PRESS RELEASE
11th Annual Deep Roots Music Festival
September 26-28th, 2014, Wolfville, NS
For Immediate Release: June 18, 2014
WOLFVILLE, NS – This year the annual Deep Roots Music Festival takes place September 26th to 28th, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, The various venues will highlight a balance of great national, provincial, and local performers. Deep Roots Music Festival ‘Early Bird’ passes are available until June 30th. Your pass gets you in to main stage shows, afternoon collaborations, and the Festival Finale, as well as giving access to the Festival Club as ‘home base’, all weekend.
Festival Theatre evening main stage performers include James Keelaghan (just released a 25 year Retrospective CD of his career thus far); Ruth Moody (Wailin’ Jennys, Scruj MacDuhk & 2 time Juno Award winner); Nova Scotia legend Dave Gunning; PEI darling/master collaborator Rose Cousins (fresh off her national tour with Jann Arden); Donovan Woods (whose album “Don’t Get Too Grand” was on many 2013 top 10 lists and continues to get national radio airplay); and PEI songstress Teresa Doyle (who will be joined by her son Patrick Bunston and Jaron Freeman-Fox – he produced her latest recording, “Song Road”). The evening main stage shows will also feature the up-and-coming The Bombadils (a young, Montreal-based band that blends Celtic and bluegrass traditions with classical music); and Ryan Cook (a hardcore troubadour/ traveling songwriter, whose progressive country sounds like classic country with modern satire).
The Deep Roots late-night dance parties are a highlight of the weekend, and usually sell out early. (The tickets are not part of the festival pass.) These licensed events, at the Old Orchard Inn Barn, give audience members space to let loose and dance the night away, while enjoying more great live music. On Friday night, Swingology will get things rolling with their Parisian flare and driving gypsy rhythms, then Sherman Downey and the Ambiguous Case, CBC Searchlight contest winners from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, will blow the roof off the barn! Jaron Freeman-Fox will thrill audiences on Saturday night with his imaginative ways of using a violin, and the party wraps up with The Lemon Bucket Orkestra, a wild, joyful 15-piece Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-Party-Punk-Super Band.
Lemon Bucket will also lead this year’s Fresh Beats Rhythm Parade, always a hit at Deep Roots. Volunteers, audience members, artists and children of all ages join giant puppets to form a colourful Saturday noon parade down Main Street. Children are encouraged to come to the Festival Tent on Saturday morning to make hats, masks, and rhythm instruments that they can use in the parade. Following the parade, back at the Festival Tent, Little Miss Moffat will delight the young and young at heart with her quirky and catchy songs, some in tribute to our local wildlife.
Deep Roots Saturday morning also offers harmony singing at The Al Whittle Theatre; performers will lead and you can sing along. Saturday afternoon this same intimate theatre will house collaborative performances with various festival artists. Deep Roots performers will provide music from 10 AM – 1 PM at the weekly Wolfville Farmers’ Market. After the Market closes, two dance workshops will happen in the Market community room ($5 each or free for pass holders): The Lemon Bucket Orkestra will get you primed for their dance set later that night; and you can also Learn how to Swing Dance.
For people who like to play music themselves, an Open Mic at the Festival Tent will be set up – anyone can sign up, and students from Valley schools have been invited to participate in this event. At the Festival Club (for pass holders only), there will be jam sessions all afternoon with volunteers and festival performers, including “How to Jam the Blues” with Suzie Vinnick. (Suzie’s also arriving a few days prior to the festival to present her “Blues in the Schools” program in a few Valley schools.)
Come to the Festival Theatre Sunday morning and sing along with some of the Festival artists at “Rise Up Singing: a Tribute to Pete Seeger”. The show is in support of the Wolfville and Area Food Bank; admission is by donation of cash or non-perishable food item.
The final main stage concert of the weekend, The Festival Finale, Sunday afternoon, features the incomparable (ten times Maple Blues Award winner) Suzie Vinnick. Geoff Arsenault, usually known for his drumming, will dazzle with his baritone voice and cool grooves. Also onstage Sunday afternoon will be New Brunswick Blues great Thom Swift (ECMA 2014 Blues Album of the Year); The Fortunate Ones, an earnest, acoustic pop-folk duo from Newfoundland … and more!
Deep Roots has always been known for the diversity of talented performers it brings together, as well as the numerous opportunities audiences are provided with to enjoy homegrown music. This year’s 11th Festival offers something for everyone’s tastes so buy your pass now for a fun-filled fall weekend in the Annapolis Valley. Last year’s main stage concerts sold out – don’t risk being disappointed this year!
Tickets are available through any TicketPro outlet, including Wolfville’s Box of Delights Bookshop.
For additional information, Press passes, and interview requests, please contact:
Stephen Peters, Publicity Director
Deep Roots Music Festival
Tel: (902) 542 – 3069
Email: