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 The Traveling Milburys at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, the return of The Last Waltz tribute to The Band at Peterborough’s Showplace, Public Energy’s season opener of Blood Water Earth at Peterborough’s Market Hall, The Mark Ferguson Quartet at Peterborough’s Gordon Best Theatre, Lindsay Little Theatre’s staging of Snoopy! The Musical, and American singer-songwriter Pokey LaFarge in concert at the New Canadians Centre in Peterborough.
The Traveling Milburys brings the music of the late 1980s supergroup to life
VIDEO: The Traveling Milburys
Have you ever found yourself at a live music show where you don’t know what to expect in terms of how good it will be … or won’t be.
In late November 2019, I found myself at Peterborough’s Market Hall waiting for The Traveling Milburys to take the stage. Outside of knowing the band would pay tribute to the music and talents of The Traveling Wilburys, I knew little. Close to seven years on, that performance remains one of my favourites since arriving in these parts.
The Traveling Wilburys was formed in 1988 by George Harrison as a one-off to record a bonus track with his close friends Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. When the group realized that song, “Handle with Care,” was far too good for a limited release, they decided to record a full album.
Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was released in October 1988 and, just two months later, Orbison passed away from a heart attack at the age of 52. While The Wilburys continued as a quartet and released a second album in 1990, mischievously called Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 to play a joke on fans, they never really recovered from Orbison’s death and soon went their separate ways.
Since The Traveling Wilburys famously refused all offers to tour, any time you get the chance to hear the music of the famed supergroup performed live is a good thing. The collective musicianship of The Traveling Milburys — featuring Jerry Boye as George Harrison, Gavan Rousseau as Roy Orbison, Gerry Parsons as Tom Petty, and John Cassano as Jeff Lynne — is off the charts, as are the performances by the individual members of the icons they are portraying.
On Friday (October 9), The Traveling Milburys will perform at Lindsay’s FLATO Academy Theatre. Expect to hear all the hit songs of the supergroup — “Handle with Care,” “End of the Line,” “Last Night,” and “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” quickly come to mind quickly — as well as classics recorded by each of the five members on their own. But the best part is, unlike myself all those years ago, you know now how good this will be because you just heard it from me.
There are tribute bands and then there are immersive experiences. The Traveling Milburys have a lock on the latter in terms of the sound, the look and the feel, and the sweet sound of their Rickenbacker, Gretsch, and Gibson guitars.
Tickets to 7:30 p.m. show cost $62 are available at www.flatoacademytheatre.com.
Capturing the magic that was The Last Waltz 50 years on
VIDEO: The Last Waltz: A Musical Celebration of the Band
Choices, choices, choices. On Friday (October 9), the same night The Traveling Milburys do their thing in Lindsay, another long established and widely revered tribute headlines at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough.
Before sharing details of that, let me take you back to November 25, 1976 and San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom. It was then and there that the Canadian-American group The Band — Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson — performed its final concert, joined by a number of first-rate musical guests, including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Ronnie Hawkins, and more. The Last Waltz concert film, directed by Martin Scorsese and released in 1978, is still hailed as one of the greatest concert documentaries ever made.
Fast forward to 2015 in Kitchener and the inaugural performance of The Last Waltz: A Musical Celebration of the Band. It was a huge success, with its all-star Canadian cast of award-winning blues and roots musicians, under the direction of Juno award-winning producer and musical director Lance Anderson, bringing musical history to life note by note.
In the mix then, as he remains, is Jerome Levon Avis, Helm’s godson who sings and plays drums very much in the style of his godfather. And close by is his dad, Peterborough’s Bill Avis, former road manager of The Band.
This show has entertained audiences at the Mariposa Folk Festival, the Beaches Jazz Festival, the Kitchener Blues Festival, the Ottawa City Folk Festival, Peterborough Musicfest, and the CNE Bandshell, and has consistently sold out theatres across Ontario. Now it’s back in Peterborough as the 50th anniversary of that magical 1976 night nears.
If you’re a fan of The Band’s iconic music, or simply appreciate stellar musical performance, you’ve got to take in The Last Waltz at least once before shuffling off.
Tickets to the 8 p.m. concert cost $55 and are available at www.showplace.org.
Public Energy opens its 33rd season with work by renowned Indigenous dancer and choreographer Santee Smith
VIDEO: “Blood, Water, Earth” trailer
The fall season traditionally brings with it new season debuts for most local theatre and performance art presenters, and that’s the case once again.
On Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m., Public Energy Performing Arts will launch its 33rd season with Blood Water Earth at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough.
An elemental multimedia dance and music work by acclaimed Indigenous dancer and choreographer Santee Smith and her Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, it combines dance, music, and visual elements, including lighting design by Andy Moro, pottery by Steve T. Smith, and a score by the late Cris Derksen, with live vocal accompaniment by Binne Kwe Elijah.
The production brings together artists from Turtle Island and Aotearoa (New Zealand), with Kahnyen’kehàka artist Smith collaborating with Ngai Tahu projection designer Louise Potiki Bryant to centre Konkwehon:we and Mana Wahine perspectives.
Curve Lake First Nation musician Missy Knott will open the evening with a musical set.
Public Energy’s 2026-27 season, which sees kawarthaNOW return as a media sponsor, features a diverse lineup of contemporary dance, theatre, and interdisciplinary performance, bringing artists from Peterborough and beyond to local stages through next May. In total, there are six mainstage productions, with live music or musical guests incorporated into four of the shows.
Tickets for Blood Water Earth are priced on a sliding scale from $20 to $50 and are available online at www.tixr.com/groups/markethall/events/blood-water-earth-208267.
