Winterfolk XX Will be Streamed unfortunately again this year, as venues and clubs still closed due to the COVID VIRUS.

Winterfolk will be going to a streamed format again this year. We will present three separate streams, which will be aired on Friday, Feb 18, Saturday, Feb 19, and Sunday, Feb 20 as sadly, our venues have closed with restrictions imposed in response to the COVID-19 surge. We will present three separate streams on February 18, 19, 20, 2022, from 7 to 10 pm. When Winterfolk was founded by Brian Gladstone 20 years ago, there were no folk festivals from September to May, leaving an eight-month void in the festival schedule. The festival has grown and thrived every year since. The festival has paid out more than $500,000 to our artists over the past 20 years. We offer paid work to artists every February, all of whom are local performers.

Check out the stellar lineup of entertainment which features Peterborough’s Taylor Abrahamse on Friday night at 730pm.

Taylor Abrahamse started out as a five-year-old Elvis impersonator at county fairs, at age 6, Taylor vowed to never ‘grow up’ in the typical sense. Instead, he ‘grew in’ – listening to CDs in darkness by young-at-heart song sophisticates like Elton John and Queen, while his imagination painted transcendental light shows. Writing & playing guitar since he was 12 – at sixteen, he was a Top 30 finalist on Canadian Idol. After an on-the-spot performance at Canadian Music Week, Taylor was contacted by Grammy-winning music engineering legend Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, The  Beatles, Carly Simon, David Bowie & many more), who insisted on producing & developing him of out a passion for his talent. Now released, his debut album has a musical backdrop that is true to classic songwriters of the 20th century such as James Taylor or Randy Newman, yet feels entirely fresh – dealing with his experiences with love, depression, loss, and even gender identity. Taylor co-founded a busy professional recording studio, Silverthorn Studios, where much of the album was recorded & mixed. So far, the album has found airplay across Canada, and on the strength of the record, a personal invitation to open for Hawksley Workman. In addition, out of nearly 1000 entries, Taylor’s songwriting provided him a top-prize position at the prestigious Kerrville Songwriting Competition. Taylor has also written musicals, music for other artists & television series seen worldwide, including the main theme for ‘Fangbone!’ (Disney XD) – one of many cartoon series in which Taylor plays a lead or supporting character. Taylor has also written, produced, and performed original songs for popular Youtube channels, such as Corus’ online division & ‘Super Planet Dolan’. These song’s respective music videos have had over 20 million plays and thousands of music downloads. https://taylorabrahamse.ca/

Taylor is in fabulous company with the likes of Josh Ritchie kicking the night off.

Josh Ritchie is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer based in Ontario. Having grown up in the Canadian music scene with a family of music teachers, performers, and songwriters, Ritchie has had music in his soul since day one. From the moment he was able to stand Ritchie has been playing anything he can get his hands on. His love for music quickly became an addiction giving the up-and-coming 22-year-old musical chops and an artistic maturity beyond his age. Then came the voice, quickly developing in choirs and music classes, now have a seemingly endless range and power. Ritchie can go from an intimate whisper to a boisterous roar with unequaled effect. In early 2019 Ritchie took to the studio to record his debut, self-produced record “Louder.” The album was released to a sold-out crowd on August 24th, 2019. The title track Louder was voted on the top 100 list in the 2020 CBC Music Searchlight competition. In the September of 2020 Ritchie was named as one of the Toronto Blues Society’s finalists for their annual Talent Search competition where he finished 2nd place. Ritchie released his second studio album “Love at the End of the World” on Sept. 30 2021, https://www.joshritchiemusic.com/

Followed by Taylor himself and right after Taylor is Lynn Miles.

Juno Award winning singer/songwriter/producer/writer. Lynn Miles is one of Canada’s most accomplished singer/songwriters. Lynn’s 15th album We’ll Look For Stars” was released on July 3 2020 and climbed to the #1 position on the Euro Americana Chart for the month of August 2020 and earned numerous 5 star reviews in Europe and North America. http://www.lynnmilesmusic.ca

Jerome Tucker Band follows Lynn Miles.

The Jerome Tucker band is a wickedly talented group of musicians delivering funk, soul and a blistering brand of rhythm and blues.

Winner Durham vocalist of the year 2011, CBC Song of the week Oct 2016, CBC sounds of the season 2016

Jerome Tucker was born in Philadelphia. He has Co-written songs with Ivan Neville of Keith Richards Band.

Jerome has played with Otis Rush, Dickey Betts of the Alman Brothers, Lonnie Brooks, Larry McCray, Sugar Blue, Byther Smith, Kenny Neil.(List too long) Cp24 TV, CBC Radio, 1st runner up Maple Blues Awards 2019. https://www.facebook.com/jerome.tucker.5

Next on Friday night following Jerome Tucker Band will be Lucy Kaplansky.

Twice awarded Best Pop Album of the Year by Association for Independent Music, Bestselling album on Red House Records, new CD coming 2022

Lucy Kaplansky has released eight critically acclaimed solo albums, two of which won the AFIM award for “Best Pop Album,” and her album “Ten Year Night” is Red House’s best selling album of all time.
Lucy’s latest release Everyday Street (2018) is a stunning collection of songs weaving stories of joy, friendship, family, loss and discovery. Lucy’s version of Roxy Music’s “More than This” has over 12 million streams on Spotify, and she has appeared on the CBS Morning Show, NPR’s Weekend and Morning Editions and All Things Considered, Mountain Stage, and West Coast Live.

Last but not least on Friday night, is another Peterborough favorite, the one and only, Jack de Keyzer.

2 X Juno Award Winner and 7 X Maple Blues Award Winner

Acclaimed guitarist, singer, songwriter, bandleader and producer, Jack de Keyzer rarely sits still. For 46 years or roughly a couple million miles, de Keyzer has been hitting the road, air, and studio to bring his brand of guitar-driven blues around the globe.

Playing over 100 shows a year, de Keyzer’s music is steeped in Chicago blues, London England’s (de Keyzer’s birthplace) blues rock, Detroit’s Motown, Muscle Shoals deep soul, Memphis’ rock and roll, and Philadelphia’s funky soul-jazz

With 12 records, 1 DVD, 2 Junos, and 7 Maple Blues Awards, de Keyzer delivers the goods wherever, whenever he performs.

Saturday and Sunday are just as amazing as Friday night, check out the fabulous entertainers on the bill, truly mind-blowing so please stop by to see the full list of entertainment at https://www.winterfolk.com/winterfolk-xx-schedule/

Be sure to make a purchased donation to be able to join in on the live streams all weekend long.

The Blues of Winterfolk Preview Live Stream

Donate to Winterfolk XX https://www.winterfolk.com/stream

75% of our annual Winterfolk budget goes directly to our artists. Since our inception in 2003, Winterfolk has paid out more than $500,000.00 to our artists.