Time: 8 p.m.

Cover: $10

Jenny Berkel  http://www.jennyberkel.com/

Born in the midst of Ontario's disappearing forests and spreading cities, Jenny Berkel has always had a deep awareness of changing landscapes and the tenuous thread by which we live and love. Her pursuit of formal education against this backdrop was interrupted to appease her appetite for the bracing instruction of travel, pen and paperback. Then, seeking the uncluttered desktop of the Prairies, Berkel packed her suitcases and guitar into a Greyhound two cold winters ago and landed in Winnipeg.

Fold in part wanderlust, love adrift and a grievous family loss. A year later, Berkel had two handfuls of new material, which came together to form her debut full length collection, Here on a Wire. Produced by Matt Peters (Royal Canoe and The Waking Eyes), this debut is a collection of eleven stark and haunting songs that draw their substance from a blend of personal experience and collective history. Alternately sad and hopeful, the songs are awash with quiet images of ghosts, dreams, lost love, and cityscape.

Centering around the lilt of Berkel's emotive lyrics, Here on a Wire features a brooding and delicate arrangement of cello, upright bass, French horn, slide guitar, organ, and percussion. With Jenny's deep and smoky voice winding its way through these rich layers, the album stands as an arresting collection of "haunt folk."

David Simard http://www.davidsimard.ca/

Described as an avant-garde folk-singer, David Simard is catching the attention of music lovers across Canada and abroad. Relentless touring and a wonderful festival response followed the release of his debut full-length, Slower, Lower, in October of 2011. Recorded by Daniel Gelinas at Studio Chocolat Chaud on the loudest street in Saint-Henri, a gritty, working class neighbourhood in South-West Montreal, it's a charmingly understated and intimate release. "a first-class self-produced album well above the average of what the labels are taking on." (Voir Magazine). The opening track, "Memory Box" was recently picked up by French actor/director, Yvan Attal, for use in his newest film "Do Not Disturb", featuring Charlotte Gainsbourg.  With Simard's “contemporary ballads situated somewhere between country, folk and jazz" (Montreal Mirror), “Slower, Lower collects praise wherever he goes.” (BangBang).

Always a hard-working musician, Simard has logged more than seven cross-country tours in as many years. Not counting the new full-length, David Simard has released eight different EP's, singles, and collaborative works in the last decade. The most recent of these was a series of three singles: Doorways, Alleys, and Wooded Places. Alike to his performances, all three feel haunted, with soaring moments and dark passages throughout. Remarkably hand-made, and released independently, Simard has been touring throughout Canada with some wonderful material in tow.

In addition to his own project, Simard has collaborated with numerous other performers and has participated in a number of what are best described as multi-media spectacles. Teen Sleuth and the Freed Cyborg Choir (of Montreal Fringe Festival infamy), Brie Neilson and Her Other Men, and Erin Lang and the Foundlings are a few of the acts you may have seen him with. A prominent feature in Aleks Schurmer's wildly successful "Party Like It's 1699 - a post-modern baroque spectacle" and in Frances Adair McKenzie's "Tucked Up in the Mountains” showed an adaptable young artist. Performing alongside contortionist, Andréane Leclerc, and aerial acrobat, Shannon Gray, hints at the cabaret flair so regularly pointed out in his style.

David currently splits his time between Montreal and an abandoned mining town in Northern BC, where he is engaged in a writing project, collecting and translating regional history and folklore into modern folk songs.  David Simard is currently booking Festivals and summer gigs for 2013.  Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you have an event to propose.  It's going to be another busy year.