Jazz is in the Gordon Best air via The Mark Ferguson Quartet
AUDIO: “Transformation” – Mark Ferguson (2026)
There isn’t a whole lot of jazz performed live in Peterborough, so when there is, that alone is worthy of our attention, — and when a musician who has performed with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett stops by, well, you had me at where and what time.
On Friday, October 16, Canadian jazz veteran Mark Ferguson will lead his quartet through its paces at the Gordon Best Theatre on Hunter Street West in downtown Peterborough.
The Ottawa-based pianist, trombonist, composer, arranger, producer and music educator has a resumé that’s longer than both your arms.
Back in the 1980s, Ferguson performed alongside some of the biggest names in entertainment who headlined Imperial Room at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel — jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole, and Engelbert Humperdink, to name but a few.
Recording-wise, he collaborated in the early 2000s with saxophonist Mike Tremblay for his first studio project. Two more albums followed before the January 2026 release of Transformation in January of this year, his first as a member of the artist roster at Quebec-based PSP Records.
Despite a busy schedule performing, arranging, and composing, Ferguson also made time to teach, most notably at Ottawa’s Carleton University where he directed the jazz ensemble as well as taught jazz theory and orchestration. In fact, his quartet members — Ben Di Millo on guitar, J.P. Lapensée on bass, and Jamie Holmes on drums and percussion — are all his former students.
This is a rare opportunity to catch a musician who’s been on top of his game for close to 50 years. And the Gordon Best is an ideally intimate setting to do so.
The Mark Ferguson Quartet will perform two 45-minute sets beginning at 7:30 p.m. The cover charge is $15 at the door (no advance tickets are available). Seating is general admission, so get there when doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the best seat selection.
Lindsay Little Theatre has musical fun with Peanuts gang
What’s not to love about the Peanuts gang?
Lindsay Little Theatre is banking on that as it prepares to stage Snoopy! The Musical this month at its 55 George Street East space in Lindsay.
Directed by Teresa Smart and based on the beloved Peanuts comic strip drawn by Charles Schulz, this production sparkles with wit and warmth as it depicts life as seen through the eyes of Schulz’s unforgettable characters: Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, and all the rest.
First staged in 1975 with music by Larry Grossman, lyrics by Hal Hackady, and a book by Warren Lockhart, Arthur Whitelaw, and Michael Grace, Snoopy! The Musical was a sequel to the 1967 musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown that focuses more on the life of Charlie Brown’s famous dog.
Musical numbers abound, including “The World According to Snoopy,” “Just One Person,” “Poor Sweet Baby,” and “Don’t Be Anything Less Than Everything You Can Be.”
The cast features Jayden Powell as Woodstock, Carolyn MacLean as Lucy Van Pelt, Avery Morton as Sally Brown, Ethan Logan as Linus Van Pelt, Elora Powell as Peppermint Patty, Carlson Sager as Charlie Brown, and Joey Stewart as Snoopy.
This is a great opportunity to introduce the kids to the fictional characters that captivated the world when you were a kid yourself, all while enjoying a night of wholesome entertainment.
Curtain is 7 p.m. on October 16, 17, 23 and 24, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on October 18 and 25. Sponsored by Kinsmen Club of Lindsay, the show costs $30 (plus a service fee) with tickets available at www.lindsaylittletheatre.com.
Never heard of Pokey LaFarge? It’s time to right that wrong
VIDEO: “Rent Money” – Pokey LaFarge
OK, you got me — I had never heard of Pokey LaFarge until recently. With his coming our way for a concert in Wesley Hall at New Canadians Centre in Peterborough (the former St. James United Church), I moved to educate myself and, boy, was there a whole lot to take in.
Born Andrew Heissler in Bloomington, Illinois, he was gifted his first guitar and banjo at a young age by his grandfather, and come his early teens, discovered an appreciation for blues musicians.
In 2006, LaFarge independently released his first album, Marmalade, the first of 12 albums up to this year’s Travelin’ with Pokey LaFarge. Along the way, he has performed a mix of Americana, early jazz, ragtime, country blues, Western swing, vaudeville and Appalachian folk — kind of what you’d expect from a guy named Pokey.
His Peterborough show on Saturday, October 17, presented by the Ontario Festival of Small Halls, will see LaFarge brings his signature retro musical style and sharp storytelling skills to bear as he channels nostalgic sounds of the 1920s through the 1950s.
Tickets to LaFarge’s 7:30 pm performance cost $40 plus fees, and can be purchased at ontariosmallhalls.com.
If you can’t make it, there’s a second chance when LaFarge performs at the Norwood Town Hall on October 18. That’s also a 7:30 p.m. start. Tickets for that show are also available at the Ontario Festival of Small Halls website.
Encore
It’s so great to see the downtown Hunter Street West space that was home to Jethro’s Bar + Stage remain a place where local musicians can do their thing before a wholly appreciative audience.
On September 4, Eldorado Music Bar and Social Pub officially opened its doors, with Diamond Dave and the Smoke Eaters and Ollie Mae taking to the stage. What has me excited, and many others too, is Al Black’s Sunday Blues Jam has a home again, with the next jam set for November 1 from 3 to 6 p.m. It’s a great time and a chance to catch young singers and musicians who are trending upwards.
If you haven’t been to Eldorado yet, check it out. If you have, keep going so we don’t have to report that yet another downtown live music venue is closing.
For the monthly schedule of who’s playing when, visit www.eldoradoliveptbo.com/.
