The Pearl Company

The ƒ Holes: Thursday, October 13. 8:00. $15 door/ $10 students/all artists: This impeccably authentic, raucously entertaining blend of gypsy jazz, zippy Dixieland, viper blues and roots from this Winnipeg creative hybrid is back again and we are delighted! They have essentially rewritten the definition of roots music…. Over-the-top vocals meet pedal steel, blistering horns, banjo and fiddle to create this campy, slightly twisted take on country, blues, Dixieland, klezmer and anything that piques their interest, apparently. With music that would be at home on an off-Broadway stage, this musical conglomerate swirls around the hell-fired vocals of Patrick Alexandre Leclerc and a group of talented musicians who throw caution to the wind in their bid to make a distinctive mark. (The “f” refers to the holes in acoustic guitars and standup basses in case you were wondering…) www.thefholes.ca

Ann Vriend: With Band! Wednesday, October 12. 8 pm. $15, $10 for students/artists (includes musicians) Soulful, inspiring, brave and bluesy.  With a vocal range from vulnerable delicacy to blasts of soulful power, she’s an enchanting cross between Dolly Parton and a young Aretha Franklin.  So say the critics!  Here’s more: “Ann Vriend’s newest album defies narrow genres. Each of the 12 tracks manages the rare feat of sounding at once comfortably familiar and intriguingly original…. veering effortlessly between straight-ahead, quiet country, to soul-wrenching blues, to folk-inspired storytelling…. Don’t miss her.” –3.5 of 4 Stars, Toronto Star. Impossible to categorize, Vriend’s unique style brings together elements of soul, pop, country, jazz, blues and gospel and sounds both familiar and strange at the same time. “Vriend (pronounced Vreend) is fantastic in concert – a very, very, funny woman that tends to belt out her songs in between her truly entertaining comedic intervals” (4 of 5 Stars, A n E Vibe Magazine). Her latest album is also described as “a retro look at old pop records of the ‘60s, with Vriend playing the country diva, the Amy Winehouse of the prairies. Wow.  http://www.annvriend.com

Hard Ryde: Saturday, October 8: $15 door / $10 Students/Artists (includes musicians!) 8:00pm. Hard Ryde is an award-winning combination of musical synergy, adored by their fans and respected by their peers on both sides of the border. Hailing from musical backgrounds encompassing bluegrass, country, old-time and jazz, the sum of these individual parts equals one dynamic powerhouse of talent taking the Canadian bluegrass stage.  Their music is fresh, exciting and new, while at the same time respecting and capturing the essence and passion of traditional bluegrass.  Hard Ryde’s strong vocals, stellar musicianship and winning songwriting abilities have won this band a top spot in the hearts of bluegrass fans in Canada and beyond.  Inducted into the Central Canadian Bluegrass hall of fame, Hard Ryde music speaks for itself, straightforward and  soulful with the uncommon ability to capture the essence and passion of Bluegrass music. http://www.hardryde.ca
Canada’s Hard Ryde has developed into one of the top bluegrass bands in any country. Great harmonies, superb instrumental work and strong songwriting make “Stages” a must have!!! This is not only the top Canadian bluegrass album of the year but one could make a strong case that it is the best one ever!!! These guys are SMOKIN’ !!!  Jim Marino, Freewheeling Folk Show & Smokin’ Bluegrass Show.

Kaleidescope Brown: feat. BROWNMAN AKOUSTIC TRIO (NYC style modern swing) Friday, October 7. $15 door. $10 artists/students.  With: Brownman Ali – trumpet: Soren Nissen – acoustic bass: Eric West – drums. Rarely in Toronto amidst a frenetic international tour schedule, for October’s installment of KALEIDOSCOPE BROWN the Toronto based Trinidadian-born multi-award winning jazz trumpeter brings the BROWNMAN AKOUSTIC TRIO to Pearl Company for a Friday night of 50’s & 60’s jazz ala Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter and more from the American jazz songbook.  He comes to us flanked by two of the most called upon young bassists and drummers in the Toronto jazz scene right now – both under 25 year old!  Be ready for fresh-faced and exciting new takes on the classic jazz lineage. http://bat.brownman.com
“Award winning Trinidadian born, New York schooled jazz trumpet player Brownman Ali leads this modern jazz quartet through inspired arrangements of standards and choice originals.  The new generation of jazz.”  – Jazzonline.com reviewer
“Performing organic jazz in the classic trio or quartet setting, this unit strives to embody the jazz improvising spirit of the 60’s – communication.  Playing selections of standards linked together in one organic mish-mash of sonic goodness, this unit brings classic jazz themes and powerful Brownman compositions into the new millennium” – Jazz Journey, CHRY radio

