Peterborough Folk Festival

2011 has been a landmark year for Brazilian-born singer/percussionist/composer Aline Morales. The launch of her debut solo album Flores, Tambores e Amores was met with widespread critical acclaim. David Dacks writes in the Grid, “Simply put, Aline Morales’ self-released Flores, Tambores e Amores may be the finest Brazilian album ever produced in Canada.”  An ambitious and eclectic record, Flores defies easy [...]

Friday August 26, 8pm, The Market Hall, Tickets $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Buy tickets online on the theatre’s website Funny and upbeat, with just a pinch of sass, the Good Lovelies’ textbook three-part harmonies, constant instrument swapping and witty on-stage banter have enlivened the folk music landscape since they joined forces in [...]

Mike Essoudry’s Mash Potato Mashers are a unique 9 piece parade style band from Ottawa. The band’s all original repertoire draws on dancing and parade traditions from around the world. Balkan, Klezmer, Brazilian, New Orleans Funk traditions and a bit of old country hollers are all represented. 2 drummers, 7 horn players, a megaphone, and [...]

Leaping out of the urban landscape with the ferocity of a group of inebriated dancers, Ukrainia is a band with the hearts of giants. Their traditionally-based Ukrainian music has been pumped up and electrified. Jangly guitars punctuate the arrangements with metal-pop power, ranging from power chords to expedited strumming, to warbly twang-bar flexing – often [...]

An eleven-piece band of time-traveling troubadours, The Unsettlers specialize in dark polkas, menacing waltzes, horse-drawn lullabies and funeral dirges for the living – all filtered through the creaking floorboards of a whiskey-soaked saloon. Based in Montreal, the lineup features a contortionist, multiple vocalists, clarinet, accordion, violin, horns, guitar, piano, bass, and trashcan drums. Sounding peculiarly [...]

Emerging Artist Award winner 2011! From an early age growing up in the farming community of Ennismore, ON, Melissa Payne’s life was formed around music.  From her grandparents’ fiddle-loving east coast roots, through her early music lessons from the internationally acclaimed Leahy family, it was in her genetic code to love music. After teaching herself to [...]

Sarah Loucks has been blessed with nothing but open doors.  With a vast background of classical piano, dance and theatre training, the stage is her second home.  Through her stage experience, artistic influences and her innate need to communicate artistically, Sarah has found herself a niche as a singer-songwriter. As a songwriter, Sarah hands us [...]

The Express and Co. are a band short on bios, but long on good songs. To learn more about them, visit this website. (Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.)    

The Melomaniacs’ music highlights their love of and exposure to a multitude of musical genres, blending folk, blues, rock, funk and reggae influences.  With a new EP recorded by engineer Mark Bussieres, the band is establishing a loyal and interested fan base comprised of people with enthusiasm for music. To learn more about The Melomaniacs, [...]

When Loretta Lynn sang, “If you’re lookin’ at me, you’re lookin’ at country,” she really hit a chord with Peterborough, ON’s The Kindness Killers.  Fronted by Benj Rowland, taking turns between acoustic guitar and accordion, and featuring Julia Fenn on ukulele and vocals, Charity Justrabo on cello and Nick Ferrio on lap steel and back-up [...]

Washboard Hank has been an obscure legend of Hillbilly Junk Jazz for more than 30 years. Back in the 70s he toured the streets of North America with his pal Reverend Ken and together they created a whole new genre of music ” punk bluegrass gospel.”  They would heal appliances and pass the collection plate [...]

Michael Morritt is a Peterborough born singer-songwriter. His music is emotive and dynamic, ranging in style from folk to jazz to classical. Despite a wide range of styles, each of his songs are imbued with his distinctive voice. He performs alone with an acoustic nylon-string guitar. Lyrically, Morritt’s compositions are introspective explorations of love, the [...]

  Emerging from the sleepy river town of Peterborough, Ontario, The Avenues make real country music; not country music that requires the pre-fix “alt” or “new,” but the pure, honest, and unadorned kind. Forming in the winter of 2009, The Avenues sound the way Nashville might have without the glitz and glamour, as their banjo [...]

Friday August 26, 8pm The Market Hall Buy tickets online! Friday August 26 is the Kickoff Party for PFF 2011, and we couldn’t be more excited to announce that this year we’re presenting The Good Lovelies!  Funny and upbeat, with just a pinch of sass, The Good Lovelies’ textbook three-part harmonies, constant instrument swapping and [...]

The D’oh See Dough Boyz are well into their second decade of providing the perfect square dance party.  These festive occasions have included weddings, birthday parties, anniversaries, school functions, and even a theological convention.  The classic old time square dance, now as in the pioneer past, brings together friends, neighbours and complete strangers alike, and [...]

Festival Stage Hosts – Evening Originally brought together as the rhythm section for Canadian folk and fiddle outfit Flapjack in 1998, Sheesham and Lotus immersed themselves in the traditional music scenes wherever their travels took them, from West Virginia to Kasheshewan and California to Nova Scotia. They traded tunes and studied with old masters throughout [...]

AD’s Notes: These guys played the PFF in 2010, but they were so extraordinarily good, and so few people got to see them, we had to bring them back this year to make sure everyone gets a chance to hear this fabulous music. Bio With a band name like Acres and Acres, one immediately conjures [...]

Emerging Artist Award Winner 2010! AD’s Notes: Bio: Returning to Canada from a long sojourn in the state of Utah, Kate Le Deuce is bringing something unique to the alternative country scene. Channeling 1970s country music, when men lived hard, drank hard, and drove hard, she sing songs for truck drivers, drunks and sad bastards. [...]