From a very early age, Jason was surrounded by a wide variety of music spanning the rock, traditional, classical and jazz genres. Starting with drums in his early teens, Jason developed a passion for learning to play other instruments, moving on to guitar and then focusing on mastering the bouzouki. Described by some as one of the best proponents of new style Irish bouzouki playing in Canada, Jason first embraced the instrument while living in Ireland in the 1990s, and has contributed its unique sound to numerous traditional recordings. Having made his first professional music appearance at 16, Jason has over 25 years experience performing locally, nationally and internationally. He has lived in Ireland and Bermuda and has traveled extensively. Over the years he has worked as a performer, composer, engineer and producer of recordings and live music projects. Through his studio, The Sound Solution, he has been involved in more than 60 CD projects and is often called upon as a session player for other artists. A founding member of iconic Newfoundland bands Connemara and The Punters, Jason has performed and recorded with some of Canada’s foremost musical talents like: Roger Howse, Pamela Morgan, The Plankerdown Band, The Graham Wells Band, The 7 Deadly Sons, Great Big Sea, Seamus Creagh, Pierre Schryer, and many others. Since 2016, Jason has been playing with Colleen Power as guitarist/vocalist in her band as well as Fiddle/Viola duo The Sizzle Sisters as well performing numerous solo concerts. For almost 20 years Jason has also worked in the telecommunications industry, having worked for Paragon, xwave, Aliant and Bell in Newfoundland, and Logic Communications, an ISP in Bermuda. He divides his time between his first love music, and his career in IT/Telecommunications. He holds the coveted Cisco CCIE designation, and an MBA from Memorial University of Newfoundland and works as a senior technical architect with Bell Canada where he builds enterprise data and voice networks for local and international companies. As a senior consultant, he is looked upon by many Canadian enterprise customers as a trusted adviser and subject matter expert. If he’s not plugging in a guitar cable, it’s probably a fiber optic cable!

Jane Dennison is a dancer and dance caller who has been a big fan of the set (square) dances from Newfoundland and Labrador for more than 30 years. These unique dances have their roots in the folk dances of the British Isles where the early immigrants to the province originated. Concerned that the dances were being forgotten, Jane started collecting and transcribing dances 25 years ago. She has travelled widely talking to dancers and dance musicians and has worked with several communities to revive dances that were nearly lost.

Jane has led dance workshops all over the province for people aged 5 to 85. No need for experience to join the dance!

Jake and Pami have been performing as a duo over the last few years in Europe, the UK and Canada. Jake Nicoll has been a fixture in the local music scene, releasing his own solo records and producing albums for many local musicians since he moved here in 2009. His music is thoughtful and introspective yet always tinged with a playful sense of experimentation. He’ll be joined by Pami on harmonies and her classical guitar based hazy-dazy off kilter dream folk. They’ll play some of their originals and pull from the large repertoire of folk covers they’ve collected over the years.

Janaya Rose is an apparel designer in St. John’s Newfoundland. She completed the Textile and Apparel Design program at the College of the North Atlantic and uses various techniques to create custom fabrics and embellishments for her apparel line. Janaya teaches youth classes at the Anna Templeton Centre specializing in machine sewing and textile craft.

On her transcendent new record, Workin’ On A World, Iris DeMent faces the modern
world — as it is right now — with its climate catastrophe, pandemic illness, and
epidemic of violence and social injustice — and not only asks us how we can keep
working towards a better world, but implores us to love each other, despite our very
different ways of seeing. Her songs are her way of healing our broken inner and outer
spaces.

With an inimitable voice as John Prine described, “like you’ve heard, but not really,” and
unforgettable melodies rooted in hymns, gospel, and old country music, she’s simply
one of the finest singer-songwriters in America as well as one of our fiercest advocates
for human rights. Her debut record Infamous Angel, which just celebrated its 30th
anniversary, was recently named one of the “greatest country albums of all time” by
Rolling Stone, and the two albums that followed, My Life and The Way I Should, were
both nominated for GRAMMYs. From there, DeMent released three records on her own
label, Flariella Records, the most recent of which, The Trackless Woods (2015), was
hailed as “a quietly powerful triumph” by The Guardian. DeMent’s songs have also been
featured in film (True Grit) and television (The Leftovers) and recorded by numerous
artists. Fittingly, she received the Americana Music Trailblazer Award in 2017.
Workin’ On A World, her seventh album, started with the worry that woke DeMent up
after the 2016 elections: how can we survive this? “Every day some new trauma was
being added to the old ones that kept repeating themselves, and like everybody else, I
was just trying to bear up under it all,” she recalls. She returned to a truth she had
known since childhood: music is medicine. “My mom always had a way of finding the
song that would prove equal to whatever situation we were facing. Throughout my life,
songs have been lending me a hand. Writing songs, singing songs, putting them on
records, has been a way for me to extend that hand to others.”

