encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights a celebration of ABBA’s timeless music at The Grove Theatre in Fenelon Falls, the reliving of a magical 1956 evening at Memphis’ Sun Records on stage at the Bancroft Village Playhouse, the seventh coming of the Jack Lake Film Festival in Apsley, Port Hope Jazz’s return presentation of its multi-act festival, the blues as only a Canadian favourite can still deliver it at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, and a Haliburton affordable housing benefit concert featuring Charlie Angus and Grievous Angels.
ABBA’s timeless pop megahits at Fenelon Falls’ Grove Theatre
Since the Eurovision Song Contest’s debut in 1956 debut, 71 songs from 27 countries have won the European Broadcasting Union-organized song competition, with Ireland and Sweden having the most wins at seven each.
In 1974, Sweden’s first win came from the quartet of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ullvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad for their rousing performance of “Waterloo.’ After that widely-publicized event, it seemed everyone was talking about ABBA (an acronym of the first letters of their first names).
With record sales estimated at a high of 385 million worldwide, ABBA remains among the best-selling music artists in history. “Waterloo’ was the quartet’s first major hit but it was far from the last as “Honey, Honey,” “SOS,” “Mamma Mia,” “Fernando,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You, “Dancing Queen,” “The Name of the Game,” “Take A Chance On Me,” Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” and “The Winner Takes It All” — to name a few hits — flooded radio airwaves and video channel playlists well into the next new millennium.
If “The Name of the Game” when paying tribute to an artist is instant song recognition from the first note, you really can’t do much better than the music of ABBA. With that well in mind, Fenelon Falls’ Grove Theatre is presenting A Musical Tribute To ABBA featuring the superb talents of the theatre’s 2024 summer ensemble.
Yes, yes, it seems like there are a thousand tributes to the Swedish supergroup making the rounds but that alone serves to remind us of the band’s huge and lasting impact on pop music as well as its enduring appeal.
Remaining show dates are August 21, 25, 29, 31 and September 1, all at 7:30 p.m., with tickets, at $58.50 each, available online at www.grovetheatre.ca.
A magical night at Memphis’ Sun Records comes to the Bancroft Village Playhouse
VIDEO: “Million Dollar Quarter” promo
We again take you back to 1956, specifically to the evening of December 4th.
At the Sun Records recording studio in Memphis, Tennessee, rockabilly singer and guitarist Carl Perkins is on hand to record new songs with piano banger Jerry Lee Lewis, an up-and-coming talent. In strolls one Elvis Presley, with his singer girlfriend, followed by Johnny Cash who wants to have a word with Sun Records founder and producer Sam Phillips.
Perkins, Lewis, Presley, and Cash in the same studio at the same time? Oh, something magical is going to happen, and indeed did in the form of one of the greatest jam sessions in the history of recorded music.
The Tony Award-nominated musical Million Dollar Quartet captures the energy and spontaneity of that jam session, not only presenting the sounds of early rock “n’ roll but also eavesdropping on the in-studio interactions, the result being “a tale of broken promises, secrets, betrayal, and celebrations” that is both poignant and funny.
From August 21 to September 1, Tweed & Company Theatre and DreamCo Theatre are co-presenting Million Dollar Quartet at the Bancroft Village Playhouse after a successful sold-out run at the Marble Arts Centre in Tweed.
Directed and choreographed by Phil Nero, the central characters are played by Griffin Hewitt (Perkins), Jacob James (Phillips), Liam Lynch (Presley), Alex Smith (Cash), and Shaemus Swets (Lewis). The musical director is Peter Aylin, with songs of the era plentiful.
Evening performances at 7 p.m. are August 21 to 25 and August 28 to 31, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on August 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 31, and September 1. For tickets, ranging from $23.50 to $38.50, visit www.villageplayhouse.ca.
Apsley’s Jack Lake Film Festival screening four TIFF favourites
VIDEO: “Bob Marley: One Love” trailer
I’m discovering, as I’m sure many of you have and still are, that Apsley is a happening little place.
Not only is the North Kawartha village home to the annual Creekside Music Festival in September (more on that in the next encoreNOW), but it’s also the picturesque setting of the annual Jack Lake Film Festival, which takes place this year from August 22 to 24.
With a portion of the proceeds destined for the North Kawartha Food Bank, the seventh annual festival will see films screened in the Boat Barn Theatre at Forest Glen Marina.
Offered in association with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Film Circuit, this year’s featured films are Mother Father Sister Brother Frank on August 22 and BlackBerry on August 23 — both at 7:30 p.m. — and on August 24, Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella at 3 pm., followed at 7:30 p.m. by Bob Marley: One Love.
A pass to take in all four films costs $30 but there is a limited number of individual screening tickets priced at $10. Tickets and passes can be ordered at 2024jlff.eventive.org.
Port Hope Jazz delivers the genre’s finest for its 2024 festival
VIDEO: “Holding You” – Kellylee Evans
As much as the pandemic challenges amounted to the end of the road for many organizations and related events, it was also a time that saw many organizations breathe and reset, bound and determined to come back stronger once the masks were dropped.
In 2022, Port Hope Jazz came to be as a volunteer-driven non-profit entity on a mission to present the best of Canadian jazz to residents and visitors alike.
Its roots go back to 2001 when the first All-Canadian Jazz Festival was held in Memorial Park over three days. Over the next 15 years, the outdoor festival was a staple each September before, from 2017 to 2019, it took the form of a series of indoor shows held throughout Northumberland and the Kawarthas. Then came 2020 and 2021 and, well, we all know what happened — nothing.
