Meet Our Next Artists

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Jud has a genuine love for playing music and has been making a name for himself in the Nova Scotian music scene. With performances at the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, the Pictou Lobster Carnival and the New Glasgow Jubilee under his belt, Jud has captivated live audiences across the Maritime provinces, and has only just begun.

Dedicated to the craft of guitar playing, with an appreciation for artists such as Chet Atkins, Doc Watson, John Allan Cameron, Buddy Holly, Roger Miller, Hank Snow, Stompin' Tom Connors and the Delmore Brothers, Jud Gunning has been building up a strong repertoire of classic songs and instrumentals.

He looks forward to following in the footsteps of his musical heroes, and taking his talent wherever the road may lead him.

Accordionist, guitarist, and player of pocket-sized instruments, Mary Beth Carty of Antigonish possesses a magical voice that earned her the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award for Traditional Singer of the Year. Mary Beth has the ability to rouse a room to sing-along to choruses of entertaining original songs, and a unique repertoire of traditional Gaelic and French songs. With her latest Folk Alliance International charting album, Crossing the Causeway, Mary Beth fuses songs and instrumental tunes to create a multilingual opus that reflects the diverse yet unified roots of Eastern Nova Scotia. The songs from her first album, ECMA-nominated Les biens-nommés, are poignant portraits of imaginary characters, written en français. She has toured in France, Austria, Congo, Rwanda, all across Canada, and has performed aboard NCL and Holland America cruise lines. She is known for her entertaining live shows, ripe with sing-alongs, dance jigs, and all around good vibes!

Shane Pendergast has folk music in his blood. Hailing from a long lineage of storytellers and musicians in Prince Edward Island, he is keeping the Maritime folk tradition alive with his honest and insightful compositions. From acclaimed folk festivals across the world to the small halls of PEI, Shane has cemented himself as one of Atlantic Canada’s finest folk troubadours. His 2021 album ‘Second Wind” won Contemporary Roots Album of the Year at the Music PEI Awards, and his live album “The House Before the Bridge” was nominated for Roots/Traditional Recording of the Year at the 2023 ECMA’s.

Rising folk star Freya Milliken is quickly making a name for herself. An award-winning singer-songwriter, she won Song of the Year at the Music New Brunswick Awards in 2023 for her song Wholeheartedly, the title track off her debut EP. The EP garnered a nomination for Folk/Roots Recording of the Year at the 2024 Music Nova Scotia Awards. Freya's work has also been recognized by a recent commission from Symphony Nova Scotia to compose for the Lullaby Songs Project, in addition to a commission for United Way Halifax’s Songs of the City. Past performance highlights include showcases at the ECMAs, Nova Scotia Music Week, Paddlefest, Larlee Creek Hullabaloo, Full Circle, Deep Roots, Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival and a tour in Europe with the Acadia University Singers for the Singing In Flanders Fields Project.

Award winning power-duo Campbell & Johnston are a soulful blend of vintage blues-rock, roots & folk with a modern twist. Trading off lead vocals, harmonies and guitar solos, the two are a musical yin & yang, captivating audiences with raw emotion and heartfelt authenticity. Whether experiencing their performance as an acoustic duo, or with their full electric band, the chemistry is palpable and the musicianship is top notch.

Their debut album earned them the 22' ECMA for "Best Blues Album" and a Maple Blues nomination. Campbell also received the "Rooted To The Island Award" from Music PEl in 2023. You may have heard their music from popular Canadian tv shows like "Hudson & Rex" and "Sullivan's Crossing" or saw them open for some big names like Steve Earle, Burton Cummings and Bob Seger.

Their new album "Paisley Hearts", released in the May of 24, hit the airwaves throughout Canada, the U.K. and U.S. via radio platforms like CBC.

Along with making it into the #3 slot on The Roots Music Report's Top 50

Canada Album Charts.

They have had a jam-packed year of touring, bringing their new music to some renowned stages like Ottawa Bluesfest, Stanfest, Harvest Jazz & Blues and opening for Tom Cochrane at the Ns Stampede.

Award winning singer-songwriter Steven MacDougall presents a riveting show that combines songs & stories from his vast & diverse musical vocabulary - folk, country, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll - all influenced by his Cape Breton musical roots and world-wide travels with his band, Slowcoaster. An internationally renowned songwriter, he travels to Nashville, NYC, Los Angeles to collaborate.

