Rough and Tumble, Dan Whitener, and Will Gillespie @Artword Artbar

I'm not really sure how I've not been to Artword Artbar before last Wednesday, but there you have it and here I am. I love the place!The caveat emptor for Artword Artbar is that it's not the type of room to include on a pub crawl or even a girls night out. Artword Artbar (and they are sure to give you plenty of warning before the start of the show) is what's called a listening room - which is just to say, that when the music is playing, they expect everyone to be listening and on a night such as this it's darn good advice.

Will Gillespie

The night started with Will Gillespie - https://www.willgillespie.ca/. Will is a Hamilton singer-songwriter, actor and now playwright that is often seen on bills around Hamilton with a full band. His style with a full band is a darkish rockabilly meets Johnny Cash sort of show and it's fun. His songwriting hints at excess and passion ("I fell off the wagon into your arms") and I think of gritty twangy guitar when his name is mentioned, so I was surprised by his acoustic performance tonight. Tonight, his show was more Rockabilly meets show tunes and strangely it worked really really well. Will is an accomplished guitar player - often sounding like his own guitar duo and his songs take on a tenderness (even the aforementioned I fell off the wagon song) with some added sentimentality that I loved. Keep your eyes open for Will's upcoming play during fringe "Swinging in St. John's" which tells the story of the Elvis movie that was never made.... in NewFoundland.

Dan Whitener

Dan Whitener - http://danwhitenermusic.com/ Dan visits Hamilton via New Jersey and is touring steadily across Canada and the Unites States. Tonight his show was a beautiful mix of country, Americana and folk. His smooth as silk voice combined with truly narrative songwriting simply draws you right in. His song (The Mountain and the Mine) a bout coal mining resonates like Cat's Cradle combined with John Henry. Another about a California preacher warning about the end of the world (the moon is going to crash into the earth) both makes you laugh and instinctively join in on the chorus, while equally commenting on the state of society where such a preacher might inspire fear.

The Rough & Tumble

The Rough & Tumble - http://www.theroughandtumble.com/ Their website tells it like this:

The Rough & Tumble...used to say they were from Nashville, TN. That was before April 2015 when 5 year members Mallory Graham and Scott Tyler quit their day jobs, sold everything they owned, and gave their thirty day notice on their rental house to trade in for a life permanently on the road. With their sixteen foot camper and their 97 pound dog, Butter, they have been touring nationwide. Don't let their vagabond tendencies fool you-- this americana-folk duo are a compact team of close harmonies, versatile instrumentation, and deliberate songwriting all presented with a nudge of the elbow and a tongue in the cheek. Haunting, quirky, solemn, and spritely, The Rough & Tumble are for the faint of heart and the strong of will.

What I can tell you is that this duo (that bill themselves as a teeny tiny folk band) know how to describe themselves. A few years on the road have paid off big time in their performance chops - witty, tender, fun and at times challenging but mostly beautiful Mallory proves herself to be quick on her feet, changing instruments several times (often in the same song to perfectly augment Scott's guitar, often sounding like a much bigger ensemble. Their voices melt together perfectly, and Mallory's dry sense of humour combined with Scott's straight man approach to make for an entirely entertaining night, even when they're not playing music.