String Bone

I am super honoured to be joining this event with my band String Bone and my new duo Fiddle & Frets, with former Rant Maggie Rant fiddler, Lindsay Schindler. We will be joining legendary studio wizard, Stuart Bruce (Yes, Loreena McKennitt, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and many more) and critically acclaimed UK Folk artist Jennifer Crook. Also joining this show is the multi-talented Brent Jones and the super-exciting Maggie's Wake led by Lindsay Schindler (Rant Maggie Rant) and Tara Dunphy (The Rizdales). Bios for all artists are below. This event came together through the friendship and efforts of Brent Jones who recorded his latest record at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath, England with Stuart Bruce and if anyone knows about the community there, it is a thriving, welcoming place. Hence, a collaboration between Stuart, Jennifer Crook and Brent ensued culminating in a recording. Through discussions, the trio conspired to convene in Canada in the heart of Southwestern Ontario to collaborate and explore all possibilities. When propositioned to join them for a live concert, I, of course, jumped at the opportunity. This will be a one-time event with 6 well established artists and some interesting collaborations in the mix are planned as well as a pre-show interview with both Stuart & Jennifer to discuss their respective careers. The Artists STUART BRUCE Recording Engineer, Music Producer, Composer and Educator Stuart started his career in 1981 at the legendary SARM Studios in London UK where he began as an assistant engineer. Within a year he was staff engineer and was heavily involved in redevelopment of Island Records Basing Street Studios into SARM West. Aside from his duties as one of the principal recording engineers he was also responsible for the training of all technical staff. During his time at SARM he worked with artists such as Yes, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Stevie Wonder, Duran Duran, Paul Rodgers and was responsible for the recording and mixing of the “Band Aid” single “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (the all time 2nd biggest selling single in the UK). On Leaving SARM in 1985 he went on to build and become the Chief Engineer of Swanyard Studios in London where he was again the main recording engineer and responsible for all the technical staff. He went freelance in 1988 and in the same year began a long association with Real World Studios which continued until 2008, although he still records and mixes there from time to time as it is a 2-minute walk from his home. Musically Stuart has always been something of a Chameleon working in most fields from Electronic Pop through Alternative Rock to Folk, Jazz, Classical, World Music, Experimental Electronica and Americana. He has worked in studios and on location throughout the world and has always had the reputation of being a steady hand in complex and challenging recording situations. As a composer he has written music for many large-scale commercial Audio-Visual installations and museums worldwide where he often deals with challenging acoustic environments and bespoke surround audio setups. Since 2018 he has also been a Lecturer on the Commercial Music Course at Bath Spa University and has been instrumental in developing and upgrading the course, production and performance facilities there. Career Milestones 1981 – 1985: Engineer at SARM Studios London (UK) 1982 – Duran Duran Rio (Mix Engineer) 1982 – Yes – 90125 (Recording engineer) 1984 – Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome (Recording Engineer) 1984 – Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas (Recording and Mix Engineer) 1985 – 1987: Chief Engineer at Swanyard Studios London (UK) 1988 – Present day: Freelance recording engineer, producer and composer. 1985 – 1987: Masterclasses for Solid State Logic in Japan 1991 – 1998: Lived in Germany 1993 – Built “Brave New World” Studios in German 1996 – The Guitar Trio: Paco De Lucia, John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola ( Recording and Mixing) 1996-1997 – Loreena McKennitt 1997 – Nominated for Best recording engineer at the Juno Awards for Loreena McKennitt (The Book of Secrets) 1998 – Moved back to the UK and moved Studio onto Real World site 2004 – Keynote Speaker at the AES Convention Amsterdam 2005 – Responsible for the live broadcast sound for Live 8 at the Eden Project Cornwall (UK) 2008 – Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary World Music Album – Loreena McKennitt (An Ancient Muse) 2018 – Bath Spa University – Lecturer in Commercial Music 2022 – Master of Arts in Music Industry Innovation and Enterprise (Chichester University / Water Bear) JENNIFER CROOK A UK singer-songwriter and musician, Jennifer’s solo albums have received critical acclaim from BBC Radio 2, the folk and national press. Collaborations include Eddi Reader and Nashville’s Darrell Scott who duetted on Jennifer’s second album. Produced by hit songwriter Boo Hewerdine, the album received national airplay and Jennifer was invited for a live session on The Bob Harris Show on BBC Radio 2. Jennifer recorded her next crowd-funded album at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios with producer Stephen W Tayler (Kate Bush). ’Carnforth Station’ received stunning reviews and was included in The Telegraphs’ ‘Best Folk Albums’ that year and Jennifer was asked to contribute to BBC Radio 2's ‘Girl with Guitar’ presented by Cerys Matthews about the legendary Joni Mitchell. "although her voice is nothing like Mitchell’s, she has a core strength that brings Blue to mind” Folk Radio UK Jennifer’s self-produced musical almanac released in 2017 featured a family of musical friends and collaborators including Eliza Carthy, Beth Porter (Spell Songs) and Charlie Jones (Robert Plant). In 2020 her atmospheric single ‘Sea Glass’ was described as ‘deeply poignant’ by Fatea Magazine and played on The Folk Show on BBC Radio 2. The song, written for Miranda Sykes, was included on the album 'Now We Are Four' by Show of Hands. Jennifer is an engaging performer and has toured with Snow Patrol, Boo Hewerdine, Declan O’Rourke and Andy Davis (The Korgis) amongst many others, and at numerous festivals and venues across the UK and Ireland headlining with her own bands. 