February is definitely a month in which the dog days of winter hide in snowbanks and icy sidewalks. However, the hope of warmer weather begins to surface. There is so much good live music this month, why not get out and enjoy it? Your spirit will be warmed and before you know it there will be buds on the trees.

Here are some excellent events coming up in Peterborough. My top pick of the month is kawarthaNOW’s presentation of Stephen Fearing and Andy White at the Market Hall on Friday, February 13th (Jimmy Bowskill and Dan Fewings are opening). See the details below or read my story about Fearing & White.

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Bryce Jardine at The Spill in Peterborough on February 4th

Toronto’s Bryce Jardine is quickly gaining a reputation as a singer-songwriter to watch. As part of his Winter Troubadour Tour, he’s playing at The Spill (414 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-748-6167) on Wednesday, February 4th.

Jardine’s first solo album The Kids Are Gone included appearances by Millbrook’s Serena Ryder, Derek Downham of The Beauties, and Aaron Goldstein of City and Colour. He recently spent some time at Hawksley Workman’s studio recording an EP with his band The Parlour Birds.

The show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets are $8 at the door. Local band I, the Mountain will be opening.

“Lean Years” – Bryce Jardine

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Lindsay Barr Band at The Black Horse in Peterborough on February 6th

The Lindsay Barr Band is back at The Black Horse Pub (452 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-742-0633) on Friday, February 6th.

With her powerful raspy voice and stage presence, Lindsay always puts on a great show.

There’s no cover and the show begins at 8 p.m.

“It’s A Long Road To Travel” – Lindsay Barr

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Stephen Lewis and His Big Band of One at The Garnet in Peterborough on February 7th

How funky can one man get? Pretty damn funky when it’s Stephen Lewis and His Big Band of One.

The Fredericton artist comes to The Garnet (231 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-874-0107) on Saturday, February 7th. Using a looping device and tons of talent, Lewis weaves sonic magic with guitars, bass, beat-boxing, and more.

Get ready to party, Peterborough! The show begins around 10 p.m.

“We Could Be” – Stephen Lewis

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Craig Cardiff at the Gordon Best in Peterborough on February 12th

Canadian folk singer-songwriter Craig Cardiff is back in town on Thursday, February 12th for a double-header at the Gordon Best Theatre (216 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-876-8884).

Cardiff sings songs that expose the human condition and folk icon Gordon Lightfoot has called him “a songwriter who needs to be heard.”

The first show begins at 7 p.m. and the second show at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

Love Is Louder – Craig Cardiff

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Fearing & White with Bowskill & Fewings at the Market Hall in PEterborough on February 13th

Warm up your winter and your Valentine by seeing a couple of singer-songwriters who also happen to be good friends.

Fearing & White will be delighting the audience with upbeat tunes, love songs, and wild card tunes (with stories to boot) on Friday, February 13th at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St., Peterborough, 705-749-1146).

The duo is made up of Stephen Fearing (Juno-award winning solo artist and member of Blackie and the Rodeo King) and singer-songwriter Andy White (an award-winning Irish musician who now calls Australia home). They’ll be joined by master drummer Gary Craig (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Bruce Cockburn, Kathleen Edwards).

Opening the show will be Peterborough’s own Bowskill & Fewings. Jimmy Bowskill and Dan Fewings perform bluegrass and folk tunes with musical chemistry forged over more than a decade in the halls of PCVS and beyond.

The show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the Market Hall Box Office or online at www.markethall.org. Ticket are also available (cash only) at Moondance (425 George N, Peterborough, 705-742-9425).

“Under The Silver Sky” – Fearing & White

“Somebody Loves You Darlin” by Ralph Stanley – Bowskill & Fewings

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The Sadies at Showplace in Peterborough on February 13th

Some bands defy genre. This is so true about Ontario’s The Sadies. Alt-country, Americana, garage rock, old style rock and roll, bluegrass, surf, and believe me, I could go on.

The band hits Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-742-7469) on Friday, February 13th at 8 p.m. Opening will be The Devin Cuddy Band.

Tickets are $35 ($30 students), available at the Showplace Box Office or online at www.showplace.org.

“Cut Corners” – The Sadies

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Melissa Payne and The Platonic Lovers at the Gordon Best in Peterborough on February 14th

Valentine’s Day at the Gordon Best Theatre (216 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-876-8884) is going to be a hot one. Beautiful songstress Melissa Payne and her band The Platonic Lovers hit the stage on Saturday, February 14th.

Rock, country, fiddle tunes and more: how can you go wrong with this show? Music begins at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance (at The Only, underneath the Gordon Best) or $15 at the door.

