As part of The Carleton’s 10th anniversary celebrations, we’re stoked to present the release of Dennis Ellsworth‘s new album Things Change (with a full band), along with Toronto’s Jerry Leger and Graham Nicholas on Sunday, May 13th. Show time is 8 PM and tickets are only $15. Three cool songwriters, one night, one cheap ticket – can’t do much better than that!
Dennis Ellsworth is a prolific songwriter. He’s been in the rhythm of writing, recording and releasing an album a year. He travels around the planet singing what he writes. He’s optimistically dark. Naturally, he writes shadowy lyrics and his melodies linger. His songs are haunting, in a good way. His voice is distingué. He was raised on Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond and Kris Kristofferson.
There are an awful lot of great singer-songwriters in Atlantic Canada but we’d be hard-pressed to think of anyone that’s demonstrably better. He consistently, and unfairly, flies beneath most peoples’ radar and that needs to change. If you’ve never seen Dennis before, do yourself a BIG favour and come out to this show. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
Jerry Leger’ s artistic path has been leading up to his latest album, Nonsense And Heartache. This ambitious display of both sides of his musical personality, is fueled by countless nights playing in Toronto bars with a loyal band equally committed to keeping rock and roll’ s original flame burning. But while many others have made the same commitment, there’ s always been something special about Jerry’s songs that few can match. It bears repeating, and is hardly an understatement, that he manages to channel the youthful vigor of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Neil Young and Rick Danko, sometimes all within the same song. But at heart, Leger is driven by a quest to convey in his own manner the purity embedded in the grooves of the vintage rock, country and soul recordings he so dearly loves.
On Sometimes Chicken, Sometimes Feathers, his latest full- length album, Graham Nicholas has created an emotionally resonant world inhabited by troubled and love-hungry characters. Never alienated for their insecurities, his characters are instead respected by the empathetic voice of an honest songwriter. The album finds Nicholas honing in on his concise form of storytelling and refining his irreverent sense of humor and conjuring up the likes of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Band, the songs have found the right balance of warmth and grit.