Daniel Champagne lives and breathes live music. The Australian virtuoso has been described as “the finest guitar player of this generation”, “a leading light in acoustic music” and “a performer that must be seen to be believed” and from March to June 2024, music lovers across Canada will be treated to an intimate live experience not to be missed!
Growing up in the Bega Valley, on the Far South Coast of New South Wales Australia, the story goes that the young singer-songwriter and one of a kind guitar virtuoso first picked up his instrument of choice as a 5-year-old following in the footsteps of a musical father. He began writing songs at 12, training classically throughout his teens and performing wherever he could, honing his craft and developing the dynamite live show that he is renowned for today. At 18 he finished school, turned professional and hit the road without looking back.
The following 15 years have seen him independently release 7 studio albums, tour relentlessly around the globe, play some of the biggest festivals under the sun and share stages with the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, INXS, John Butler, Lucinda Williams, Ani DiFranco, Judy Collins and Rodrigo y Gabriela.
Playing upwards of 250 shows a year, Daniel is passionate about spreading live music around the world and on the back of a sold out 2022 tour tour, his return trip will include 56 shows from Vancouver Island all the way out to Newfoundland!
WHAT THE PRESS SAY..
“The word Prodigy seems to entirely fall short of this soft-spoken young man’s skills, he coaxes sounds and melodies out of his instrument that literally drop jaws.” The Calgary Herald, CANADA
“Today I saw the future of Folk – Festival goers flocking in the thousands towards the main stage to witness a young musical phenomenon from Australia dish out an absolute show-stopper.” The Firefly Column, USA
“Daniel Champagne is a crossroads. Fusing the strong traditions of Blues, Folk and other roots art with pop showmanship and admirable lyrical ability. I firmly believe that he will become an ambassador for roots music in a time where it desperately needs representation.” The Indie Blender, CANADA
“reinventing roots guitar” Rhythms Magazine, AUSTRALIA
“Watching Daniel Champagne perform is a once in a lifetime experience. He is a true prodigy that plays like no one else could possibly play unless they spent at least two lifetimes studying the art.” BW Review, NEW ZEALAND
“Daniel Champagne exudes a natural ease on stage, as he sings poignant lyrics and beautifully crafted melodies that invariably whisk the heart up with grand romanticism. Coupled with an exhilarating guitar talent that transcends mere acoustic playing to replicate a whole band, Champagne is just magical” Themusic.com.au, AUSTRALIA
“You feel as if he just invented the instrument yesterday and was discovering its possibilities afresh” Ted Gioia (American jazz critic and music historian)
Dan started out at CBTG’s hosting Tuesday’s with Mast & DT in 2007. She has been booking and promoting alternative rock and folk shows for 16 years, creating a positive performance space and opportunities for queer and other outsider artists. She released her first solo album Horses with Lasers in 2009. Dan has completed several solo and band tours across Canada. She is currently part of the group Sweet Baby Angels and is in the process of releasing an album in the new year.
Crooked Stovepipe is based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the oldest city in North America and we’ve been playing bluegrass and traditional music since 1973. We have been featured at the Nova Scotia Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival, Canada’s first and longest-running bluegrass festival, the Blueberry Bluegrass Festival in Stony Plain, Alberta, and the Evangeline Bluegrass Festival in PEI. We’ve been one of the headline bands at the Mount Pearl Bluegrass and Old-Time Country Music Festival, Newfoundland’s first festival featuring bluegrass music, since its beginning in 2005.
Neil grew up in the western United States and cut his teeth on bluegrass in Indiana in the 1960s, where he helped manage Bill Monroe’s Brown County Jamboree and played in the house band. He even got to play a few times with Bill Monroe–enough to put his name on Blue Grass Boys belt buckle #120. Neil moved to St. John’s in 1968. In 1985 he produced Bluegrass: A History, the definitive book on the roots and development of bluegrass.
Ted grew up singing and playing Newfoundland and country music in Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, discovering bluegrass in the early ‘70s. He’s been singing lead with the band ever since.
Dave is Ted’s son and no stranger to musical performance or to bluegrass. Dave also plays guitar, bass and banjo, lending his talent to the St. John’s music scene. He also runs O’Brien’s Music Inc, Newfoundland’s original traditional music store in St. John’s.
