Winnipeg music & culture since 1989
by Sheldon Birnie
One of the hardest working bands in rock n roll is hitting Winnipeg this week, and I for one could not be happier.
Lucero are a long-running, hard-touring band out of Memphis, Tennessee. Having been out on the road for well over a decade, playing up to or over 200 shows a year, the band are far from slowing down, even as they edge into their 40s. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Hard touring Memphis act Lucero roll into town”
by Sheldon Birnie
The Hillbilly Highway from Winnipeg to Austin and back was a long, winding, and often ice covered one. But we made it. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Looking back at SXSW”
by Sheldon Birnie
Well, friends, I’ve been in Austin for less than two days, and I’ve been to the White Horse Tavern twice.
The bar is a classic roadhouse, serving up cans of Lone Star on the cheap and pumping out foot stompin’, honky tonkin’ tunes. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – White Horse Tavern at SXSW”
by Sheldon Birnie
Winnipeg’s Matt Colpitts (aka The Reverend Rambler) has been slowly building himself a reputation around the Heart of the Continent as a dynamic performer and an authentic songwriter — not to mention the city’s best one-man-band. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – The Reverend Rambler prepares to drop debut”
by Sheldon Birnie
I’ve been a big fan of Memphis, Tennessee’s Lucero for years now. So when it was announced late in 2012 that the band would be finally playing in Winnipeg, I nearly lost it. I immediately contacted their management to arrange for an interview. After some back and forth in January, I finally completed a nice little chat with Lucero guitarist Brian Venable last week. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Lucero preview”
by Sheldon Birnie
Last week here on the Hillbilly Highway, we spoke with Dustin Bentall leading up to his performance at the Park Theatre on Valentine’s Day.
Now that a few days have passed, I’m still stuck with his unbelievable tune “Emmylou” playing repeat on the jukebox in my brain. I can’t shut it off. I wake up in the morning, it’s there. I’m walking the streets of Winnipeg, it’s keeping me company. I try to drown it out by hitting the Windsor or the Times, but when I deke outside for some air, it’s right there. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Top 5 tunes about truckstop waitresses, topless turnpike dancers, and backroads beauties”
by Sheldon Birnie
Dustin Bentall is an award winning songwriter off of the West Coast of British Columbia. Since the early Oughts, he’s been travelling hard across the Hillbilly Highway, churning out a couple albums worth of solid storytelling songs about drifters, gunfighters, and guitar slingers. On his recent EP, Orion, Bentall has finally locked down a solid band at his back. With the Smokes in tow, Bentall, son of Canadian folk-rock hero Barney Bentall, is rolling into town with Lindi Ortega to take the Park Theatre by storm. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Dustin Bentall & The Smokes to light up the Park”
As my pal Corin Raymond has said before, “there will always be a Small Time.” What he’s talking about is the underground music scene, the independent artists and people who support them. Basement bars, house concerts, barn dances. All these things have been around, in some form or other, since caveman days (probably). Continue reading “Hillybilly Highway – Full throttle for CKUW Fundrive”
by Sheldon Birnie
It is truly amazing how far a crazy idea can go if you really give it all you got. Case in point is Corin Raymond’s latest album, Paper Nickels. Funded entirely by what Corin calls “The Great Canadian Tire Money Caper of 2012,” the album is possibly the craziest crowd sourcing experiment the world has seen yet, and certainly the most Canadian. Continue reading “Hillbilly Highway – Crazy what a bunch of Paper Nickels can do…”