Music

High on passion, low on fuel

Conrad Sweatman 7 minute read Saturday, Jul. 11, 2026

It’s a story as old as rock and roll: some kids hop in a van, fill up on cigarettes and gas, and let ‘er rip on the Trans-Canada Highway in pursuit of fun, fame and fortune.

Or, failing fortune, a wad of 20s and loose change to cover gas on the way home two weeks later.

If they turn on the radio before reaching the Perimeter, hopefully the bad news and bad vibes they hear won’t persuade them into pulling a U-turn.

In June, it was reported that Manitoba’s annual inflation rate had jumped to 4.6 per cent in May, topping all provinces alongside Nova Scotia. Statistics Canada said drivers were paying the highest for gas since June 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threw global supply chains into chaos.

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Creative freedom

Rob Williams 7 minute read Preview

Creative freedom

Rob Williams 7 minute read Thursday, Jul. 9, 2026

Kathleen Edwards is experiencing total freedom.

Years removed from taking a break from the music industry, the songwriter, who turns 48 on Saturday, has come to a certain peace about who she is as a person and a musician.

On her latest full-length, Billionaire, released last year, she wrote almost enough music for a double album, but time constraints limited her to a tight 10 tracks. Local music fans will get to hear some of those songs when Edwards returns to the Winnipeg Folk Festival Sunday.

“I think it’s an age thing. I think I’ve gotten less caught in, ‘What if this isn’t good, or is it?’ And now I’m like, ‘Oh, nothing is a waste of time on the creative front. Everything has a purpose.’

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Thursday, Jul. 9, 2026

Music

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Jacob Brodovsky’s new album is his attempt at wrestling with the future of humankind.

Songwriter reckons with past, present on new album

Ben Waldman 8 minute read Preview

Songwriter reckons with past, present on new album

Ben Waldman 8 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026

Grab a kitchen scale and you’ll quickly see that Jacob Brodovsky’s newest LP is exactly the same weight as his last one, but Tell the Kids We Tried is still the heaviest music released by the singer-songwriter.

Even on its more upbeat, playful tracks — reminiscent of jangly, optimistic indie rock from Canadian indie heroes such as Dan Mangan, Joel Plaskett and the Weakerthans — the newest release from the Winnipeg-raised artist tackles concurrent global fiascos such as climate catastrophe, political apathy, genocide and an abdication of human rights.

“Folk music is an intrinsically political genre,” the 35-year-old says. “The people who started (the Winnipeg) folk fest were intrinsically political people, and the best folk music that’s being made today is intrinsically political. I think in this moment to say that your music isn’t political is at least naive, if not ignorant.

“You can’t ignore what’s going on in the world. You can’t ignore how unkind people are to one another,” says Brodovsky, who displays a sign in his home studio endorsing Avi Lewis; he played the federal NDP leader’s April rally in Winnipeg.

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Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026

Music

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Chance the Rapper plays the Canada Life Centre July 13 with Big Boi.

Chance the Rapper headed for Winnipeg on latest tour

Eva Wasney 6 minute read Preview

Chance the Rapper headed for Winnipeg on latest tour

Eva Wasney 6 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026

Chance the Rapper made history in 2016 with the release of his third mixtape, Coloring Book.

The Chicago-born hip-hop artist released the album independently and exclusively through Apple Music, making it the first streaming-only album to earn a Grammy when Chance won Best Rap Album at the 2017 music awards.

The mixtape — which blends gospel with rap and features collaborations with Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Young Thug and others — also received wide critical acclaim.

Chance, 33, is touring North America this summer to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Coloring Book, including a stop at Canada Life Centre on Monday. Audiences can expect hits from that seminal project, along with music from his latest release, Star Line.

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Wednesday, Jul. 8, 2026

Music

‘He was shaping a generation of young artists’: Winnipeg director Rob Herriot has died at 60

Malak Abas 5 minute read Preview

‘He was shaping a generation of young artists’: Winnipeg director Rob Herriot has died at 60

Malak Abas 5 minute read Sunday, Jul. 5, 2026

Prolific Winnipeg director and performer Rob Herriot has died.

