Summer Concert Series
Summer Concert Series at The Frolic and Folk Pub (Ticketed shows TBA)
This summer, The Frolic and Folk Pub invites you to experience the magic of live music every Wednesday evening with its Summer Concert Series. In the months of July and August, world-class musicians from across the globe will take the stage, delivering unforgettable performances in an intimate, cozy setting. Whether you’re a fan of folk, blues, indie and everything in between, each week will bring a new genre, showcasing the talent and diversity of top-tier artists.
Grab a pint, settle in with friends, and let the sounds of summer wash over you at The Frolic and Folk. It’s the perfect way to spend your Wednesday night – surrounded by great music, good company, and a welcoming atmosphere. Don’t miss out on this unique experience – where every note is a celebration of the season.
Cape Breton Celtic Trad Sessions
Come and enjoy a casual gathering of musicians who have come together to play traditional Cape Breton celtic music.
Anyone is welcome to join in, or just sit back and enjoy the tunes.
Sundays at The Frolic 430 – 730pm
Full kitchen and bar service.
Minors allowed till 10pm
Céilidh Matinee
Get a taste of local celtic music & culture with our Saturday ceilidhs (kay-lee).
Expect to see world-renowned talent & budding entertainers from all over our native Cape Breton.
General admission seating ranging from $5-$10
First come first serve at the pub. No reservations. Minors allowed up until 10PM
New Years Eve EVE with Pretty Archie
THIS IS FOR DECEMBER 30TH. Tickets include admission, midnight snacks, swag, champagne and whatnot.
Cape Breton Americana band Pretty Archie to released their 6th studio album to mark and celebrate 10 years together
Long time friends Brian Cathcart (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Matt McNeil (Mandolin, Guitar), Colin Gillis (Harmonica, Bass, Vocals), Redmond MacDougall (Banjo, Percussion, Vocals) and Scott MacLean (Guitar, Mandolin) starting performing together in 2012. The band’s name is a nod to a Cape Breton local who embodied the love of playing and performing music. No matter where they tour or travel, Pretty Archie will always be representing their hometown.
Pretty Archie, their sixth studio album, is one of which they are justifiably proud. It represents a quantum leap forward in the evolution of the group’s sound. ”I feel each of our other records was a step ahead of the previous one, but this one is six steps ahead,” declares Colin Gillis. “We are proud of everything we’ve put out, but this is at a different level.”
Pinning down the ‘Pretty Archie sound’ hasn’t always been easy. Their style has incorporated elements of bluegrass, folk, country, and had that ‘East Coast vibe’. Describing the new album, Brian states “it is more focused, even though you still can’t quite put a finger on it. For us it definitely has way more of a country vibe. This is an alternative country or Americana-style…”
Helping the group realize the formidable creative achievement that is Pretty Archie was internationally-acclaimed record producer and engineer Mark Howard, whose star-studded resume includes work with the likes of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, U2, Tom Waits, The Tragically Hip, Peter Gabriel, and more. Howard’s fortuitous recent relocation to Cape Breton afforded Pretty Archie the opportunity to take advantage of his skills, and the band couldn’t be happier with the results.
“It was all basically recorded live off the floor, with minimal overdubs,” adds Colin. “That’s something we had always wanted, and Mark was able to do that. There’s a certain ambience and energy in recording that way.”
With every record and tour Pretty Archie carries a little piece of home a bit farther afield. Since their 2013 debut album, Steel City, the band have built an ever- larger following on the east coast, across Canada and are now set to continue growing their International audience.
Cathcart explains that “as a band, we wear our East Coast hearts on our sleeves. We are very proud of where we are from, but our focus now is exposing people internationally to our part of the world.” Gillis adds that “if you are genuine and true to yourselves, then people will attach themselves to that, no matter where you are from.”
Pretty Archie have long been regional favourites, with a stack of Music Nova Scotia and East Coast Music Award nominations to their credit. They are now looking globally, and with Pretty Archie they have an album ready for international prime time play.
