a Little Loneliness brings his voice and words into the mix, using the same recording approach, with each contributing player afforded as much time as they need to lay down their parts at home and complete the picture. The result is a collection that flows naturally, a whole that proves more than the sum of its dynamic and singular parts.

For Myles, it was imperative that percussion form the beating heart of the record, and Joshua Van Tassel’s intricate work drives songs like “Walk With Me,” as Myles seeks to fill his spiritual void. The virtuosic Leith Fleming-Smith appears on organ and Wurlitzer, and Asa Brosius provides the dreamy title track dobro solo and gossamer pedal steel for the cover of country heartbreak standard “Making Believe.” Elsewhere, Dean Drouillard provides the crucial low end on bass; Andrew Jackson blows trombone; and Aaron Davis provides the glowing piano work on curtain-closer “Solitaire.”

All over the album, the voices of dear friends—Rose Cousins (“Making Believe”), Breagh Isabel (“If I Lost You”), and Reeny and Haliey Smith (“Mystery,” “Walk With Me,” and the slinky and soulful “You Can’t Hurt Me”)—drive home that important sentiment: we need each other to get through, even if it’s just a little loneliness.

Over these past years of isolation, Myles has continued to seek connection via his “not-so-late night talk show” Myles From Home on YouTube, which has since become a popular podcast by the same name. Myles From Home has featured a diverse selection of guests including Jeremy Dutcher, Shad, Alex Cuba, Bahamas, and Ria Mae. The podcast is just another feather in the multifaceted cap of Myles’ career, which includes numerous awards and accolades, a robust artist profile stateside, a 2018 children’s book called Santa Never Brings Me a Banjo, and the biggest-selling rap single in the history of Canadian music, “Inner Ninja,” a cross-genre musical collaboration with rapper Classified.

#undertheunionjack  #smalltownbigtalent @aylmerperformingarts

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023

7pm

Old Town Hall, Aylmer, ON

Tickets: $30

plus $5 shipping & handling

London born and raised, Genevieve Fisher, has earned 9 top 50 hits on both Billboard’s BDS and Mediabase Canadian National Country Chart. Genevieve has earned recognition within the Canadian Country Music scene by earning 7 Female Artist of the Year nominations, inlcuding 2023, as we well as numerous nominations for Single of the Year and Songwriter of the Year at the Country Music Association of Ontario Music Awards. While still in her teens, The Canadian Country Music Association recognized Genevieve’s emerging talent with her CCMA performance selection at the 2012 New Artist Showcase in Saskatoon. Her songwriting skills continue to be acknowledged by the CCMA as witnessed by her selection to perform for the prestigious Songwriters Series in 2016 and 2018. Her Indigenous background has allowed her to register 3 number 1 hits on the North American Indigenous Music Countdown chart. Genevieve has had the opportunity to perform at some of the biggest music festivals in Canada including Boots and Hearts, Havelock Jamboree, Lucknow Music In The Fields, Manitoulin Country Fest, Trackside and Indigenous Day Live. She has had, and continues to have, the privilege of writing with some of Country music’s brightest songwriters including Jason Blaine, Steven Lee Olsen, Patricia Conroy, Michelle Wright, Jason Massey, Jennifer Schott and many more.