Royal Wood is about to head off on two different tours in the U.S. and Canada, but he’s taking time to spend Valentine’s Day in Peterborough.

He’ll be taking the stage at 8 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre on Tuesday, February 14th, supporting his latest release Ghost Light which came out in Canada last April. It was just released worldwide last month — and it’s been getting a great response from across the globe.

The Toronto-based musician is originally from Lakefield, where he still returns to visit his mom, relax, and record at the family farm. The relaxing part is important, because the Juno-nominated singer-songwriter is one busy man.

He’s touring the northeastern U.S. in February and March with Cleveland-based indie folk songwriter Diana Chittester (who’ll be a special guest at his Showplace concert). Then, in late May and June, he’ll be opening for American blues singer-songwriter and musician Bonnie Raitt as she embarks on a cross-Canada tour in support of her new record Dig In Deep.

In between the tours, he’ll be working on recording his next album — coming out in the fall or early next year — as well as continuing to write for other musicians and developing artists for his own label.

In advance of his concert at Showplace, I had a chance to chat with Royal in Nashville, where he’s been working on songs for the next record.

So you’re in Nashville right now?

I am in Nashville. It’s sunny and beautiful and kind of cool. I’ve been doing a bunch of writing sessions and a little bit of recording.

As I was doing some research, I saw a tweet from you of Colin Linden with a bottle of wine. So that’s a good sign!

(Laughing) Yeah, it’s been good so far for sure.

VIDEO: “Good To Be Young” – Royal Wood

VIDEO: Diana Chittester

Have you worked with Colin before?

I have. I know him and have known about him for a long time. It’s nice. We’re starting to come back to Nashville pretty often.

I have some good relationships and good friends here. It’s amazing how small the music industry in the world is. No matter what country you go to, you just go a couple times and you start realizing that everybody knows everybody.

This truly is the way ALL great writing sessions should end. #wineoclock?? with @colinlinden #pinotnoir #sonomacounty pic.twitter.com/NvzTXXqMpP

— Royal Wood (@RoyalWood) January 31, 2017

Your latest album Ghost Light came out officially a week or so ago?

It came out in April in Canada, but it just came out worldwide on January 27th. I’m excited about that; lots of U.S. touring and Europe touring coming for it, and some Canadian dates with Bonnie (Raitt).

The Peterborough show just fell in the perfect time, when I was going to be home. I’ll get to see the family and get some farm time and Valentine’s. My lady’s coming in, so it’s perfect.

It’s all coming up Royal there!

(Laughing) It’s a Royal day.

You purchased your family farm near Lakefield a few years ago?

I did actually. It was somewhere around 2012 where it all sort of happened. It’s such a blessing. It wasn’t even something that I ever thought about when I was a kid; it just kind of came up that it was going to be gone. I was the only one in the position to take it on and it’s been amazing.

I’ve got so many more family memories that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t get it. So much time with my folks and my dad before he passed away, and it’s perfect. My studio is out there now. I’m working towards having it be a place that, twenty years from now, I’ll be at all the time.

Nice. I suppose you’re definitely on the go as much as you can be right now?

Yeah. I definitely don’t get to be there that much. But my mom manages the property which has been amazing. So I can’t complain.

How’s the new album been going? Pretty good response from radio?

The response has been great. I’m definitely proud of it and appreciating the support and feedback that’s coming from other markets because I haven’t had a release there.

Ireland gave it some love and now we’re heading to Germany.

VIDEO: “Long Way Out” – Royal Wood

Was your process making Ghost Light any different than your previous records? How did that unfold?

Every record is definitely different. The process is different, you’re at a different point in your life. You’re not the same person you were two years before, so the subject matter that you’re connecting to and the music you’re connecting to is different.

I’m always trying to make things sound different. I never want things to sound the same as they did on the record before, or I might as well just retire because that would get boring to me.

Even with artists I loved when I was growing up, I never wanted their records to sound exactly the same. You want to be challenged, to have to listen a few times.

