Folk

The Heartaches Duo is the musical partnership of real-life couple Amanda Lynn Stubley and Martin Horak, whose music is deeply rooted in North American stringband traditions. With a repertoire that encompasses lost Canadian country classics, driving fiddle tunes, heartfelt originals and honkytonk ballads, The Heartaches interpret their songs with both intimacy and drive.

Old or new, their songs land with emotional grit and a groove that just doesn’t quit.

TUNES@NOON at the Aeolian is supported with thanks to the Paul Seed Fund through London Community Foundation and is a London UNESCO City of Music project.

In a Willem James Cowan song, the entire world spills out from the smallest detail. He never sacrifices the vividness of the narrative for a borrowed platitude or a hackneyed phrase. Writing and recording in London, Ontario, Cowan draws inspiration from great wordsmiths like Elliot Smith, Dan Mangan, Joni Mitchell, and Sufjan Stevens. He lets his characters breathe in the verses and choruses, and he’s laser-focused on the emotion and authenticity tucked into the dark corners of his stories. In “Apartment” he sings of nostalgia and how we are haunted by the ones we’ve loved: “Three years from tonight / I won't remember your body / But I will remember your light / Alone in an airport lobby”. His taut hooks and driving rhythms draw us into the narrative, rooting for the characters as they careen toward salvation or demise.

Cowan’s process is varied but often begins with a few chords and a mumbled melody until something sticks. Perhaps his focus on lyrics stems from his discomfort with placeholders. Where many songwriters start with nonsense or simple phrases and write the final lyrics in the editing stage, Cowan’s unfold as the song progresses. The story never takes a back seat to the overall creation, and the songs carry this clarity into the studio and the live show. Cowan’s alternately confessional and celebratory show has graced the stage of NXNE, VENUExVENUE, and Summerfolk where he left audiences wondering whether they want to cry sad or happy tears.

TUNES@NOON at the Aeolian is supported with thanks to the Paul Seed Fund through London Community Foundation and is a London UNESCO City of Music project.

Jim MacDonald is a London based musician who can be seen performing solo, or with his band, Somebody’s Somebody, alongside his wife, Sandy. Jim is a worker-owner at London Brewing, where he books the musical talent.

TUNES@NOON at the Aeolian is supported with thanks to the Paul Seed Fund through London Community Foundation and is a London UNESCO City of Music project.

Take a journey across far-reaching worlds, both real and imagined.

Lo & the High Road is a Canadian Celtic-inspired, five-piece indie folk band that mixes traditional folk music and originals. Their music is inspired by the whimsical, from fantasy to Greek Mythology, all tied together with traditional Celtic instruments and a love of storytelling. Come down to hear some of your favourite Celtic tunes and also find some new Canadian music to love.

Judy Collins has inspired audiences for more than five decades with her luminous voice, deeply personal songwriting, and lifelong commitment to social activism. Emerging during the folk revival of the 1960s, she became a defining voice of a generation confronting social and environmental injustice. Today, her legacy spans more than 55 albums and continues to influence new audiences.

Collins is celebrated for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk songs as well as her own poetic compositions. Her recording of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell from the 1967 album Wildflowers was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, while her rendition of Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music by Stephen Sondheim won Song of the Year at the 1975 Grammy Awards. Over the years she has earned multiple top-ten hits and gold- and platinum-selling albums, and her influence has been celebrated by artists including Rufus Wainwright, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, and Leonard Cohen.

Originally a classical piano prodigy performing works such as Concerto for Two Pianos, Collins shifted toward folk music after discovering the songs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Her 1961 debut album, A Maid of Constant Sorrow, launched a long partnership with Elektra Records and helped establish her as a key tastemaker in the Greenwich Village folk scene, where she championed emerging songwriters including Cohen, Mitchell, and Randy Newman.

Still prolific, Collins continues to record and tour internationally. Recent projects include the collaborative albums Silver Skies Blue with Ari Hest and Winter Stories with Jonas Fjeld and Chatham County Line. An author, filmmaker, and activist for organizations such as UNICEF, she also speaks widely on mental health and recovery.

A true renaissance artist, Judy Collins continues to create music of hope and healing while mentoring new talent and inspiring audiences around the world.

For the first time, Whitehorse hit the road as a true family band — a full-circle moment where two decades of music-making now spans generations on stage.

With their new album All I Want Is All of It, Whitehorse return to the sound that first defined them: folk-rock romanticism, raw storytelling, and the lived-in chemistry of two decades spent writing, touring, and building a life together. Recorded in a farmhouse setting with an emphasis on instinct over perfection, the album captures the duo at their most direct and personal, letting the songs breathe with the textures of the world around them.

The All of It Tour brings those songs to life with a full band that reflects the deeply personal nature of the record. Longtime collaborator Johnny Obercian returns on drums, joined by Jimi Doucet, Luke and Melissa’s son, now performing full-time on keys. For this tour, the family circle widens even further with the addition of daughter Chloë Doucet, a Toronto-based singer-songwriter whose jangly, incisive indie-pop — heard on her recent album Sincerely, has already taken her to stages alongside Hayden and performed in New York and Los Angeles.