Herriot was well known for his work within opera and musical theatre in Winnipeg and across North America. He died Friday at 60 years old. Loved ones described his death as sudden, and the cause had not yet been determined Sunday.

“He was such an enormous part of the opera community locally here in Winnipeg… as a director, he was shaping a generation of young artists in the community,” Manitoba Opera executive director Michael Blais said Sunday. “I think that’s what the real loss is to the opera community, in that way.”

Herriot’s work in Manitoba included directing productions of Cosí fan Tutte, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Carmen, and, most recently, The Marriage of Figaro for Manitoba Opera, Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz and Beauty and the Beast for Rainbow Stage, and Three Decembers, The Walk from the Garden and The House Without a Christmas Tree for the Little Opera Company.

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Sunday, Jul. 5, 2026

Music

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Billy Joe Green has been playing gigs in Winnipeg since his late teens.

Blues-rocker, storyteller channels rage into art

Tiago Resko 4 minute read Preview

Blues-rocker, storyteller channels rage into art

Tiago Resko 4 minute read Friday, Jun. 26, 2026

After spending more than a decade in a residential school, musician Billy Joe Green has spent his life channelling his trauma into his songs, using them to heal while spreading awareness about the injustices Indigenous Peoples have faced.

After decades of sharing his story through music, Green will continue to spread the word at Zhoonguweh nuhgaamwin, a free concert Sunday at The Forks to honour National Indigenous History Month.

The show is a part of Many Nations One Heartbeat, an event celebrating Indigenous culture that runs until the end of June.

The concert’s name means “the powerful song” and was gifted by knowledge keeper Colin Mousseau. Green will be playing alongside R&B artist Ed Riley and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist the Good Sky Woman.

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Friday, Jun. 26, 2026

Music

Country Thunder down Kane Brown

2 minute read Preview

Country Thunder down Kane Brown

2 minute read Friday, Jun. 19, 2026

For the second year in a row, the initially announced headliner for the Country Thunder show at Princess Auto Stadium has been swapped out.

American star Kane Brown, who was scheduled for the July 3 concert, has left the lineup owing to “unforeseen circumstances.” His replacement is Nashville-based singer Josh Ross, who had a No. 1 country hit in 2025 with Single Again.

The rest of the bill remains unchanged: Bailey Zimmerman, Koe Wetzel and Robyn Ottolini will take the stage at the touring event, which is followed by the Mötley Crüe-headlined Rockin’ Thunder show on July 4.

Last year, Country Thunder headliner Jason Aldean left the bill of the July 10 show in April; he was replaced by Riley Green.

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Friday, Jun. 19, 2026

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Music

New chapter in Luana Moth saga

Tiago Resko 4 minute read Preview

New chapter in Luana Moth saga

Tiago Resko 4 minute read Friday, Jun. 19, 2026

On a late-night walk in Gimli in 2016, musician Tony Mazza discovered a mysterious poem on the ground, penned on a loose sheet of paper.

Written on the back were two words that would become the centre of his obsession for the next decade: Luana Moth.

The poem eventually inspired him and his sister, Giovanna, to form a progressive electronic music duo of the same name, centred on the concept of a girl called Luana Moth who mysteriously vanished in Lake Winnipeg after a supernatural encounter.

Mazza initially started letting his imagination run wild with who Luana Moth could have been and started writing music around her story, but he was unable to find someone to work with on the project.

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Friday, Jun. 19, 2026

Music

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Gordon Gerrard conducts during the Manitoba Opera’s production of The Marriage of Figaro this past spring. Gerrard begins his term as the opera’s artistic director in September.

New artistic director brings spirit of adventure to opera job

Eva Wasney 5 minute read Preview

New artistic director brings spirit of adventure to opera job

Eva Wasney 5 minute read Thursday, Jun. 18, 2026

Manitoba Opera’s new artistic director is bringing his baton home.

The company announced the appointment of Gordon Gerrard, a Manitoba-born pianist and conductor, on Thursday following a year-long search. He will begin a five-year term in September, taking over from outgoing general director and CEO Larry Desrochers.

It’s a full-circle moment for Gerrard, 48, who grew up on a grain and cattle farm north of Brandon and saw his first opera, a Manitoba Opera production of Hansel and Gretel, at the Centennial Concert Hall as a University of Manitoba music student.