I’m so glad that Radiohead doesn’t make OK Computer all over again, as much as it’s a brilliant record. With Kid A [the record released after OK Computer], I was like “Wow! Where did that come from?” Those kind of moments are great as a fan.

It’s obviously a unique time in history at this moment. What do you think the role of musicians is in times like this?

I think the role of the artist has always been the same. You’re supposed to tap into the zeitgeist of the moment, express yourself, and not hold back. You’re supposed to speak from your heart.

As an artist, you get to say things you might not be able to say in general conversation with someone you’ve never met. If you write a song, you have this open forum for anyone who chooses to listen to you. That’s a unique position, because you can’t just stand on a street corner and shout out your opinions or beliefs. People will just not want to listen.

If you put it in a song, you definitely have an audience.

Is there much talk of what’s going on down there in Nashville?

It’s definitely a daily conversation. It’s not something you shout loudly in every single place you’re in, but among friends it’s a big topic of conversation.

There’s such a division in political life in the States. It’s so hard right and so hard left, there doesn’t seem to be a middle any more. There was a little more discourse — polite discourse — when we were kids, but it’s definitely one or the other right now.

It’s a strange time, but maybe it has to get worse before it gets better.

You hope that people will just stay engaged, stay watching.

There’s also the philosophy “Don’t just tell me what you’re against, tell me what you’re for.” It’s very easy to criticize and very easy to say “I would never do X/Y/Z,” but at least suggest what the solution is. That’s what I think is sorely lacking right now.

VIDEO: “I Want Your Love” – Royal Wood

Do you have a timeline for your next record? I know Ghost Light just came out worldwide, but I’m just curious.

There’s a lot of touring coming up with the Bonnie Raitt dates, and there’s a bunch of dates coming up in the fall. Obviously, there will be a few summer festivals (too).

I have a plan to have something ready for this fall. But there’s so much involved with the team, radio, the label, publicists, and touring; it all has to line up. So it’s possible it won’t come out until Spring 2018.

If you have it done early then you can release it properly, but I never like to rush those kinds of things.

What’s your process like? Do you usually bring a bunch of songs with you to recording sessions or do you have your album in your mind going in?

When I was a kid and I just started, I would have just enough songs to make a record. Then around the time of We Were Born to Glory or The Burning Bright, I would have 30, 40, 50 songs and kind of work backwards [to create a record].

I think it’s a better way to work. Not everything you write is great, and not everything you write goes together as a record either.

I think [my records] are far more cohesive now and I feel like they’re actually more of a statement than a moment in time. There are definitely a lot of songs to choose from for this next record. and there certainly were on the last one too.

For the Peterborough show, will you have any accompaniment?

I’m bringing my upright bass player. I’ll switch between acoustic piano and acoustic guitar, ukelele, but he’ll be there beside me.

How did the Bonnie Raitt tour come to be? Have you met her ever?

I’ve never met her but I’ve been a fan since I was a kid. She was actually the first cassette tape that I ever bought, Nick of Time.

The promoter for her tour in Canada put my name forward as one of a few ideas. Obviously my team was fully behind it and my agent was behind it. Bonnie’s camp, including her, signed off on it and said I was the one they wanted. We’re definitely excited, that’s for sure.

What else are you working on these days? Or are you just focused on new songs and getting for the road?

I’m focused on my own record and I’m also writing for other people, their records and their singles, and I’m producing a few things and developing a couple of artists. I’m trying to get a couple of artists onto my label, probably into next year.

There’s lots going on, the days are definitely full. The hard part these days is finding the balance and taking time off now and again.

It must be nice knowing that the farm is there, a place to unwind and get away.

It is definitely my favourite place to be, without a doubt.

There’s something that happens to my shoulders when I pull off onto the 115. It’s like “OK, I’m almost there. I’m almost at the farm.”

VIDEO: “Do You Recall” – Royal Wood

Since its debut in October 2015, Crime City has proven itself to be one of Peterborough’s most original and popular continuing theatrical projects. From the mind of Andrew Root, Crime City is a tribute to the radio dramas of yesteryear and a loving parody of hard-boiled detective stories.

