This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
The Roots North Music Festival turns 10-years-old this time around. What started as a low budget idea to have a spring concert series steadily grew until the Orillia Community Church wasn’t big enough for a main stage and the slate of performers on each of the Friday/Saturday shows gravitated toward the next level of notoriety across the entire lineup.
Friday night’s program at St. Paul’s Centre features Nicolina and Royal Wood. Nicolina Bozzo started doing Tik Tok videos in 2020, which kind of exploded for her, was on American Idol in 2022, recorded her own music, and comes to Orillia fresh off an appearance on Canada’s Got Talent earlier this month. She’s a dramatic, dynamic singer who will set the bar for the rest of the festival lineup.
Royal Wood (real middle names) has Juno nominations, top 40 tunes, iTunes songwriter of the year, made several best of the year lists and his music has been used in movie and television productions.
Also on Friday, you can catch Meredith Warboys at Apple Annie’s at 11 a.m.; Sleepy jean is at Alleycats Music at 4:30 p.m.; Upbeat Groove is at Quayle’s Brewery at 5 p.m.; Steve Porter is at Lot 88 at 6 p.m. and Sydney Riley is at the Hog & Penny at 9 p.m.
Saturday’s main stage lineup begins with James Gray. He’s no stranger having played Mariposa and frequently at Picnic and Quayle’s Brewery. Gracie Ella follows. Her music has jazz and R&B influences.
Jully Black has had many Top 10 songs on Pop, R&B and Dance charts. She has Junos, Gemini’s and was on CTV’s eTalk program and a regular on the Marilyn Denis Show.
Also on Saturday you can enjoy music by Dihnaura at Mark IV Brothers at 10 a.m.; Aydan Borbely is at Alleycats Music at 11 a.m.; Jack and Dan will sing some Lightfoot tunes at Apple Annie’s at 11 a.m.; There is an open mic at Alleycats starting at noon and running most of the afternoon; Andrew Woodill is at Hibernation Arts at 1 p.m.; Sean Patrick and John MacDonald are at the Hog & Penny at 1 p.m.; Corey Taylor plays Quayle’s Brewery at 1 p.m.; Haley Noble Pecore is at Kensington’s at 3 p.m.; Andrew Walker is at Quayle’s at 4:30 p.m.; Matt Von plays Lot 88 at 6 p.m.; Samantha Windover is at Rustica at 6 p.m.; the Ronnie Douglas Blues Band plays Higher Ground (the new name for the second floor at Brewery Bay Food Company) at 8 p.m. and Jackie Charette-Wright is at the Hog & Penny at 9 p..m.
Both Friday and Saturday the Roots North Arts Market returns in the basement at St. Paul’s Centre and it opens at 6 p.m.
Sunday Rebekah Hawker is at Common Stove starting at 10:30 a.m.; Ohelia is at Alley Cats at noon; Kyle McAdams is at Quayle’s at 1 p.m.; Cache Creek plays Picnic at 2 p.m.; Alex Southey plays Kensington’s at 3 p.m. and Miranda Journey closes the festival at the Hog & Penny at 5 p.m.
You can still get festival passes for main stage shows online or at the door. All other performances at the various venues are free.
Remembering Gord
May 1 will be the second anniversary of Gordon Lightfoot’s passing. Like last year, there will be a remembrance celebration at Tudhope Park out on Barnfield Point where his statue is. Bring a lawn chair.
OF course there will be music. Steve Porter, Jeff Monague and the Brant Street Session will carry that end. There will also be speakers, Mayor Don McIsaac will be on hand. Lightfoot Days Festival organizers John Winchester and Daphne Mainprize will also likely have something to say.
This is the 10 year anniversary of the installation of the statue and I will be telling everything I know about the making, installation and unveiling day (October 23, 2015) of it.
If it’s raining things will happen at Brewery Bay Food Company. Start time is noon.
Concerts
The first weekend of May has a few concerts to check out. May 3 Classic Lightfoot Live will be playing at the Opera House. This is the band with John Stinson out front, Steve Eyers, Eric Kidd and Liz Anderson in it. You can get tickets online.
The same night, the Orillia Concert Band will be performing a program made up of music by Canadian composers or which have connections to this country..
That concert is happening at St. Paul’s Centre at 7:30 p.m. After they do the National Anthem, they will dive right into David Foster’s Winter Games written for the 1988 games in Calgary. That’s the one that also gave us Eddie the Eagle.
Side note, my brother lived in Calgary at the time and the ski jump was in plain sight from his back deck. He could have watched it happen from there, but I think he had a better vantage point since he was on the organizing committee for the games (and in subsequent years a freestyle skiing judge).
Music by Robert Buckley, Andre Jutras, Morley Calvert are also on the program, as is Suds Sutherland’s Passfield’s Parade. They will also be doing an arrangement by Howard Cable of Hockey Night in Canada. Cable conducted this piece with the Orillia Wind Ensemble back in 2002 when it was a new arraangement.
Autumn Debassige is the guest performer and she’ll be singing My Heart Will Go On arranged by Richard Saucedo. Of course we have James Cameron, the Canadian director of Titanic, to thank for that tune, and Celine Dion for singing it over and over again.
Brad Emmons will join Autumn to perform If You Could Read My Mind and Old Dan’s Records.
You can get tickets online or at the door.
May 4 at 2:30 p.m. Lance Anderson will be doing the music of Duke Ellington and Count Basie at the Opera House. Joining Lance are John Johnson on saxophone and Russ Boswell on bass. This is the last of the Orillia Concert Association’s series and you can get tickets online.
The Shorts
- The Cellar Singers have their annual fundraising event April 26 at St. James’ Anglican Church. This is when members of the choir perform stuff not like their concert repertoire and not all of them singing at once. The Yorkville Boho Revival features music by Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and others. You can get tickets online. They also have a silent auction, which is online right now.
- Blue Moon Junction has a comedy night April 26 with 8 comics. Get tickets online.
- North Simcoe Arts has a new bursary for art students. Five $1,000 awards will be made each year from the Harry Mason Future Artist Bursary. Applications details will be available soon.
- You can watch the Orillia Silver Band’s performance at the North American Brass Band Association Championships in Ft. Wayne, Indiana from earlier in April on Youtube. The Friday performance is here, and Saturday’s here.
- The celebration of life for Suds Sutherland is June 22 at Hawk Ridge Golf Club from 1 to 4 p.m. There will be a graveside service at 11 a.m. at St Andrew’s St. James’ Cemetery the same day.
- The Canada Day committee has updated their website and it’s time to sign on as a volunteer, or apply to be a vendor.
- OMAH has three exhibits – Four Seasons in Orillia , Nathalie Bertin’s Loup Garou and Mocassins, and Heritage in Hues (ends Apr. 19): Perspectives Through Their Eyes (the annual student art show opening April 19 in the small gallery off the foyer); Streets Alive has been coordinating themed art displays at the demolished lot at Peter and Mississaga Streets; right now art with the theme Ode To Orillia’s Trees can be seen… Cloud Gallery’s Collector’s Corner features works by Julia Veenstra. Hibernation Arts is looking for guest artists for May June and July; Send Molly a note through her Facebook page.
- Orillia Secondary School music students have their spring concert happening May 22 at 7 p.m. at the school.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: 2025 Roots North main stage artists clockwise from center, Royal Wood, Jully Black, Gracie Ella, James Gray, Nicolina.