The upbeat and joyous “Familiar Feeling” and catchy “Reasons” showcase the band’s instrumental prowess, while Brian digs deep vocally on the haunting ballad “Feel It In My Bones.” At Howard’s suggestion, “Someone New” became a duet, featuring Austin-based Maritime honky-tonker Whitney Rose, and the contrasting vocals add real resonance. Brian is especially proud of “Maritime,” a song written right in the studio that features these poignant lyrics – ”If your heart breaks down, we’ll use mine. It is weathered and weary, but it is Maritime.”
Pretty Archie’s genuine, heartfelt writing connects listeners with a saltwater perspective on modern living. Their fun loving and at times heartbreaking music finds common ground in the blurred genres of Country, Folk, Bluegrass and Americana. Their unique sound and energetic shows leave listeners with a lasting memory.
QUOTES:
“It is hard to pigeonhole Pretty Archie. It encompasses an uplifting myriad of (but not limited to) hillbilly country, blues, bluegrass and folk. Throw a banjo, harmonica and mandolin in and together the foursome offers a different brand of music, a relentless, raw, uncontrived mash of genres that is distinctly Pretty Archie” -Andrew Rankin (Cape Breton Star)
“Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has a well known reputation for creating great musical talent. From The Rankin Family to Ashley MacIsaac to the late Rita MacNeil, this artistic hotbed on the country’s East Coast has produced some of Canada’s best musicians. From this proud region now comes Pretty Archie, a folk-bluegrass-country group from Cape Breton that will impress audiences with their strong chops…..With their impressive blend of folk, blues, bluegrass and country this band has produced a great sound that is oodles of fun to listen to” – Alejandro Bustos (Apt613.com, Ottawa)
“While Pretty Archie’s music blurs the lines between multiple genres, all the ingredients of their sound have been nurtured by the setting they grew up in.” – FYI Music News, Jason Schneider
“Pretty Archie always finds some way to encourage listeners to take lean times in stride, suck it up, stick it out and just keep going!” – BuzzMusic
Awards & Recognition:
5x Music Nova Scotia Awards nominations
3x East Coast Music Association nominations:
Country Album of the Year; North End Sky and Sing Alongs & Love Songs Roots Album of the Year; Running for Cover
Notable Appearances Include:
The Grey Cup Festival (Ottawa ON), Rogers Hometown Hockey (Dartmouth and Sydney NS), Sudbury Festival of Lights Boreal (Sudbury, ON), Celtic Colours (Halifax, NS) Stan Rogers Folk Festival (Canso, NS), Roots Night at Royal Botanical Gardens (Burlington, ON), The Ironwood (Calgary, AB), The Dakota Tavern (Toronto, ON), Writers at Woody Point (Woody Point NL), Tonder Festival (Denmark), Celtic Connections (Glasgow, Scotland).
Showcase Festivals & Conferences: Folk Alliance International, AmericanaUK Fest, Contact East, Nova Scotia Music Week, East Coast Music Week, Folk Music Ontario, NXNE and OSAC.
Discography:
Pretty Archie (2022)
Running For Cover (2020)
Hanging On (2019)
Sing Alongs & Love Songs (2016)
North End Sky (2015)
Steel City (2013)
New Years Eve with Pretty Archie
Tickets include admission, midnight snacks, swag, champagne and whatnot.
Cape Breton Americana band Pretty Archie to released their 6th studio album to mark and celebrate 10 years together
Long time friends Brian Cathcart (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Matt McNeil (Mandolin, Guitar), Colin Gillis (Harmonica, Bass, Vocals), Redmond MacDougall (Banjo, Percussion, Vocals) and Scott MacLean (Guitar, Mandolin) starting performing together in 2012. The band’s name is a nod to a Cape Breton local who embodied the love of playing and performing music. No matter where they tour or travel, Pretty Archie will always be representing their hometown.
Pretty Archie, their sixth studio album, is one of which they are justifiably proud. It represents a quantum leap forward in the evolution of the group’s sound. ”I feel each of our other records was a step ahead of the previous one, but this one is six steps ahead,” declares Colin Gillis. “We are proud of everything we’ve put out, but this is at a different level.”