Expect some special guests as well!

Toque Session – Melissa Payne

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Celebrating Willie P. Bennett at The Garnet in Peterborough on February 15th

The late great Willie P. Bennett is widely celebrated as one of the greatest songwriters Canada has ever produced. Emmy Lou Harris sang one of his tunes. Canadian roots supergroup Blackie and the Rodeo Kings is named after one of his songs and originally began as a Willie P. tribute band.

“Blue Valentine”, an annual Peterborough celebration of the music of Willie P., takes place on Sunday, February 15th at The Garnet (231 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-874-0107).

The event is hosted by one of Willie’s close friends Washboard Hank, with performances by Pat Temple, Dan Fewings, and many more. The show is a matinee from 2 to 6 p.m.

“Blackie & The Rodeo King” – Willie P. Bennett

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Frank Deresti and The Lake Effect at The Garnet in Peterborough on February 18th

The city of Sault Ste. Marie does not get talked about enough for its vibrant music scene. One of the great acts hailing from there is Frank Deresti and The Lake Effect. These gents roll into The Garnet (231 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-874-0107) on Wednesday, February 18th.

The band performs great tunes in the folk-rock vein. Frank writes meaningful tunes that are fun to listen to, and are as smart as they are catchy. A guaranteed fun evening of music!

“Palpable” – Frank Deresti and The Lake Effect

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Karen Andrew at The Spill in Peterborough on February 21st

Powerhouse soul singer Karen Andrew will be performing this month at the While The Night is Young (WTNIY) event on Saturday, February 21st at The Spill (414 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-748-6167).

Karen will have you dancing along with her talented band. R&B influences, soul, as well as more straight-ahead upbeat folk and rock are all a part of her set.

Tickets are $10 in advance, available at The Spill, and $12 at the door. The show begins at 8 p.m. sharp. Enjoy!

Karen Andrew

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Pat Temple at the Pig’s Ear in Peterborough on February 21st

After the WTNIY event, you can head just down the road to the Pig’s Ear Tavern (144 Brock St., Peterborough, 705-745-7255) for the album release of the great Pat Temple‘s new LP Day for Day.

Pat will be joined by the always-awesome The Lohrwoods and Evie Blue. There will surely be special guests as well.

The show begins at 10 p.m. and is only $3 to get in, leaving you with money to buy the new album! Check out Pat’s new record at www.pattemple.com.

“Say So” – Pat Temple and the Hi Lo Players

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The February Folk Folly in downtown Peterborough on February 21st

Among other great things happening on Saturday, February 21st is The February Folk Folly, where the Peterborough Folk Festival presents a series of “pop-up” shows at businesses in downtown Peterborough. All performances during the day are free to the public and all ages.

Sam Allison will perform at Bluestreak Records (444 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-742-6078) at 1 p.m., Blues in the Bottle plays at Needle in the Hay (385 Water St., Peterborough, 705-740-0667) at 2 p.m., Kennedy Cult will be at Plush Boutique (384 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-741-1812) at 3 p.m., Melissa Payne appears at Le Petit Bar (399 Water St., Peterborough, 705-775-7384) at 4 p.m., and Sean Conway performs at Sam’s Place (188 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-876-1900) at 5 p.m.

There’ll also be an after-party show at the Gordon Best Theatre (216 Hunter St. W., Peterborough, 705-876-8884) featuring Sean Conway and His Post Modern Cowboys. That show is also all ages and will begin at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10.

“She’s All Mine” – The Sean Conway Band

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Rick Fines at the Market Hall in Peterborough on Feburary 28th

One of Peterborough’s favourite sons, Rick Fines, will release his long-awaited new album Drive Home on Saturday, February 28th at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St., Peterborough, 705-749-1146).

The album features Fines playing electric guitar, a neat departure from his excellent bottleneck and acoustic guitar work on previous albums and projects. The show will feature his full band, including Rob Phillips on piano, Alec Fraser on bass, John Crown on drums, and Kevin Goss on sax.

Visit www.rickfines.ca for more info.

Tickets are $30 including fees and are available at the Market Hall Box Office or online at www.markethall.org.

“My Mistake” – Rick Fines Trio

February is Black History Month, so what better time to celebrate the memory of an unsung African-Canadian hero?

Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story is a one-man play written and performed by Peterborough actor and musician Beau Dixon. He’ll be touring the play among schools in the Greater Toronto Area during Black History Month, but you’ll have a chance to see it at a one-night-only public performance on Saturday, February 7th at The Theatre on King in downtown Peterborough.

