NEW GLASGOW, N.S. — The headliners for the 2019 New Glasgow Riverfront Jubilee have been announced.
They are: Big Wreck, Wintersleep, Trooper, Ria Mae, Sass Jordan and Kim Mitchell.
This year’s Jubilee will be held at Glasgow Square in New Glasgow from Aug. 2 – Aug. 4.
About the artists:
Big Wreck
Multi-platinum selling Canadian rockers are set to return with Grace Street, an album that continues to build on the creative momentum of their two previous JUNO-nominated releases, Ghosts and Albatross.
At the core of Grace Street are live off the floor performances by founding front man Ian Thornley on guitar and keyboards, accompanied by drummer Chuck Keeping and bassist Dave McMillan. (The full Big Wreck line-up with additional guitarists Paulo Neta and Brian Doherty remains intact when the band hits the stage). For Thornley, it was imperative to maintain the human element in every aspect of the sessions, resulting in a trip he feels no previous Big Wreck album has taken a listener on before.
“Musically, I’m still searching for the stuff that turns me on and takes me somewhere,” he says. “You want to be brought to tears or have the hair on your neck stand up, and if the search for that takes you to new territory, then so be it. You have to follow. It’s like chasing a high.”
Wintersleep
Wintersleep formed in 2001 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. They have released six studio albums. Their most recent album, The Great Detachment, was released on March 4, 2016 via Dine Alone Records.
The Great Detachment, Wintersleep’s sixth LP and first with Dine Alone Records, is very much an introspective work, both conceptually and thematically. Of course, it delivers a welcome dose of the atmospheric, entrancing alt-rock for which the band has become known. After writing a wealth of material in their Montreal studio, the band carefully curated the 11 songs comprising The Great Detachment and returned to Halifax’s Sonic Temple – the birthplace of the Juno Award-winning Welcome To The Night Sky and its preceding 2003 self-titled and 2005 untitled efforts – with producer Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai). The band recorded the majority of The Great Detachment live-off-the-floor, adding an organic and transparent aural aesthetic to the collection.
Sass Jordan
Juno Award-winning artist has made a living singing, performing, writing and recording music internationally for the past thirty years. She is an internationally recognized singer/songwriter who has sold over one million CDs worldwide.
Winner of Billboard's Best Female Rock Vocalist award, the bilingual Montrealer has toured and/or worked with many music heavyweights, including Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, Van Halen, Carlos Santana and Joe Cocker.
In 1992, Jordan performed a duet with Joe Cocker for the soundtrack of the motion picture The Bodyguard, starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, which sold more than 27 million copies worldwide. Her songs have been featured on numerous television shows, including Melrose Place, Party Of Five, Baywatch and Knightrider.
Also an accomplished actress, she starred in the lead role of Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway hit, "Love Janis." Jordan has guest starred on NBC's Sisters and was featured in the Toronto and Winnipeg productions of "The Vagina Monologues."
In 2003, she took on judging duties on the TV ratings blockbuster, Canadian Idol – the same year she shared the stage with The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and others as part of the history-making SARS relief concert in Toronto.
Trooper
It goes like this: millions of records, a couple dozen hits, a Juno Award (Canada's Grammy) for Band of the Year and ongoing sold-out shows across Canada. Universal Music acknowledges them as "one of Canada's top five selling bands of all time" and the Vancouver Sun has called them "Canadian rock heroes of the first order ... the best performing band in Canada".
In 2009, Peter Assaff of The Northern Light hailed Trooper's Ra McGuire and Brian Smith as "the Canadian version of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards" and Joel Rubinoff of The Record wrote, " ... this frolicking, rollicking showcase for McGuire's soaring pop melodies and whimsical wordplay is arguably one of the biggest Canadian bands of all time."
Then, as now, what makes Trooper what they are is great performances and great pop songwriting.
Trooper's ten studio albums have earned multiple gold and platinum awards and their 6 X Platinum greatest hits, Hot Shots, continues to be one of Universal Music Canada's best selling catalog CDs and one of the country's most enduring party soundtracks. In celebration of the band's 35th anniversary, a totally updated and re-mastered collection - "Hits From 10 Albums" - was released, featuring songs spanning the entirety of their recording career. John Kereiff, writing in Gonzo Magazine, dubbed the collection "THE summer album of 2010."
In 2012 Trooper songwriters Ra McGuire and Brian Smith were awarded SOCAN's prestigious 'National Achievement Award' to acknowledge their significant and lasting contribution to Canada's songwriting legacy.
Ria Mae
Ria Mae takes listeners on a hypnotic journey from heartbreak to healing on the Juno Award-nominated EP, My Love. “My Love is about people I love,” says Ria. “Past love, present love, and self-love.” The EP’s first single “Bend,” released summer 2017, became an instant hit skyrocketing to the top of the CBC Radio 2 charts for four weeks.
Shortly thereafter it catapulted up the Canadian radio charts reaching Top 5 at Hot AC, Top 10 at AC, and Top 15 CHR radio. My Love, together with its Gold-certified debut “Bend” and follow-up “Red Light”, has earned over 8 million combined worldwide streams. My Love was produced by Adam King at Canterbury Studios in Toronto, mixed by Grammy® Award-winning Engineer Joe Visciano, and mastered by Stuart Hawkes. It features several notable collaborators including: Tegan Quin (Tegan & Sara), Joel Stouffer, Serena Ryder, and Dylan Guthro (Port Cities). In February 2018, My Love was nominated in the ‘Best Pop Album’ category at the 2018 JUNO-Awards taking place March 2018.
Kim Mitchell
Kim Mitchell has achieved gold and multiplatinum sales status over a long and storied career, starting early on as leader of the musically influential and eclectic Max Webster (5 albums), a band who in the late 70’s defined “alternative” and “independent” long before the words became clichés.. Mitchell left Max to pursue a long and very successful solo career that continues to this day.
He has won three Juno Awards and a SOCAN 100,000 Radio Plays Award for his certified hit, “Patio Lanterns”. He is a gifted and peer-respected guitar player as well as an acclaimed songwriter, having penned (in partnership with Pye Dubois) and recorded numerous classic hits including “Go For Soda”, “Rock N Roll Duty”, “Patio Lanterns”, “I am a Wild Party”, “Easy To Tame” and “All We Are”, all songs that have become part of the Canadian musical genome.