Starring Mike Judson as detective Victor Marshall, Kenn Gibb as his 10-year-old sidekick Brad Bramble, and Marsala Lukianchuk as former spy Lillian Steel, the series also features supporting roles by Dan Smith and Mélanie Dubois. Performed live and in full costume by the players, Crime City is subsequently produced as a podcast by Adam Martignetti and made available to the public via SoundCloud.

Now in its second series, Crime City continues to attract new audience members each month. But on Saturday, February 25th, Crime City goes big when it moves from its home from The Theatre on King (TTOK) to the Gordon Best Theatre for an expanded night of musical performances, storytelling, and comedy.

“The move to the Gordon Best is not a calculated thing,” explains writer/director Andrew Root.

“It’s not us completing our business plan. We’ll be back at TTOK in March. We had a scheduling snafu. A couple of cast members were not available on our regular date at TTOK. It turned out the Gordon Best was available.”

“We’ve been toying with expanding the show, and adding some opening acts and making it more into a variety show, with Crime City as the main event. So we decided to turn onions into apples and just go for it.”

The regular cast will be on board to perform Episode 16, called “The Private Eye Effect”, at the Gorden Best. However, Andrew has opened up the night to include a musical set by local songwriter Caitlin Currie and guest star Danny Bronson providing live improvised background music for the episode.

The title of Episode 16 — a reference to “The Butterfly Effect”, in which small causes can have large effects — is a multiple-path adventure with eight possible endings depending on choices made by the audience.

Originally slated to be only 10 episodes, the continued popularity of Crime City among both the performers and the audience has kept it going long beyond what Andrew had originally envisioned for the series.

“I thought it was going to go for the first year of maybe nine or 10 episodes,” Andrew says. “We did the first series as one big long story, and the gang just wanted to do more. I was getting messages from the cast about when the next one was coming.”

“We ended the first series in June 2016 and took the summer off, but I was getting messages from everyone with their schedules. We’re doing the second season episodic; just one offs. It’s much easier to write — you just need to come up with a funny idea.”

At the forefront of Crime City is local TV personality Mike Judson exercising his acting chops in the role of Victor Marshall. Andrew has much a lot of praise for his star, who has proved his versatility in 2016.

“Mike’s really good. He’s confident on stage, because of his years of broadcasting, but he does things very unexpectedly. His private persona and his public persona are pretty different, so when you see some of the private stuff kick into the public it’s very surprising. He’s a very interesting guy.”

“Victor Marshall is the character who has changed the most over the series. He started off as the audience’s entry way into this weird story. He was the everyman. But Mike plays frustrated so well. Victor started off as a realist, where he figured it wouldn’t make a difference but he’d do it anyway. Now it’s just so fun to play the character as frustrated all the time, by putting him in the most impossible situations. He’s sort of the world’s punching bag, but he’s so sympathetic.”

Over the course of the series, Crime City has featured a plethora of Peterborough’s favourite performers in guest-star roles, including Linda Kash, Kate Story, Brad Breckenridge, and Megan Murphy. This has not only provided the series with a lot of great performers, but has helped solidify it into the local arts landscape.

“The show is based around the fact that I want to work with all these amazing talented people,” Andrew says. “But everyone is so busy, so this show is built in with the idea that if we can get them for one night, and they don’t have to rehearse a lot, then we can do all these amazing things.”

“It’s an interesting world-building kind of thing. We’ve been tinkering with the idea of doing more shows on the same fictional radio network. Over the Christmas break we did a lifestyle show, a super gentle radio show. It was all improvised.”

Crime City even has its own spin-off series called Dr. Lady Pilot, featuring Megan Murphy. Originally created for one of Crime City‘s popular fake advertisements, an actual episode of Dr. Lady Pilot was produced late in 2016, and proved to be one of the series most popular episodes.

Andrew explains how he used the Dr. Lady Pilot episode to mock his own creation, by making Crime City the least popular show on the fictional radio network that broadcasts it.