Dane Pedersen is a singer, songwriter, and actor from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He has performed in a wide range of capacities and settings, from coffeehouse fundraisers to professional theatrical productions.

A recent 2024 Graduate of the Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at St.

Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, where he majored in Vocal studies, Dane is becoming a regular on the Cape Breton and Antigonish music scenes. However, he still makes appearances on stage in local theatre productions. He is also a member of the band Moment's Notice, made up of some friends from the St. F.X. Jazz

Studies program.

Dane's love for folk music runs deep and in his own performances he strives to uphold and continue the East Coast tradition of storytelling through song.

Joce Reyome has been captivating audiences with their dynamic performances on stages throughout the east coast of Canada, where they now call home.

Reyome discovered their true passion in the rhythmic world of music, where they honed their skills performing alongside artists such as Irish Mythen, KINLEY, Andrew Waite and Dylan Menzie.

Joce's debut single, Cross My Heart, was produced by award-winning producer Erin Costelo and recorded with Colin Buchanan at Hillsound Studios. They followed up with their second single, Grateful. Also produced by Erin Costelo, this single is infused with their trademark classic blues sound, raw vocals, and evocative storytelling. Joce is currently recording their first full length album, which can be expected later this year.

Winner of the 2022 Music PEI "Entertainer of the Year" Award, Reyome, a genuine soul, brings authenticity to their performances, turning audiences into active participants in a journey through heartbreak and humour. With performances on the Confederation Centre of the Arts main stage, at JUNOfest 2024, at the East Coast Music Awards and more, they have captivated audiences across Atlantic

Canada

Joce lives in Charlottetown with their wife Cameron, burly poodle-mix Frankie, and precocious cat Eggs Florentine who is more affectionately called Flori.

Bad ideas, VCRs, crumbling factories, terrible therapists, hairy dogs, wrinkled shirts, French fries, questionable tattoos...all are fair game for Nova Scotian funeral director-turned-songwriter Terra Spencer. And the songs are good ones, judging from the stack of awards her three albums have received, and from the caliber of her collaborators, which include David Francey, Ben Caplan, and Matt Andersen. Although her butterscotch voice, deft fingerstyle guitar, and gospel-charged piano make her a formidable musician, it's her onstage ease and crackling wit that make each show feel like a knee-to-knee conversation in a room of 5 or 500. "The real deal." - Ron Sexsmith

Planted at the crossroads of roots and soul, Charlie A'Court possesses a mighty voice, fierce

guitar work and contemporary songwriting that is loved by fans across Canada and beyond. His latest album, A'Court, Spiegel, & Vinnick, won

Blues Recording of The Year at the 2024 EastCoast Music Awards.

Also known as the International Roots & Blues Kitchen Party, this fully acoustic album sees A'Court in a wonderful, synergistic collaboration with Australian blues

legend, Lloyd Spiegel, and Canadian roots/blues icon, Suzie Vinnick.

Charlie has always been recognized for exploring his musical horizons. As a six-time ECMA

winner and eight-time Nova Scotia Music Award winner, Charlie has earned awards for

Blues, Pop, and R&B/Soul Recordings of the Year, and on multiple occasions been recognized as

Entertainer of the Year. A'Court has also received multiple Maple Blues

Award nominations

including Male Vocalist and Songwriter of the Year.

Telling stories of love, loss, and life, Cape Breton singer-songwriter Steve MacIntyre takes you on a journey; one that is dripping with images of the East Coast. 

Hailing from Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton, MacIntyre carries on the tradition of the region’s great songwriters, having grown up listening to the likes of John Allan Cameron, the Rankins, and a slew of Cape Breton fiddlers. Throughout his songs, which have recently earned him a Music Nova Scotia Award nomination, MacIntyre hopes to describe the things that move him well enough that they move you, too. The good and the bad take equal footing in Steve’s songs; they describe the things common to the human experience and do so through beautifully crafted words and music. 

