On Thursday, July 4th, Millbrook outdoor theatre company 4th Line Theatre opened its 2019 summer season with the world premiere of Bloom: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fable.

Written by Beau Dixon and directed by Kim Blackwell, with songs by Dixon and Dave Tough, Bloom is a musical odyssey that doesn’t just pay homage to the Canadian music industry, but also the special relationship the Kawarthas has with the music scene.

Whether you’re a hard-core music fan or just someone looking for good summer theatre, you’ll find magic in the play’s musical mythos.

Get ready to embrace the musical legacy of The Spruce Street Ramblers, the greatest Canadian rock ‘n’ roll band you’ve never heard before. The band’s story is told in two main timelines: one on the eve of a one-shot reunion appearance in 1976 in which the group is reunited seven years after their break up, and the other in flashbacks starting in 1956 through to the explosive events of the 1969 Gatineau Hills Festival in Quebec when the band fell apart.

In this musical journey, playwright Dixon has perfectly woven all the classic themes of a rock ‘n’ roll band into the story: joy and passion, ambition and greed, jealousy and betrayal, and — most importantly — the exhilaration and the love of making music.

Bloom tells the story of Neph Burnstall (Owen Stahn) and Eli Tanner (Griffin Clark), two young men from the farming community of Assumption, Ontario (a “blink and you’ll miss it” community between Peterborough and Keene) who grew up together with rock ‘n’ roll dreams of forming their own band and leaving the Kawarthas far behind.

In 1959, the two best friends join forces with pals Huff, Happy, and Tilson (Justin Hiscox, Sebastian Sage, and Mark Hiscox) to form The Spruce Street Ramblers.

For the next seven years, the boys find themselves playing cover songs at dive bars and hotels between Peterborough and Kingston. Unsatisfied with the lack of audience interest in their original material, Neph and Eli travel to The Embassy Bar in Toronto to meet music manager Richard Brockton (Matt Gilbert), in the hopes that he’ll give their music a chance.

That’s where they hear a song performed by Huff’s cousin Tess (Kate Suhr), who they haven’t seen since they first met as children at a Peterborough talent show hosted by Del Crary. The song-writing duo soon becomes a trio, igniting the interest of Brockton who gets the band on a music show filmed in Montreal.

Armed with their original song “Flower Man”, The Spruce Street Ramblers quickly rise to the top of the charts. But as their fame continues to soar, it soon becomes clear that the star of the group is Tess. As the band becomes famous throughout Canada, cracks begin to form within the group, threatening to turn their musical dreams into a rock n’ roll nightmare.

Bloom is not only a delight for theatre-goers who will become instantly engaged in the story, but for music geeks who love the history of Canadian rock ‘n’ roll. While Dixon based the play on his real-life experiences as a touring musician, the story of The Spruce Street Ramblers is pure fiction. However, the history of the Canadian music industry and how it has impacted the Kawarthas is so lovingly portrayed that it’s difficult to believe the band’s story is not a true one.

Like the Monkees, The Partridge Family, The Carrie Nations, and The Commitments before them, The Spruce Street Ramblers are a fictional band, but with a sound and energy so real to the audience that you too will believe they really exist.

What makes the story so realistic are the powerful performances, both musical and emotionally, given by the show’s leads. Griffin Clark plays Eli as a passionate dreamer who believes that music is his destiny. On the other hand, Owen Stahn plays Neph as a tortured dark horse, looking for artistic fulfillment and a respect that he is forever chasing. Kate Suhr’s character Tess sends the boys to their highest heights while trying to find her own meaningful relationship with music, while constantly battling for respect in the male-dominated music industry.

Together, the three actors perform Dixon’s story so passionately and convincingly that you feel you are witnessing actual Canadian musical history instead of fiction.

Part of the realism comes because the actors portraying the members of The Spruce Street Ramblers are all musicians in their own right. In fact, 4th Line Theatre has created their own supergroup with the performers they’ve pulled together for the show.

For example, Owen and Griffin front their own Toronto band called The Slivers, Kate Suhr has become a local musical icon via her success on the musical stage as well as her own musical contributions as a songwriter and solo artist, and Mark and Justin Hiscox have become local legends for their musical contributions to the local stage.

Together they create a sound that is difficult to define. A hybrid of rock and country, The Spruce Street Ramblers really don’t sound like anybody else — they just sound like The Spruce Street Ramblers. The joy and electricity of their performance is felt in every musical number.

