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Artist Spotlight: Evangeline Gentle
Rich, sweet, and lush with vibrato. These are only a few of the unmistakable qualities that constitute Evangeline Gentle’s fervent timbre. But make no mistake; they are more than an accomplished voice – their songwriting possesses authenticity and depth as rare and unique as their own journey. Born on the Northeast coast of Scotland, Evangeline has live performance in their blood. Queer, and passionate about social justice, Evangeline believes in the good-naturedness of people and our capabilities of growing together. At only 23 years of age, Evangeline’s accolades are already accumulating at an impressive rate. They were awarded Emerging Artist at the 2015 Peterborough Folk Fest, Best Female Vocalist of…
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NXNE PRESENTS A SAUSAGE FESTIVAL
From a piece I wrote for Electric City Magazine: “The Canadian music industry is a diverse, varied place, but you wouldn’t know it from the endless parade of white guys with guitars wanking across the festival stages and conference panels of the nation. Over the past month, NXNE have been releasing the lineup for their Portlands festival, and the list, while appearing more racially diverse with the most recent release, is still very dude-heavy. With three women-fronted bands and one genderqueer artist out of 16 total acts released so far, I have to ask: where the fuck are the women, NorthBy?” Read the rest at Electric City Magazine.
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Music City – A strategy
The points I’ve included below – headlined ‘A Strategy for Music Peterborough‘ – was created with my hometown in mind, but swap out a few names and organizations and this would be useful in any city to frame the way you approach different sectors with a view to creating a cohesive push to highlight music (or, I think, almost any local art or cultural highlight) and create a Music City mentality. I’ve made a few edits from the original document to make explicit the sort of things that I take as a given, but which aren’t obvious to everyone (like gender parity, inclusion of racialized people, good working conditions, etc.). A…
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On not getting gigs or grants.
The work I do means saying “No” a lot more than “Yes.” Whether I’m working as a booker or jurying a grant or award, the ability to say no clearly, politely, and unequivocally is one of the most valuable skills I’ve developed. As AD of the Peterborough Folk Festival, I’d generally get about 700-1000 submissions from musical acts, and I’d have 25 or so slots to fill. At minimum, I’d be listening, evaluating, and saying “No” 675 times to hopeful artists who’d poured their time, energy, sweat, and cash into their work. The jury for Artsweek Peterborough ((A festival which I saved from certain death, restructured, and ran for 2 years.)) got…
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Artist Spotlight: The 24th Street Wailers
The lineup for the Peterborough Folk Festival was released this past week, and for the first time in seven years, I didn’t do all of the booking. And for the first time in more than a decade, I won’t be working on the festival or even attending, because I’ve got another festival to run here in Toronto. ((Taiwanfest!)) It’s a weird feeling to see things roll along without you, but Nick’s ((PFF’s new Artistic Director!)) doing a great job, and so is Ashley ((PFF’s Executive Director!)) and the rest of the team. One of the bands that I booked in this year’s lineup is The 24th Street Wailers; ((Full disclosure:…
