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All performances were at the Port Hardy Civic Centre
Below are last season's artists. We are now in the process of
booking the 2008-2009 season. Get Ready!
Rick Tippe - Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.
House of Doc - Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.
The Golden Violin: Moscow to Madrid - Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
Todd Butler - Saturday, February 16, 2008. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Dinner at 6:00 p.m. Performance at 8:00 p.m.
Dust Poets - Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
New Orleans North - Saturday, April 12, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
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 For over a decade now Music fans have been listening to and talking about the sound of Canada’s country sensation, Rick Tippe. Fans who have seen him perform live know that the claim of Rick Tippe being the most exciting performer north of Garth Brooks is justified. Those who have witnessed these show stopping performances either at Fairs, Exhibitions, Music Festivals, Rodeos or a Cabaret, know that Tippe delivers the goods.
Rick and his band “The Kings of Cool ” have shared the bill with several of country’s biggest stars including The Dixie Chicks, Brooks and Dunn, Keith Urban, Lonestar, Gary Allan, David Lee Murphy, Terri Clark and many, many more...Rick’s tour schedule has taken him around the world, including the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and of course Canada.
Rick has enjoyed a string of 25 consecutive singles reaching the TOP 40 on the Country Music charts in Canada including his inspirational song “Keepin’ The Faith” that has raised close to $25,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society. Rick is also well known for his 13 Music Videos that have been airing on CMT Canada for the past eight years.
In 1998, Rick won his first CCMA Award for “Independent Male Vocalist of the Year” and since 1992 he has amassed close to 30 British Columbia Country Music Awards including:
• Entertainer of the Year
• Songwriter of the Year
• Single of the Year
• Album of the Year
• Video of the Year
• Producer of the Year
* Male Vocalist of the Year ...in 2003 Rick received his 8th consecutive Male Vocalist Award!
Rick Tippe is a hit with all Music Fans. He is known as one of the hardest working performers in the “Entertainment Business”. On top of that Rick continues to work hard behind the scenes doing everything from writing the songs, producing the albums and music videos, designing the CD covers and inserts, managing his career, securing a distribution deal for his CDs, negotiating contracts with booking agents and talent buyers, so he can perform with his band “The Party Down Posse” in front of Country Music Fans everywhere. Rick Tippe has already had quite a decorated career and there is no doubt he has plenty more to offer in the years to come.
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Keepin The Faith (MP3) |
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Triple Threat (MP3) |
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The Future is Lookin' Brighter (MP3) |
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The Real Thing (MP3) |
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 House of Doc is a trio standing in the tradition of the old time family band. Hard hitting
singing with a tight blend and a core of traditional instruments. With an
unorthodox blend of celtic, folk, and blues influences, HoD has transplanted mountain music to the middle of Manitoba to create a distinctly Canadian sound. —Prairiegrass
We’ve been together since…well, by some measure it’s been about four years, though when most of your members are siblings it could be said that the band has existed since they were born. The truth is that there have been several points that could be called the conception of House of Doc.
Rebecca, and Dan, grew up singing together in Winnipeg—school choir, church choir, car trips to BC, whatever. Matthew grew up in Ontario, also singing in choirs and taking piano lessons like a good little boy, though by age 10 it was clear that guitar was his real love.
Five years ago, Matthew married Rebecca and became a back-up guitarist for the sibs (who until then had only sung a capella).
Soon after, the sibs began to pick up their respective instruments, the name was created, and HoD was born.
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I Was Lonely (MP3) |
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Fa-lee Da-lee Dee (MP3) |
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Legacy (MP3) |
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Footprints in the Sand (MP3) |
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Calvin Dyck
 "Music for Calvin is a passion, a profession and a pleasure. He started his musical training on the accordion at age 5. His violin training began when he was 8. Following the completion of his A.R.C.T. in 1981 he went on to study at Biola University and the University of Southern California where, in 1991, he received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Violin Performance.
Calvin has traveled around the world with various musical ensembles and enjoys a wide variety of engagements, including playing for musicals, weddings, films and recording sessions. Currently Calvin is the concertmaster for the Vancouver Island Symphony in Nanaimo, and director of the Abbotsford Youth Orchestra.
Calvin has taught at Scripps College and Biola University in California, and at Kwantlen College and Trinity Western University in British Columbia. Calvin has released three recordings: Meditation, This Shining Night and One Small Child. They were produced by MCC, and the profits of the sales benefit "Supportive Care Services", which provides care and services to people with disabilities.
"One Small Child was nominated for a Shai Award as best Instrumental Album and Best Seasonal Album in 2005. A fourth cd "The Dancing Violin" will be released in November, 2006.
Calvin lives in Abbotsford with his wife, Heather, and their two young children, Christine and Andrew. Besides making music, he enjoys the challenges and adventures of family life, as well as hobbies such as gardening, reading, and traveling.
Betty Suderman
 Noted for her sensitive musicianship, pianist Betty Suderman is especially in demand as a performer of Lieder and chamber music. She has concretized throughout Canada, the Pacific Northwest, Europe and Africa. Collaborating with fellow musicians is a particular joy for Ms. Suderman and has resulted in her participation as accompanist in numerous European vocal competitions, including several with Edith Wiens. She has recorded with Vancouver Cantata Singers, The Pacific Mennonite Children's Choir, and West Coast Mennonite Chamber Choir, including performances with Edith Wiens, Ben Heppner and Colin Balzer. She has been heard on various CBC programs In the summer of 2001, she performed several solo piano recitals in England and Africa in support of an AIDS organization in Botswana.
