Music

The Ultimate Elvis Experience, stars multi-winning Elvis Tribute artist Tim 'E' and his incredible 12-piece band, the Yes Men.

Tim 'E', from London, ON has won 50 Elvis Tribute Artist Grand Championships over the past 15 years, and is performing one night only in London, ON November 23, at the Aeolian Hall.

Tim's uncanny ability to capture the essence of Elvis, along with his love, admiration, and respect for the all-time King of Rock and Roll, is clearly evident in his performance. The Toronto Star writes, "so close to the King you'll swear it's really him."

Tim 'E' & the Yes Men hit the nail on the head with their replica tribute to Elvis. It is filled with raw energy, fun and conviction that was a trademark of every Elvis performance.

With classic Elvis songs mixed with covers that Elvis also did from artists such as Neil Diamond, the Righteous Brothers and The Beatles, Tim 'E' and his Yes Men leave you wanting more, just like the King himself.

Relive the glory, the passion and the shear joy of a 70's Elvis concert, mixed with some Christmas cheer, recreated to near perfection by Tim 'E' & the Yes Men.

Get ready for the brand-new Celtic Family Christmas...PARTY!

You'll have plenty of time to sip eggnog by the fire, but not on this night...So buckle up and join Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy, their growing family, and their world-class band as they guide you through an exhilarating exploration of the Christmas season. Featuring exciting new versions of all your Classic Christmas favourites, Natalie & Donnell are determined to raise the roof, rejuvenate the heart, and set your spirit ablaze with a most lively Celtic Family Christmas PARTY!

In the early 2000s, they balanced raising seven musically gifted children, running a farm, and performing over 75 shows a year. Now, with their children in their teens, Natalie and Donnell are back with their electrifying live performances.

Natalie, inducted into the Order of Canada in 2006, has won 2 JUNO Awards, 19 East Coast Music Awards, and released 3 Gold Albums. Donnell, known for his incredible stage presence, led the family band "Leahy" to Double Platinum status, won 3 JUNO Awards, and starred in the documentary "The Leahys: Music Most of All."

Together, they've sold out over 1000 shows in North America and collaborated with stars like Yo-Yo Ma, Michael McDonald, Allison Krauss, and Nickelback. Despite their busy schedules, Natalie and Donnell remain must-see live performers, continuing their tireless touring.

“A superb night out. Highly recommended!” Scenestr

"One of Netflix is a Joke Fest’s funniest shows” - LA Times

Leaving Dublin, Ireland where he was born and raised until the age of 22, David got drunk on travel and never quite hit sobriety of it. He has lived and worked in twelve countries and visited over seventy. His shows draw on his wide travels, cultural observations, attempts at language study, (occasional) international drinking session(s) and being a mildly confused immigrant. His new show Shelp Help mixes comedy and reading recommendations because that's the kind of wild kinky stuff David is into.

David is the winner of the prestigious annual San Francisco Comedy Competition, (previous finalists include Robin Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and Dana Carvey) and runner-up in the Moth’s largest US Grandslam storytelling competition. Also a bestselling writer, David recorded his debut special Documented for Dry Bar Comedy in 2019, and his follow up Cultural Appreciation in 2023. He has been featured on TED.com, Sirius XM, Just For Laughs, Netflix is a Joke Festival, The Irish Independent, Inc, NPR, and the Huffington Post among others. A festival favourite, David's videos have also gone viral many times over with over 500 million views and a social following of over 2 million people. More info: davidnihill.com

Basia Bulat is a singer-songwriter living in Montreal, Canada. She offers both a distinctive voice and artistry that pulls as much from R&B and soul as it does from classic folk. In addition to her skills as a powerhouse vocalist, Bulat is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, recording and performing on electric guitar, piano, autoharp, ukulele, bass and charango.

Her talent has also been recognized at scale: her songs have been adapted for major performances with symphony orchestras, and she has been invited to perform at prestigious tributes to Leonard Cohen, Daniel Lanois, Nick Cave, and The Band. Since releasing her debut, she has shared the stage with artists like St Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The National, Michael Kiwanuka, Daniel Lanois, Beirut, Destroyer, US Girls, Jim James and more. She’s been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, performed on the #LateShowMeMusic Series on Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Later with Jools Holland, and received support from The Needle Drop, The New York Times and more. Bulat is a three-time Polaris Music Prize finalist and has been nominated for five JUNO Awards.

BASIA’S PALACE ALBUM: Let’s get one thing out of the way: Basia Bulat doesn’t live in a château. The property at the heart of the songwriter’s new studio album is at once her apartment, her jam-space—and the inside of her head. Basia’s Palace is a place festooned with love and memory, bad wiring; it’s a paradise that comes alive in the wee hours of the night, at a time that’s suited to video games and Leonard Cohen records, when you sit in all that richness, taking in all the mess we inherit.

