For five years John Wort Hannam taught grade 9 language arts on the largest reserve in Canada – The Kainai Nation, part of the Blackfoot Confederacy. But in 1997 he heard a Loudon Wainwright III record and was hooked by the music and the stories. In 1998 he bought a guitar and learnt some chords. In 2002 he quit teaching and began to pursue the dream of being a working musician.

John Wort Hannam comes from a long line of people who make a living using their hands. His great-­‐great grandfather drove horse and buggy for the village doctor. His great-­‐grandfather was a stevedore, his grandfather, a farmer and his father still works as a master carpenter. Wort Hannam now carries on the tradition making his living writing songs and playing music.

He independently released his debut CD “pocket full of holes” in 2003 and his 2nd CD “Dynamite and ‘Dozers” in 2004. His third CD “Two-­‐Bit Suit” was released by Black Hen Music in the spring of 2007. In May of 2009 John went back in the studio and recorded "Queen's Hotel". In 2012, he released “Brambles and Thorns”, this time recording with producer Leeroy Stagger and releasing the record on Borealis Records.

He was commissioned to write the official 2011 Alberta Winter Games song “Like The Northern Lights” and the 2012 official song for the 100th Anniversary of the Empress Theatre.

He tours actively as a solo, duo, trio, and at times as a four piece band with John on guitar, tenor guitar, and harmonica and Tyson Maiko on upright bass, Scott Duncan on fiddle, and Brad Brouwer on percussion.

• 2010 Contempory Album of the Year Winner -­‐ Canadian Folk Music Awards 2010 Juno Award Nominee -­‐ Roots and Traditional Album of the Year
• 2009 Grand Prize Winner -­‐ Calgary Folk Music Festival Songwriting Competition 2008 North American Folk Alliance Award Nominee
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• 2007 Double Western Canadian Music Award Nominee
• 2007 New Folk Winner -­‐ Kerrville Texas New Folk Songwriting Competition 2007 Grand Prize Winner -­‐ Calgary Folk Music Festival Songwriting Competition 2005 Double Canadian Folk Music Award Nominee
• 2005 Western Canadian Music Award Nominee
• 2004 Grand Prize Winner -­‐ Calgary Folk Music Festival Songwriting Competition

Tim Hus has a voice sweeter than a Husqvarna chainsaw, a wit that is sharper than rusty barbed wire, and a list of songs longer than a Saskatchewan fence line! Hus is hot off the concert trail from twelve weeks of touring with Canadian icon Stompin’ Tom Connors where he was heralded as “The best opening act Tom has had in his 45+ year career”

Hus recently released his highly anticipated fifth CD Hockeytown (his second for Stony Plain Records) joining Corb Lund and the legendary Ian Tyson on the label. Hus comes at his audience like a runaway rig, while firing off image-laden lyrics with the intensity of a western gunslinger. He received a nomination for Roots artist of the year at the 2011 Canadian Music Awards.

Tim’s travelin’ band features Billy MacInnis on fiddle and lead guitar and Riley Tubbs on upright bass. Billy is one of the most accomplished fiddle players from the Maritime provinces of Canada. He has appeared with Prairie Oyster and John Allan Cameron, and has been playing fiddle for the legendary Stompin' Tom for the past seven years. Riley Tubbs from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta lays down “The finest rhythm in the West”. Tim's distinctive songwriting and spirited performances by the members of his dynamic band stand as a cornerstone of authentic Canadiana.  

From the Great Northern Plains of Western Canada, Little Miss Higgins struts and serenades her way, guitar in hand, lips blazoned red, onto any stage. As if she just drove in off the back-road of another time with gravel dust and a sunset trailing behind her, this pocket-sized powerhouse plays music brewed up in old-time country blues sprinkled with a little jazz and maybe a hint of folk. Whether it’s songs about passion or songs about panties, she writes about real things in a rooted and poetic way.

This is all too true on her fourth release, “Across The Plains” (2010), which won two 2011 Western Canadian Music Awards- Outstanding Blues Recording and Best Album Design. A testament to the roots of the music Higgins plays, much of her singing and guitar playing is accompanied by an old-school horn section, guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, muck-bucket bass, and chunky percussion. As well as writing and performing on all the songs, Higgins co-produced the album alongside fellow musician and producer Jaxon Haldane. 

Little Miss Higgins (aka Jolene Higgins) was born in Brooks, Alberta, and raised in Independence, Kansas.  

Music entered her life early.

“When I was about four my dad bought this old piano at a local bar,” she recalls. “It was a mini grand piano. He brought it home and told me it was mine. I carved my name in the side and started taking piano lessons.”

