Ken Whiteley

TONIGHT! I’m excited to be rekindling the “Spirit Songs” vibe from previous concerts at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Toronto. The online concert will stream on Saturday, May 16th, from 7pm-8:45pm EDT. This show is organized around the theme of  HOPE & HEALING and will feature musical contributions from a stellar lineup of performers including Coco Love Alcorn, Jon Brooks, Mark Kleiner and yours truly.  Tickets for the show are $10 each and are available by clicking here. Video link provided with ticket purchase.  Proceeds from this event will go to the artists and The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto.

My son Ben and I will be the featured guests on Moondog’s Ballroom on CIUT 89.5fm with host Daibhib James this coming Tuesday, May 12th, from 5pm-6pm EDT. Listen on the radio or you can also download the show at https://ciut.fm/shows/moondogs-ballroom

I’m excited to be rekindling the “Spirit Songs” vibe from previous concerts at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Toronto. The online concert will stream on Saturday, May 16th, from 7pm-8:45pm EDT. This show is organized around the theme of  HOPE & HEALING and will feature musical contributions from a stellar lineup of performers including Coco Love Alcorn, Jon Brooks, Mark Kleiner and yours truly.  Tickets for the show are $10 each and are available by clicking here. Video link provided with ticket purchase.  Proceeds from this event will go to the artists and The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto.

I’m excited to be rekindling the “Spirit Songs” vibe from previous concerts at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Toronto. The online concert will stream on Saturday, May 16th, from 7pm-8:45pm EDT. This show is organized around the theme of  HOPE & HEALING and will feature musical contributions from a stellar lineup of performers including Coco Love Alcorn, Jon Brooks, Mark Kleiner and yours truly.  Tickets for the show are $10 each and are available by clicking here. Video link provided with ticket purchase.  Proceeds from this event will go to the artists and The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto.

Mayday alert!  The first day of May is the day after I turn 69.  I would have been doing a show in Hudson’s Hope, B.C. in the middle of a tour in Alberta and B.C. had the universe not intervened.  Instead I plan to do a live stream concert from the basement studio at Casa Wroxton, this time accompanied by my son, Ben Whiteley!  He would have been on tour right now playing bass with fantastic singer Basia Bulat but instead here we are with lots of instruments to choose from.

I’ve now done a couple of live stream concerts – one for the Home Routes Online Folk Festival and an Easter concert for the Sivananda Yoga Ashram in Val Morin, Quebec.  I’ve done a different repertoire both times and this will be no exception.  I plan to do songs from my brand new album, Calm In The Eye Of The Storm that I haven’t done on a live stream yet, though I might repeat a favourite or two.  Let me know if you have any requests to round out the set list.

I am extremely grateful for all the support I’ve received doing these concerts.  If you get a chance to share this event with others, that would be so appreciated.  Hopefully we can engage with a little positive, musical energy.

Calm In The Eye Of The Storm is my first album recording in four years. It looks at the personal, political and spiritual dimensions of finding peace in these turbulent times. The arrangements run the gamut from bluesy slide, whirring mandolins, outstanding string bass and percussion to whimsical touches like ukulele, lap steel and vibraphone. I hope you enjoy it.

On Saturday, April 11 at 7:30 EDT  I will be doing a special Easter concert that you can watch at https://www.facebook.com/SivanandaYogaCamp.  For many years I’ve gone to the Sivananda Yoga Camp in Val Morin, Quebec at Easter time and it has become a special tradition that I look forward to every spring.  For anyone who wishes we’d had that last gospel show at Hugh’s Room Live in March, this is your chance to take in a full gospel program.  Or maybe you’d just like something that could touch and uplift your soul and spirit in these trying times. I had a great experience and a chance to work out any kinks by doing the Home Routes Online Folk Festival last week so I’m really looking forward to another opportunity to make some music for people. I’ll have my 6, 12 string and old National resophonic, slide guitar and lots of songs from my new album, Calm In The Eye Of The Storm as well as a few from old favourites like Gospel Music Makes Me Feel Alright! and Up Above My Head. To all of you able to tune in, many thanks in advance.  ~Ken Whiteley

Thanks SO much to everyone who tuned in. If you missed the live stream you can watch it here … Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous

I’m ready and excited for my first live stream concert right here from the basement at Roxton Road!  It will broadcast live at www.facebook.com/homeroutes on April 2, this Thursday, 9 p.m. EDT.  I’ll be singing songs from my new album, Calm In The Eye Of The Storm as well as whatever strikes my fancy from the hundreds of songs I know.  I was supposed to be performing in Owen Sound this coming weekend and getting ready for a couple of weeks of shows in Alberta and B.C. through Home Routes/Chemin Chez Nous.  It won’t take the place of actually sitting with a room full of people and singing together but in these unusual times I’m thrilled to be singing for people. The show will also be archived on YouTube later.  Let me know if you can join us or have any requests by email.

Home Routes has created a brand new on-line festival which will feature artist like yours truly who were previously scheduled to tour rural and urban areas across Canada over the coming months. My show will be Thursday, April 2nd, on the Home Routes’ facebook page at 8pm CST, and will run for roughly 30 minutes.   If you can’t join me for the live stream, Home Routes will post the concert on their youtube channel.

Sadly the annual Easter Family Weekend Festival at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Val Morin has been cancelled. Also the screening of Liz Marshall’s Midian Farm documentary and benefit concert with yours truly on April 5th at Heartwood Hall in Owen Sound has been postponed until further notice.

It’s with a heavy heart (but not total surprise) that Hugh’s Room Live has cancelled all their remaining shows, including the gospel matinee. We hope to reschedule at the new Hugh’s Room Live venue. The screening of Liz Marshall’s Midian Farm documentary on April 5th at Heartwood Hall in Owen Sound has also been cancelled! We’ll let you know when we have the rescheduled date.

Back by popular demand! Sacred Steel guitarist Nikki D Brown and the Sisters of Thunder will join me at my Sunday Gospel Finale on March 22nd at Hugh’s Room Live on Dundas St. Sacred steel is one of the most exciting forms of music today and Nikki D. Brown and her sisters are some of the most amazing proponents of the style. I first met Nikki through Toronto’s jazz luminary, Jane Bunnett. After that encounter I invited Nikki and her sisters to join me on my Sunday Gospel series last year and they sang and Nikki played on my brand new album Calm In The Eye Of The Storm.  You’ll have to hear them tearing it up on Moving Up The King’s Highway! That was so much fun that I took them to with me to the inaugural Freedom Fest in Perth last summer.  I’m delighted to have Nikki and her sister Gloria Brown (lead guitar) and cousin Tomika Webb (bass guitar) back for this final show as we explore a unique afternoon of original and traditional gospel and blues.