Fans of Gritty, Hard-Edged Rock and Roots Music Will Fall in Love

Spend the Night with Terra Lightfoot at Horizon Stage on October 14 at 7:30 p.m.

Called a cross between Joan Jett and Bob Seger, Terra Lightfoot is a Canadian rock goddess on the rise. Her original music fuses hard-edged rock with roots, blues, soul, and jazz. From slow-burning ballads to gritty rock numbers, Terra’s songs tap into raw emotions: love, lust, loneliness, and temptation and her husky voice and stellar guitar skills will blow your mind! Don’t miss the chance to see Terra Lightfoot Up Close and Personal when she makes a stop at Horizon Stage on Friday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m.

On stages in France, Germany, the UK, the US, and across Canada, Terra Lightfoot has been wowing audiences for years.  She has performed alongside the likes of Emmylou Harris, Gordon Lightfoot, Ron Sexsmith, Grace Potter, Betty LaVette, Randy Bachman, The Sadies, and Daniel Lanois. Edmonton audiences couldn’t get enough of her when she opened for Blue Rodeo at the Jubilee Auditorium last January.

When writing and recording her 2015 album, Every Time My Mind Runs Wild, Lightfoot set out to push her limits as a performer and challenge herself creatively. Where her 2011 self-titled debut album had slower, softer songs and a subdued vibe, her new album crackles with immediacy and demands attention. While holed up with headphones and a stack of vintage pop and rock albums, she pulled apart songwriting mechanics, mastered tonic chords and middle-eights, and learned to craft memorably sticky choruses. She spent weeks honing her new songs - working and reworking them until they were taut and lean. And the results have her fans, and many in the Canadian music industry, standing up and taking notice.

Lightfoot’s musical and song-writing influences include roots groundbreakers Maybelle Carter and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, blues legends Leadbelly and Lightnin’ Hopkins, soul greats Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, and jazz titans Nina Simone and Billie Holiday. And she magically melds their sounds together to create her own unique, remarkable results.

Rock ‘n’ Roll the night away with Terra Lightfoot at Horizon Stage on October 14. Tickets are $35 for adults and $30 for students and seniors and may be purchased at the City Hall Ticket Centre (315 Jespersen Ave), by phone at 780-962-8995 or 1-888-655-9090, and online through Ticketpro.ca.

A Paul Simon Tribute Concert Experience Like No Other

Hang onto your seats because we’re Going to Graceland on September 17

Graceland is American musician Paul Simon’s most successful studio album. It has been praised by critics and public alike, won the 1987 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and sold over sixteen million copies world-wide. The recording features an eclectic mixture of musical styles, including pop, rock, a cappella, zydeco, isicathamiya, and mbaqanga. It includes collaborations with many South African musicians and groups, particularly Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as prominent North American artists Linda Ronstadt and Los Lobos. Tracks include such popular songs as “Graceland”, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” and “You Can Call Me Al”.  Now, Edmonton-area Paul Simon fans can experience Going to Graceland, a pivotal concert experience that includes covers of all eleven album tracks along with some of Simon’s other hit singles, at Horizon Stage on Saturday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m.

Released in August 1986, Graceland transcended racial and cultural barriers. It was a bridge between cultures, genres and continents, and a global launching pad for the musicians whose popularity been suppressed under South Africa’s white-run apartheid rule. Rolling Stone Magazine called it "lovely, daring and accomplished” and The Village Voice said that it was "a tremendously engaging and inspired piece of work”.  In the past 30 years it has continued to influence, and be covered by, a wide variety of singers and bands, and in 2012 it placed 71st on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

In Going to Graceland a nine-piece group of Edmonton-based musicians have deconstructed and recreated Simon’s genius-level compositions to make them their own. Starting as an idea for a New Year’s show, this amazing tribute concert has been selling out venues around the province. It has allowed band members to connect with audiences of many ages and share the album that they all grew up hearing their parents play for the first time in 1986.

The current Going to Graceland ensemble consists of Neil MacDonald (lead vocals and guitar), Jason Kodie (accordion, keyboards, and vocals), Nathan Carroll (guitar and vocals), Thom Golub (bass), Lindsey Walker (vocals and keyboard), Chris Budnarchuk (drums and vocals), Ben McNab (percussion), Brock Tyler (trumpet and vocals), and Laura Craig (saxophone).

Spend a Saturday night experiencing and enjoying some of the best music of the 1980s at Horizon Stage on September 17. Tickets for Going to Graceland are $40 for adults and $35 for students and seniors and may be purchased at the City Hall Ticket Centre (315 Jespersen Ave), by phone at 780-962-8995 or 1-888-655-9090, and online at Ticketpro.ca.