“Little did I know that a couple of decades later, I’d be leading the artistic side of the company,” Gerrard says over the phone, adding he’s excited to live closer to family and rediscover Winnipeg after years living elsewhere.

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Thursday, Jun. 18, 2026

Music

Ruth Bonneville / Free Press
Jazz Fest artistic director Zachary Rushing is excited for this year’s jazz festival, which features acts from around the globe.

Neo-soul, the legacy of Miles Davis and more to attract hepcats to this year’s jazz fest

Conrad Sweatman 7 minute read Preview

Neo-soul, the legacy of Miles Davis and more to attract hepcats to this year’s jazz fest

Conrad Sweatman 7 minute read Friday, Jun. 12, 2026

After some thunderous storms, the forecast looks strong: a near week of the best jazz that Canadian stages have to offer June 16-21. May we walk in the sunlight once more, to paraphrase the jazz classic Stormy Weather.

The Winnipeg International Jazz Festival’s centre of gravity is the Exchange District. There, venues and thoroughfares flood with people and musicians like a New Orleans street parade, announcing that downtown Winnipeg is wide awake for the summer. And the party’s nucleus is its mainstage in Old Market Square, with dozens of free concerts every day.

“There’s phenomenal dance and groove music on the Old Market Square lineup, and there are acts coming from around the globe to share their talents,” says Jazz Winnipeg’s artistic director Zachary Rushing.

A few out-of-town mainstage highlights include Ontario five-piecer Shebad, sounding like a cross somewhere between Amy Winehouse and Daft Punk; Juno-nominated Montreal-based drummer and composer Salin, fusing the sounds of Northern Thailand with 1970s West African psychedelia; and pioneering Hungarian fusion artists Djabe.

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Friday, Jun. 12, 2026

Music

Jen Squires photo
Bobby Dove ended up in Manitoba after flying the coop from Montreal.

Interlake songwriter soars to new heights

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Preview

Interlake songwriter soars to new heights

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Thursday, Jun. 11, 2026

In 2011, a decade before a pandemic renoviction caused Bobby Dove to fly the coop from Montreal, the swaggering trans troubadour snuck onto the bill for an annual birthday tribute to another folk singer with identical initials.

“I was not on any list of any kind to play, I just knew it was going on, and I was absolutely, as they say, feeling myself,” recalls Dove of the Bob Dylan show.

At the time, Dove was mostly busking and playing with an outfit called the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers.

Dove (who uses they/them pronouns) waltzed into the venue without a ticket, telling the doorman they were a performer before being waved backstage. Behind the curtain, organizer Mitch Melnick knew something was amiss, but decided to cut the young songwriter a break, putting Dove right in the thick of the all-star bill.

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Thursday, Jun. 11, 2026

Music

Ali Vandale photo
Leah Magnan’s debut EP as Earth Angel, Blue Hour, is being launched tonight.

Winnipeg artist’s EP inspired by twilight moments

Ben Waldman 4 minute read Preview

Winnipeg artist’s EP inspired by twilight moments

Ben Waldman 4 minute read Friday, Jun. 5, 2026

Earth Angel’s Leah Magnan loves to find and finds to love.

Last summer, the Edmonton-raised, independent maker of what she refers to lovingly as “dyke rock” was browsing at a second-hand corporation’s brick-and-mortar outpost when she spotted an EKO bass pedal on the shelf, negotiating with the thrift gods to procure the valuable tool for just $20.

She didn’t feel bad about walking away from Value Village with an honest-to-goodness grail. And as soon as she took the pedal home, she set out to feature it on her debut EP, Blue Hour, released this week and recorded at Winnipeg’s Collector Studio.

“It produces a really cool, deep synth bass sound, and so we used it on House on Fire, which is probably the most produced song on the album: that was the only one we didn’t do live-off-the-floor,” says Magnan, a music therapist who works with Artists in Healthcare.

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Friday, Jun. 5, 2026

Books

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Kevin Klassen (right) as Sylvius and Artie Lorraine as Bodyguard No. 1. in As You Like It

Shakespeare takes a spa day

Ben Waldman 6 minute read Preview

Shakespeare takes a spa day

Ben Waldman 6 minute read Thursday, Jun. 4, 2026

Is White Lotus showrunner Mike White a modern-day bard? The Folger Shakespeare Library has at least entertained the question.

