Australian blues master to perform at Osprey Arts Centre
Eastern Canada Cut and Run Tour for Spiegel coming to Shelburne
Shelburne is the first of 13 stops for Australian blues artist Lloyd Spiegel on the final leg of his Cut and Run Tour.
Spiegel will perform at the Osprey Arts Centre on
April 16 at 6:30 p.m.
Spiegel began the tour in Western Canada in the fall of 2019, just days after the album’s official release.
The album has earned Spiegel Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and Producer of the Year at last month’s Australian Blues Awards.
This won’t be Spiegel’s first trip to Eastern Canada. In 2016, he was invited to perform at the East Coast Music Conference, and in 2018 he performed a large theatre tour that began at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and took him to many places in Atlantic Canada.
“Each part of Canada is so different, but there are a lot of similarities with Australia,” said Spiegel in a press release.
“I feel like I could be dropped into any town here and feel very much at home and no doubt find myself somewhere to stay pretty quickly,” he laughs. “There’s a kindness and friendliness I don’t experience anywhere else I tour in the world. That sense of community makes me feel instantly welcome and has an enormous impact on the show I deliver because the first connection I make with those audiences is completely natural, like I’m among friends in my living room.”
Community and human connection through storytelling and laughter are values that Spiegel holds dear to him, as he learned about their importance from spending time with blues legend Brownie McGhee, when he was a teenager. Those lessons served him well and opened doors in his 20s, as he started to make his mark in the music industry, touring the U.S. on Greyhound buses and performing with greats such as Bob Dylan and Ray Charles.
Now entering his 30th year on the road, Spiegel’s at the top of his game.
When asked about earning 13 of his 14 Australian Blues Awards from his latest four albums, Spiegel says: “I was raised in the Australian blues scene.
It’s my family, and most of my heroes were part of this family. Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to win several Australian Blues Awards and, while I certainly don’t do this for trophies, I see them as a sign that I’ve grown into one of the artists who leads this family and forges new paths within it, and that is a responsibility I‘m equally humbled and honoured by. It’s an opportunity to have my link in the chain of this genre and do my part to push young blues artists further.”
Throughout touring Canada, Spiegel has been fortunate to provide guitar clinics and mentorship to aspiring artists. He looks forward to any opportunity he can to give back to the music community in a way that his mentors did with him.
On April 17, Spiegel will take the stage at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville, before an April 18 show at the Chester Playhouse. Shows in P.E.I., New Brunswick and Ontario follow.