Union Duke will perform in Kindersley on Nov. 6 as part of the Kindersley and District Arts Council series.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
An energetic folk rock band from Ontario will perform in Kindersley on Monday night.
Union Duke, a quintet from Toronto, is known for its explosive live show. The band’s literature says sweat flies and floorboards tremble when Union Duke performs its blend of soulful independent rock mixed with bluegrass and country.
The band will use three-, four- and five-part harmonies.
Union Duke hits the stage at the Norman Ritchie Community Centre on Nov. 6 at 8 p.m.
The concert is the second of eight in the Kindersley and District Arts Council’s 2017-18 Stars for Saskatchewan performing arts series.
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 is not sold out. Tickets are $26 for adults and $11 for children 12 years old and under.
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You can also get a four-pack of tickets at ticketpro.ca for $92, an option that could make sense with seven shows to go. Pick any four concerts from the series you want to see and bundle them in their four-pack.
Matt Warry-Smith of Union Duke said the band is looking forward to performing in Kindersley. The band has been doing shows in Alberta and the tour enters Saskatchewan on Nov. 4 for a concert in Macklin. Union Duke rolls into Kindersley two days later.
Each year musicians, other entertainers and visual artists show their stuff at a showcase run by the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSAC). Members of arts councils across Saskatchewan attend showcases to book concerts and art shows.
Warry-Smith said the band has performed at showcases in Nova Scotia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. He said it’s amazing there are systems in place through OSAC and similar organizations to give bands an opportunity to perform where they otherwise might never get to play. The band enjoys performing in small towns.
“I find people in small towns really have a great appreciation for bands that make the trek to go out there,” he said. The band loves meeting the people in small towns and he said it’s always nice when the people connect with their music.
Three of the band’s members are from Toronto, another hails from Port Hope, Ont., and the fifth, a guitarist, is from Red Deer, Alta. The band has been out west before, once driving from Toronto to British Columbia. The band stops in Red Deer when on the road for obvious reasons and Warry-Smith said jokingly that having a member from Alberta legitimizes the band’s country component.
The band has been touring steadily for about three years, according to Warry-Smith. He said the band will spend more time on the Prairies on its current tour than ever before, and more time in Saskatchewan by far. Union Duke released its latest album Golden Days in August 2016, and there are new videos on Facebook.
Warry-Smith, the front man in the band, said the band is always working on new music, so people will hear songs that don’t appear on Golden Days or any other album.
People at the show should expect a high-octane environment.
“We’re very high energy,” he said. The music is what he likes to call folk rock, heavily influenced by bluegrass and country.
“We really like to have a lot of fun on stage. Our whole thing is just having a party and inviting the people in the audience to be a part of that.”
The three band members from Toronto have played together for about 15 years after meeting in high school. They experimented with other genres, including punk rock, garage rock and other forms of rock ’n’ roll, he explained.
Warry-Smith said his parents loved folk music, so he grew up listening to it. The band didn’t like where things were going with rock music and members wanted to get away from using a drummer. A band member bought a banjo and they all connected with music by a contemporary bluegrass band, so the band embarked on a new direction.
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