Reuniting with co-producer Mark Lawson, she found herself moving through a dreamworld of whispers, synths and early Eurovision tunes, Cohen’s I’m Your Man and Air’s Moon Safari, her great uncle’s gauzy Maryla Rodowicz LPs. The result feels like an album that was concealed behind the backings of Bulat’s childhood photos—tracks like “My Angel,” where mystery and romance mingle over squelchy synths + drum-machine, with a soaring string arrangement by Drew Jurecka (Dua Lipa, Alvvays), or “Laughter”— which was mixed, like all tracks on the record, by legendary engineer Tucker Martine (Beth Orton, Neko Case, The National)— that takes a quiet domestic scene and sees it build to a deafening sublime. “Disco Polo” is a track Bulat’s been threatening to make forever—a folk-song named for a genre of trashy Polish dance music that was beloved of her father—whereas “Baby,” which took years to finish, makes an elegant dance number out of an oh-too-familiar predicament: “Baby, baby, baby,” Basia sings, “I don’t learn!” At some moments there are shades of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s “Bonnie and Clyde” or Charles Aznavour’s “Emmenez-Moi”; at others it’s the silicon-shiny sweetness of The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” or Air’s Moon Safari.

Basia’s Palace is set to be released February 21st, 2025 via Secret City Records.

The 2023 Grammy-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8 is proud to inspire people through music and share the joy of singing. Touring globally, the group performs an extensive repertory both in its a cappella concerts and in collaborations with leading musicians, orchestras, conductors and soloists. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance and education ethos which is shared both online and in person. This concert will feature a special presentation with Aeolian Prides Choruses and VOCES8 - a song of peace for the season.

VOCES8 is passionate about music education and is the flagship ensemble of music charity the VOCES8 Foundation which actively promotes ‘Music Education For All’. Engaging in a broad range of in-person outreach work that reaches up to 40,000 people a year, the Foundation runs an annual programme of workshops and masterclasses at the VOCES8 Centre at St Anne & St Agnes Church, London. Dedicated to supporting promising young singers, VOCES8 awards eight annual choral scholarships through the VOCES8 Scholars initiative. These scholarships are linked to the annual Milton Abbey Summer School at which amateur singers of all ages learn and perform with VOCES8. Through the separate VOCES8 USA Foundation there is another set of twelve talented Scholars.

The ensemble is a Decca Classics artist, also releasing on its own label, VOCES8 Records. The Decca Classics recording of Christopher Tin’s “The Lost Birds” featuring VOCES8 and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy-Award in 2023. Their new album “Nightfall” is released in September 2024. Recent releases are “A Choral Christmas” in which VOCES8 joins its own Foundation Choir and Orchestra in a joyful selection of favourite carols and featuring the premiere of Taylor Scott Davis’s “Magnificat”; “Home” conducted by Eric Whitacre, featuring his extraordinary work “The Sacred Veil” which reached the top of the classical charts in both the UK and USA; and “Seven Psalms” by Paul Simon in which VOCES8 was thrilled to participate.

Presented with the support of the Ontario Arts Council.

“Mysticssippi” blues man Harry Manx has been called an “essential link” between the music of East and West, creating musical short stories that wed the tradition of the Blues with the depth of classical Indian ragas. He has created a unique sound that is hard to forget and deliciously addictive to listen to.

Harry forged his distinctive style by studying at the feet of the masters, first as a sound man in the blues clubs of Toronto during his formative years and then under a rigorous tutelage with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt in India. Bhatt is the inventor of the 20-stringed Mohan Veena, which has become Harry’s signature instrument.

Harry played slide guitar for many years before meeting Bhatt in Rajasthan,in fact he had been living in another part of India for many years already, but he started at the beginning under Bhatt’s tutelage, unlearning most of what he knew about playing a slide instrument. He learned Eastern scales and eventually ragas, deceptively complex and regimented musical patterns that form the basis of Indian composition. Learning the voicings of Indian music is a subtle art that comes with time. Harry spent most of twelve years in India learning that. It was later on that Harry decided to explore the connection between Indian ragas and blues scales which eventually led to the Indo-blues hybrid that has become his style.

Born on the Isle of Man, Manx immigrated to Ontario with his parents when he was a child. He started working with bands as a ‘roadie’ at age 15 and gradually worked his way up to becoming the regular sound man at the well-known El Mocambo (blues) club in Toronto. There he worked with a slew of blues legends. Harry admits that blues is still at the heart of much of his work. “I’ve always had one foot in the blues from those days … what I got from those artists is a groove. That’s what I’m particularly interested in is the groove, and that’s the way I play blues”. “I went to Europe when I was 20 and started making money as a busker,” recalls Manx. “I’ve worked mostly as a musician since then, though I did some theatre work for a while. I was a one-man band with a drums and a cymbals for a time too. It was really a lot of fun”

Manx’s time in India has imbued his music with an intangible spiritual quality. “the song reveals who you are, it’s the vehicle for your message, your inspirational ideas or your story,” explained Manx. “Like many people I’m interested in my own development as a person and that’s represented in my songs, I’m searching for truth through art and spirituality. My songs are a synthesis of everything I’ve absorbed, all my experiences and I share that. I’m glad that it means something to people.”