With grace, courage, and soul, Iris shares 13 anthems — love songs, really — to and
for our broken inner and outer worlds. DeMent sets the stage for the album with the title
track in which she moves from a sense of despair towards a place of promise. “Now I’m
workin’ on a world I may never see / Joinin’ forces with the warriors of love / Who came
before and will follow you and me.”

She summons various social justice warriors, both past and present, to deliver
messages of optimism. “How Long” references Martin Luther King, while “Warriors of
Love” includes John Lewis and Rachel Corrie. “Goin’ Down To Sing in Texas” is an ode
not only to gun control, but also to the brave folks who speak out against tyranny and
endure the consequences in an unjust world. “I kept hearing a lot of talk about the arc of
history that Dr. King so famously said bends towards justice,” she recalls. “I was having
my doubts. But, then it dawned on me, he never said the arc would magically bend
itself. Songs, over the course of history, have proven to be pretty good arc benders.”
Bending inward, DeMent reaches agilely under the slippery surface of politics. She
grapples with loss on the deeply honest “I Won’t Ask You Why,” while encouraging
compassion over hate in the awe-inspiring “Say A Good Word.” Album closer
“Waycross, Georgia,” encompasses the end of the journey, thanking those along the
way. As she approaches subjects of aging, loss, suicide, and service, an arc of
compassion elevated to something far beyond words is transmitted. The delicate
fierceness encompassed in the riveting power of her voice has somehow only grown
over time.

Stalled partway through by the pandemic, the record took six years to make with the
help of three friends and co-producers: Richard Bennett, Pieta Brown, and Jim Rooney.
It was Pieta Brown who gave the record its final push. “Pieta asked me what had come
of the recordings I’d done with Jim and Richard in 2019 and 2020. I told her I’d pretty
much given up on trying to make a record. She asked would I mind if she had a listen.
So, I had everything we’d done sent over to her, and not long after that I got a text,
bouncing with exclamation marks: ‘You have a record and it’s called Workin’ On A
World!’” With Bennett back in the studio with them, Brown and DeMent recorded several
more songs and put the final touches on the record in Nashville in April of 2022.
The result is a hopeful album — shimmering with brilliant flashes of poignant humor and
uplifting tenderness — that speaks the truth, “in the way that truth is always hopeful,”
she explains. Reflecting on the lyrics of the song “The Sacred Now” (“see these walls/
let’s bring ‘em on down / it’s not a dream; it’s the sacred now”), DeMent is reminded of
Jesus saying the Kingdom of God is within you and the Buddhist activist monk Thich
Nhat Hanh saying the rose is in the compost; the compost is in the rose. On Workin’ On
A World, Iris DeMent demonstrates that songs are the healing and the healing arises
through song.

High & Lonesome grew from a lively weekly bluegrass and country jam at Erin’s Pub. What began as a mix of concerts, open mics, and sweet (pie) prizes evolved into a dedicated house band featuring Daniel Banoub (guitar), Mark Finch (banjo), Matt Hender (upright bass), Dave Rowe (mandolin), and Lucas Rose (dobro). This crew brings plenty of joy to the stage, with their high-energy musicianship shining through a mix of classic and modern bluegrass tunes and instrumentals.

Heather Patey is a fiddler, singer and dancer in St, John’s, having spent 15 years focusing on the musical traditions of Newfoundland and Labrador. She especially enjoys passing on the fun of Newfoundland music to young people, and has taught and performed at the Suzuki Talent Education Program, STEP Fiddlers, Young Folk at the Hall, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival, and schools and youth groups in the St. John’s area. Often in company of her duet partner, accordionist Terry Goldie, she can lead a group of kids through the Lancers, share a beautiful ballad or a chorus shanty for everyone to sing, add traditional dance-music to the repertoire of student musicians, or join in any size of group for a rousing set of tunes. Always happy to bring authentic Newfoundland and Labrador material to ears and feet of all ages!

Harry Ingram was born and raised in Arnold’s Cove Placentia Bay, or as Ray Guy would call it, “That far greater bay”. Recitations have always been a core element of Harry’s upbringing, which he now performs in various venues. He’s a part of the popular “Stage to Stage” group and also a comedy recitation duo known as “The Liar’s Bench Show” with his cohort Ken Parsons. Harry writes his own original material with a published book titled “Don’t be Talkin’, however, he also enjoys keeping alive the works of greats such as John Joe English, Baxter Wareham and others.