Guthro’s East Coast music gathering will continue online
HALIFAX — Bruce Guthro hopes that his circle of musical friends will be unbroken as he takes their regular gatherings online.
With little to no chance that he’ll be able to bring his popular Songwriters Circle events back to their home at Casino Nova Scotia’s Schooner Showroom and other Maritimes venues before the end of this year, the Cape Breton-bred singer-songwriter is going to bring the shows to the fans from his home outside Halifax.
Dubbed The Circle Continues, the livestreaming shows start on July 3 with East Coast rock legend Matt Minglewood from Glace Bay and P.E.I. folk powerhouse Irish Mythen. They’ll continue through December with an all-star lineup that includes artists like Joel Plaskett, Ria Mae, Matt Andersen, Reeny Smith and a Christmas ceilidh with Cape Breton native Natalie Macmaster and her husband Donnell Leahy plus other guests to be announced.
“I wanted to offer something where people would go, ‘Wow, look at the lineup! ... and offer it in such a way that they could afford to buy it,” said Guthro, who is offering up a season ticket to the Songwriters Circle, with a summer and fall season consisting of seven shows each.
Tickets go on sale June 19 at his website, bruceguthro. com and the shows will be viewable on the Zoom app platform.
There will even be a nod to Guthro’s other life as the singer for the pioneering Scottish folk band Runrig, sharing songs and stories with co-founding member Iain Bayne and other special guests on Aug. 21.
Most shows will follow the Songwriters Circle format of relaxed conversation and insight into the songs each artist performs, with the opportunity for special unannounced surprises along the way.
“I had to do something, everybody’s in the same boat. Theatres, artists, myself ... we all have bills that roll in at the end of the month that need to be paid, and no one’s working. No one can work,” said the Sydney Mines native, emphasizing how disheartening it has been to see the cloud of COVID-19 continue to obliterate the upcoming calendar of cultural events.
“I knew we had to figure out something, so about a month ago I just dove in and started looking at all formats, all possibilities and pulled the family together as a team.”
That team includes his wife Kim and their accomplished musical offspring, Dylan Guthro from the group Port Cities and singer-songwriter Jodi Guthro, who will help with logistics and production.
Each show will feature a musical friend dropping by Guthro’s home studio for the show and another guest or two joining in via internet conference call. The setup allows him to go a little further afield to feature musicians he admires, with New Englandbased Sarah Lee Guthrie (daughter of Arlo, granddaughter of Woody) joining J.P. Cormier on July 10 and George Canyon calling in from Alberta on July 24 with his good friend Dave Gunning joining Guthro here in Nova Scotia.
“People like Johnny Reid and Alan Doyle are coming on board because of their willingness to help and to build a platform where some artists can get on and get paid,” said Guthro, who is also going to use ticket sales to help out a dozen or so venues in the region that have supported himself and fellow musicians over the years.
The stages can promote the event to their followers and subscribers, and as copr-omoters they’ll receive 15 per cent of each season pass they help sell.
“I was talking to J.P. (Cormier) about this, and we were both concerned whether there would still be those halls to go back to when all is said and done,” said Guthro.
“A lot of these halls are living day-to-day as it is, some of them can’t keep going without some government funding, and that can only last so long.”
Echoing the sentiments of other music industry professionals, Guthro says the development of a vaccine would be a huge step forward to putting this all behind us, but the health and government officials he’s talked to have said that will still take some time to occur.
He’d like to get back in front of a live audience as much as anybody, but only in due time and not with the chance of putting anyone at risk.
“I’m a realist. I know everyone’s starting to gather and do social distancing and being very careful, and I’m hoping for the best but ... I’m preparing for not-the-best. I don’t want to say ‘the worst.’
“The music industry will be the last people back to work, and most artists can’t play to 50 people or whatever venues can have with social distance, so until things change drastically I don’t see major music events taking place for a long time to come.”