Time: 9 p.m.

Cover: $10

markberube.com or http://www.myspace.com/markberubemusic

Mark Berube has just released an EP in the wake of his last two full-length albums: ‘What the River Gave the Boat’ (2007) and ‘What the Boat Gave the River’ (2008). Intended to whet the appetites of his many fans, the ‘Tailored to Fit’ EP is meant to preview Mark’s new full-length album ‘June in Siberia’ due out in early 2011. Regardless of EPs sneak peek framework, the four remarkable tracks stand on their own as a brief, but powerful, musical experience.

Globetrotting, Manitoba-born, Swaziland-raised and Montreal-based Mark Berube, alongside his band ‘The Patriotic Few’, perform folk music that is compassionate and strong, braiding together the personal and the political with a poignancy few songwriters are able to achieve. In support of his last two full-length albums, ‘What The River Gave The Boat’ and ‘What The Boat Gave The River’, Berube has toured relentlessly across North America and Europe, establishing himself as an international artist on the rise. Having been nominated for Best Solo Roots Album at the Western Canada Music Awards in 2008, playing prestigious venues like Paris’ Olympia in 2009, being dubbed the “act to discover” at Paleo, one of Western Europe’s largest Festivals in addition to the “sleeper hit” at the 2009 Winnipeg Folk festival, and playing to a crowd of nearly 10,000 as the opening act for The Cranberries in Geneva, Switzerland, Mark is clearly an artist to look out for.

The EPs opening song, “Tailored to Fit” is a true preview of Mark’s upcoming LP, ‘June in Siberia’. It features those trademark Berube characteristics; remarkable lyrics, soaring vocals, brilliantly inventive instrumental performances. Based on this one song, you will have high expectations for the upcoming CD. The next track is Mark’s first-ever cover recording; combining blues with a tango rhythm in his treatment of Leonard Cohen’s “First We Take Manhattan” with great effect. Track three is a live version of “Yesterday’s Halo” from Mark’s last album recorded at the Vieux St Pierre in Victoriaville, Quebec in April of 2010. It demonstrates how two years and hundreds of shows later, a great song can keep getting better. Mark ends the EP with another live in Victoriaville performance; Yebo Mama is decidedly African and definitely Mark Berube. Mark’s love of singing developed as a boy growing up in Swaziland. This song never fails to affect audiences.

The “Tailored to Fit” EP will only be available at shows and on iTunes. For the fans, the new EP gives a preview at what's coming, what inspires, and what has transpired, but if you’ve never heard Mark Berube before it is also a great little introduction.