“As part of our Dr. Lady Pilot episode, we did commercials for Crime City. We established that it comes on at 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, so it’s the least popular show on the worst popular time slot. It’s so much fun to kick your own creation when it’s down.”

With 16 episodes under their belt, and the special variety show being held on February 25th, what does the future hold for Crime City? Andrew has some big plans that could take the series beyond Peterborough and to a far larger audience.

“We’re trying to sell Crime City to the CBC,” Andrew reveals. “CBC Comedy held a town hall meeting at the head of their comedy division. They are revamping and rebranding CBC Comedy, and they invited a bunch of comedians in to consult about what they can do better. CBC is really interested in making relations with people.”

“So after the show, Adam Martignetti and I went to the people in charge of scripted podcasts because they apparently got zero pitches. We gave them a bunch of pictures and audios of the show. We’ve been emailing them every so often and, just before the holidays, we heard back that they will be reviewing the whole series.”

So if Crime City does get the green light with CBC will it be leaving Peterborough? Not necessarily.

“The charm of our show that it’s a live show,” Andrew says. “It can be recorded anywhere. It doesn’t need to be recorded in a studio in Toronto. You can record here, or Montreal, or wherever you want … as long as it’s in front of an audience.”

Whether you take it in live, or listen to the podcast via SoundCloud, Crime City delivers the best in local comedy month after month. Clever, witty, and filled with fun and endearing characters, this throwback to old-time radio is among the best that Peterborough has to offer.

If you haven’t taken in a live performance of Crime City yet, the expanded version on February 25th at the Gordon Best is a great opportunity to see the show and much more.

Despite the expanded entertainment, tickets are still the same price ($10 at the door) and the show begins at 8 p.m.

Yvon Soglo (aka Crazy Smooth, or Smooth to his friends), the Artistic Director of Ottawa/Gatineau dance company Bboyizm, grew up with dance — but not the way you might think.

He listened to funk and hip hop. He watched cyphers form at school dances, but never joined in. He didn’t consider himself a dancer; he was an athlete.

In 1984, a movie came out that changed everything: Breakin’ staring Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones, and Michael Chambers. Smooth saw street dance on screen like he had never seen it, and it sparked something in him. He started to practice obsessively in the basement, watching recorded videos of street dance on VHS over and over again.

In 1999, Crazy Smooth (not yet honoured with his street dance name) went to New York for the Rock Steady Anniversary. There he saw live hip hop culture for the first time, beyond TV and VHS. These were real live dancers, performing in front of him.

From this point on he never stopped dancing. He was given the name Crazy Smooth by his street dance peers, out of respect. The best words to describe his style are exactly that: crazy, smooth.

He began to explore the subtleties of street dance, what he calls “the izm”. Smooth was interested in bboying beyond tricks. He wanted to go beyond athleticism and dynamic movement and wanted his audiences to feel the dance. Smooth’s interest in Bboying grew to include other styles like Rocking, House, and Pantsula.

Crazy Smooth and his company Bboyizm, based out of Ottawa/Gatineau, are doing something different than many other Canadian dance troupes. Contemporary dance companies often borrow elements from street dance, specifically ‘tricks,’ athletic feats of dynamic movement, without taking the time to study the styles in depth.

At times, this results in ’empty’ movements and gestures, dance elements which are not grounded by context, history, and a sense of origin. Crazy Smooth is critical of street dance which has been diluted in the name of fusion and hybrids.

For this reason, Bboyizm’s brand of street dance is aimed at preserving the purity, individuality, and authenticity of original street dance styles such as: Bboying, House, Rocking, and Pantsula — originating from Soweto, South Africa.

Another question in street dance is whether or not these dances should be performed for the stage. Some street dance artists are critical of dancers who perform these styles on stage in front of audiences, citing that true street dance belongs in its original setting, in neighborhoods, streets, and public spaces.