Luke Doucet adds “After years of coyly rejecting our advances, the impossibly lovely and talented Chloë Doucet will be joining us on our Canadian tour. Not only will she be performing her songs at various intervals throughout the evening, she’ll also be joining Whitehorse on guitar and vocals to round out what is now truly a family band, alongside her brother Jimi on keys. Initially we invited Chloë to open the show, but after some thought we decided an ‘evening with’ Whitehorse featuring Chloë would feel more like the family celebration it really is.”

The evening unfolds over two sets, with Chloë joining the band throughout the performance, making the show feel like a true family affair.

The result is a performance that feels both expansive and intimate — a celebration of twenty years of Whitehorse and the ties that bind.

Tara Dunphy is a songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist from London Ontario. She and her husband, Tom, have released seven albums with their award winning country band, The Rizdales. In 2022 Tara co-founded the Celtic roots group Maggie‘s Wake with Lindsay Schindler and in 2025, they were awarded a Canadian Folk Music Award as Best Emerging Artist. Tara has also received numerous songwriting awards, including the Aeolian Hall Songwriting Award grand prize for “East of Adelaide” and the North Eastern Regional Folk Alliance Songwriting Award for “Bridget O’Brien.”

She lives in London Ontario with her husband Tom, their two children, Jack and Annie and their dog, Jimmy McGinley.

International Women's Day at The Aeolian is supported with thanks to the Paul Seed Fund through London Community Foundation and is a London UNESCO City of Music project.

love_theperson is a singer/songwriter and musician who has been playing music and writing songs since the age of 13. love_theperson embraces a fluid, exploratory approach to sound that reflects their wide-ranging musical tastes. They have been influenced by artists such as Hayley Williams, Jazmine Sullivan, Mary Mary, Alanis Morissette, Pinegrove, and many more. love_theperson’s music is available on all streaming platforms under the name “fiker,” with their song “heavyhand” now released. With every new song, love continues to lean into curiosity, honesty, and the joy of musical exploration.

International Women's Day at The Aeolian is supported with thanks to the Paul Seed Fund through London Community Foundation and is a London UNESCO City of Music project.

Mama’s Broke have spent over a decade in a near-constant state of transience, pounding the transatlantic tour trail. They've brought their dark, fiery folk-without-borders sound to major festivals and DIY punk houses alike, absorbing traditions from their maritime home in Eastern Canada all the way to Ireland and Indonesia. Nowhere is the duo's art-in-motion approach more apparent than on their long-awaited JUNO nominated sophomore record Narrow Line  (released May 2022 on Free Dirt Records) It's the sound of nowhere in particular, yet woven with a rich synthesis of influences that knows no borders.

 The eleven songs on Narrow Line burrow deeply, with close harmony duets, commanding vocals, and poignant contemplations on cycles of life, including birth and death. Tinges of Americana stand side-by-side with the ghosts of Eastern European fiddle tunes and ancient a cappella ballad singing, melding into an unusually accessible dark-folk sound. A careful listen of Narrow Line invokes an ephemeral sense of place—whether real or imagined—inviting us to take comfort in the infinite possibilities of life, whether or not we ever choose to settle down. 

For a group defined by constant touring, it’s not surprising that the two artists that make up Mama’s Broke, Lisa Maria and Amy Lou Keeler, met on the road. As Lisa remembers it, “Amy was driving her old Mercedes from Montreal to Nova Scotia and I was looking for a ride. We spent the 17 hours in the car talking almost exclusively about music. By the time we reached Halifax we started playing together, and within a week or two became a band.” 

Both coming out of travelling communities that are focused on music and protest, the two owe the way in which they move through the world to the integrated and self-sustaining nature of DIY culture and activism. It was a busy life that took them on a roundabout annual touring schedule running between Canada, the United States, Ireland, the UK, and Europe. In each country, they built grassroots DIY communities to support their music or moved along the pathways of communal organizing that sustained other touring artists. 

The driving force behind this band is – and has always been – the commitment to challenge borders between people, places, and traditions; while encouraging freedom of expression and community through music.

Jane Siberry is one of Canada's most original and influential singer-songwriters.

Best known for transcendent works like Calling All Angels, Love Is Everything, and the iconic Mimi On The Beach, she has created a singular body of work that defies categorization. Her haunting contribution to The Crow soundtrack, It Won’t Rain All The Time, continues to resonate more than ever three decades later. Despite a prolific career, Siberry reflects: “I feel like I’m inching my way toward my prime.” Siberry has long been at the vanguard of artists reshaping the relationship between creativity and commerce. After parting ways with Warner/Reprise Records in 1996, she founded her own label, Sheeba, and pioneered a “pay-what-you-can” model for music downloads—inviting audiences into a trust-based creative economy. When asked what this model trusts in, she simply says, “All that is Good.” Similarly, in a desire to break free from the confines of traditional touring, Siberry expanded her performances to include intimate “salon” tours in living rooms around the world—from llama farms in New Zealand to garages in Australia, kominkas in Japan, kitchens in Finland, and bell towers in rural England—creating connection and community. Her performances are described by audiences as intense, heraldic, funny, and trustworthy (meaning “audiences might feel freer to shed a tear”). She feels extremely privileged to be a musician.