World Music Fusion Project: Saturday, October 1: 8:00 pm.  $15 at door. The remarkable musicians, Gary Santucci on guitar, and Sudan’s premiere oud player Bashir Abbas are planning another powerful concert.  The ‘other’ musician details are still being put together but I know the possibilities and the evening will be spectacular! Gary Santucci, just in case you need to be told, is “the real thing” (as he was called not to long ago), a guitarist/composer who plays flamenco, classical, and world music. Bashir Abbas is just plain incredible.  He is Sudan’s top instrumental musician  and for this concert he will play the oud, which is a pear-shaped, lute-related stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. We are delighted to be able to have a musician of this caliber here!

Oh My Darling: Friday, September 30. $15 door, $10 Students/Artists (Includes all arts and music!) 8:00pm. With a sweet name and even sweeter sound, Oh My Darling conjures up the right mix of emotion and elation with their unique brand of country. Their prairie roots mixed with bluegrass, Appalachian old time, southern twang, and Franco-folk, makes their style a melting pot of musical languages. Infused with dynamic vocals, brilliant claw-hammer banjo, inspired fiddling, and grooving bass, their music will get your hips swinging, toes tapping, and put your heart right into their hands. Each time Oh My Darling takes the stage, they prove time and again why they’re captivating audiences and attracting an abundance of fans, because boy, can these girls can play! Individually, they are known as some of the hottest players on the Canadian roots scene, but there is strength in numbers, and combined, the foursome is strong as steel.
The songs of Sweet Nostalgia, their second full length release, are strikingly original, while evoking the lexicon of their diverse musical influences. The band has toured ceaselessly, headlining sold out shows across Europe and Canada, becoming crowd favourites at country and folk festivals, and winning the hearts of all who come to experience their energetic live show. It’s this love for live performance that Oh My Darling strove to capture while recording Sweet Nostalgia. with the Juno Award winning producer Steve Dawson. The result is a raw and honest sound that has the exuberance of a live show, and shines a spotlight on each of these girls’ extraordinary talents as musicians and songwriters.” www.ohmydarling.ca

The Jazz Connection Big Band: Thursday, September 29. Doors at 7:30, jazz at 8:00 $15 at the door: They’re back and are gaining bigger audiences every time they play here! Made up of talented musicians from all over southwestern Ontario, the Jazz Connection Big Band is a 20-piece band dedicated to playing great, straight-ahead big band jazz.  They will carry us once again into the cool space of surround sound big band music! http://www.jazzconnection.ca This time they are bringing  renowned jazz pianist Paul Hoffert! Paul has the soul of an artist and the mind of a scientist. By the time he was twenty-six, Mr. Hoffert was an established jazz recording artist, television performer, off-Broadway musical author, film composer, and had studied mathematics and physics at the University of Toronto. He co-founded Lighthouse, a rock band with horns and strings that sold millions of records, and toured the world. He was inducted into the Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Hoffert has parallel achievements in science and technology; he writes best-selling books: he has received the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honour and he is a Fine Arts Professor at York University.   “Paul Hoffert is the ideal visionary for the Digital Age” www.paulhoffert.ca

Kayla Luky: Wednesday, September 21: 8:00. $15 door. $10 artists/students This singer-songwriter from Grandview, Manitoba tells small town stories, chock-full of well-crafted down-home tunes.  If you’re hankering for some home cooking, Kayla Luky’s “The Time it Takes” will satisfy your hometown appetite.  Luky has surpassed the spare, straightforward sound of her previous folk-pop projects and created a bona fide alt-country album. The players inject an audible intensity into already strong songs. Take the title track, which starts with Luky’s heavyhearted harmonica, enough to put you into a melancholy mood, but when the banjo enters the mix, you get a good hard yank at the heartstrings. The bluesy electric guitar is the perfect companion to Luky’s localized lyrics, which concern such community issues as pogey, puck bunnies and coffeeshop complainers.

Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers: Saturday, September 17: 9:00.$15 door. $10 artists/students. Rugged, raspy, and roaring with charisma, former Hamiltonian, now Halifax’s Ben Caplan delivers it all from poetic ballads to frenetic gypsy anthems. There is a depth and musicianship to the songs. Expressive percussion, upright bass, violin, sax, clarinet, flute, and terrific use of call and response sing-along choruses all help Caplan & The Casual Smokers stand out from the masses.
In pace with gypsy-inspired strings, amid the sultry tones of clarinet and saxophone, Caplan has marked his place in the Canadian music landscape with a growling spirit similar to that of Tom Waits. His tours have extended throughout the Commonwealth, the energy of his live show an elegant cacophony gaining attention around the world. Breaking between guitar, banjo, piano, and melodica, Caplan’s stage show is reminiscent of a burly and bearded Freddy Mercury; a raging, strong, and exploratory songwriter, it’s the blues in his soul, pounding with the heart in your chest that makes Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers an unmissable act. www.bencaplan.ca
This Just In!  Zachary Lucky will be joining Ben. “Lucky’s music is a fresh take on traditional folk; a melodic and usually acoustic affair, with an accent on storytelling and a sparse, folky atmosphere. This all combines to create an often minimal soundscape that evokes homespun imagery and the realism of emotion….” – Craig Silliphant
“Lucky’s music is as mature as his attitude — an easy on the ear, soft-spoken affair with a lyrical emphasis on storytelling, offered up through an understated vocal delivery that meshes well with his softly acoustic playing style.” – Planet S Magazine http://www.myspace.com/zacharylucky

Charly Chiarelli and the Sunnamabeaches: Friday, September 16: 8:00.$15 door. $10 artists/students. Charly comes to The Pearl with his close friends Venesio – aka Dennis – De Salvo (a manager at Hamilton’s Canadian Mental Health Association, on guitar) Ron Weihs (co-proprietor of Artword Artbar, on fiddle) and Gary Santucci (Pearl Company, on very classy guitar).  Charly has become internationally recognized as one of the world’s most accomplished storytellers – widely known for his two earlier one-person plays, Cu’Fu and Mangiacake, and now the new hit Sunamabeach, to complete the trilogy. Charly is also a songwriter and virtuoso harmonica player, so, it is no wonder that this collection of four notorious Hamiltonians went on to form a band called the Sunamabeaches! Charly takes on the role of lead singer, harmonica player and at times will tell a story or two… However, any one of the other musician’s may step up to the plate with a story. But make no mistake about it, the focus is on music. And the Sunamabeaches will regale you with unique interpretations of jazz, blues, rock and Sicilian folk tunes – including Charly’s original tunes from his plays (and beyond). Just in case you do not know this, Charly has been inducted into the McMaster University Alumni Hall of Fame, along with inductee notables like Martin Short, Dave Thomas and Eugene Levy!  There you have it, Hamilton’s own SUNAMABEACHES, a must see!

TIM HUS with his Travelin’ Band: Wednesday, September 14. $15 door. $10 artists/students. This is the hardest-working traveling band in western Canada. Rough, rowdy and a whole lot of fun. Endorsed by Ian Tyson, Stompin’ Tom and Corb Lund as “the real thing”, Tim has written some of Ian and Corb’s hits and is also with the legendary Stony Plains Records. Hus and his tougher-than-nails road band are on a cross-Canada tour — on his last two tours Tim and the band were Stompin’ Tom Connors’ backup group and opening artists. Fans can expect some Stompin’ Tom yarns, some seasoned old jokes, and a lot of hard-driving music. Tim’s latest Stony Plain album, Hockeytown, is as hard-edged a piece of Canadiana as you’ll ever find. It includes songs about the Red River flood in Winnipeg, Hank Snow, Saskatoon, the death of country music, fishing in the North Atlantic, Hamilton’s steel industry, and — of course — hockey. www.timhus.ca