“Steve MacIntyre is a rare original. He brings you in, effortlessly, to an intensely personal place you may not have expected, with his heart on his sleeve and a huge, bear hug of a voice.” - Jamie Foulds, Producer (Rita MacNeil, The Barra MacNeils, JP Cormier)

Carleton Stone is an award-winning artist, a songwriter with a growing list of credits, and a founding member of the hugely successful Port Cities. He has recently added producer to his list of accomplishments with both Willie Stratton’s award winning “Drugstore Dreamin” and his own self produced, Papercut – a collection of sophisticated singer-songwriter pop with well-crafted lyrics and memorable melodies.

An outstanding writer, Carleton has written songs for and with such diverse artists as Ria Mae, Matt Andersen, The East Pointers, Quake, Donovan Woods, Classified, Bobby Bazini, and Neon Dreams.

Carleton has three solo records to his credit, multiple awards, and has toured internationally, most recently in the US with The Crash Test Dummies where he received an outstanding response to his solo show.

Those from 'away' would pay a hefty price for just a small slice of what Jesse Cox calls home.  The singer/songwriter was born to folk-singing parents 'Down North' on Cape Breton Island.  He quickly setabout piling up musical accomplishments.  He was New Brunswick's CBC Searchlight champ in 2015, has played Bruce Guthro's Songwriter's Circle multiple times, and made records with some heavy hitters, namely, Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar), Ken Greer (Red Rider), Shaun Verreault (Wide Mouth Mason), and Nova Scotia's Joel Placket.  Growing up making hay, milking cows and riding horses, Jesse now spends much of his time at sea and all of those things have made him into the songwriter he is today.  His 2021 recording 'Threshing Floor' sits among the greatest Cape Breton records ever made.

Telling stories of love, loss, and life, Cape Breton singer-songwriter Steve MacIntyre takes you on a journey; one that is dripping with images of the East Coast. 

Hailing from Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton, MacIntyre carries on the tradition of the region’s great songwriters, having grown up listening to the likes of John Allan Cameron, the Rankins, and a slew of Cape Breton fiddlers. Throughout his songs, which have recently earned him a Music Nova Scotia Award nomination, MacIntyre hopes to describe the things that move him well enough that they move you, too. The good and the bad take equal footing in Steve’s songs; they describe the things common to the human experience and do so through beautifully crafted words and music. 

“Steve MacIntyre is a rare original. He brings you in, effortlessly, to an intensely personal place you may not have expected, with his heart on his sleeve and a huge, bear hug of a voice.” - Jamie Foulds, Producer (Rita MacNeil, The Barra MacNeils, JP Cormier)

Cape Breton’s troubadour Aaron MacDonald is one of the region’s most prolific and authentic songwriters. 

Hailing from Mabou, a small town that beats in the musical heart of the island, Aaron has been telling his life story through song for many years. 

This ECMA and Music NS multi-nominated artist has a matured blend of country and rock that lovingly leans towards roots and blues. The songs seem familiar even when hearing them for the first time. 

Back to back Americana Album of the Year nominations, a new live album, Song From A Hurricane, released in January, with his next studio album due out this spring, Aaron MacDonald continues to show why he was one of the East Coast's premier and unique songwriters. 

With a voice as powerful as a wayward freight train, singer-songwriter Joe H Henry bellows the flames of gritty roots with a whole lot of soul.

The son of award-winning Canadian country musician Harvey Henry, Joe was born to sing. He was gifted with a one-of-a-kind voice and a love for storytelling through song, drawing from his musical roots and Metis heritage of the Red River Valley.

Joe’s younger years were spent riding freight trains from town to town with nothing but a faithful dog and a guitar, collecting life
lessons and harnessing the flame of inspiration that was often masked in struggle. Eventually settling down to raise a family, Joe moved to a homestead on North Mountain, Nova Scotia with his wife and five children in 2020.

With the release of his debut EP, Keep the Fire Burning, (Summer 2023) Joe is ready to wholeheartedly share his talents with the world.

For more than a decade now, Willie Stratton has been building his good name on stellar sonic shape-shifting. The Halifax-based singer-songwriter has proven time and again that he can dive into any of rock ‘n’ roll’s various iterations—heartsick blues, twanged-up country, hip-shaking rockabilly, groovy surf, anything and everything in between—and emerge, again, as a maestro of the style. But on his new long-player, Stratton seeks synthesis: Drugstore Dreamin’ finds him playing alchemist, melting down the myriad sounds he’s mastered over the years to create singular sonic gold. As Stratton deftly weaves and mixes musical forms, Drugstore Dreamin’s intoxicating concoction brings his timeless songwriting to the forefront.