'The Broken Road Back Home' "one of the year's best albums" (Folking) released in late 2022 was co-produced with award-winning recording engineer Stuart Bruce (Yes, Van Morrison, Art Garfunkel, Loreena McKennitt, Madeleine Peyroux, to name a few) who also plays bass on the record. The stellar line-up includes Joe Coombs (Yola, Lynne Hanson, Annie Keating) on electric and slide guitars, Dan Moore (Percy Sledge, Beth Orton) on hammond and Robert Brian (Siouxie Sioux, Loreena McKennitt) on drums. Canadian artist Brent Jones duets on Brand New Day, with harmonies from Emm Gryner, Elle Hermansen (The Cedar Sisters) and Jay Atwill. With the live nature of the recordings and Jennifer's beautiful clear voice, the album’s recent release on 12" vinyl proves to be the perfect format for Jennifer’s classic songwriting which is both timeless and right on time. "It may be a broken road, but Crook walks it with a sure step and her head high to come home with one of the year's best albums." Folking.com “I urge you to give this a listen. This is contemporary songwriting and performing at its best” Maverick***** “I see the depth in Jennifer’s songwriting. I see hope and experience - it's very strong in both” Darrell Scott “A clear voice, vaguely reminiscent of Kirsty MacColl, as is her songwriting guitar led music... make this timeless pop music, a bit sixties, a bit eighties and all quality” Fatea Magazine “A new artist to me - she’s gonna be a big one” Richard Leader’s American Pie For more about Jennifer: https://jennifercrook.com/ BRENT JONES Brent Jones has studied and traveled extensively with over 30 years of experience in the creative and musical arts as a composer, performer, producer, engineer, session player, festival organizer, venue and production manager, writer and adviser. Jones has worked with Grammy, Juno and Emmy award winning engineers, producers and musicians in studios and on stages around the world – releasing 11 projects – contributing to hundreds of others and has published 7 books. Brent’s soon to be released 12th album, recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in the UK, was mixed by legendary producer/engineer Stuart Bruce and includes contributions by Jennifer Crook and Emm Gryner. Jones’s creative base is Quiet Earth – a 115 acre rural facility near London, Ontario – where Jones host concerts, events, and recording sessions – all within a natural and historic environment. For more info about Brent Jones and Quiet Earth visit: www.quietearth.ca. MAGGIE'S WAKE Maggie's Wake is a Canadian roots band that combines traditional Celtic instrumentation with a contemporary approach. This exciting collaboration between Rant Maggie Rant co-founder Lindsay Schindler (fiddle, vocals) and Tara Dunphy (tin whistle, flute, fiddle, vocals), lead singer and songwriter of acclaimed country outfit, The Rizdales, is quite simply, a match made in heaven. United in their passion for fiery tunes, soaring vocals with rich harmonies, meaningful stories and beautiful melodies, Lindsay and Tara embrace their wide ranging influences and have built an exciting, new sound. From traditional celtic to cajun, early jazz to latin rhythms, Maggie's Wake is making musical discoveries at every turn, constantly building on the foundation of the music that inspires them. More about Maggie's Wake: www.maggieswake.com BARRY JAMES PAYNE & STRING BONE Canadian singer-songwriter Barry James Payne is the vision and creative force behind String Bone’s music, an amalgamation of Folk-Country-Blues. The band will rock you out in one set, make you teary-eyed in another and then get radical and socially conscience about the world in the next. Payne has collaborated with many high-profile Canadian artists such as Bob Egan (ex-Wilco, ex-Blue Rodeo), Aaron Allen (CMAO 2021 Male Artist of the Year), 3-time Juno Awards winner, the late Bill Bourne, Rick Taylor, Allison Brown, Mae Moore, Sarah Jane Scouten, Trent Severn and Shannon Lyon among others. • Nominated for Folk/Roots Artist of the Year 2022 at the FCLM Awards • String Bone’s song ‘Wow! Oh Yeah!’ reached Top 10 on KBAC/Albuquerque, NM in Feb. 2022 and played on dozens of stations in US and Canada. • Over 300,000 streams/views on social media in the past two years. “The creativity in making this track is so huge, .....on the same level of inventiveness as names like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart without a shadow of a doubt.”— Roadie-Music.com (Brazil) “...'Wow! Oh Yeah' is awesome. Total departure from the country sound... like, Talking Heads meets Nashville..... love it. It feels like Once in a Lifetime (which is a good thing) and attempts to answer the same questions... decades later, as nothing changes.”— Matt Wannan, Aeolian Hall (CANADA) “Wow! Oh Yeah! is irreverent and brilliant. Weird and fantastic with a voice that spits lyrics at you making you think.”— E.A.Poets (USA) “...on his new album Love & Highways he’s managed to capture the often elusive mysterious country/roots music vibe that’s been mined to great effect by T Bone Burnett...” — Rod Nicholson, Scene Magazine (Canada) “...'nadir' is truly a masterpiece!” — Music Star (Germany) For more about Barry & String Bone: www.stringbone.ca FIDDLE & FRETS Fiddle & Frets is an accomplished duo of two award winning musicians, Lindsay Schindler (violin/fiddle/vocals) and Barry James Payne (guitar/bouzouki/vocals). Formerly of Canadian Celtic-World supergroup, Rant Maggie Rant, the pair have been playing together for well over a decade. With years of experience touring the country and abroad, they connect musically on a spiritual level, intuition and rhythmic energy bringing their audiences along with their toe-tapping exhilarating tunes. Barry & Lindsay have performed together in a variety of venues nationwide and south of the border from intimate settings to large concert halls, house concerts to festival stages, pubs and wakes and from weddings to orchestras. The duo first met in 2009 when Barry joined Lindsay in the award winning, Rant Maggie Rant. The rest, as they say, is history! To find out more about Fiddle & Frets check out their web-site: https://www.fiddleandfrets.com/