Fred Eaglesmith will be performing at Shooters in Kenora on June 30th.

In live performance, Eaglesmith brings to mind both Neil Young’s raucous splendor with Crazy Horse and the tender beauty of Young’s acoustic numbers. This summer he embarks on a tour across Canada with his band including annual stops to host his upcoming Roots on the River festival in Vermont (June 11-14) and annual Charity Picnic in Aylmer, Ontario near his home town.

Media outlets have proclaimed his live performances:

“If you’re missing out on Eaglesmith, you’re really missing out: since he left the family farm in his teens and struck out on his troubadour’s path, he’s been prolific and sharp.” (The New Yorker, August 2008)

“Fred Eaglesmith released a self-titled debut album nearly 30 years ago and has won over a strong audience with his country-ish folk rock songs that are sometimes funny, often heartbreaking and always richly detailed. In concerts his between-song banter is worth the price of admission.” (Houston Chronicle, October 2008)

“A prolific singer/songwriter often hailed as a genius at his craft.” (Arizona Daily Star, February 2009)

“His cantankerous, bone-dry humor well tempered weighty stories wrestling hardship with heart. Eaglesmith and his combustible trio fueled new material – particularly the haunted hymnals ‘I Pray Now,’ ‘Fancy God’ and ‘Get on Your Knees’ – with a zealot’s urgency.” (Austin American Statesman, February 2009)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FRED EAGLESMITH NOMINATED FOR JUNO AWARD FOR TINDERBOX
Critically Heralded Album Up for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo

(Los Angeles) Acclaimed and award-winning singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith has been nominated for yet another honor in his distinguished nearly-four decade recording career: a Juno Award — the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy — for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Solo for his 17th album, Tinderbox. The nomination is Eaglesmith’s third time up for a prestigious Juno, which he won in 1997 in the same category for his album Drive-In Movie.

Tinderbox continues to garner critical praise since it was released in May of last year, and was cited on a number of year-end Top 10 lists. San Jose Metro recently hailed it as “one of the best albums of last year.” And the Santa Barbara News Press just named it as “one of the more intriguing albums of the last year… with its hypnotic array of swampy grooves, obsessive refrains, hymns and hollers.”

The CD has been described as an “alternative gospel” album, but Eaglesmith points out that “it’s not a gospel record. This is actually tearing the whole thing [religion] apart and having a look at every bit of it. I was raised in a religious background and we weren’t allowed to question. This album asks every question.”

The Santa Barbara News Press says that Tinderbox sounds “like a field recording from the alternative world of rural Pentecostalism mixed with the artful theatricality and gruff timbres of Tom Waits.” Metro describes it as “Something on the order of Eaglesmith jamming with Tom Waits on a 1930s chain gang full of bluesmen, it’s spooky and dark, with a hint of the metaphysical.”

Tinderbox has already been heralded as a “masterwork” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “exceptional” (Americana Roots), and “beautiful” (Ink 19). The New Yorker says, “Imagine a duet record from Tom Waits and Woody Guthrie,” declaring, “if you’re missing out on Eaglesmith… you’re really missing out.”

Working outside the pop music radar, Eaglesmith had forged one of the most unique and eminent careers in contemporary music. His previous 16 releases have won him comparisons to such major talents as Woody Guthrie, Bruce Springsteen, John Prine, T Bone Burnett and Steve Earle. His songs have been recorded by fellow artists like superstar Toby Keith — who covered Eaglesmith’s “White Rose” on his recent hit album Big Dog Daddy and included his recording of “Thinking ‘Bout You” in the movie “Broken Bridges” and on its soundtrack album — The Cowboy Junkies, Kasey Chambers, Mary Gauthier, Ralph Stanley II, Dar Williams and Todd Snider, and he is the subject of a tribute album by other fellow songwriters. His has also scored a #1 bluegrass song with James King’s recording of his “Thirty Years of Farming.”

Eaglesmith boasts such a fervent coterie of fans that he hosts a number of annual music festivals such as Roots on the River every summer in Vermont; the Fred Eaglesmith Texas Weekend each spring at Gruene Hall, the mother church of the Texas roots music scene; and last year two Roots on the Rail rolling music fests along both historic narrow-gauge railroads through the American West and another into the Canadian arctic. Martin Scorsese and James Caan have used his music is their film projects, and his songs are even included in the course curriculum of two colleges.

Tinderbox was already in consideration for Canada’s Polaris Prize, which is awarded for musical artistic merit. And odds-makers agree with the Guelph Mercury, which suggested in its rave review of Tinderbox that Eaglesmith “better get his tux dry-cleaned in preparation for all the award shows he’ll be attending.”

Fred Eaglesmith tour dates:
5/1 Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, ON
5/2 Bayfield Town Hall Bayfield, ON
5/8 Red Onion Saloon Skagway AK
5/9 Alaska Barn Dance Haines AK
5/10 Resurrection Luthern Church Juneau AK
5/13 St Elias Convention Center Haines Jct, YT
5/14 Yukon Arts Center Whitehorse, YT
5/15 Palace Grande Dawson City, YT
5/21 Tractor Tavern Seattle , WA
5/22 Green Frog Acoustic Tavern Bellingham WA
5/24 Papa G’s Portland, OR
5/25 Harmony House Concerts Sisters, OR
6/6 McGinty’s Meaford, ON
6/11-14 Roots on the River Festival, Bellows Falls, VT
6/16 Kennebecasis Valley High School Quispamsis, NB
6/17 Marigold Cultural Center
6/18 Parkside Pub Dartmouth, NS
6/19 Membertou Trade & Convention Center Syndey NS
6/20 King’s Theatre Annapolis Royal, NS
6/23 Petit Campus Montreal, QC
6/24 The Black Sheep Inn/La Mouton Noir Wakefield, QC
6/25 Tweedsmuir Hotel Tweed, ON
6/26 The Beef n Bird Sudbury, ON
6/27 Speak Easy Pub Sault Ste Marie, ON
6/28 Finlandia Club Thunder Bay, ON
6/30 Shooters Kenora, ON
7/2–5 Dauphin Country Fest Dauphin, MB
7/9 Moose Jaw Cultural Center Moose Jaw, SK
7/10 The Palomino Calgary, AB
7/11 Pembina River Nights Evansburg, AB
7/12 Auditorium Hotel Nanton, AB
7/14 Grandview Stage Resort Rocky Mountain AB
7/15 The Max Drayton Valley, AB
7/16 BJ’s Cue Club Grand Prairie, AB
7/18 The Players Club Camrose, AB
7/21 The Royal Nelson, BC
7/22 Caravan Farm Theater Armtrong, BC
7/23 The Dream Café Penticton, BC
7/24 Creekside Theatre Winfield, BC
7/26 Island Folk Festival Duncan, BC
7/30 Element Victoria, BC
7/31 Mayne Island Agricultural Hall Mayne Island, BC
8/1 Filberg Festival Comox, BC
8/2 St James Hall Vancouver, BC
8/3 Pynelogs Cultural Center Invermere, BC
8/7 Interplay Festival Fort McMurray, AB
8/8 – 9 Edmonton Folk Festival Edmonton, AB
8/14 – 16 15 Annual Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic Aylmer, ON
8/23 Music at Fieldscote Ancaster, ON
8/26 Hugh’s Room Toronto, ON

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