What’s up: Dan Mangan, Casey Plett, Daniel Caesar, Great Lake Swimmers

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This article was published 05/10/2023 (1055 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dan Mangan kicks off folk fest’s fall concert series

Today, Thursday, Oct. 5, 8 p.m.

Burton Cummings Theatre

Tickets: $42-$52.25 at ticketmaster.ca

A sign of autumn that’s surer than seeing leaves fall from the trees is the return of the Winnipeg Folk Festival’s fall concert series.

It begins today with Vancouver alt-rock singer Dan Mangan, a two-time Juno Award winner, taking the stage at the Burton Cummings Theatre. Other artists in the series include Jeremy Dutcher (Oct. 28, the Burt); Loreena McKennitt (Nov. 9, Centennial Concert Hall); and Boy Golden with Fontine and Kris Ulrich (Nov. 24, the Burt).

While Mangan’s latest album, Being Somewhere, came out in 2022, last month he dropped an up-tempo rendition of the single Just Know it, which he describes as the “elsewhere version” that emphasizes guitar rather than the original’s piano. It’ll be the first of several reimagined versions of Being Somewhere tracks.

Mangan also provides scores for television shows and movies, most notably the 2014 film Hector and the Search for Happiness, which he worked on with Canadian violinist Jesse Zubot. His latest project includes 10 instrumental tracks for the new Netflix animated series Hilda.

Gabrielle Shonk, who earned an adult-alternative Juno nomination in 2019, opens the show. Her 2023 album, Across the Room, has a jazzy vibe influenced by the Billie Holiday and Chet Baker records she listened to in her youth.

— Alan Small

Casey Plett brings pair of books to Winnipeg

Saturday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m.

McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park

Free admission

Former Winnipegger Casey Plett returns to Manitoba as part of Thin Air 2023: the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, with a pair of books to discuss — one brand new and the other a re-release of her debut work.

Plett, who splits her time between Windsor, Ont., and New York, will appear at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location on Saturday at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss her recently reissued short-story collection A Safe Girl to Love, originally published in 2014, as well as her new book of non-fiction, On Community, published by Biblioasis as part of their Field Notes series of short treatises.

A Safe Girl to Love won Plett a Lambda award for transgender fiction, a prize she won again for her 2018 novel Little Fish, which was also awarded the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. Her 2021 short-story collection, A Dream of a Woman, landed Plett on the long list for the Giller Prize, for which she served as a juror in 2022.

Joining Plett at the event will be Jonathan Dyck, whose graphic novel Shelterbelts won the McNally Robinson book of the year award at the 2023 Manitoba Book Awards.

There’s no cost to attend the event, which will also be streamed live on McNally Robinson’s YouTube page at wfp.to/6JI. For more on Plett’s books or to check out exclusive content from many of the writers fest’s featured authors, visit thinairfestival.ca.

— Ben Sigurdson

Daniel Caesar plays Canada Life

Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Canada Life Centre

Tickets start at $51 on Ticketmaster

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Daniel Caesar brings the second leg of his Superpowers World Tour through downtown Winnipeg on Saturday night.

The jet-setting tour is in support of the Oshawa-born artist’s third studio album, Never Enough — a pensive, experimental release that was shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize.

Caesar first made waves in 2015 with the release of his second EP, which featured a critically acclaimed cover of Kanye West’s song Street Lights. He won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance in 2019 and was recently featured on Justin Beiber’s chart-topping single Peaches.

Opening for Caesar, who last played in Winnipeg four years ago, is Moses Sumney, a Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter whose ethereal music runs the gamut from classical to electronica to folk and indie rock.

— Eva Wasney

Great Lake Swimmers bring Uncertain Country to Winnipeg

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 8 p.m.

Park Theatre

Tickets are $27.50 plus fees at ticketweb.ca

A global pandemic, a burgeoning climate crisis, economic instability — these are uncertain times we’re living in.

Singer-songwriter Tony Dekker, leader of Toronto folk-rock outfit Great Lake Swimmers, wanted to explore that collective anxiety and uncertainty on the band’s atmospheric and aptly titled eighth album, Uncertain Country. (The anxieties are not always global, either; there’s a short interstitial called Since January, which features audio of Dekker admitting he’s been working on a chord progression “since January.”)

Released earlier this year, this 11-song collection is the Swimmers’ first since 2018’s The Waves, the Wake. Like previous albums — including 2009’s Lost Channels, which was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize — Uncertain Country was recorded in a variety of acoustically diverse locations, from churches to barns.

Toronto singer-songwriter Abigail Lapell is also on the bill. Doors open at 7 p.m., show is at 8 p.m.

— Jen Zoratti

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