Pinning down the ‘Pretty Archie sound’ hasn’t always been easy. Their style has incorporated elements of bluegrass, folk, country, and had that ‘East Coast vibe’. Describing the new album, Brian states “it is more focused, even though you still can’t quite put a finger on it. For us it definitely has way more of a country vibe. This is an alternative country or Americana-style…”
Helping the group realize the formidable creative achievement that is Pretty Archie was internationally-acclaimed record producer and engineer Mark Howard, whose star-studded resume includes work with the likes of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, U2, Tom Waits, The Tragically Hip, Peter Gabriel, and more. Howard’s fortuitous recent relocation to Cape Breton afforded Pretty Archie the opportunity to take advantage of his skills, and the band couldn’t be happier with the results.
“It was all basically recorded live off the floor, with minimal overdubs,” adds Colin. “That’s something we had always wanted, and Mark was able to do that. There’s a certain ambience and energy in recording that way.”
With every record and tour Pretty Archie carries a little piece of home a bit farther afield. Since their 2013 debut album, Steel City, the band have built an ever- larger following on the east coast, across Canada and are now set to continue growing their International audience.
Cathcart explains that “as a band, we wear our East Coast hearts on our sleeves. We are very proud of where we are from, but our focus now is exposing people internationally to our part of the world.” Gillis adds that “if you are genuine and true to yourselves, then people will attach themselves to that, no matter where you are from.”
Pretty Archie have long been regional favourites, with a stack of Music Nova Scotia and East Coast Music Award nominations to their credit. They are now looking globally, and with Pretty Archie they have an album ready for international prime time play.
The upbeat and joyous “Familiar Feeling” and catchy “Reasons” showcase the band’s instrumental prowess, while Brian digs deep vocally on the haunting ballad “Feel It In My Bones.” At Howard’s suggestion, “Someone New” became a duet, featuring Austin-based Maritime honky-tonker Whitney Rose, and the contrasting vocals add real resonance. Brian is especially proud of “Maritime,” a song written right in the studio that features these poignant lyrics – ”If your heart breaks down, we’ll use mine. It is weathered and weary, but it is Maritime.”
Pretty Archie’s genuine, heartfelt writing connects listeners with a saltwater perspective on modern living. Their fun loving and at times heartbreaking music finds common ground in the blurred genres of Country, Folk, Bluegrass and Americana. Their unique sound and energetic shows leave listeners with a lasting memory.
QUOTES:
“It is hard to pigeonhole Pretty Archie. It encompasses an uplifting myriad of (but not limited to) hillbilly country, blues, bluegrass and folk. Throw a banjo, harmonica and mandolin in and together the foursome offers a different brand of music, a relentless, raw, uncontrived mash of genres that is distinctly Pretty Archie” -Andrew Rankin (Cape Breton Star)
“Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has a well known reputation for creating great musical talent. From The Rankin Family to Ashley MacIsaac to the late Rita MacNeil, this artistic hotbed on the country’s East Coast has produced some of Canada’s best musicians. From this proud region now comes Pretty Archie, a folk-bluegrass-country group from Cape Breton that will impress audiences with their strong chops…..With their impressive blend of folk, blues, bluegrass and country this band has produced a great sound that is oodles of fun to listen to” – Alejandro Bustos (Apt613.com, Ottawa)
“While Pretty Archie’s music blurs the lines between multiple genres, all the ingredients of their sound have been nurtured by the setting they grew up in.” – FYI Music News, Jason Schneider
“Pretty Archie always finds some way to encourage listeners to take lean times in stride, suck it up, stick it out and just keep going!” – BuzzMusic
Awards & Recognition:
5x Music Nova Scotia Awards nominations
3x East Coast Music Association nominations:
Country Album of the Year; North End Sky and Sing Alongs & Love Songs Roots Album of the Year; Running for Cover
Notable Appearances Include:
The Grey Cup Festival (Ottawa ON), Rogers Hometown Hockey (Dartmouth and Sydney NS), Sudbury Festival of Lights Boreal (Sudbury, ON), Celtic Colours (Halifax, NS) Stan Rogers Folk Festival (Canso, NS), Roots Night at Royal Botanical Gardens (Burlington, ON), The Ironwood (Calgary, AB), The Dakota Tavern (Toronto, ON), Writers at Woody Point (Woody Point NL), Tonder Festival (Denmark), Celtic Connections (Glasgow, Scotland).
