What’s up: katherena vermette, Brent Butt, DreamPlay Small Concerts, Marissa Burwell, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

Vermette launches new poetry collection

• McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park (1120 Grant Ave.)
• Tonight, 7 p.m.
• Free

Award-winning Winnipeg author katherena vermette will be joined by a pair of poetic heavy hitters for the launch of her latest collection.

Vermette’s new book, Procession, was published by House of Anansi Press on Sept. 30, and sees the Michif author explore notions of nostalgia, ceremony, ancestry and family throughout generations.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

In 2013, vermette won the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry for North End Love Songs, and for tonight’s launch she’ll be joined by two other local poets whose collections also won the $25,000 top prize — Hannah Green, who took home the award in 2023 for Xanax Cowboy, and Canadian parliamentary poet laureate Chimwemwe Undi, who won in 2024 for Scientific Marvel. Both Green and Undi’s collections were also published by House of Anansi.

The launch gets underway at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location. Of note: this event will not be streamed to the store’s YouTube page.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Brent Butt

• Burton Cummings Theatre, 364 Smith St.
• Saturday, 8 p.m.
• Tickets $37-$83 at Ticketmaster

Brent Butt just released his debut comedy album, Easily Distracted, in June. As in June of this year. As in June 2025.

“I hope I didn’t rush things — I’m only 37 years into my career,” he wrote on Substack.

To be fair, the Canadian comedian, author and creator/star of the hit TV series Corner Gas has been a little busy — the man even put out a novel, Huge, in 2023 — and maybe it’s prudent to wait until you’re already a household name to release your first album.

The funnyman with the funny name is currently on a Canadian tour that swings by the Burton Cummings Theatre on Saturday. Comedian (and Winnipeg Comedy Festival artistic director) Dean Jenkinson will open the show. Limited tickets remain, but if you can’t make the show, Easily Distracted is on all major streaming platforms.

— Jen Zoratti

 

DreamPlay Small Concerts Launch

• Muriel Richardson Auditorium, Winnipeg Art Gallery
• Tonight, 7:30 p.m.
• Pay what you can

The Small Concerts series returns for a new season of shows starting with tonight’s season launch.

Concert 1 features composer/artistic director Glenn Buhr performing 14 songs, accompanied by Gilles Fournier on bass and his wife, author Margaret Sweatman, joining in with vocals and harmonica on five of the songs.

For this program, the pianist — who won a Genie with Sweatman for a song they wrote for the film Seven Times Lucky — has put together a collection of his songs penned between 1994 and 2025, some with lyrics by Sweatman and poet Duncan Mercredi.

Guests are invited to join the musicians for cake and drinks after the hour-long performance.

For more information on the 2025/26 season and details of upcoming concerts, see dreamplay.ca.

— AV Kitching

 

Marissa Burwell

• Tonight, 7 p.m.
• Handsome Daughter, 61 Sherbrook St.
• Tickets $18 at 3common.com

The annual BreakOut West music conference, which Winnipeg hosted this year, just wrapped up.

As well as being a show of force for western musicians, it was a reminder what a deep Canadiana tradition we still have here. Nostalgic and rustic, evoking the country-folk of Prairie alumni Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, but also often having something of the suburban, catchy qualities of Midwest emo and 1990s alt-rock.

In Saskatchewan songstress Marissa Burwell, who’s currently touring Western Canada, we have a shining exemplar of this tradition.

Songs such as Minneapolis and Tell Me When It Rains feel tailor-made for a CBC playlist that might hit you, in that self-effacing patriotic spirit CBC encourages, while driving by small town Co-Ops and grain elevators en route to Saskatoon.

Burwell brings her confessional folk-rock to the Handsome Daughter on a bill that also includes two local songwriters: avant-pop pianist-singer Kwiat (Ashley Bieniarz) and R&B vocalist Courtney Devon.

— Conrad Sweatman

 

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

• Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
• Burton Cummings Theatre, 364 Smith St.
• Tickets $53-$88 at Ticketmaster

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass return to Winnipeg Thursday for the latest instalment in a touring relationship that began in 1967.

Alpert, a legendary trumpeter and co-founder of A&M Records, visited the city on Aug. 11 of that year to headline the Winnipeg Arena, playing as part of the Manitoba Centennial Corporation’s Fabulous Fun Fare, which also boasted a pair of performances from Don Messer and the Islanders.

Back then, Alpert was 32 years old, nearing the end of a seven-album streak of top-five records. At 90, Alpert has released 50 albums, with a Christmas record due in November as No. 51.

“At this period of life this music has a way of keeping me in energy,” Alpert told NPR’s World Cafe during a January interview. “The process is the thing that keeps me going.”

On his latest tour, Alpert and his backing band celebrate the 60th anniversary of Whipped Cream & Other Delights, a record that started with A Taste of Honey and closed with Lollipops and Roses. The top-selling album of 1966 sold more than six million copies.

— Ben Waldman