Jon Hines of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has toured throughout Canada in his young career as a blues man. Winner of Music Nova Scotia Blues Recording of the Year 2023, Nominated 2022 Blues Recording of the Year East Coast Music Association, and winner of the East Coast Blues Society’s “Maritime to Memphis Blues Challenge”. Jon is an official artist of Black Mountain Picks, Godin Guitars, and Wild Dog Stompboxes. “A Pale Blue Dot” has seen radio play nationally across Canada, and internationally in the UK and the United States of America. Jon Hines & Joe Murphy started a duo after a recording session for “A Pale Blue Dot.” Jon is a semi-finalist in the international songwriting competition two years in a row, 2017 and 2018.

2022 Canadian Folk Music Awards Young Performer of the Year and winner of Music Nova Scotia's Folk/Roots Album of the Year, Isabella Samson has been making serious waves in the East Coast. A tasteful glimpse into the mind of a young woman navigating life, love, and the world around her, Samson’s music has been described as a perfect mix of Joni Mitchell and Lizzy McAlpine. She has been recognized for her remarkable ability to captivate any crowd with her unique sense of humour and thoughtful lyricism, as well as the sweeping vocals she has become known for. On and off the stage, Samson has always been nothing but true to herself and her Cape Breton roots, guaranteeing a show that will leave you longing for more.

Hearts of Kin is an emerging East Coast Americana band fronted by sisters Danielle MacDonald and Shellie Ann Tobin. The singer-songwriters have captured audiences with their sweet sibling harmonies and signature slide guitar. Well known for their soulful songwriting, the darling duo's style has been flavoured by the early influences of folk, rock-roots, country and blues. After sharing stages with names like Serena Ryder, Michelle Wright, and Lennie Gallant, the duo released their first full-length album, "Beautiful Burn" on October 27th, 2023.

Hank Snow, Wilf Carter, Rita MacNeil…these are just a few of the names that 2022 NS Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Evelyn MacRae stands alongside. Born of a large and musical Cape Breton family, there was no doubt Evelyn would take her place among these industry giants. Now you will hear why. Evelyn has played all over the country; always with a smile and a generous heart. 

Jordan is a hard-working singer/songwriter and a masterful storyteller, writing songs about life and love with pathos and humour in a Folk/Americana style. He sustains a busy touring schedule throughout Canada in support of his third album ‘Around The Fire’ which won him an ECMA in 2021. His sophomore album ‘Old State Of Mind’ (2017) was nominated for a Music Nova Scotia award for best Americana album of the year. Drawing on his own life experiences he writes relatable songs of love, loss and the human condition. A dynamic performer, Jordan moves the audience from laughter to tears and back again. His first album ‘The Pitch’ (released in the fall of 2014) was nominated for 2 Music Nova Scotia awards. He has toured across Canada many times playing his songs solo and with his band. He has played the majority of the major music festivals in Atlantic Canada such as the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Cavendish Beach Festival, Celtic Colours Festival and the Evolve Music Festival. He also writes, performs and tours with the Cape Breton Summertime Revue and ‘Tis The Season annually since 2015. 

“Jordan Musycsyn is a great musician and a great storyteller.”
­Alan Doyle, GREAT BIG SEA

Buddy MacDonald, a true Cape Breton legend, has captivated audiences with his heartfelt songs and engaging performances for over 40 years. Influenced by the rich Celtic heritage of his native island, Buddy's music bridges generations and continents. Whether as a solo artist or alongside John Ferguson in their dynamic duo, Buddy's passion for songwriting and entertainment creates a connection that's second to none. From sharing the stage with Celtic luminaries to composing acclaimed songs like "Getting Dark Again," Buddy's musical journey is a testament to the power of storytelling through music. Join us for a night of soulful tunes and infectious energy with Buddy MacDonald!

A lifelong performing artist, Robert Bouchard has toured across Canada on numerous occasions collecting fans and accolades along the way. Among the highlights is an appearance on the ‘Tommy Hunter Show’ and an induction into the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame! This Arichat, Cape Breton native has six recording projects under his belt, the latest being ‘That’s What I Live For’. Truly one of the finest country music performers to ever come from the island, we welcome the addition of Robert to the concert series.