If you were fortunate enough to catch AV & the Inner City’s performance at last year’s Calgary Folk Music Festival, you know this all-female soul/roots ensemble is something special. The group is made up of band leader and multi award-winning singer-songwriter AV (Ann Vriend), along with Debbie Houle, Johanna Alleyne, Crystal Eyo, Alenka Lundell, and Jenn Dahlen. They came together during the COVID shutdown, when AV hosted and performed nearly 60 free concerts on her front porch in her inner-city Edmonton neighbourhood. In June of 2021, AV asked the group of singers that had been singing so often alongside her if they would be interested in forming an actual official, rehearsed act. They responded with an emphatic “YES!” – and AV & the Inner City was born. Since then they’ve been invited to perform at venues and festivals across the country, including the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, where they were awarded an Emerging Artist Award. They released their first single, Low & Lowly in February 2024.
Watch AV & The Inner City’s official video for their song Nobody Is You.
Mark Perry
The Prince George Citizen newspaper puts Smithers, B.C.-based Mark Perry in some pretty impressive company: “New Jersey has Springsteen, New York has Billy Joel, northern BC has Mark Perry. These are the storytellers of their times and places.” Mark has been writing, recording and performing since the mid-1990s, when he made his first album with Roy Forbes and toured with Connie Kaldor. With over 200 songs recorded, he has a huge repertoire of contemplative and lively tunes to suit his audience, from dirt road ballads to river-rising frolics. He takes us into rural Canada, the spirit of its people, the power of its landscapes and the impacts of some unique historic events. He draws us in to reflect and to laugh at ourselves, connecting us from coast to coast. Mark will be making his fifth appearance at the Nick.
Check out Mark’s song Northbound in his studio session sampler.
Nov 23: AV and the Inner City with opener Mark Perry Jan 25: Cara Luft with opener Emily Triggs Feb 22: Kinjo and Young with opener Linden Conroy and Ben Tizzard Mar 22: The Andrew Collins Trio with opener Backyard Betties Apr 26: Suzie Vinnickwith opener Ollee Owens
Season Tickets now cost $140.00 for five concerts.
Send an Etransfer to<info@thenick.ca>.Please ensure you include your mailing address and phone number.
YourSeasonTickets will be sent to you by Canada Post.
Visit our2024-2025 Season page for dates, photos, bios and videos of our upcoming headliners.
We send out regular email bulletins about our upcoming performances. To subscribe click here: SUBSCRIBE NICK EMAILS
Advance Tickets for our four 2025 concerts will go on sale on November 1.
THERE WILL BE A LIMITED NUMBER OF TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR FOR TONIGHT’S CONCERT.
Edmonton’s Maria Dunn draws deeply on the folk tradition of storytelling through song. Melding North American roots music with her Scottish-Irish heritage, she sings about the resilience and grace of “ordinary” people, past and present. She won the Juno in 2022 for Traditional Roots Album of the Year for Joyful Banner Blazing, a recording which celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity, joy and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place. Her 2017 album, Gathering, which was also nominated for a Juno, highlights positive stories of courage and activism, both local and global. In addition to her music, Maria has also developed and toured four multimedia people’s history shows. At the Nick, Maria will be accompanied by Shannon Johnson (violin, harmonies) and Jeremiah McDade (saxophone, whistle, flute, guitar, harmonies). They’ll be performing Maria’s thought-provoking, hope-mongering songs in rich and varied arrangements with superb vocals and musicianship for a compelling concert experience.
Watch the Maria Dunn Trio’s official video of the song Love Carries Me.
Magnolia Buckskin
Magnolia Buckskin bring their years of friendship, humour and love of music to the stage, telling stories that evoke a panorama of human experiences. Kathy Cook, Natasha Sayer and Corry Ulan draw upon their prairie roots, delivering a blend of indie bluegrass, folk, and acoustic pop music on guitar, banjo, mandolin, accordion and bass. The three songwriters back each other up with arrangements that are both refreshing and poignant. The title of their 2024 recording, In the Round, is a nod to folk festival workshops (aka songwriters’ rounds), where musicians take turns presenting their songs. The Calgary Herald said the album “has a warm, sitting-around-the-campfire feel that seems appropriate for the act’s folksy musings on topics that are both fun and weighty.”
Check out their sampler video to hear their beautiful three-part harmonies on full display.
Oct 26: The Maria Dunn Trio with opener Magnolia Buckskin Nov 23: AV and the Inner City with opener Mark Perry Jan 25: Cara Luft with opener Emily Triggs Feb 22: Kinjo and Young with opener Linden Conroy and Ben Tizzard Mar 22: The Andrew Collins Trio with opener Backyard Betties Apr 26: Suzie Vinnickwith opener Ollee Owens
Season Tickets now cost $168.00 for six concerts.