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Danse Espangnole (MP3) |
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Golliwog's Cakewalk (MP3) |
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Liebesleid (MP3) |
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Romeo and Juliet (MP3) |
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 Back by popular demand for the 3rd time. A veteran of over 20 years of live performing, Todd Butler’s skills are honed to an exquisite point and he swings easily from lambasting politicians in hilarious political parodies to interpreting the latest news stories with a twist. Each performance is crafted to the audience through extensive consultation and customization. Guaranteed to entertain you with a stunning combination of musical parody, whimsical wit, outstanding musicianship, and outrageous political satire.
I have been doing this "entertainment thing" for so long now, it's hard to keep track of all the places I've played!
For a list of convention clients, please click here.
For Kudos & News! click here.
For a more complete list, simply take out a map of Western Canada, hover your finger over it and randomly let it fall...chances are you are now pointing to a place in which I have done either a convention, a festival, a comedy night, a community concert or a hellish bar-gig over the past 25 years. No need to list them all, I thought. I can't remember them all. I can't forget some of them! Neither would you. There used to be this biker bar in Red Deer whe...er, too much information.
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Hard To Be A Hero (MP3) |
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A Fine Line (MP3) |
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Squirrelly (MP3) |
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Farmer Dan (MP3) |
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 The Dust Poets are a five-piece acoustic folk-pop group with roots deep in the Canadian prairie. The band pokes affectionate fun at themselves and the world around them while spreading their own irreverent brand of small town angst. The Dust Poets have performed extensively across Canada and are well known for their infectious spirit, powerful stage presence, genre-bending originals, hot instrumental chops, and juicy harmony singing.
Murray D. Evans - guitar, vocals
Karla Ferguson - accordion, vocals
Corey Ticknor - mandolin, vocals
Gord Mowat - bass
Sean McManus - clarinet, percussion, vocals
The Dust Poets perform the original music of veteran singer, songwriter Murray D. Evans, whose wry writer's eye explores themes of home-town losers, travel in foreign lands, and the absurdity of war. Ranging in tone from the darkly humourous to the achingly tender, Evans finds a fertile muse in the joys and disappointments of modern living. With their unmistakable original sound, the Dust Poets also perform an eclectic collection of country swing standards and underground pop covers.
The musically restless Dust Poets create arrangements that wander easily among different styles, including folk, bluegrass, swing, pop, and circus freak ragtime. The band's all-acoustic line-up features guitar, upright bass, accordion, mandolin, clarinet, and percussion, plus extraordinary four part vocal harmonies.
Since the band's formation in 2001 in Brandon, Manitoba, they have released three albums and toured throughout Canada and into the United States. Their first record, "...one night in Berlin" - recorded live in a single evening - earned a nomination for Outstanding Roots Recording for the 2002 Prairie Music Awards. Their second professionally recorded release, entitled "Four Legs Good," was released in 2003 and contains all the edgy excitement of their live show. In 2006 the band released their newest recording "Lovesick Town." The new disc finds songwriter Evans reveling in the quirky caricatures of small town life and showcases the acoustic band with an infusion of horns, drums and electric guitars.
In recent years, the Dust Poets have spread themselves across Canada – Murray D. Evans (guitar, lead vocals) lives in rural Manitoba near Riding Mountain National Park, Karla Ferguson (accordion, lead vocals), Sean McManus (clarinet, percussion), and Gord Mowat (bass) all live in Toronto, while Corey Ticknor (mandolin) lives in Sackville, New Brunswick. That they can thrive as the Dust Poets with such distance between them characterizes the passion and tenacity that the band summons to create, record, and tour its music.
The Dust Poets continue to earn fans and attract international attention with great music, a great sense of humour, and great performances, every time they take the stage.
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Walk Away (MP3) |
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Good Enough for Me (MP3) |
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Dance with Ourselves (MP3) |
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Lovesick Town (MP3) |
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Hurricane Katrina ravaged much of the quaint, old, Southern city that gave birth to America’s greatest artist gift to the world, New Orleans Jazz. The blues, the joys and the stomps so lovingly created by Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Joe King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and others, are still bringing people together around the world in such diverse places London, Paris, Moscow, New York, Vancouver and Whitehorse.
And it is this soul-soothing, spirit-lifting music that has brought together the members of New Orleans North. Lloyd discovered Sidney Bechet by way of 78 rpm records on the dusty plains of Saskatchewan eons ago, and brought this passion with him to the Pacific Coast.
Meanwhile, in the remote Canadian North, Grant Simpson was honing his skills as a stride pianist in Whitehorse, Yukon. Lloyd and Grant met and the seed was planted that they wanted to play together as often as possible.
Trumpeter Bria Skonberg and drummer Graeme Peters were added to the mix a little later - and when the circumstances are just right, guitarist Don Ogilvie is a welcome addition to the group.
And thus, New Orleans North was born.
And just as we still cherish Bach, Mozart and Beethoven let us also remember Morton, Bechet and Armstrong and make sure that this wonderful music does not perish from the earth.
"New Orleans North! Professional, polished and perfect - the humour and brilliant notes of Lloyd Arntzen, Alan Matheson, and the rest of the band, and of course, the fabulous fingers of Grant Simpson, the piano man himself."
Pat Brigg
"Don't even think about seeing this wonderful band unless you are ready to smile, laugh and enjoy an evening of foot tapping joy!"
Steve Gedrose
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Swing That Music (MP3) |
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Born 40 Years Too Late (MP3) |
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Dippermouth Blues (MP3) |
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Thrift Store (MP3) |
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