Showcase Festivals & Conferences: Folk Alliance International, AmericanaUK Fest, Contact East, Nova Scotia Music Week, East Coast Music Week, Folk Music Ontario, NXNE and OSAC.
Discography:
Pretty Archie (2022)
Running For Cover (2020)
Hanging On (2019)
Sing Alongs & Love Songs (2016)
North End Sky (2015)
Steel City (2013)
Mike McKenna Jr CD Release
CANADIAN SINGER-SONGWRITER MIKE MCKENNA JR. HAS BECOME A RISING STAR ON THE EAST COAST MUSIC SCENE: WITH A RASPY, SOULFUL VOICE, WARM INDIE FOLK AND AMERICANA TONES, AND BEAUTIFUL SONGS LADEN WITH CAPTIVATING STORYTELLING.
BORN IN THE PROUD COAL MINING TOWN OF GLACE BAY AND RAISED ALONG THE MIRA RIVER, MIKE’S SONGWRITING AESTHETIC POINTS HEAVILY TO HIS ROOTS GROWING UP IN INDUSTRIAL, EASTERN CAPE BRETON. OVER THE COURSE OF 3 AWARD-WINNING ALBUMS HE’S BROUGHT US THE NOSTALGIA OF HIS HOME, THROUGH CAREFULLY CHOSEN NARRATIVE, POETRY, PROTEST, AND TRUE STORIES ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH IN NOVA SCOTIA’S COASTAL, WORKING-CLASS COMMUNITIES.
Rachel Davis & Darren McMullen CD Release
With more than a decade of making records and touring around the world behind them—as members of the award-winning group Còig—Rachel Davis and Darren McMullen now have their sights set on something new—Home.
Recorded with award-winning songwriter, musician, and producer Dave Gunning, Home is Rachel and Darren’s long-imagined, and much-anticipated, duo album. Highlighting the pair’s outstanding musicianship and vocals, Home mixes traditional tunes and songs with original co-writes and signature classics.
Rachel and Darren are well-established and respected instrumentalists in the traditional music world and their playing on this album certainly lives up to that reputation. But over the years, each has also gained recognition for their vocal abilities, most notably with Rachel receiving a 2020 Canadian Folk Music Award in the Traditional Singer of the Year category for Còig’s fifth album, Ashlar. While Còig’s repertoire always included songs, the focus of the group was really on the tunes. Rachel and Darren wanted to shift that focus for this album and feature their vocals more. They take turns on lead vocals and harmonies throughout the 11-track album, which is split about evenly between songs and instrumentals, and the result is a cohesive collection of music performed by some of the top musicians of our times.
From the gentle but commanding riff that opens “River and the Road”, written by Scottish songwriting royalty Archie Fisher, to the unexpectedly bouncy breath of fresh air that is Laurence Gowan’s 1993 hit “Dancing on My Own Ground”, to an old standby from their live sets, “We Remember You Well” by their pal, Cape Breton Music Hall of Fame writer Buddy MacDonald, the songs on Home couldn’t be a better fit for Rachel and Darren’s voices and musical sensibilities.
The pair also wanted to do more songwriting for this album and they hit the jackpot with recording, engineering, and arranging collaborator Dave Gunning and acclaimed singer-songwriter Terra Spencer. Both Gunning and Spencer add harmony vocals to the songs they co-wrote, with Gunning also playing a variety of instruments on the album. Other musical guests include Margie Beaton (piano), Thierry Clouette (bouzouki, foot percussion), and Zakk Cormier (guitar, foot percussion) taking turns on the tunes, and English folk singer Jackie Oates who joins Rachel and Darren on harmony for the lovely Cornish folk song “Sweet Nightingale”, which closes the album.
