“Masterful and amazing!” ~ Tampa Acoustic Music Exchange

Ken Whiteley has been playing folk, blues, gospel and other roots traditions at the highest level for well over fifty years.  He has received many awards including a Canadian Folk Music Award, 7 Juno nominations, 18 Maple Blues nominations, a Genie Award (for Best Song in a Canadian Film) and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Mariposa Folk Festival, The Maple Blues Awards and Folk Music Ontario but ultimately for Ken his music is all about making connection.   He loves to get people singing with him whether he’s on a concert stage, a folk festival, a church service or a yoga ashram.

Ken has made over 32 albums and his most recent one, “Long Time Travelling” was just nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award as Best Traditional Album this year. He has written over 400 songs that have won numerous awards and been covered by more than a dozen artists. Ken is a living link to the traditions of people he has sung and played with including Pete Seeger, The Georgia Sea Island Singers, Tom Paxton, John Hammond Jr., Blind John Davis and many others. He brings this vast experience to each performance as a way to allow all of us to come together through the power of song.

Long Time Travelling song introductions here.

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Fall gratitude!

As we move from summer towards fall there’s much to be thankful for and much to look forward to. Lots of great music this summer and still two more festivals and other fun musical events.

Ken Whiteley with Eve Goldberg & David Wall at Camp Naivelt Phil Ochs/Victor Jara evening of song, Aug. 22, 2026

On August 22 I participated and mc’d a wonderful night celebrating the music of Phil Ochs and Victor Jarra at the legendary Camp Naivelt in northwest Brampton.

On September 13 at 1:30 PM I will be leading a fantastic hour of gospel music at the South Side Shuffle festival in Port Credit (Mississauga) with my singing friends, Ciceal Levy, David Wall and Pat Patrick backed by an all-star band including Bucky Berger (drums), Gord Mowat (bass) and my nephew Jesse Whiteley on piano and organ.

The weekend of September 25 to 27 I will be performing at the Deep Roots Festival in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. It will be great to go back to this festival and they are honouring my friends, Don and Anna Osburn, who started the festival 20 years ago.

In October I will be in Winnipeg, Manitoba for a couple of concerts. On Saturday, Oct. 17 it will be a folk extravaganza organized by the wonderful multi-instrumentalist, Daniel Koulack including a large ensemble of Winnipeg folk musicians (including Daniel’s kids George and Ameena) plus David Wall and Marilyn Lerner. On Sunday, Oct. 18 Marilyn Lerner, David Wall and I will give a concert for the Winnipeg Jazz Society in the Fort Garry Hotel.

Thank you for the wonderful response for my latest album, “Keep Going”. Here’s the latest video from the recording, a guitar instrumental, “A Smooth One”, adapted for fingerpicking guitar from the repertoire of Benny Goodman and Charlie Christian.