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This article was published 13/10/2022 (1400 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Evening with Bob McDonald

Friday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m.
McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park, 1120 Grant Ave.
Free admission

Canada’s favourite science nerd is coming back to Winnipeg with a new book in tow.

Bob McDonald, host of CBC’s Quirks & Quarks, will appear at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location on Friday in support of his new book The Future is Now: Solving the Climate Crisis with Today’s Technologies, published in late September by Viking.

In his new book, McDonald examines technology currently at our disposal to grapple with the climate crisis, and how longstanding alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal are just the beginning on a path towards powering our world with green tech that includes hydrogen, waves, tides and more.

In addition to hosting Quirks & Quarks, McDonald is the author of a number of popular science books including Measuring the Earth with a Stick and An Earthling’s Guide to Outer Space. He’ll speak about The Future is Now on Friday at 7 p.m. as part of Thin Air 2022, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival. The event will also be streamed online via McNally Robinson’s YouTube page.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

JayWood’s Slingshot Gets a Hometown Debut

Friday, Oct. 14, doors at 7 p.m.
West End Cultural Centre
Tickets: $20-$25 at www.reallovewpg.com

JayWood’s is a DIY story: the artist started off making scuzzy recordings in his living room in Winnipeg in the mid-2010s, using a borrowed laptop and spare time. A self-taught musician, influenced by the output of the influential NYC label Captured Tracks — which released fuzzy and oceanic indie pop standards from acts like Beach Fossils, Widowspeak and Wild Nothing — Jeremy Haywood-Smith quietly plied his trade. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would join the ranks of his heroes.

But that’s exactly what happened in 2021, when Captured Tracks and Royal Mountain Records put out JayWood’s EP Some Days. Now, a year later, with the Captured Tracks release of his funky LP Slingshot, JayWood has become a bonafide Winnipeg star, with a growing national and international listenership, playing with a solid backing band that regularly rips through memorable live sets, including at this July’s Real Love Summer Fest, where a cover of Bulls on Parade — with guest vocals from Brett Ticzon of Living Hour — shook the ground and nearly felled a few trees in Teulon.

This Friday at the West End Cultural Centre, after recent stops as far away as Germany, JayWood gets a chance to show a hometown crowd what he’s made of. Opening for JayWood are Mooki, an energetic lunch-pail rapper with a gritty stage presence, and guitarist Gabriela Ocejo, a jazzy, soulful performer who makes up one-eighth of the Polaris Prize-nominated Super Duty Tough Work.

— Ben Waldman

 

Join a Manitoba Bluegrass Jamboree

Saturday, Oct. 15,
Crescent Fort Rouge United Church
Tickets $30 at the door, $25 in advance at eventbrite.ca

Ask Winnipeg bluegrass banjo picker Tim Osmond which room in the city is best-suited to hear soaring four-part harmonies, blistering fiddle solos or barn-burning banjo licks, and he’ll tell you it’s Crescent Fort Rouge United Church.

That’s where Osmond will be hosting the Manitoba Bluegrass Jamboree on Saturday night. Andrew Galloway will perform a set of Appalachian old-time music, followed by Winnipeg bluegrass ensemble Stonypoint Power Trio and The Stanley County Cut-Ups, a supergroup featuring a who’s-who of the local scene: Jess Reimer on bass, Jeremy Hamm on mandolin and fiddle, Jeremy Penner on fiddle, T.J. Blair on guitar, and Osmond on banjo/dobro. (The Cut-Ups are coming off a busy festival season, having played the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Trout Forest Music Festival and the Northern Lights Bluegrass Festival.)

Tickets to this toe-tapping celebration of traditional and original bluegrass are available at eventbrite.ca. Kids 12 and under can get in for free.

— Jen Zoratti

 

Damn the Torpedoes, it’s time for Petty Fest

Saturday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, 234 Main St.
Tickets: $15 at highandlonesomeclub.ca and eventbrite.ca

Tom Petty would have turned 72 on Oct. 20, and the waiting is the hardest part, especially when birthdays are concerned.

That’s why the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club is jumping the gun on Petty’s birthday celebrations and hosting the seventh annual Petty Fest Saturday night, five days ahead of schedule.

It will be the seventh year in a row that Damn the Torpedoes, a cast of Petty die-hards from local bands such as the Noble Thiefs, SubCity and Clipwing get together and pay tribute to Petty, who died Oct. 2, 2017.

Damn the Torpedoes have a 25-song repertoire rehearsed and ready for the two shows, which are ticketed separately. If you want to watch the band perform both sets, you’ll have to break down and pay twice.

— Alan Small