Listening to Rachel and Darren, it’s obvious that they’ve been playing together for a while—not just as part of Còig, but also as a duo, as guests on each other’s records, and as part of bigger stage productions and ensembles. There’s an easy way about them, a sense of comfort that comes through in the music, in the mix of their instruments, the blending of their voices, and how the arrangements leave room for each other. They seem to know just when to lay back and when it’s time to “give’er”.
Rachel and Darren have had the idea of doing a duo project for a long time, since before Còig took off, really. They just couldn’t ever fit it in with the band’s busy schedule and the solo work they were each involved with. But when the world-wide pandemic shut everything down for an unknown period of time, putting everyone’s plans on hold, some members of the band turned to new opportunities and, apart from one-off shows and the annual Christmas tour, Còig basically found itself on hiatus. That was the push that the project needed, as Rachel and Darren found themselves home together, and lots of time to experiment with material.
Rachel Davis and Darren McMullen’s debut duo album, Home, released in May of this year, with Archie’s Fisher’s “River and the Road” marked as the first single and video.
Old Man Luedecke
Old Man Luedecke is the recording name of two time JUNO award winning and Polaris prize nominated singer songwriter Chris Luedecke. A multiple East Coast Music Award winner known for his high energy banjo driven stompers, touching guitar ballads and dry humorous stories, Luedecke has been making a soundtrack to an authentic life for nearly twenty years.
Born in Toronto and long time resident of the country near Chester Nova Scotia, Luedecke began recording in the early 2000’s DIY folk scene of Halifax. He made his two JUNO winning albums for Black Hen Music in the late 00s with Steve Dawson as producer at Vancouver’s famed Factory studio. While on a tour of England in 2009, he met and supported folk roots legend Tim O’Brien who produced Luedecke’s next two albums. Tender is the Night was recorded at John’s Prine’s Butcher Shoppe Studio in Nashville in 2012 and 2015’s Domestic Eccentric was recorded in a cabin Luedecke built himself at his home in NS. 2019 saw Luedecke recording Easy Money at both the Banff Centre in Alberta and at Hotel2Tango in Montreal.
Songs like I quit my Job at the beginning of his career and the Early Days at the beginning of his family and dozens of other fan favourites trace a warm line of effort, sadness and joy and provide a soundtrack to many peoples’ own progress through adulthood, touching a rare place of truth and charm in the holiness of the mundane. His performing style with his easy going humour and storytelling creates a rare space of hopeful and intimate magic.
Luedecke has kept up many worldwide concert appearances, playing in Europe and around Canada and the USA and six trips to Australia, including a memorable tour where his whole young family travelled with him around rural Queensland for the Festival of Small Halls.
In May 2022 Luedecke was awarded an honorary doctorate from King’s University in Halifax for his cultural contributions.
Lookout Tower
Lookout Tower hails from memories of days gone by and of moments yet to come. Storytellers inspired by the cultural landscape of Cape Breton and woven from the yarn of hard times – their songs are the culmination of musical paths not commonly crossed. Defying genres with a no holds barred approach, vintage soul meets modern Americana where footstompin’ old-time harmonies and influences are dashed with Acadian roots, creating their original Winter Swamp Sound – a sonic palette of soulful ballads, rousing blues rock and hypnotic funk.
Their album ‘Fields’ was nominated for ‘Blues Recording of the Year’ at the 2024 ECMAs and for ‘Americana Recording of the Year’ at the 2023 NSMW.
Rankin MacEachern / vocals
Bryan Picard / guitar, vocals
Franzi Habith / bass, vocals
John Pinnington / drums
Steve Poltz – Nova Scotia Homecoming Tour
It might’ve even been last night, but Steve Poltz just played the greatest show of his life. Guess what?
The next show will be even greater, making that show the greatest show of his life.
Are you starting to notice a trend?
He isn’t shy about it either.
