Patrick Brealey

Hey every­body!
I’ve been squir­reled away in a squir­rel cave work­ing on new mate­r­ial for, oh, I don’t know, about 4 years now. Let’s be hon­est, I was hav­ing a hard time get­ting out what I wanted to say. Some­times I was say­ing things [read: writ­ing songs] but they weren’t quite what I wanted to be giv­ing to the world. Well, the tide has changed. Song­writ­ing is feel­ing good and I’m rid­ing a wave of some sort. I’ve got a great new band together and we are start­ing to play many of these songs at our weekly res­i­dency on Fri­day nights 8–10 at Toronto’s Cameron House. That being said, we won’t be play­ing there this week, Fri­day, May 3^rd. I’ll save you the details but let’s just say we will see you on Fri­day, May 10^th, riiiiight?

Do you like the Inter­net? Well, you’re going to like it even a lit­tle bit more when you find out that music by yours truly, Patrick Brealey, is stream­ing for your e-​​listening plea­sure on the media-​​defying web­site, Rdio. What does that mean, you ask? Allow me to explain. For those of you already famil­iar with Rdio, you will know that once you sub­scribe to the ser­vice for a nom­i­nal fee you have access to a seem­ingly end­less library of music from all gen­res and even some in between. Is every­thing that has ever been released to the world acces­si­ble on Rdio? No. I had a hard time find­ing the songs of hump­back whales that came as a floppy record in a National Geo­graphic from the 1980s. But let’s not focus on what isn’t there. Let’s talk about what you can lis­ten to: like ME! Click the logo to start exploring:

It’s a busy month here at Patrick Brealey HQ. Lots of live shows and some excit­ing projects in the works. I am thrilled to be con­tin­u­ing my Fri­day night res­i­dency at The Cameron House in Toronto — if you haven’t been yet, come down at about 8pm and see what we are up to these days. I try to add new songs, either my own or cov­ers, every week so check it out!

I am very happy to be play­ing in the backup band for one of Canada’s finest fid­dling tal­ents, Miranda Mul­hol­land as she main­tains a Tues­day 6-​​8pm res­i­dency at the Cameron House for the month of March. See more about her here:
miran​damul​hol​land​.com

I will also be per­form­ing with Cana­dian leg­ends The Grapes of Wrath as they cel­e­brate the release of their long-​​awaited new album High Road with a hand­ful of Ontario shows. grape​sofwrath​.ca

Ooooh! Leon Knight & the Neon Lights, the straight­shoot­ing coun­try band I am part of will be fin­ish­ing up its Mon­day res­i­dency on at The Ace restau­rant on Ron­ces­valles on Mon­day, April 25. Strike while the iron is hot!

Lastly but cer­tainly not leastly, let’s not for­get Blue­grass Brunch at the illus­tri­ous Dakota Tav­ern where I sing and play rhythm gui­tar in the prone-​​to-​​funtimes group called The Sud­den Val­ley Boys. A favourite with fam­i­lies, kids, elder­folks, and hun­gover hip­sters, this is the per­fect way to spend an oth­er­wise banjo-​​less Sun­day morn­ing!
dako​tatav​ern​.com

Here are the details for the live shows:

Patrick Brealey
Fri­days @ The Cameron House: March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29

Leon Knight & the Neon Lights
Mon­days @ The Ace: March 4, 11, 18, 25

Blue­grass Brunch
Sun­days @ The Dakota Tav­ern 11am-​​3pm: March 10, 17, 24

Miranda Mul­hol­land
Tues­days @ The Cameron House: March 5, 12, 19, 26

Grapes of Wrath
Tues­day, March 19 — Toronto, ON (pri­vate show)
Wednes­day, March 20 — Kitch­ener, ON @ Hacienda Sar­ria
Thurs­day, March 21 — Burn­stown, ON @ Neat Cof­fee Shop
Sat­ur­day, March 23 — Toronto, ON @ The Dakota Tav­ern for CMW @ midnight

Hope to see you dur­ing my March Mad­ness!
PB

ps Be sure to keep your radar on for a spe­cial night on Tues­day, April 23 when I will be a part of a cel­e­bra­tion of Roy Orbison’s birth­day with my newest band The Black Pearls. Put it in the cal­en­dar — it’s gonna be a stunner!

I’m look­ing for­ward to the insan­ity that is Folk Alliance, a music con­fer­ence that is descend­ing upon Toronto Feb­ru­ary 20–24. For those of you attend­ing the con­fer­ence, I will be play­ing sev­eral times over the week­end. Where? When? Here ya go:

Thurs. Feb 21 — 12:30am — Rm 1265
Fri. Feb 22 — 11:50pm — Rm 1265
Fri. Feb 22 — 1:30am — Rm 1067
Fri. Feb 22 — 2:30am — Rm 1265
Sat. Feb 23 — 2:30am — Rm 1265

Keep in mind that Room 1265 is being hosted by one of my favourite Toronto blue­grass groups, The Slo­can Ram­blers, and is very gra­ciously being spon­sored by Creemore Brew­ing (wink, wink)

I’m excited to announce that I will be per­form­ing at the Frost­bite Music Fes­ti­val in White­horse, Yukon Ter­ri­tory this Feb­ru­ary 15–18. It will be my first ven­ture to the Yukon and I will be joined by stel­lar dobro player, Rob Fen­ton, who will also be expe­ri­enc­ing that part of our vast coun­try for the first time. While I’ve been told I should also return to White­horse in the sum­mer, I am quite look­ing for­ward to see­ing what it is like in the dead of win­ter. Do I need warmer coat? Why yes. Yes I do.

I’d also like to thank the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts for mak­ing this trip possible!

What fun, what fun! I’m happy to let Toron­to­ni­ans know that they now have a place to spend those elu­sive Mon­day evenings. Come to The Ace Restau­rant at 231 Ron­ces­valles and expe­ri­ence the dust cragged chap hoopla known as Leon Knight & the Neon Lights. We play all your favourite coun­try songs you’ve never heard and throw in some foot-​​stompin’ orig­i­nals too. And if that wasn’t enough, The Ace has an amaz­ing menu and cock­tail selec­tion — come for din­ner, stay for the diges­tive aid of soothin’ an’ croonin’ music. Every Mon­day night start­ing at 11pm!

Check it out here!

Come out to Toronto’s Cameron House this Fri­day, Octo­ber 26^th to be the first to wit­ness a new band in the mak­ing! I’m excited to be play­ing with Del Cowsill (bass, rock wails), Miranda Mul­hol­land (vio­lin, mag­net­ism), Nichol Robert­son (elec. gui­tar, musi­cal con­tor­tion) and Josh Van Tas­sel (drums, sage wis­dom). See you there!

Oh, and the band needs a name. I put it to you. Who­ever names the band gets mailed a scented let­ter from yours truly.

Hey Toronto! Did you know I play at the ven­er­ated Cameron House every Fri­day night 8-​​10pm? Here’s a shot of proof!

Who knew Toronto had its own elu­sive manmyth?

Headin to Pef­fer­law, Ontario for the Eagle­wood Folk Fes­ti­val!