Fortunately for Canadian indie rock music fans, particularly those who have found The Strumbellas very much to their collective liking, what happened in Lindsay didn’t stay in Lindsay.

Four of the band’s members — Simon Ward (vocals/guitar), Jon Hembrey (lead guitar), Darryl James (bass), and Jeremy Drury (drums) — are from the town now that’s part and parcel of the City of Kawartha Lakes, having made the decision long ago to pursue their musical talents in Toronto. That was a very wise decision as things turned out.

Following the addition of David Ritter (vocals/keyboards) and Isabel Ritchie (violin), who came into the fold via a Craigslist call for help, The Strumbellas quickly found their voice and their rightful place on the crowded Canadian music landscape.

On Wednesday, August 10th, Peterborough Musicfest welcomes The Strumbellas to Del Crary Park as the festival’s 35th season winds down to its conclusion. Admission to the 8 p.m. concert, as always, is free.

Formed in 2008, The Strumbellas wasted little time getting busy, releasing their self-titled debut EP the following year and subsequently performing at a number of legendary Toronto venues including The Horseshoe Tavern and Cameron House.

With the 2012 release of The Strumbellas’ debut full-length album My Father And The Hunter, it seemed everyone was talking about the band that mixed and matched elements of country, folk, and pop with a rock anchor. The Canadian music industry paid attention too, in the form of a 2013 Juno Award nomination for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year – Group.

But what was denied The Strumbellas in 2013 came its way at the 2014 Juno Awards when the band’s second album, We Still Move On Dance Floors, took home the statue in the same category.

VIDEO: “Spirits” – The Strumbellas

VIDEO: “In This Life” – The Strumbellas

Not content to rest on its laurels, The Strumbellas’ big breakthrough came in 2016 with the release of their third album Hope and, in particular, the album’s first single “Spirits.” The song topped the Billboard Alternative Songs chart for two weeks.

Having since been certified triple platinum in Canada and Italy, and gold in the United States, France, and Belgium, “Spirits” brought The Strumbellas their second Juno Award in 2017 for Single of the Year and earned the band not only a number of prominent festival dates but also an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Asked during an August 2017 interview with Cassandra Popescu of Canadian Beats Media if she and her bandmates saw beforehand the success “Spirits” would attain, violinist Isabel Ritchie was quick to answer “Absolutely not.”

“We were excited about Spirits but we were excited about a lot of other songs. I don’t even remember how we picked Spirits (to be the album’s first single). We were just ‘OK, we’ll release that first and see what happens.'”

“It has just been amazing to see where it has gone and how it sort of moved across the world, and even in Canada, starting out on smaller stations and moving to rock stations and then moving to pop stations and just seeing that evolve.”

During the same interview, Ritchie touched on The Strumbellas’ modus operandi of interchanging high-energy songs with more emotional tunes that expose common vulnerabilities.

VIDEO: “We Don’t Know” – The Strumbellas

VIDEO: “Salvation” – The Strumbellas

“We love playing those upbeat songs live, especially in a festival environment,” she said. “It’s really fun, so we kind of always have this pressure on ourselves to make fun songs that people can dance to but, naturally, a lot of the songs we write start off a little more chill. I don’t think we’re doing anything that pushes us out of our comfort zone or is unnatural. Everything definitely comes from a natural place but we always have fun with the upbeat ones.”

In 2019, The Strumbellas released a fourth studio album, Rattlesnake, featuring the singles “Salvation” and “I’ll Wait” — the former performed on Late Night with Seth Myers, again exposing the band to a huge North American audience.

As the band’s fans await some word on new music coming down the pipe, last year’s release of the single “Greatest Enemy” has satisfied their thirst for now.

However, fans also found out in March that frontman and principal songwriter Simon Ward would no longer be touring with The Strumbellas, with Jimmy Chauveau (Ascot Royals, Kadeema) joining the band as their new lead vocalist.

“I am just not cut out to tour to the same extent anymore, and as much as I love the band, I have decided I would like to put my focus on my first loves: songwriting and being at home with my family,” Ward said in a statement. “Stepping back from touring will let me focus on that and more, and I’m excited for everything to come.”

Ward’s decision to remain behind the scenes with The Strumbellas came after he opened up about his struggles with depression and anxiety in a February 2021 interview with David Friend of The Canadian Press — a difficult time that, early on, forced the cancellation of a 14-city Canadian tour in January 2020.

VIDEO: “I’ll Wait” – The Strumbellas

VIDEO: “Greatest Enemy” – The Strumbellas

“It’s so easy to isolate yourself when you’re having mental health issues,” said Ward, a reference to those times on tour when he would stay behind in his hotel room while his band mates got together for dinner. “All you want to do is not be with other people. So I would stay by myself. I’m still working my way through it and struggling. I’m better now but, you know, mental health is just such a tricky game. It seems to hang around, come back and float around.”

Ward wrote “Greatest Enemy” after he went through what he termed “the worst year of my life.” In November last year, Ward also released his debut solo album Simon and the Island — a nine-song record that he hopes “comforts and encourages others that are struggling with their own mental health that they’re not alone.”

“These songs are about my life,” Ward explained in a statement. “Some of them are about my struggles with mental health, some of them are love songs to my wife, who is my soul mate. This album is about being in a dark place but seeing the sliver of hope shine in.”

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 16 free-admission concerts during its milestone 35th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights at Del Crary Park in downtown Peterborough.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission remains “to provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert or the entire 2022 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

Every Thursday, we publish live music events at pubs and restaurants in Peterborough and the greater Kawarthas region based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, August 4 to Wednesday, August 10.

If you’re a pub or restaurant owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our nightlifeNOW editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com. For concerts and live music events at other venues, check out our Concerts & Live Music page.

