Eatdrink #65 May/June 2017

48 | May/June 2017
Various Musical Notes
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
Celtic, Québecois, and Iconic
Upcoming Highlights on the Music Scene
By GERRY BLACKWELL
John McDermott
Oh, to be in Ontario now that spring
is here! Unless of course we skip
spring this year and go straight to
summer, always a possibility. Either
way, it’s a good time for music fans. Bob Dylan
is coming, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt. And a
bunch of much younger folk.
If you’ve got Celtic blood in your veins, the
next couple of months will be particularly
good. It starts Friday, May 12 at the Grand
Theatre with John McDermott — Mr.
“Danny Boy” himself — and his Raised on
Songs and Stories show (7:30 p.m., $47.50).
The self-trained balladeer and former member
of the Irish Tenors is in fact Scottish by birth,
but no matter. The man has over 25 albums
to his credit. He’s big. If you miss him at the
Grand, he’s at the Capitol Theatre in Chatham
the next
night
(7:30
p.m.,
$47.50).
From
big and
experienced
to
young
and
fresh. Up the street at the London Music Hall,
a trio of local freshman folkies play the LMH’s
Rosewood Room that same Saturday night:
Karen Emeny and Ian Raeburn from London,
and Justine Chantale of Stratford (8:00pm,
$10). If you want to know what the next generation
of singer-songwriters sounds like, come
listen. (FYI, you can hear previews of all three at
music-sharing site soundcloud.com.)
With Home County only a couple of months
away, folk music, Celtic and otherwise, is very
big this season. The Cuckoo’s Nest Folk Club
continues its series of concerts at Chaucer’s
Pub on Sunday, May 14 with dueling fiddlers
Maja &
David
(7:30pm,
$20/$25).
David is
David
Boulanger
of La
Bottine
Souriante,
the
Quebecois folk band. Maja is Maja Kjær Jacobsen
from the Danish fiddle trio Fru Skagerrak.
Holy catgut, Batman!
Revival House in Stratford has another of
its dinner-and-show concerts on Friday, May
19, this time featuring the Juno-winning
Digging Roots ($25 concert only, $35 with
prix fixe dinner). It’s a return engagement for
the indigenous blues ‘n’ roots outfit. Last time
they “blew the roof off,” receiving a standing
ovation in the middle of their set. Digging
Roots is Barrie-based husband and wife Raven
Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish.
The London
Music Club,
coincidentally, has
another Raven
the same night.
Folk-rockers The
Wilderness
of Manitoba,
Maja & David
Digging Roots
with singer
Raven Shields,