“Indian music moves a person inward,” he explains. “It’s traditionally used in religious ceremonies and during meditations because it puts you into this whole other place (now, here). But Western music has the ability to move you outward, into celebration and dance. There are some ragas that sound bluesy, and there are ways to bend strings while playing blues that sound Indian. I may be forcing the relationship between the two musical cultures, but I keep thinking they were made for each other. That leads me to more and more experimentation. The journey has been great so far.” Manx is a prolific artist, releasing 12 albums in a 12 year span with no signs of stopping. He has received seven Maple Blues Awards, six Juno nominations, the Canadian Folk Music Award in 2005 for Best Solo Artist and won CBC Radio’s “Great Canadian Blues Award” in 2007.

His most recent original release, “Om Suite Ohm” was voted by the Montreal daily La Presse as one of only 4 CDs to watch for in 2013. Guitar Player Magazine called it “his most fully realized work to date”. Blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and throw in some compelling grooves. It’s a recipe that goes down easy and leaves you hungry for more.

"There would be no Blues Brothers if it weren't for Downchild" - Dan Aykroyd

After 19 albums, countless awards and 55 years of spreading the blues around the world on tour, the time has come for THE LEGENDARY DOWNCHILD BLUES BAND to say farewell to the road and their beloved fans.

It's hard to believe THE LEGENDARY DOWNCHILD BLUES BAND are celebrating their 55th Anniversary this year. As they say, time flies when you're having fun!

Downchild came to international prominence as the inspiration for Hollywood stars Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi's hit film, The Blues Brothers. In fact, two Downchild songs, "Shotgun Blues" and "I Got Everything I Need (Almost)" were even covered on The Blues Brothers' 1979 multi-platinum album Briefcase Full of Blues.

Donnie "Mr. Downchild" Walsh has seen it all through his fifty-five years as leader and co-founder of the band (with his since-passed brother, Richard "Hock" Walsh). From the early days of recording their debut album Bootleg in the parking garage at Rochdale College in Toronto, to sharing the stage with American blues legends, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, James Cotton and many more in some of the finest venues around the world. In 2019, Donnie was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, alongside some of the greatest songwriters of our time, including Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

Downchild continues to be led by Donnie Walsh on guitar and harmonica, singer Chuck Jackson, who also plays harmonica, tenor sax man Pat Carey, Gary Kendall on bass, drummer Jim Casson and Tyler Yarema on keyboards.

With their infectious signature jump-blues style sound, Juno Award winners Downchild deliver a live performance that is second to none. This is your Last Chance to Dance, so come on down, have some fun and celebrate one of the greatest blues bands of our time!

Brenda Earle Stokes is a Sarnia-born jazz pianist, singer and songwriter.  A longtime resident of New York City, Brenda has played with a “who’s who” of artists including trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, Broadway luminary Maurice Hines and the award winning Diva Jazz Orchestra.

A compelling performer, Stokes weaves together her virtuosic piano skills with expressive lyrics and her signature sense of humor.  You don’t have to be a jazz fan to enjoy her music!  Her music is engaging and satisfying for all.

Brenda Earle Stokes’ latest album Motherhood is a collection of 10 original songs that deal with the laughter, the frustration, the joy and the tears of motherhood.  Inspired by her own experience mothering a young son, the music was written and demoed during a 9 day residency at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity in late 2019.  The project was awarded a prestigious grant by the Canada Council for the Arts and released in May 2024.

The songs on the Motherhood album explore the "real life" experience of modern mothering, exploring joy, fear, identity, change, invisible labor, gender roles, friendship, frustration and hilarity. Written in her usual candid style, Stokes brings to life what many parents feel as they navigate the complicated world of parenting in an ever more difficult social climate.

Stokes is excited to be making her Aeolian debut alongside award winning Canadian musicians Mike Downes on bass, Rebecca Hennessy on trumpet and vocals and Ethan Ardelli on drums.

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Brenda Earle Stokes grew up in Sarnia, Ontario and started piano lessons at age 4.  Never an enthusiastic practicer, Stokes was exposed to the music of Canadian jazz legend Oscar Peterson and something “clicked”.  Her father started driving her to London, Ontario on weekends to take jazz piano lessons with London’s own Grant Graham and she ended up attending York University on the Oscar Peterson scholarship.

Her career has taken her around the globe, touring with legendary artists (she once opened for Duran Duran!) and as a bandleader with her own groups.  She has performed across the US and Canada and as far away as Australia and New Zealand.  She was a top ranged cruise ship performer and has worked as an off-Broadway music director and choral conductor.  In addition to her work as a recording artist and performer, she maintains an active career as an educator with her highly popular private studio and a YouTube  channel with over 25,000 subscribers.

Classic Troubadours Live returns to The Aeolian Hall for a very special Christmas show, featuring the holiday songs of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Carole King and more (Gordon Lightfoot, Eric Clapton, Kenny Loggins).
Jacob Moon brings you a dynamic ensemble of performers including singer songwriter Alex Whorms, jazz singer Ashley St Pierre, Youtube drumming sensation Rob Brown and bassist to the stars Mark McIntyre!