Kaleidoscope Brown: featuring ALI BROTHERS with Brownman Ali: With electric trumpet: Marcus Ali – alto sax & EWI: Colin Kingsmore – drums: Ben Miller – 6-string electric bass. Saturday, September 10. $15 door. $10 artists/students.  The Ali Bros embody the essence of jazz improvisational ideology erupting against a backdrop of powerful urban grooves.  Funk, hip-hop, drum’n’bass, R’n’B all colliding with modern jazz textures. Conceived in the spirit of multi grammy winning outfit  “The Brecker Bros”, the ALI BROS embody the essence of jazz improvisational ideology erupting against a backdrop of powerful urban grooves. Latin, funk, hip-hop, drum’n’bass, R’n’B all colliding with modern jazz textures. Their uncanny musical relationship enhanced by blood, Brownman and Marcus Ali together form an incredibly synergistic, almost telepathic bond making them two of the most called upon horn men in the city. They have appeared side by side in countless horn sections in the Canadian professional music scene most notably as the backbone to the multi-award winning latin-jazz ensemble CRUZAO, Juno nominated reggae artist JASON WILSON, with reggathon superstar FITO BLANKO, modern house outfit FUNKY HI-LIFE, african masters RADIO NOMAD, urban songstress SHYANN, pop-rock sensation CROSSBAC, merengue specialists DOMINICANADA, Salsa powerhouse MARRON MATIZADO, Trinidadian Calypso group BACCHANAL ALL-STARS and far too many more to list here…” http://alibros.brownman.com

Read Toronto International Film festival review:

http://brownman.com/Interviews/2005-08-FilmFest/Mythology.html

An Evening with Sheila Gostick: Friday September 9, 8:00pm. $15 door. $10 artists/students. Sheila is the ultimate outsider artist; a legendary rebel comedian and song tosser. Direct from a G20 lockdown…. Banned in Toronto…. The word unique was made for this woman, the brilliant comic monologist that she is. Her delivery is a mix of fun and danger; `I’m not here to comfort, I’m here to afflict the comfortable’ she says.  “Traditional stand-up comics often relieve tension about social issues. Gostick’s mission is to crank it up, to be serious without being solemn, and to make people laugh a split second before they realize how subversive her stuff really is.” Robert Everett Green, Globe and Mail.  This woman is so subversive she does not have a website, email address or voicemail.  Sheila, can I come live with you?

Poor Angus: Thursday, September 8. 8:00pm. $15 door. $10 artists/students.  A Hamilton-based Celtic ensemble mixing the music of past and present with dynamic arrangements of traditional and original Scottish, Irish and East Coast pieces. They’ve shared the stage with the likes of Blue Rodeo, Kathleen Edwards, and The Proclaimers, Featuring Ross Griffiths’ masterful highland and uilleann piping and tin whistles, the virtuoso fiddling of Andrew Bryan, the warm voice and fingerstyle guitar of folk music veteran Scott Cameron Smith, the bodhran, guitar and mandolin of Brian LeBlanc, with bass and keyboard player DJ Moons.  Poor Angus is noted especially for their foot stomping vocal harmony. Their first album in 2007, won the Hamilton Music Award for Folk/Traditional Album of the Year; Their second album, “Prime Cuts”, also won the 2009 HMA for Folk/Traditional album of the Year! Greg Quill of the Toronto Star noted: ”Deftly executed instrumental ballads, jigs and reels….Cameron Smith’s “How Many Are The Days” and “Colleen” provide ample opportunity for this gifted writer and singer to prove his worth.” www.poorangus.com

Canadian Theatre Festival: Finish a great summer with some fantastic Canadian theatre!  Led by Dora Award-winning Keystone Theatre from Toronto, the Pearl is thrilled to host their first Canadian Theatre Festival. Aug 18-27.  With ticket prices as low as $15 and with both matinee and evening performances, our Festival fits everyone’s budget and schedule. Single show: $15. Series tickets: $36. Click on the Festival tab above for the daily schedule.

Read Gary Smith’s Review: A pearl of a festival for Canadian Theatre

Shows & Performers:
Keystone Theatre (Toronto) – The Last Man on Earth, by Phil Rickaby, Dana Fradkin, Stephen LaFrenie, Janick Hebert, Ginette Mohr, Richard Beaune, David Atkinson & Kimberly Beaune
Kate Story (Peterborough) – Performances May Be Permanent by Kate Story
Peter Gruner (Oakville) – Cast Away by Peter Gruner
Reaching Symmetry Theatre (Hamilton) – The Dreadful Wedlock of Mr. Lovecraft by Stephen Near
Art is (Ancaster) – Ties by Kevin Land
For more show details click here.
To reserve tickets email info@thepearlcompany.ca or call 905-524-0606