Other dance artists such as Crazy Smooth disagree. He believes that street dance, for him, is a vehicle to deliver a broader message, and when you are trying to communicate something, wider audiences are important. The stage becomes a platform. A chance to speak to new audiences through movement, to resonate with new minds, and to declare “this is what I’m saying.”

Bboyizm performs “Music Creates Opportunity” on Saturday, February 11th at 8 p.m. at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St., Peterborough). There’ll be a question-and-answer session with choreographer Crazy Smooth immediately following the performance.

Tickets are $24 for general admission ($17 for students or the underwaged, and $8 for high school students).

To order tickets, visit the Market Hall Box Office, call 705-749-1146, or order online at markethall.org. Note: high school student tickets are not available online.

For more information about Public Energy and other upcoming performances, visit publicenergy.ca.

VIDEO: “All day i dream about dance” – Bboyizm

This guest post is by Victoria Mohr-Blakeney, Performance Curator and 2016-2017 Metcalf Foundation Intern at Public Energy. All photos courtesy of Bboyizm.

4th Line Theatre, the acclaimed outdoor theatre company located in Millbrook, is preparing for its 2017 summer season with a free theatre workshop and staged reading on Saturday, February 4th, followed by the official opening of the theatre’s box office on Monday, February 6th.

On Saturday, February 4th, the theatre company is hosting a free theatre workshop for aspiring actors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by a free staged reading for the public. The workshop and reading will be of Leanna Brodie’s Schoolhouse, ne of the most popular plays that 4th Line has ever produced.

The play, about one-room schools and the teachers who led them, includes many lead roles for young actors. During the workshop, actors will work with 4th Line Theatre’s Managing Artistic Director Kim Blackwell and Creative Director Robert Winslow.

“This workshop is an opportunity to involve folks from our wonderful and talented community in an off-season artistic project,” Blackwell says. Blackwell will direct the reading and Winslow will work alongside volunteers as an actor in the workshop and reading.

While the theatre workshop has already been cast, there are still seats available for the staged reading, which takes place at 4 p.m. at Centreville Presbyterian Church (574 County Rd 28, Bailieboro). Seating is limited and admission is free.

If you want to attend the staged reading, call the 4th Line Theatre box office at 705-932-4448 before 5 p.m. on Friday, February 3rd to reserve a seat. If you can’t reserve a seat, you are still welcome to show up, as seats may still be available.

4th Line Theatre is also opening its box office to the public for ticket purchases and gift certificate redemptions for the 2017 summer season on Monday, February 6th.

This July, 4th Line Theatre will be staging the world premiere of David S. Craig’s Bombers: Reaping the Whirlwind. Directed by David Ferry, the play tells the story of Peter, a man in his nineties, who is visited by a mysterious young woman whose curiosity about his wartime experience forces him to relive his memories of love, loss, and friendship.

Set against the electrified and heightened backdrop of World War II, the story follows Canadian bomber crews as they struggle to win the war. This action-packed epic has romance, danger, and music.

In August, the theatre company will also present another world premiere; The History of Drinking in Cavan. Written and directed by Robert Winslow, the play looks at alcohol consumption (or the lack thereof) in the local area over the past 200 years. Winslow and his alter-ego (King the town drunk) will take audiences on a wild historical ride from the early days of Irish settlement in the township through to present-day drinking practices.

The play veers from the anecdotal to the personal and from the outrageous to the serious, as Winslow shares the rich stories of local residents and his own experiences growing up in Cavan.

Beginning on February 6th, you can purchase tickets or gift certificates for the 2017 season at 4th Line Theatre’s Box Office (4 Tupper St., Millbrook) or at the ticket outlet at the Peterborough Museum & Archives (300 Hunter St. E., Peterborough, 705-743-5180). You can also call 705-932-4445 or visit 4thlinetheatre.on.ca.

If you book tickets for a group of 12 or more, you’ll save $1 on each ticket and, if booking 25 or more tickets, you’ll save $2 per ticket. All groups get reserved seating, based on 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, February 2 to Wednesday, February 8.

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.