Minto Arts is bringing a special event to the area on Feb. 13 in the lower auditorium of the Harriston public library at 88 Mill Street.
While the Basement Café series has been a well-attended and popular event, Minto Arts felt it was time to introduce a new twist. This year, it presents dinner and a show.
The dinner is catered, a meal cooked and served by local caterers South Street Gourmet, inclusive of wine and topped off by a choice of decadent desserts.
Dinner will be served at 6pm, to be followed by a concert starting at 8:15pm.
Minto Arts is also offering concert only tickets, for those unable to attend the dinner.
The musical guest is Marie-Lynn Hammond, accompanied by Tom Leighton.
Hammond is a veteran of the Canadian folk music scene. In 2001, she celebrated her 30th year in music.
In 1971, she and Bob Bossin founded the seminal (and irreverent) Canadian folk group, Stringband. From Tuktoyaktuk to Thunder Bay and from Salmon Arm to Lunenberg, Stringband criss-crossed Canada, with adventuresome forays into Japan, Mexico, France, Great Britain, the former Soviet Union, and the United States. That anniversary was marked by two Stringband reunion shows on Stuart McLean’s CBC radio show, The Vinyl Café.
In 1978, Hammond embarked on a parallel solo career, including appearances at every major folk festival in Canada. In the early 1980s, her songs about her family grew into a play, Beautiful Deeds/De beaux geste, which received several productions and critical acclaim. She has written or co-authored four more plays and a screenplay (all produced), and has hosted two national radio shows for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Half English, three-eighths French, and one-eighth Aboriginal (Abenaki), Hammond embodies the amalgam that is Canada, and she writes and sounds like no one else. As a songwriter, her range, in both official languages, is huge.
From the anthem-like La tête anglaise, le coeur français” and Elsie, a poignant ballad about her grandmother, to the satirical wit of Not Another Benefit or Leave Room for the Holy Ghost, she is not afraid to be personal – or provocative.
Her work, songs, plays, and more than 50 articles and radio essays – provide vignettes of Canadian life as seen through her sharp yet compassionate eyes.
Accompanying here is gifted multi-instrumentalist Tom Leighton: piano, keyboards, accordion (with bass), bouzouki, bodhran, bones, and jaw harps. Leighton plays in a wide range of styles from Celtic to country, swing, rock, and various folk styles.
He is also half a duo with Mark Haines. They have three CD’s with Borealis records including their latest, Hand To Hand, which won two PEI Music awards and was nominated for an East Coast Music award. In addition to Haines & Leighton, he performs regularly with Hammond, Anne Lederman, Conrad Kipping, Danny Bakan, and Michael Cavan.
As a studio musician he has performed on over 75 CDs.
As a music director, has led numerous productions of the folk musical Minerva, the historical musical Exile, Picton Papers, Hank Williams, the Show He Never Gave, Fiddler On the Roof, and Urinetown. As well as music directing, he co-composed the music for Ship of Fire, which premiered in Picton in 2009. He has also been music director of the Riverdale Share Christmas Concert for the past 6 years.
For ticket information, call 519-338-3756. Minto Arts can now accept Visa payments by calling 519-327-8529.