Dixon and Tough’s original songs, including “Flower Man”, “Groovy Day” (written by Dixon and Sean Moran), “Royal Tavern”, and “Your Love Will Carry Me” are too good to just be heard in this show.

These songs need to be recorded on a soundtrack album (preferably on vinyl) and be heard by the far-reaching public. I want recordings of these songs that I can listen to over and over again.

As a music lover and record collector, I also really appreciate the through-line that Dixon incorporates into the story, following rock music all the way from Elvis Presley to Rush. While the show is about the unique Canadian music experience, it goes beyond being about powerhouses like Paul Anka, Ronnie Hawkins, The Guess Who, and Ian and Sylvia (although all four play their own parts in the narrative).

Bloom also pays tribute to the Canadian groups that found minor success in an era where the CRTC barely supported Canadian music.

The Spruce Street Ramblers is an homage to groups such as The Sugar Shoppe, The Bells, The Original Caste, Edward Bear, and Mashmakhan — groups that burned bright with regional hits, crossed the country multiple times, and opened for bigger American bands but, despite being remembered and beloved by Canadian fans, remained ignored by international audiences.

Beyond the wonderful music, Bloom is just good storytelling, filled with the joy and pain needed for creating art and music, and the triumph and tragedy necessary to create rock ‘n’ roll legends. It could only have been written by a musical insider like Beau Dixon.

Additional performance highlights are from Shelly Simester as Eli’s mother Rose Tanner and JD Nicholson as Neph’s uncle Jack, who support the boys’ musical dreams with their guidance and wisdom, and from Liam Davidson as Clive Butler, a young man making a documentary on The Spruce Street Ramblers.

I also want to give special praise to the cast’s young performers (Orion Adams, Kaleigh Castell, Rhys Morgan McClean, Jack Newton, Aiden Playford, and Lucas Pronk) who play the members of The Spruce Street Ramblers as kids in the early part of the show. They create a vivid sense of history for the group, especially the friendship between Eli and Neph that is so important later in the play.

Bloom is another entry into 4th Line Theatre’s stable of hit plays that have made them one of the most important theatrical institutions in Ontario. The team of Kim Blackwood and Beau Dixon is a brilliant one, and the drama and music of Bloom make this show a surefire hit.

Come be seduced by this rock ‘n’ roll story. This is a summer show that will leave you with a song in your soul. You’ll wish that the music never stops.

Bloom: A Rock n’ Roll Fable runs from Tuesdays to Saturdays until July 27th at the Winslow Farm near Millbrook, with an additional performance on Monday, July 22nd. Advance tickets can be purchased by phone at 705-932-4445, online at www.4thlinetheatre.ca, at 4th Line Theatre’s box office in Millbrook at 4 Tupper Street and in Peterborough at the Peterborough Museum and Archives at 300 Hunter Street East (atop Armour Hill).

Tickets can also be purchased from 4 to 6 p.m. on performance nights at the Winslow Farm (779 Zion Line, Millbrook) but are subject to availability.

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas 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, July 4 to Wednesday, July 10.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

On Saturday, July 6th, The 24 Hour Project returns to the Gordon Best Theatre in downtown Peterborough after a two-year absence.

A popular theatrical event, The 24 Hour Project brings together a melting pot of writers, directors, and performers to create five original plays in a single day.

Fast, furious and wildly entertaining, this normally annual event returns for the first time since 2017, under the direction of Arbor Theatre’s new creative director Em Glasspool (also artistic director of Mysterious Entity Theatre).

“The 24 Hour Project is a thing that has happened all over the world,” Em says. “I remember doing the very first one in Peterborough about twenty years ago. Personally, I have taken part as an actor, as a writer, and as a director — and they all have their own terrifying but rewarding aspects.”

“As a performer, there is this terrifying feeling of ‘Oh my god, I’m in front of people and I have lines I don’t remember because I got them only a few hours ago.’ The writers try to put together something in a very short amount of time. I think the most successful pieces are ones that do have some sort of structure with the traditional aspects of a play. Directors need to have a vision quickly and give their performers confidence very strongly in a very short period of time.”

The 24 Hour Project has a very structured timeline, beginning with the five writers meeting with Em at The Gordon Best Theatere at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, July 5th. Scheduled to write what will be the five original shows for the following evening are Linda Kash, David Bateman, Christopher Wilton, Nicky Gibeault, and K Thomas Craig.

“Normally the writers write whatever they’re going to write, but this year I’m giving them a little bit of direction,” Em explains. “The writers are going to meet at 7:30 p.m. at The Gordon Best and we are going to play a little game that gives them one little word or sentence or theme that they have to incorporate into their writing. Then they will go home and at the stroke of 8 p.m. they start writing scripts.”

“They have to send them to me by 5 a.m. on Saturday morning so I have them in hand by 6 a.m., when all the directors meet at the Gordon Best. The directors read all the scripts and choose a show to produce between them.”

Directing the shows this year will be local favourites Kait Dueck, Lisa Dixon, Wyatt Lamoureux, Dane Shumak, and Connor Clarkin.

“Then, at 7:30 a.m. the actors show up and are very quickly auditioned in a group audition,” Em continues. “The actors get cast and by 9 a.m. five different plays are being rehearsed all over Peterborough. They start tech runs, and dress runs, and whatever they need to do all day. At 7:30 p.m. the doors of the Gordon best open and at 8 p.m., 24 hours later, the show begins.”

As of this writing, the group of actors slated to appear in Saturday night’s shows include Randy Read, Charlie Earle, Meg O’Sullivan, Lindsay Barr, Johnathan Sharp, Benjamin van Veen, Tom Keat, Aedan Shaughnessy, Sarah-Jayne Riley, Hilary Wear, Anwen O’Driscoll, Star Slade, Tyrnan O’Driscoll, Ilan O’Driscoll, Mary Alice Osborn, and Vasco Silva.

However, since the auditions haven’t even happened yet, there is still time to sign up. If you are interested in participating in the event, you can email Em at emglasspool@gmail.com.

“We can always use more performers, and I can increase the number of characters in the script,” Em says. “The participants cross a lot of different theatre groups and styles. There are no restrictions — anybody and everybody should come to perform. It’s completely open to people of all ages and styles. It’s community building and crosses the lines of who (normally) works with who. I think that is important.”

Not only is it a challenge for the participants, but The 24 Hour Project has taken new meaning in our current political climate where the arts are being threatened by budget cuts.

“Because of all the things that we are going through today — with all the cuts to art councils — timing and process are precious resources that we always have,” Em says. “So as a performer or a director or a writer, it is so incredibly valuable to have an event like this. You get to hone your skills or practice your chops or just have an opportunity to perform. A production is a huge undertaking that takes months of your life and thousands of dollars, so this is a valuable exercise.”

“But there is also a value for the audience to see what it’s like to have it all come together. You’re seeing something very raw. You’re seeing a panic on the faces of the participants. The writer started writing the night before and now the play is on stage.”

“I think the audience really has this compassion for the actors on stage because they want them to succeed. It’s not the kind of show where you go in as a critic saying ‘This better be good.’ It’s more supportive and it’s also fun to watch.”

Never having attended before, I am excited to be a part of my first 24 Hour Project this year. It’s a great opportunity to see some of the Kawarthas’ favourite writers, directors, and performers diving into drama and making something new and exciting happen in a very short period of time. This year’s 24 Hour Project is also being used as a fundraiser for Em’s Mysterious Entity Theatre, and is being sponsored by Black Honey and Steam Whistle Brewing.

Doors open for The 24 Hour Project at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 6th at the Gordon Best Theatre (above The Only at 216 Hunter Street West in downtown Peterborough). Tickets are $10, but line up early because the show is always a sellout.

Flash back to the summer of 2016 and the 30th anniversary season of Peterborough Musicfest. That year’s concert series’ lineup was highlighted by an abundance of quickly recognizable names, starting with series opener Serena Ryder followed by the likes of Kiefer Sutherland, Gowan, The Spoons, and Platinum Blonde.

On the flip side of that, comparatively few knew much about Sultans of String and their music when they descended on Del Crary Park on July 9th of that year but, some two hours later, the audience headed home wanting more.

Almost three years to the day of that inaugural Musicfest performance, Sultans of String — led by Canadian violinist, guitarist and composer Chris McKhool — returns to the Fred Anderson Stage on Saturday, July 6th as the 33rd season of Peterborough Musicfest continues.

Admission to the 8 p.m. concert is free, as always, thanks to the support of Musicfest sponsors.

