For 20 years, Elliott BROOD has journeyed through genres, history, stories and countless kms on the road. They mine old-timey topics and traditions, with a guitar banjo-focused sound that’s earnest and raucous; story-driven roots rock that glistens with warmth and wide-eyed, though slightly world-weary, wonder. The tunes on their most recent album, 2020’s Keeper, were most certainly written before the pandemic started, but are exactly what Elliott BROOD fans need in uneven times, with a spotlight on the intimate and personal that still offer universal observations about family, relationships, yearning and the passage of time. The warm, organic playing, soaring voices, and audible bond between band members Mark Sasso, Casey Laforet, and Stephen Pitkin makes Elliott BROOD feel like a well-worn and comfortable pair of shoes that still has enough traction to tread many more miles on journeys yet to come. Biography by Elizabeth Chorney-Booth 

Soaked in electric crescendos and folk tinged sing-along anthems, Shred Kelly is known for their high energy live show that ignites dance floors with their alternative folk sound. Over three albums and countless tours, the five British Columbians have developed their signature sound by taking inspiration from the mountains they hail from and the people who inhabit them. Shred Kelly has seamlessly fused traditional instrumentation with modern rock, presenting a sound that is both unique and compelling. Shred Kelly has produced their most ambitious project yet with their fourth album Archipelago. The collaborative song writing of Tim Newton, Sage McBride, Jordan Vlasschaert, Ty West, and Ian Page-Shiner have pulled inspiration through individual experiences and musical influences. The result is a dynamic and cohesive collection of dreamy, yet explosively exciting songs dipped in themes of relationships and the world in the modern age. Using traditional instrumentation at the base of the songwriting, the album explodes into a symphony of sounds incorporating banjos, ukuleles, synthesizers, guitar hooks, harmonies and pulsing beats. How to pick the songs for it, is not always the easiest task: “We’ll never put a song on the album that we don’t all agree on. With all of us gravitating towards different styles of music, it’s difficult at times to all agree on what we like most. So if we all love it, it’s a definite yes for the album”, sagt Sage McBride. “We worked hard to create an album that captured the energy of our live show, which can be a challenge in the studio. Thankfully, our producers really succeeded at getting dynamic performances, and challenged us while keeping the process a lot of fun.”