Rebranded as Port Hope Jazz, 2022 saw a weekend indoor concert series held in conjunction with Arts Month. That format was retained for 2023 and now here we area, with the Port Hope Jazz Festival returning August 22 to 25 to a number of establishments.
The festival kicks off August 22 at 6 p.m. with a free concert in Memorial Park headlined by award-winning instrumentalist Joy Lapps. Each festival show thereafter is either ticketed, has a cover charge or is asking for a donation. Visit www.porthopejazz.com for who’s playing when where and to purchase tickets.
Suffice to say it’s an impressive lineup featuring a number of Canadian jazz music’ leading lights, among them Kellylee Evans, a singer-songwriter who won a 2011 Juno Award and was nominated for the same honour in 2018. She’s performing August 24, 7:30 p.m., at Port Hope United Church.
“Port Hope, I am coming home,” Evans says in a recent YouTube video. “Well, it kind of feels like home. I remember that the All-Canadian Jazz Festival was one of the first jazz festivals — I think it was the actual first jazz festival —to ever book me way back when.”
Port Hope Jazz checks two big boxes: not only facilitating the presentation of the best of Canadian jazz, but also providing the chance to enjoy it in some great venues such as the venerable Ganaraska Hotel and the very cozy Beamish House.
Tom Lavin and the Powder Blues Band are still doin’ it right
VIDEO: “Doin’ It Right” – Powder Blues Band
When the conversation turns to Canadian blues music, The Downchild Blues Band comes up repeatedly. No argument there — Chuck Jackson, Donnie Walsh et al have certainly made a lasting mark.
But some 10 years after Downchild started its journey in 1969, Vancouver-formed Powder Blues Band served notice there’s another blues band ready to make a lasting impact on the genre.
Anchored by the strong vocals of Tom Lavin — a band co-founder with his brother Jack — Powder Blues Band’s late 1979 debut album Uncut brought it to national attention with the hit singles “Boppin’ With The Blues,” “Doin’ It Right,” “What’ve I Been Drinking,” and “Hear That Guitar Ring” paving the way for the album’s double platinum certification and a 1981 Juno Award for Most Promising Group of the Year.
Forty-plus years and 12 albums later, Powder Blues Band, with Lavin up front, is still very much at it, touring in support of its new album Blues + Jazz = BLAZZ! — a road trip that will bring the band to Lindsay’s FLATO Academy Theatre on August 25.
Still combining the blues with very generous helpings of swing, jazz and rock, Powder Blues Band continues to do it right and a legion of lifelong fans couldn’t be happier.
For tickets to the 7 p.m. concert, visit www.flatoacademytheatre.com. Tickets are $64 for adults, or $43 for youth.
Grievous Angels coming to Haliburton affordable housing’s aid
VIDEO: “This Is How The City Falls” – Grievous Angels
As long as anyone can remember, live music presentations have been staged in support of a worthy organization or cause. In our region, local musicians have stepped up time and time again when asked to lend their talent to the benefit of others, posing just one question — “What time do you need me there?”
In Haliburton County, Places for People creates and manages quality affordable rental housing, but that mission’s success is reliant on donations and fundraising activities. Now, with 20 units under its purview and plans underway for a new multi-unit build, the ask remains a big one.
Enter Canadian alt-country band Grievous Angels. Led by singer-songwriter and co-founder Charlie Angus, the seven-piece band will headline a fundraiser for Places for People on August 31, 7:30 p.m., at Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve’s Logging Museum, 1095 Redkenn Road.
Tickets for the show, co-presented by the Haliburton County Folk Society and the Telling Our Stories Speaker Series, cost $40 at tellingourstories.company.site.
While the band has recorded nine albums since is 1986 founding in Toronto — the latest being this year’s Last Call For Cinderella — Angus has been, and remains, the focal point. Timmins-born, his resumé is a listing of varied life experiences — author, broadcaster, journalist and, since 2004, the NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay who, in 2017, was a candidate for leadership of the federal NDP.
Angus has a lot on his plate, for sure, but music has clearly been the one constant in his life since his teens — a passion realized via Grievous Angels, which was nominated for Juno Award distinction in both 1991 and 1992.
This is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a very good band in an intimate setting, all while supporting the creation and maintenance of affordable housing in Haliburton. It’s a given that you’ll leave feeling pretty good.
Encore
VIDEO: “OMM” – The Receivers
- I love it when two totally separate entities, each with its own specific mandate, come together to offered a unique experience. That will be the case September 14 at Tecasy Ranch near Buckhorn when members of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) provide the classical music backdrop to a Musical Nature Walk hosted by Peterborough Field Naturalists. Small groups, led by a guide, will trek through the 550-acre private property, learning about flora and fauna, and enjoy live classical music at designated stops along the way. Kudos to PSO general manager Christie Goodwin for thinking outside the pit, so to speak. Tickets cost $45 at thepso.org/musical-nature-walk-2024 or call 705-742-1992.
- If you haven’t caught one of the outdoor concerts at Rice Lake Arts just east of Bailieboro, you have one last chance August 28 when Peterborough’s Irish Millie does her thing alongside the Marwood sisters, Fern and Willow, from Ottawa — collectively known as The Receivers — and, on guitar as always, Millie Shadgett’s dad Murray. Nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2023 for their first EP, The Receivers serve up fiddle-laced traditional and bluegrass tunes, with a side of banjo and guitar. Things get underway at 6 p.m., with tickets available for $20 at www.ricelakearts.ca. Fingers crossed for a great sunset.