After the first season of the Emmy-winning dark comedy aired in 2022, the Washington, D.C.-based institution published a guest post by Austin Tichenor which favourably compared the tropical HBO program — each season set in a different luxury resort — to The Tempest.

“There’s something wonderfully contained about The White Lotus. Unlike other epic and sprawling miniseries, this six-episode character study feels surprisingly intimate, like the five acts of a Shakespeare play,” wrote Tichenor, the co-artistic director of California’s Reduced Shakespeare Company. “And while there’s no actual storm, the sounds of wind, waves, and surf punctuate the proceedings, adding tension and underscoring the turbulence characters are going through.”

In Manitoba, Michelle Boulet couldn’t help but consider one of her favourite Shakespearean comedies as she watched the show’s company of actors — Jennifer Coolidge, Walton Goggins and Parker Posey among them — skewer the uber-rich and ultra-privileged.

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Thursday, Jun. 4, 2026

Opinion

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From left: When John got his driver’s licence in 1965, George, Paul and Ringo showed up to offer congrats.

Life at the speed of sound

Pam Frampton 5 minute read Preview

Life at the speed of sound

Pam Frampton 5 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 3, 2026

I was only five years old when the Beatles broke up and yet their music has been the overarching soundtrack of my life.

While I remember a few of the songs from my childhood — Got to Get You into My Life, Paperback Writer, The Long and Winding Road, Let It Be — for the most part my love of their work came after the fact, through listening to albums made before my time.

It’s fair to say I’m a superfan. I’ve read the books, got the CD boxed set, am the proud owner of a Beatlemania trivia game, visited the famous Cavern Club and the cavernous Liverpool Cathedral, where Paul McCartney was rejected for the choir at age 11.

I often think how lucky I am to have been born during the Beatles era. It’s like winning the musical lottery, or being in 18th-century Vienna during Mozart’s day. Perhaps it’s just that you identify with the heroes of your own time, and yet the Beatles always seemed to speak directly to me.

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Wednesday, Jun. 3, 2026

Music

Winnipeg artist nominated for theatre prize for second straight year

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Preview

Winnipeg artist nominated for theatre prize for second straight year

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 3, 2026

For the second consecutive year, Winnipeg’s Dasha Plett is nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore award for outstanding sound design.

The 2026 field of nominees, announced Monday by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, was drawn from eligible theatre, dance and opera productions in the Ontario city.

Last year, Plett — a co-founder with Gislina Patterson of local performance collective We Quit Theatre — was nominated for her work on Roberto Zucco, a production by the pre-eminent downtown Toronto queer theatre Buddies in Bad Times.

This time around, the theatre artist is nominated for her work on Take Rimbaud by playwright-performer Susanna Fournier, a “performance poem imagining the worlds of Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Sylvia Plath, Sappho and post-art school malaise,” per Buddies in Bad Times.

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Wednesday, Jun. 3, 2026

Music

Subvert music service prioritizing art over artificial intelligence

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Preview

Subvert music service prioritizing art over artificial intelligence

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Thursday, May. 21, 2026

With its public launch earlier this month, a digital music marketplace called Subvert aims to live up to its name, directing more power — and more dollars — to recording artists navigating the choppy waters of the streaming wars.

Initially pitched as a collectively owned successor to Bandcamp — a popular sales interface for independent artists — and an alternative to big tech-funded streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music, Subvert (subvert.fm) was already hosting music for purchase by 20,000 artists from 120 countries as of Wednesday afternoon.

Nearly 30 of those artists — including Altona-based pop producer Daggerss, a.k.a. Laura Smith — call Manitoba home.

“To me, the co-op model is really exciting,” says Smith, a former touring member of indie rock stalwarts Said the Whale whose past projects include Rococode, a synthy duo that released music through Winnipeg label Head in the Sand Records in the 2010s. “It gives power to the people and keeps it in the hands of the people instead of us being at the beck and call of a tech company.”

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Thursday, May. 21, 2026

July 19, 2026

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