“The Mylar Project” by Anne Cavanagh at Gallery in the Attic

Working with Mylar as a new surface for her expressive charcoal drawings, Anne Cavanagh is exploring new ways to present and develop her work. The penetration of light and depth allowed by this translucent material shows her growing sophistication in both form and nuance.

There have been considerable challenges along her journey to this show. “The Mylar Project” — which opens Friday, January 30th from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Gallery in the Attic in Peterborough — is a culmination of a journey that has brought her to her best work to date.

Join Archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the alley cat at The Theatre on King as Kate Story brings to life the writings and characters of 1920s-era New York newspaper columnist Don Marquis, in her original production of damned be this transmigration.

Directed by Em Glasspool, damned be this transmigration (yes, the lowercase spelling is intentional) is a labour of love that brings together storytelling, dramatic monologues, music and song, and dance and movement in a very different — and often very moving — piece of performance art.

Two street pianos designed and painted by Cobourg artist Katriona Dean currently hold the top two positions on Bored Panda’s “Most Beautiful Outdoor Pianos You Can Play All Around The World” list.

Katriona both designed and painted the two pianos, one with a fox theme and the other with an owl theme, for the Town of Cobourg’s “Keys to Our Town”, a public art project featuring six street pianos painted by local artists.

The fox-themed piano — which Katriona has named “Foxgang Amadeus” in honour of Mozart, after a suggestion from a musician friend — is located in Victoria Park at the corner of King and McGill streets. Katriona’s partner Sorab Bulsara carved the ears and stool from an old tree stump, using only a chainsaw. The owl-themed piano, which was designed and painted by Katriona along with Cobourg arist and musician Gina Newcomb, was located in the same spot in 2013.

The Foxgang Amadeus piano first received international attention in late summer 2014, when Katriona posted a YouTube video of Cobourg musician Michael McNamara playing the piano while singing “Say Something” by A Great Big World.

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Michael McNamara performs “Say Something” on Foxgang Amadeus

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“I had heard from a friend that the most talented musician would walk up to my piano on a daily basis and play it and sing for anybody who was walking by,” Katriona explains in an interview with Wei Chen on CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning. “So I found him on Facebook and I asked him if I could meet with him one Saturday just to hear him play. As I drove to him, I could hear him from about two blocks away, which is the beautiful thing about these street pianos. They can be heard from blocks away.”

“So I got to him and he played about 17 songs for me that morning,” she continues. “I ended up recording one, just because it was so beautiful. I cried through it, it’s quite shaky video, and that’s the one that I put up on YouTube. It was just for the people who were there, the crowd that had gathered. They wanted to be able to see the video, so I posted it up on YouTube just to show them. About a week later, I got an email from somebody to say that it had about 10,000 views.”

The video, which was shared by celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, has since racked up 1.6 million views. Michael was interviewed by Breakfast Television and CBC Radio, and was even contacted by The Ellen Show and The Glenn Beck Show.

Both of Katrionia’s pianos currently occupy the first and second spots on Bored Panda’s “Most Beautiful Outdoor Pianos You Can Play All Around The World” list, as rated by users of the art, design and photography website. The list also contains street pianos from major cities around the world, including Toronto, Denver, Boston, Melbourne (Australia), and Kiev (Ukraine).

“It’s still surreal for me,” Katriona says. “I’m just overjoyed to realize that others are enjoying these pianos as much as I enjoyed creating them.”

Katriona studied graphic design at Durham College and currently works in the communications and marketing department at Trent University. She also freelances as an illustrator, sculptor, photographer, designer and marketing specialist.

The current interest in street pianos began in Sheffield in England in 2005 when a man moving into a new house couldn’t get his piano up the steps.

As a social experiment, he left it on the street and attached a sign inviting passersby to play the piano for free. The street piano soon became a popular feature of the local community and stayed on the street for over a year.

Inspired by the success of the Sheffield street piano, British artist Luke Jarram created the “Play Me, I’m Yours” project in 2007. He installed 15 street pianos throughout Birmingham for the public to play and, in just three weeks, an estimated 140,000 people either played the pianos or listened to others play.

Since then, more than 1,000 street pianos have been installed in 37 cities across the world, including New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, and Barcelona, with a total reach of an estimated six million people.

For more than 20 years, Public Energy has presented some of the world’s best talent in contemporary dance, theatre, and performance. They have featured exceptional artists from around the corner, and around the world.

This legacy has earned Public Energy a place on tours for artists who perform in places like Berlin, Paris, New York, London, and San Francisco — tours whose only other stops are major Canadian centres.