Send an Etransfer to<info@thenick.ca>.Please ensure you include your mailing address and phone number.
YourSeasonTickets will be sent to you by Canada Post.
Visit our2024-2025 Season page for dates, photos, bios and videos of our upcoming headliners.
We send out regular email bulletins about our upcoming performances. To subscribe click here: SUBSCRIBE NICK EMAILS
Headlining our first concert of the 2024-25 season will be acclaimed Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Lynne Hanson. Lynne’s hard living music has garnered her the nickname “Canada’s Queen of Americana.” While her deep, bluesy croon has drawn comparisons to Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch, it’s the poetry of her lyrics that really sets her apart. She’s known for her high-energy, roots-guitar-driven live performances, whether playing solo or with her band the Good Intentions. She has an uncanny way of connecting with her audience with an authenticity that is as entertaining as it is disarming. Winner of two Canadian Folk Music Awards, she has released nine studio albums along with two books of poetry, and has toured extensively across North America, Europe and the UK. Lynne will release her tenth studio album Just A Poet in the spring of 2024.
Erin Ross
Calgary singer-songwriter Erin Ross has been playing a confident mix of roots music for many years. Earlier this year she released her first full-length album, The Wind Will Lead Me Home, an assured, nine song collection that shows her command of the bedrock strains of roots, including blues, folk, rock and roll and jazz. Recorded in Nashville with Canadian studio veteran Steve Dawson and long-time drummer Lorne Petersen, The Wind Will Lead Me Home features session work by John Prine bassist Dave Jacques, Sheryl Crow keyboardist Jen Gunderman, multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin, and percussionist Justin Amaral. The nine tracks ruminate on home and belonging while showcasing some of Music City’s magic and polish. The Wind Will Lead Me Home has been nominated for this year’s Blues Recording of the Year at the YYC Music Awards.
Sept 28: Lynne Hanson with opener Erin Ross Oct 26: The Maria Dunn Trio with opener Magnolia Buckskin Nov 23: AV and the Inner City with opener Mark Perry Jan 25: Cara Luft with opener Emily Triggs Feb 22: Kinjo and Young Mar 22: The Andrew Collins Trio Apr 26: Suzie Vinnickwith opener The Backyard Betties
Season Tickets will cost $196.00 for seven concerts.
Send an Etransfer to<info@thenick.ca>.Please ensure you include your mailing address and phone number.
YourSeasonTickets will be sent to you by Canada Post.
Visit our2024-2025 Season page for dates, photos, bios and videos of our upcoming headliners.
We send out regular email bulletins about our upcoming performances. To subscribe click here: SUBSCRIBE NICK EMAILS
This concert marked the end of my tenure as Nick artistic director but, no surprise, I’ll continue to volunteer at the Nick. See you on the festival trail and at the Nick in September. cheers, Vic
Keith GlassLynn MilesKevin John CookThe Poster WallRetirement cakeLate night jam. Bob de Wolff, Kathy Cook, Jenny Allen
BUY TICKETS AT SHOWPASS ***There will be tickets available at the door for tonight’s concert.***
Lynn Miles is an award-winning singer-songwriter, record producer, teacher, writer, and public speaker — and a long-time favourite of Nick audiences. Lynn has 15 albums to her credit and she estimates she’s written about 900 songs. She has produced five albums for other artists including two critically acclaimed albums by Lynne Hanson, who joins Lynn Miles as a duo side project called The LYNNeS. Lynn won a Juno award in 2003 for Roots Traditional Album of the year, and went on to be nominated in the same categories in 2006 and 2011. She is also the recipient of six Canadian Folk Music Awards. In 2016, Americana artist Clair Lynch recorded Lynn’s song Black Flowers on her Grammy nominated album North By South. Lynn Miles’s latest album, called TumbleweedyWorld, has just been released on True North Records and is nominated for the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award for Contemporary Album of the Year. Lynn will be accompanied at the Nick by exceptional guitarist, Keith Glass.
Watch Lynn’s live performance, with Keith Glass, of her song She Drinks.
Kevin John Cook
From greasy blues to country soul, Kevin John Cook delivers the real thing. He’s an accomplished guitarist with a signature dusty voice, but the real gold is in his lyrics. Cook’s tales of dark beauty tempered with an offbeat sense of humour will captivate you. He cut his musical teeth in Alberta’s rough and tumble honky-tonks and blues bars playing for cowboys, lumberjacks and bikers. In Cook’s words: “It grows a thick hide on you.”
