Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

The music of Erin Costelo covers a range of genres, and the east coast singer-songwriter will be in Kindersley to perform early next week.

Costelo hits the stage at the Norman Ritchie Community Centre on Jan. 15 starting at 7:30 p.m., so the show is next Tuesday. The Costelo performance is the fifth of 10 concerts in the Stars for Saskatchewan series presented by the Kindersley & District Arts Council.

According to a brochure for the series, the singer-songwriter from Nova Scotia has an ability to float between genres and her main influences are Americana and gospel. Costelo is fresh off a pair of performances in New York, N.Y.

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Tickets for arts council shows are available at Lela’s Music Centre, LaBelle Boutique and Integra Tire. Tickets are also available online at www.ticketpro.ca or at the door if the show has not already sold out. People also have an option to purchase a five-pack of tickets to choose five of the six remaining concerts in the series.

The singer-songwriter performed at an Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSAC) showcase and she will perform six times in Saskatchewan before moving on to concerts in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Fredericton.

Costelo, who has released five albums including her latest album titled “Sweet Marie” released in 2018, said she will be joined on stage by a guitarist for her show in Kindersley. She said she performs with a full band at times, but next week’s performance is a duo.

She said the guitarist joining her on tour is also her fiancé, so the crowd could expect a bit of a Sonny and Cher style performance with light-hearted banter on stage. She noted that she is used to performing in smaller communities as a result of her roots in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island.

The artist said she was fortunate to land an opening slot for a pair of concerts at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa near the end of February, and she is opening for Blue Rodeo. She said the venue in Ottawa is a special place to perform.

Costelo said she has performed at showcases in the past, so doing the OSAC showcase was not a new experience for her. Costelo joins fellow east coast musicians Ian Sherwood and Pretty Archie as part of the arts council’s 2018-19 series in Kindersley. She said it is nice for musicians to perform in the new surroundings.

“You get an opportunity to go visit people that maybe have never heard of you before,” she said, recognizing that the hope is for people to get out and explore new music. “It’s really exciting for me to be able to come into all these communities I would not normally go to.”

She noted that shows are often in competition with a long list of attractions in larger urban centres, so shows in smaller communities are fun because they are an event for the entire community and it is a night out.

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