Matt is a graduate of MUN School of Music and hails from Conception Bay South. When not teaching or playing music he works on the family farm in CBS.
Carole, a native of Saskatchewan, is the newest member of the band. Carole moved to Newfoundland a few years back to attend MUN, and loved it so much that she decided to stay! Along her many travels, Carole has collected and encompassed a number of tunes and fiddle styles, but still considers the Old Time fiddle music she grew up with to be the essence of her playing.
Claire Porter is a singer/songwriter who has been described as a mix between Judy Garland and Tom Waits. She writes music about detritivores, love stories and tiramisu.
She was born in Newfoundland, learning folk storytelling traditions. She committed a couple of years to hitchhiking and learning travelling songs. She moved to Montreal to learn jazz and refine her powerful stage presence. In 2012, she started playing with Claire Porter and the Stouts in the downtown circuit in Montreal.
Colleen Power is an award-winning, bilingual singer/songwriter and performer living in St. John’s, and a prolific and creative force in the Newfoundland and Labrador music scene. Always engaging, Colleen comfortably embraces diverse musical styles, with lyrics ranging from heartfelt to comedic, political to personal. She is a multi-talented, uniquely diverse musician with strong Newfoundland content and themes. Colleen is currently host of the Bell Fibe TV miniseries “Sing Me Home”, where she explores six communities in the province with fascinating place names and creates a song for each episode. She is a past commissioned songwriter for CBC Radio One NL, and has written songs for several films and private entities.
Colleen has been performing live regularly, both solo and with her band for nearly three decades and looks forward to performing more live shows and touring her new projects in the future. Colleen’s music, along with her eighth solo project, Tales From Downtown West is available at http://www.SingSongMusic.ca.
Photo credit: Chris LeDrew
Craig Young hails from the southwest coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has worked with many country artists, including Jason McCoy, Eli Barsi, Gord Bamford, George Canyon, Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Terri Clark as well as living and recording as a session player in Nashville for eight years. While there he also embraced bluegrass music and has taken a deep dive into that genre. He has won four Canadian Country Music Association awards in the All Star Band- Guitarist category.
Craig’s album “Black Diamond Strings” was released July 2013 to much acclaim, winning the MusicNL award for Country, followed with the album “Charlie’s Boogie”, a collaboration with guitar slinging, gypsy jazzer Duane Andrews, which won an East Coast Music Award in 2014 for the “mostly” instrumental album.
Known for his guitar prowess and powerful vocals, Craig has recently moved back west to perform and teach, building a studio where he records and produces projects for other musicians. He is currently touring Alberta and BC and working on a new solo project, due out in the coming year.
For the past 36 years, Jean Hewson and Christina Smith have been ambassadors of Newfoundland culture, bringing the music and songs of their Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to festival, concert and folk club audiences in North America and Europe. They are the recipients of the Ernie King Tradition Bearer award from the Celtic Roots Festival, Goderich, Ontario. Their music has been broadcast nationally by the Canadian Broadcasting Coorporation, and their CDS Like Ducks! and August Gale (Borealis) have received multiple nominations and awards.
Over the past 20 years, award winning singer-songwriter Chris Picco has established himself as one of Atlantic Canada’s most dynamic and diverse musicians both as a solo artist and as front man for St. John’s based rockers, The Long Distance Runners.
Since 2004 Chris has recorded and released eight critically acclaimed records. His most recent, Split Down The Middle (2023) has earned him a MusicNL nomination for Rock Artist of The Year. His most recent LDR record received several ECMA, Juno and MusicNL nominations in 2016/17 and in 2013 Chris’ solo record The Beach earned him a MusicNL Male Artist Of The Year Award. He has worked as both a session musician and producer and has shared the stage with artists ranging from Wintersleep, Said the Whale, Mother Mother and The Wooden Sky to Jim Cuddy, Bob Snider, Ron Sexsmith, Kyp Harness, and Ron Hynes.
Currently, Chris is busy songwriting, producing and performing material from his new record Split Down The Middle available everywhere you get your music.