Growing up playing piano, Higgins now uses guitar and voice as her main instruments as well as her theatre background to bring a “refreshing sound and story to the stage.” She spent a number of years after studying theatre at a college in Alberta, roaming Western Canada, acting in plays, frequenting blues clubs and playing her guitar. Higgins finally settled down in Saskatchewan and that’s when music took the driver’s seat.

Her stage name, Little Miss Higgins suits the undeniably inflammatory mix of her blues and country music repertoire but the moniker was largely accidental. “When I moved to Saskatchewan in 2002 I started hanging out with this Greek guy,” she recalls “He started calling me Little Miss Higgins so I used it on poster for a gig I was doing and it just stuck.”

Over the past five years, Little Miss Higgins has built a strong national reputation throughout Canada, appearing in clubs and on festival stages in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, Owen Sound, and Canso, Nova Scotia performing most often as a duo with partner and guitar player, Foy Taylor.  

 If Keith Richards, Joan Jett and Ray Charles could somehow spawn a love child, it'd be Romi Mayes (suitably pronounced RAW-ME). Hailing from Winnipeg, Canada, and renowned as one of the hardest working independent musicians touring the globe today, Mayes has chipped away at the rock and roll stone over the past couple of decades, and now, this Juno nominated, five time WCMA award winner, has done it again. 

Recently winning her third Songwriter of The Year award at The Western Canadian Music Awards, Mayes' latest and fifth full length album, 'Lucky Tonight' stamps one more victory in this bad ass guitar playin lady's discography. Featuring guitar demon Jay Nowicki of the well known rockin blues band 'The Perpetrators', Mayes chose to record a rare electric duo album. Not unique enough for ya? Inspired by what another Winnipeg raised artist, Neil Young, did with his 1973 release 'Time Fades Away', Mayes and Nowicki recorded an album of all unreleased and unrecorded brand new songs live and in one take at a sold out concert in Winnipeg in the middle of winter. 

All brand new tunes. 

All live. 

And in one take.

"Romi and Jay are an absolute force of an electric blues duo. The end result is an album that's carefully balanced between grinding, grooving roadhouse rhythms, heartfelt guitar solos, and Romi's aching, yearning voice and lyrics," says Uptown Magazine's John Kendle. 

 This kind of risk exemplifies Mayes in all she does and goes in tow with her ballsy, heart on her sleeve and straight shootin attitude. With song titles like "Don't Mess With Me", "Can't Get You Off (My Mind)", and title track "Lucky Tonight" her raw, edgy songs take no prisoners and tell it like it is. Not at all a one speed driver, Romi Mayes can also gear down the big rig and hypnotize you with honest sultry, sweet and sexy tunes that have schooled young men and made grown men cry. 

 She has shared the stage and toured with greats such as Derek Trucks, Levon Helm, Ricky Skaggs, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Jim Cuddy, Tom Russell, Martha Wainwright, Gurf Morlix, Sam Baker, Hayes Carll, Todd Snider, Jimmy LaFave, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Slaid Cleaves, The Flatlanders, Sue Foley, Dale Watson, Fred Eaglesmith, Corb Lund, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings and many more. Romi Mayes is a force to be reckoned with that will be a household name for years to come. She is only getting better with each album and one thing you can bet on is this hard core prairie gal has no plans to burn out or fade away.  

Ed Brown - Dinner & Show: $35

Doors open at 5:30, Dinner at 6:30, Show at 8:00

Cowboy Poet, Singer, Songwriter, Wildlife Artist and Sculptor 

Ed Brown is a former bronc rider and a founding member of the Manitoba Rodeo Association (M.R.C.A.). In 1997 Ed was inducted into the M.R.C.A Hall of Fame. In addition to ten years as a rodeo cowboy and seven years working with racehorses, Ed has worked as a trapper, commercial fisherman, musician and wildlife artist. This diversity of occupations, along with a sense of humor developed through a life-long association with cowboys, trappers and various other colorful characters, is reflected in his exclusively original poems, songs and stories. Some of Ed's accomplishments to date include being featured on several TV documentaries such as Cowboys, Heroes and Horses That I've Known & Minstrels of The West. He has appeared in several magazine articles and done guest spots on a variety of TV and radio shows including Spirit of The West and more recently Canadian Cowboy Country TV.

Ed has headlined at almost all of the major cowboy poetry gatherings and festivals in Western Canada and in 2005 was named Manitoba's Cowboy Poet of The Year. Recently, Ed's third CD , Cowboy Collaboration a joint project between Ed and fellow poet Bj Smith, was honored by the Academy of Western Artists in Dallas Texas receiving the coveted Will Rogers Award for Cowboy Poetry CD of The Year.

When not touring in Alberta, Ed resides near Oak Lake Manitoba where he makes his living as a wildlife sculptor and cowboy performer