ATHABASCA – Music enthusiasts are going to have a lot to love when the 2024 fall season of the Heartwood Folk Club starts up on Oct. 5.
The local folk club has started to advertise its latest batch of Canadian talent — this season features two Juno winners, as well as two acclaimed lyrical acts — and the group is hoping Athabascans share their excitement.
First up is Lynne Hanson, all the way from Ottawa. Hanson, who’s been called Canada’s Queen of Americana, is making her yearly tour to Alberta and will be taking the stage at the Nancy Appleby Theatre Oct. 5 to kick things off.
With a focus on lyricism and truth, Hanson will be playing songs from her latest album, Just a Poet, alongside some of her favourite tunes she hopes to share with the audience.
October is a jam-packed month for the club, with The Wardens bringing their unique sound to town Oct. 17.
The Rocky Mountain-based act features musicians who cut their teeth in the provincial and national parks that line the western side of the province, and their music reflects it. From hymns about colleagues to comedic ditties about life on the trail, the all-acoustic trio will be sure to keep concertgoers entertained and dreaming about a lifetime spent on mountain trails.
After the Wardens, Blue Moon Marquee is going to set the tone for a fun-filled Halloween night with their Oct. 30 performance. The Juno-winning blues duo brings their own modern interpretation of the genre to town, which has been honed by over a decade of tours across Europe and North America.
While both A.W Cardinal and Jasmine Colette are from Alberta, both musicians spent their early lives across Canada and the United States, before meeting in Vancouver in 2012. Since then, they’ve won the 2022 Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year, and were nominated for the Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year at this year’s ceremony.
The pair are well equipped to play in small town Alberta, with at least one song, “Old Alberta” being an ode to small town community hall gatherings.
“When I was growing up, it was very common that a couple times a month, all the families would go to these dances at the old community halls. There would be a live band, and all the other farming families and community's people would come and dance all night to these live bands,” said Collete in an October 2023 interview with The Western Wheel.
Finally, Jack Semple brings his Gordon Lightfoot tribute act in for the season finale Nov. 27. Alongside his backing band, Semple brings a heartfelt tribute to one of Canada’s greatest artists, an act he’s been perfecting since 2006.
As always, tickets for the shows are available at Athabasca’s Value Drug Mart, Whispering Hills Fuel, and Athabasca Health Foods. A season’s pass costs $100, and individual tickets for the shows can be purchased for $35. Children under the age of 16 get in for free.