Delivering a genre-hopping passport of Celtic reels, flamenco, Gypsy jazz, Arabic, Cuban, and South Asian rhythms, the three-time Juno Award-nominated band, often augmented by sitar master Anwar Khurshid, is the definition of world music, with McKhool’s six-stringed violin and co-founder Kevin Laliberté’s flamenco guitar anchoring a rich and unique sound that stays with audiences long after the last note is played.

VIDEO: “Luna the Whale ” – Sultans of String

“We both love trying out crazy ideas and seeing what sticks,” notes McKhool in a 2013 interview with Jazz Monthly.

“When we saw the power of this style of music on the listening public, we knew we had to do more of it. We were happy to pick up gigs here and there, happy to make $75 a man to play all night in a theatre lobby or any club … we were footloose and fancy free.”

“But, in 2007, we honed in and decided to take it to the next level. We became pickier about our repertoire, putting together an actual set list of songs that would engage audiences rather than just entertain ourselves.”

That same year, with Eddie Paton (flamenco guitar), Drew Birston (bass), and Chendy Leon (percussion) in the mix, Sultans of String recorded and released Luna, its debut album.

Come 2008, the album was a top-ten fixture on the Canadian international and world/folk music charts and earned the band a nomination for a Canadian Folk Music Award — the first of many industry accolades that would follow.

But as notable a debut as that album was, it was 2009’s Yalla Yalla that brought Sultans of String to greater prominence, not only for fans of the world music genre but also those whose ears were new to the eclectic sound.

Yalla Yalla won the band the Instrumental Group of the Year award at the Canadian Folk Music Awards and brought its first Juno Award nomination in 2010 in the Instrumental Album of the Year category.

VIDEO: “Enter The Gate” – Sultans of String

Four albums have since followed, the latest being 2017’s Christmas Caravan which peaked at #6 on the Billboard World Music charts.

Along the way, numerous tours have brought Sultans of String’s music across Canada, the United States and Europe. World Group of the Year recognition bestowed by SiriusXM gave further proof that McKhool et al had hit upon something special that resonated with audiences.

“The most important thing in creating the Sultan sound was creating shorter, more focused tunes with memorable song titles and strong arrangements that would be palatable to listen to on a recording but we also never liked the idea of being nailed down to one genre, so there is a lot of variety,” McKhool tells Jazz Monthly.

“It’s exciting music that is a great tool to tell our stories. The variety keeps me going because each of the different styles can lead to a different kind of mood, bring out different elements of our personalities and allow us to engage in a variety of physical antics while performing live.”

Besides his work with Sultans of String, Ottawa-born McKhool is an accomplished children’s music performer, his 2009 Juno Award nomination for his album Fiddlefire evidence of that. In addition, he has performed alongside such world music notables as Pavlo and Jesse Cook.

And in 2013, he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his support of community and music education programs for at-risk youth.

VIDEO: “A Place To Call Home” – Sultans of String

Still, for all his individual accomplishments, it’s clear McKhool’s work with Sultans of String speaks most clearly to his commitment to making the world a better place through a shared love of music.

“In a way we are trying to emulate a model for world peace,” notes McKhool in Sultan of String’s Wikipedia profile. “We have many musical worlds coming together. Sometimes they understand each other and sometimes they don’t. That’s part of the artistic process too, even more so when we’re combining these seemingly disparate music styles.”

“That’s kind of the Canadian ideal of multiculturalism, the sense of the mosaic. You look up at a stained glass window and you see all those beautiful colours and they all come together to make one beautiful image. That’s what we’re trying to do on a daily basis in our lives and with our music.”

Furthering the cause of bringing musical worlds coming together, Sultans of String is currently crowdfunding for the band’s seventh album.

Called Refuge, the record will feature musical collaborations with recent refugees and immigrants to the U.S. and Canada, part of a larger project the band has undertaken to fundraise and raise awareness for the UN Refugee Agency.

Guest artists performing on the new album will include Iraqi-Canadian violinist Imad Al Taha, Iranian-Canadian santur player Amir Amiri, Hungarian-Canadian jazz pianist Robi Botos, and many more.

VIDEO: “Refuge – a new album by Sultans of String” – Sultans of String

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 16 free-admission, sponsor-supported concerts featuring a total of 21 acts during its 33rd season — each concert staged on Wednesday and Saturday nights at Del Crary Park.

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

For more information on this concert or the entire 2019 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.