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What’s left for the rest of the 2022/23 season?

2023 is a year to look forward to on stage at Shenkman Arts Centre.
Get ready to be propelled in to a season of music, storytelling and family entertainment.

For more than a quarter century, the month of June brings the Tim Horton’s Dragon Boat Festival to Ottawa.This year’s event takes place from June 20th through 23rd. The annual event hosts 200 teams from across North America who participate in the community, corporate, and competitive races. As the sun sets music fills the air and this summer the first half of the fest was kicked off with Half Moon Run and Alan Doyle.

If you grew up in the 80’s you knew very well that you could wear your sunglasses at night thanks to Corey Hart.  He has sold over 16 million records worldwide and scored nine consecutive US Billboard Top 40 hits.

Alan Doyle is a cut above the rest in terms of charm and commitment to a light-hearted, feel good performance.

Sunday night’s show with Alan Doyle and his Beautiful Beautiful Band left the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall buzzing (and slightly buzzed) as he played fan favourites, traditional songs and some of his new tunes as well. The night was filled with Newfoundland folk artists who graced the stage for the full house of adoring fans. The night was opened up by St.John natives, Fortunate Ones, who brought their traditional folk sound to fill the hall. Their unforgettable harmonies and accordion laced songs have made their way through Ottawa a number of times, this time bringing with them some new work with a pop twist to it. My first taste of the duo was at Blacksheep Inn when they opened for Nova Scotia’s own Rose Cousins (who is playing the NAC this Friday!) They have also come across the stage at City Folk as well as other stages at the National Arts Centre. The fashionable pair are always a good time, and I recommend you heading out to see them the next time they pass through.

Alan Doyle has been busy since Great Big Sea ended, with three solo albums and two books out, he is not sitting idle to be sure. He describes himself as “the luckiest guy I’ve ever even heard of” for the many events that led to being able to spend his life doing what he loves best, singing songs and playing concerts, and that shows very much in his stage show.

What do you get when you spend ten days at Vancouver’ Warehouse Studio with talent like Alan Doyle? Well, when you ask him, he will tell you all about his appropriately named album A Week at the Warehouse. With an old school way of making this record, he had his whole band, (affectionately named “the Beautiful, Beautiful Band”), set up within the studio to do full recordings together. This created a fun environment for the musicians to record in, and an interesting space for the album to grow from.

There may still be over 3 months left in 2017 but 2018 is starting to looK red hot with several major Canadian acts hitting the road. Among them is Alan Doyle who announced his “Come Out With Me”  tour earlier today.

The title of the event was exactly as it promised to be – intimate. Sean McCann created a personal and sincere atmosphere that the audience adored right up to the final encore.

It’s nice once in a while to wind down from the big production shows to take in a stripped down performance with just a musician, their guitar and their stories. Last week’s intimate and acoustic presentation at Algonquin College featured Sean McCann, Pat Maloney and Ken Yates doing just that.