Even after most likely thousands of shows (but who’s counting?), he hits the stage with the same amount of energy and always makes sure to declare, “This is the greatest show of my life.”
It’s why he’s quietly emerged as the kind of live phenomenon celebrated passionately by a diehard fanbase worldwide and renowned as a festival favorite everywhere from Bluesfest in Byron Bay and High Sierra Music Festival in California and Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado to Cayamo Cruise (where he actually got married). It’s why his music has crept into pop culture via collaborations with everyone from Jewel and Billy Strings to Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Nicki Bluhm, Oliver Wood, and even the late Mojo Nixon. It’s why after over a dozen albums, he’s still creatively firing on all cylinders and critically acclaimed by the likes of Rolling Stone, Associated Press, Billboard, and many more.
Nevertheless, the next gig will be the greatest show for him (and maybe for you too)…
“I started doing it years ago, because I feel grateful to still be alive,” he notes. ”Even today, I still do it, and I believe my own bullshit. I convinced myself that every show is the greatest show I’ve ever played. They’re all different, and it depends on my mood each day, but I know I’m there to entertain people. It always cracks me up when I stumble into some sort of weird thing that’s handed to me like a gift from the freaky deadly heavens above.”
Steve might as well be “a gift from the freaky deadly heavens above” himself. He was born in Nova Scotia—Halifax, to be exact. Somewhere along the way, he began his relationship with the guitar at six-years-old. “We’re joined at the hip and lip and it’s always near my grip,” he affirms. He grew up in Los Angeles and Palm Springs (where he “met Elvis and Liberace”) and settled in San Diego (where he cut his teeth “under the tutelage of The Beat Farmers”).
He kicked off his musical journey in San Diego-bred underground favorites The Rugburns. However, the world got to know Steve when co-wrote two tracks from Jewel’s diamond-certified debut Pieces Of You, including the multi platinum Billboard Hot 100 #2 “You Were Meant For Me” (he’s also in the video). He delivered his own full-length debut One Left Shoe in 1998 and paved the way for an extensive solo catalog defined by what he calls “evocative lyrics mixed with positivity and traces of tragicomedy.”
If you so choose, you can trace his evolution from “Everything About You” (which popped up in Notting Hill) to the staple “Can O’ Pop”— christened “a fizzy delight” by Rolling Stone. The latter graced his 2022 album, Stardust & Satellites. Co-produced and created with The Wood Brothers, it garnered widespread acclaim. HOLLER. hailed it as “a wonderfully energized, often joyful and wryly provocative release from the charismatic Steve Poltz,” while No Depression dubbed it “poignant and ultimately uplifting.” Glide Magazine applauded how, “He takes chances like few others and seems to be increasingly more unconventional as he embraces Americana.”
Simultaneously, a myriad of artists continue to seek him out as a collaborator in the studio. Whether it be “Leaders” with Billy Strings or “Million Miles” with Molly Tuttle, he’s got dozens of cuts with various friends under his belt. He contributed two tunes to Deer Tick’s Emotional Contracts with frontman John J. McCauley going on to profess to Brooklyn Vegan, “Steve Poltz may be the biggest, most direct inspiration for me on this record.”
Steve adds, “Usually when these folks and many others come over to my house in Nashville we end up with something I love. I try not to overthink it. There are no rules. It’s kind of like fishing. You don’t catch anything if you don’t throw your rod in the water. So I guess I just try to be available for inspiration, mixed with perspiration and exasperation.”
Speaking of perspiration, he regularly travels far and wide to audiences of all ages and all continents most every day.
“I travel from town to town and fool people,” he grins. “I sing them songs and tell them stories and somehow they decide to pay money to obtain some merch and witness the spectacle. Then I return a year later and fool them again.”
In the end, Steve is probably gearing up for the greatest show of his life as you read this.
Thankfully, that will never change.
He signs off, “I’m just a weirdo, a freak, a bon vivant, a rounder, a rabble rouser, a workaholic, a people pleaser, an idiot and a grateful kid who ran away and joined the circus.”