By accident or design, or maybe a bit of both, this week has evolved into quite the Canadian pop music showcase at Del Crary Park.

Fresh off of this past Wednesday night’s double headlining bill of Suzie McNeil and JJ Wilde, Peterborough Musicfest will shine its spotlight this Saturday (August 6) on Valley and Alyssa Reid as the festival’s 35th season continues. Admission to the 8 p.m. concert, as always, is free.

Twice nominated for a Juno award — in 2020 as Breakthrough Group of the Year and just this past May in the Group of the Year category — indie pop quartet Valley came together quite by chance in 2014. Members of two separate bands at that time, Rob Laska, Michael (Mickey) Brandolino, Alex Dimauro, and Karah James found themselves in the same recording studio after the time slot was double booked.

Their musical union clicked, leading to the release of Valley’s self-produced debut EP Car Test the following year.

“Karah and I went to high school together while Rob and Alex also went to high school together but we were two separate projects,” related Mickey Brandolino during a September 2021 interview with Brittany Min of The Luna Collective.

“When graduation came around, both our duos felt like we were going through a transitional phase. By coincidence, we were double booked for a studio session one day and during the session we walked in on each other and started chatting and playing our music for each other. I think we both liked each other’s vibes. We started hanging out and basically haven’t stopped hanging out to this day. Our band is like one long hang-out.”

VIDEO: “Like 1999” – Valley

Karah James added her recollection of knowing they had hit upon something special.

“We were in my basement and we had Rob over and he was tuning his guitar to open tuning,” she said. “Because Mike and I are noobs, we didn’t know what he was doing. Then he started playing along to what Mike and I were already working on. The guitar sounded so beautiful. At that moment, Mike and I looked at each other, and without another word, we were like “Be in our band!”

Following the release of the EP This Room Is White in 2016, Valley pulled together enough material for a debut full-length album.

Released in 2019, Maybe preceded the singles “nevermind” and “hiccup” and, in February 2021, “Like 1999” from the seven-track EP Last Birthday. Another song on that EP has the distinctive title of “Oh shit … are we in love?”

“We had gotten a cabin during the pandemic to write with friends over Zoom,” recalled Rob Laska about that song. “And one night, the guy we were working with started this drum groove and I got this walking-down-the-street type of vibe. It kind of reminded me of the beginning of a sitcom.”

“Then it dawned on us that, for this song in particular, we wanted something more upbeat because the last thing people needed is a sad song. We wanted a kind of love anthem. We had never really done a love song before. It all came very naturally, and we liked how it opened up with a story kind of similar to how we like opening up sucks to see you doing better (from the 2018 EP of the same name).”

VIDEO: “Oh shit … are we in love?” – Valley

“Lyrically, we wanted to talk about the ‘Oh shit’ moment you have in life. This can come with any type of life relationship, like with a friend or even a dog, but it’s when you have the sudden realization of love being a mutual feeling. It is such a powerful song live. I think people love to sing along to something chill and hopeful.”

Valley arrives in Peterborough riding high on the January 2022 release of the EP After Party, its earlier-released singles “SOCIETY” and “Tempo” contributing to the band’s attainment of more than 210 million global video streams.

Asked for her take on the band dynamic, James said “Sometimes all of us play the role of either a kite or the kite holder. Each of us takes our turn of going off into our own creative world and not thinking about logistics and, as a result, I feel like there’s someone in the band that will keep them grounded and reel them back in.”

Brampton-raised Alyssa Reid rocketed to fame in 2011 with her debut album The Game and the single “Alone Again” (based on the lyrics and music of the 1987 Heart song “Alone”) that was certified double platinum in Canada on the strength of more than one million copies sold globally. Her subsequent momentum brought her to the 2012 Juno Awards where Reid, a New Artist of the Year nominee, performed.

Subsequent singles “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Running Guns,” coupled with the 2014 release of her second studio album Time Bomb, saw Reid’s upward trajectory continue into 2015 and the release of a third album, Phoenix.

In 2021, under the alias ASHS, Reid released a full-length album of the same name, the singles “Without You,” “Paranoid,” “Don’t Call Me,” and “My Ex” among its tracks.

VIDEO: “Alone Again” – Alyssa Reid

“I wanted the ability to create on a blank slate, under a faceless alias so I could experiment freely with no preconceived notions of what people expected to hear from me,” revealed Reid during a February 2022 interview with Pamela Roz of Canadian Beats Media.

“It was the most fun I’ve ever had creatively, and I loved that songs and interviews I did when I was a cringy teenager weren’t popping up when people searched for the new project online. I hate the term ‘passion project’ but I feel like it’s a good name for it, considering it helped me fall in love with creating again.”

Create, and create well, Reid has certainly done. Her latest single “Roses” has cracked the Top 20 of the Canadian Pop Radio listing. But more than that, it’s a song Reid has leveraged to raise funds for the LifeLine Canada Foundation and its focus on mental health resilience and suicide prevention.

“What really captured me (about the foundation) was that it not only provided tons of resources for crisis management but also had a lot of tools for coping in your day-to-day life,” said Reid.
“With the new single Roses touching so heavily on mental health, I wanted to use the opportunity to fundraise for a great foundation. The Lifeline Canada Foundation felt like the perfect fit.”

In the meantime, Reid is excited to back doing what she loves for those who, in increasing numbers, love what she’s doing.

“The Canadian music industry was hit hard with lockdowns,” she said. “I’m very ready to get back out and play some music. Zoom writing sessions have zero vibe, so it’s nice to finally be back in studio creating again.”

VIDEO: “The Game” – Alyssa Reid

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 16 free-admission concerts during its milestone 35th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights at Del Crary Park in downtown Peterborough.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission remains “to provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert or the entire 2022 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.