HUFF is happy to finally be able (we’ve been trying for years) to announce Sloan’s Chris Murphy & The Halifax All Stars – with an opening songwriters’ circle featuring Saturday night’s headliner Billy Raffoul, Thursday night’s headliner Ria Mae & PEI’s Noah Malcolm – will play The Carleton on Friday, October 2nd. Show time is 8 PM and tickets are $72.50 + HST.
Chris Murphy has been in the band Sloan for over 30 years. Chris got into the super group game in 2015 when he formed a trio called TUNS (rhymes with buns) with Matt Murphy (Super Friendz/The Flashing Lights) and Mike O’Neill (The Inbreds). Now on a supergroup kick, he formed Trans-Canada Highwaymen in 2017 with Steven Page (ex Barenakedladies), Moe Berg (The Pursuit of Happiness) and Craig Northey (Odds). Then in 2018 some of his other musician friends were complaining they weren’t in a super group so Chris went ahead and agreed to make Anyway Gang with Sam Roberts (Sam Roberts Band), David Monks (Tokyo Police Club) and Menno Versteeg (Hollerado). Please don’t ask Chris to form a group with you. He doesn’t have time. What little time Chris has left over has been earmarked for solo shows where Chris plays songs and tells stories accompanied by acoustic guitar.
OPENING SONGWRITERS’CIRCLE
Last summer, Billy Raffoul set out to reveal two sides of the same soul, releasing a pair of full-length albums that mirror both intimacy and magnitude. The first, Billy Raffoul, arrived on July 18 as a hushed, acoustic meditation on connection-born from a transformative journey through South Africa and shaped by songs that affirm, challenge, and gently push beyond boundaries. Just weeks later, on August 15, he returned with When I Cross The River, a gritty, rock-leaning counterpart-songs forged in the studio and built to be played at full volume. Together, the records form a single portrait, capturing who Raffoul is in this moment: grounded, expansive, and unafraid. Music, after all, knows no borders. It moves faster than any plane or passing moment, leaping from a pub in Germany to a festival in Africa, then finding its way back to a late- night room in Ontario.
Ria Mae is a platinum-selling pop artist and songwriter from Halifax, Nova Scotia, known for crafting songs that feel as intimate as they are undeniable. With a signature blend of confessional lyricism and instinctive, hook-driven songwriting, her music captures the quiet, complicated emotions people don’t always know how to say out loud – and turns them into something immediate, repeatable, and lasting.
Noah Malcolm is a queer folk and pop artist from Prince Edward Island, and winner of four Music PEI Awards and a 2025 East Coast Music Award. Rooted in a classic singer-songwriter style, he expands with multi-genre facility, playing deftly on acoustic guitar and piano while singing with impressive range, dynamism and nuance.