2025 Folkus Concert Series Lineup

January highlights the talents right in our own neck of the woods. In a country renowned for its singer-songwriters, Lynn Miles is still Canadian songwriting royalty. With a JUNO Award and multiple Canadian Folk Music Awards under her belt, and Grammy nominations for her songs sung by others, she has plenty of jewels to adorn her crown.

Her newest album (her 16th), Tumble WeedyWorld, explores the differences and the between people and the common things that bring them together. As always her clarion voice carries each lyric with heart-wrenching honesty. Accompanied by Keith Glass on guitar, Lynn has curated a program that moves through her vast repertoire, leaving the audience sweetly satiated.

Opening for Lynn Miles, Jen Noxon and the Brindled Cats, featuring Jen Noxon, Brendan Gawn, and Rob McMurray, offer a delightfully whimsical sound, played with seemingly effortless style.

Lynn Miles has the kind of voice that insists that you pull the car over. Call the radio station. Change your citizenship. Buy a home in Almonte. She’s been blessed with such a drop dead beautiful honey smooth voice that it’s impossible to not fall in love with it. It rides along the ebb and flow of a gifted sense of melody. She’s the kind of lyricist that renders whatever heartache you feel into something both beautiful and aching. She also is extremely funny. Like she’s carrying an antidote to inject you with between songs to cure you of the snake bite.

Ellis Paul

Steve Poltz, a Halifax native who has spent much of his musical career in Nashville is a road warrior known for his comedic slant on life and nimble songwriting. Celebrated for his live shows by a diehard fanbase and renowned as a festival favorite, he’s also a tireless collaborator (having worked with everyone from Jewel and Billy Strings to Danny Michel, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Nicki Bluhm, Oliver Wood, and even the late Mojo Nixon. 

Opening for Poltz, local Almonte songwriter Mike Wattie will serenade us with some of his original songs. His playing, his wordsmithing and his performance will keep us smiling in our seats.

“I’m just a weirdo, a freak, a bon vivant, a rounder, a rabble rouser, a workaholic, a people pleaser, an idiot and a grateful kid who ran away and joined the circus.”

Steve Poltz

Luke Doucet and Melissa McCLelland are Whitehorse, and together they make incredible music. While they were both established singer-songwriters before deciding to work together, as Whitehorse they are more than the sum of their parts.

With 8 albums and 4 EPs under their belts, in a wide range of genres, they are flexible musicians who can play almost anything; they have also become legendary session players, and Sarah McLachlan’s go-to backing players on tour.

Offering two full sets of music, this night will be one to remember. 

Whitehorse might very well be Canada’s answer to the Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks duo of yore (but without the stormy relationship): they’re mega talented, beautiful, their voices complement each other’s perfectly and together they make music that seems magical.

Music Addict

Our last show of the season is a departure from our usual “last of the month” order to the first Saturday of April in order to capture a special “wild card” show. This season we will be blessed with Maria Doyle Kennedy, who is known in “the Americas” for her acting (Orphan Black, Downton Abbey, The Tudors, The Commitments) but is beloved in Ireland for her singing (both as a solo artist and in Black Velvet Band) and songwriting, lately with her life partner Kieran Kennedy (Hothouse Flowers, Primal Scream, Black Velvet Band), himself an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist.

She set up her own record label in 2000 and has released 11 solo albums to date. Maria’s most recent recording, Fire on the roof of Eden was given a starred “albums of the year” listing by the Irish Times. More on MDK here.