Woody Holler grew up on the Canadian prairie hearing the songs of the cowboy. Although he was later trained in opera, a sense of nostalgia held him close to those western roots. In 2009, Woody teamed up with some of Winnipeg’s finest jazz musicians and began purveying his own brand of Western Swing that Woody defines as “jazz from the saddle”. The show is reminiscent of a 1940s radio show with a sound that is nostalgic yet thrilling. The music involves clever arrangements rich with virtuosity and style. The repertoire is eclectic, fun and fascinating, featuring finger-snapping swing beats, honey-slowed love croons, a dash of opera, and show stopping “extreme” yodeling.
Since 2010 the band has showcased very successfully across Western Canada, which has led to several tours from across the prairies to the Atlantic and many tours of the Pacific. They have enjoyed a tour of the Northwest Territories and past the arctic circle. In 2016, the band spent three weeks touring England on behalf of the Northern England arts network.
Their first album, “Western Skies” was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2010. Woody and the boys have just completed their second album, “Jazz From The Saddle”. It’s filled with all the things that make Woody Holler and his Orchestra so entertaining.
“But it was more than the yodeling that caught the audience right from the outset and held us through a much warranted standing ovation at evening’s end. It was the full, rich sound of four very talented musicians who have coupled clever arrangements, musical genre fusing and the joy of performing into one delightful package.” – Sue Morhun, Oliver Daily News
Dressed in a top hat and an old marching band jacket emblazoned with patches and pins, Dave Quanbury leads the Exile Brass Band by shouting instructions into a megaphone. The band follows his lead like a pied piper, over picnic tables, down stairs, and into the crowd. This is the kind of ragtag, rough-and-tumble project that feels held back on a stage. For one thing, the eight-piece band of drums, saxophones, trumpets, trombone, and sousaphone barely fits most stages, plus it’s more fun to simply create your own performance space — and the Exile Brass band is all about blurring the lines between performer and audience.
Making their world debut in front of 30,000 screaming football fans, this group of five Manitoba pickers have a common passion for bluegrass and honky tonk music. In a place as flat as their prairie home, The Osmond-Davis Band ensure mountain music thrives by keeping that Appalachian connection with their southern neighbours. Guitar flatpicker Simon Davis and 5 string banjo/dobro player Tim Osmond sing a repertoire of music from the likes of the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and other traditional and contemporary bluegrass standards. Joined with them on fiddle is the extraordinary Jeremy Penner, the driving mandolin of Dan Simpson, and the solid backbone upright bass of Karl Ratchinsky. Fans of bluegrass music and supercharged country will love the blend of harmonies and dynamic picking between these fine musicians.
Tickets - $20.00 [$25.00 @ the door]