With a new EP arriving Oct. 23, the Saskatoon singer is rediscovering the joy of making music on her own terms and bringing that renewed sense of purpose to the stage with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 24th by Scott Roos photos courtesy of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra There comes a point in life when you realize you've spent an awful lot of time helping other people bring their creative visions to life. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with that, somet

by Scott Roos Prince Albert pics by Scott Roos Saskatoon pics by Rachel Gibson Dan Mangan in Saskatoon There are two very different ways to experience Dan Mangan. In Prince Albert, he stood on the stage of the EA Rawlinson Centre for the Arts in front of a relatively small, subdued audience. A few nights later, in Saskatoon, at the venerable Broadway Theatre, he walked into a sold-out room filled with people who knew the words to just about everything he played. Two cities. T

photo by Scott Roos photo by Scott Roos by Scott Roos pics by Scott Roos and Sara Kjelshus (as captioned) There are bands where you go to a concert because you want to hear the musicians play. And then there are bands where you go because you want to hear the songs. Journey, playing SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon on Sunday, Sept. 27, was definitely the latter. That isn't to say the musicianship wasn't impressive. It was. Neal Schon is Neal Schon. The guy can absolutely shred, an

words and pics by Scott Roos A few weeks before Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk arrived at Prince Albert's EA Rawlinson Centre, Maida offered a simple piece of advice to anyone planning to attend. “You just have to expect the unexpected,” he said. On Thursday, Sept. 24, he made good on that promise. There was a set list, of course. There were songs from the couple's Moon vs Sun project, including “I'm Going to Break Your Heart,” “I Can Change” and “Bring That Boy.” There we

by Scott Roos photos courtesy of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra Keaton Leier. Photo credit Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra There was something pretty special about watching Keaton Leier dance on the stage at TCU Place last weekend. Leier, a Saskatoon native and second soloist with the National Ballet of Canada, came home for the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra’s At the Ballet concert on Saturday, Sept. 19, and the hometown connection was impossible to miss. This wasn’t simply ano

words and pics by Brooke Anderson Driving over 4000km in a big yellow bus Justin Sutton and Jeremy Grey invited Prince Albert local Taya Lebel on their "Honkytonk Til The House Burns Down" roadshow at the Rock Trout Cafe. Named “Road to the CCMA’s” this past Wednesday night's show was worth the late bedtime. On their 6th show of the tour, Sutton and Grey shared anecdotes of their lone trip taking turns driving to each destination. Excited for the Canadian Country Music Awards

by Scott Roos photos by Tracy Creighton (Copperblue Photography and Design) There is something wonderfully Canadian about Dan Mangan taking the long way. The Vancouver singer-songwriter could have simply crossed Saskatchewan off the itinerary with a stop in Regina or Saskatoon. Instead, when Mangan and his booking agent started talking about getting a little deeper into Canada, he looked at the map and decided to wander. The result is a four-show Saskatchewan run that will ta

by Scott Roos photo credits in captions photo by Karoline Kuras For Keaton Leier, returning to the TCU Place stage on Saturday, Sept. 19, for the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra’s At the Ballet is going to be about more than just ballet. It’s a homecoming. The Saskatoon-born dancer, now entering his fifth season with the National Ballet of Canada, will return to the city where his dance journey began as part of Sharing the Stage, a special collaboration between the National Ball

By: Eric Ashe Photos: Tracy Creighton (Copperblue Photography) If you were to pull into the parking lot of the RCAF hall in Saskatoon on Saturday August 22nd, you would have been greeted by a barrage of blast beats, ripping guitar tones, and ferocious vocals, as the grinding good times breached the walls of the hall and cut into the night air. Eight bands took to the stage, with each set broken up by a killer magic show conducted by Jay. The one and only magician skillfully w

by Scott Roos photos by Blake Sittler There are certain records that, regardless of how many times you hear them, still manage to make you stop what you're doing. The Last Waltz is one of those records. Originally released as the soundtrack to The Band's legendary 1976 farewell concert, the album and accompanying film captured something that has proven remarkably difficult to reproduce: a room full of ridiculously talented musicians, many of whom had already established thems

by Scott Roos photos by Tracy Creighton (Copperblue Photography and Design) There’s something fitting about an artist returning to where it all started just as things are beginning to take off. For Taya Lebel, that means a September 16 stop at the Rock Trout in Prince Albert, where she’ll share the stage with fellow up-and-coming Canadian country artists Jeremy Grey and Justin Sutton. With the 2026 Canadian Country Music Awards heading to Saskatoon, the evening offers a prett

by Scott Roos There is something inherently fascinating about watching two people who have spent nearly three decades together try to explain each other. Especially when those two people happen to be Raine Maida and Chantal Kreviazuk. On paper, their story sounds almost impossibly tidy: two successful Canadian musicians who met early in their careers, fell in love, built families together, continued making music and somehow managed to maintain separate identities while becom

by Scott Roos photo credits in captions photo by Aaron Richter There was a time when I'll readily admit that Journey was not at all on my radar... It's not that I disliked them. It's just as a self described "metalhead" I just never really considered myself a Journey guy. Then, a little over 20 years ago, I started collecting vinyl again. And, Somewhere along the way, I picked up copies of Escape, Departure and Evolution. Likely at a thrift store or garage sale or something

by Scott Roos photos courtesy of the bands and Little Slaughter on the Prairie There’s something fitting about a festival called Little Slaughter on the Prairie arriving in Saskatoon with eight bands, a magician and absolutely no interest in behaving like a traditional music festival. Taking over RCAF Lynx Hall on Saturday, August 22, the inaugural event brings together Edmonton and Saskatoon’s heavy music communities for an evening built around grind, death metal, deathcore,

words and pics by Scott Roos There are probably more obvious places to stage a heavy metal show in Saskatoon than TCU Place. The home of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra isn’t exactly the first building that comes to mind when someone says “circle pit.” It has more of a “please take your seats and silence your cellphones” reputation than a “somebody just crowd-surfed over three rows of people” one. But on Friday night, Aug. 14, TCU Place made a pretty convincing argument that

Words and pics by Scott Roos Our Grade: A There’s something wonderfully uncomplicated about “Wild Life,” the new single from Prince Albert’s The Shyning. Released July 16, it’s the kind of rock song that doesn’t ask you to overthink things. It just wants you to turn it up and have a good time. Recorded at Mosaic Music Studio with Rich McFarlane, “Wild Life” comes loaded with the sort of classic-rock swagger that makes you want to dig an old denim jacket out of the closet. The

Kataklysm vocalist Maurizio Iacono engages the crowd words and pics by Scott Roos There are some shows where the floor shakes a little. Then there are shows where it seems like the entire venue itself might actually be moving. Thursday night at the Black Cat Tavern in Saskatoon was one of those nights. With Baltimore technical death metal monsters Wormhole opening the evening, followed by Canadian death metal veterans Kataklysm and finally Tampa legends Six Feet Under, the b

by Scott Roos photos courtesy of the artist unless otherwise stated There is something pretty cool about the Saskatoon Fringe Festival. Actually, there are a lot of things that are pretty cool about it. For one thing, there are simply so many options. From July 30 to August 8, Saskatoon's famed Broadway Avenue neighbourhood becomes a sort of giant, temporary theatre district, with performers, musicians, dancers, comedians and storytellers popping up all over the place. You ca

words and pics by Scott Roos When Josh Stumpf and his fiancée, Mercy Glover, launched the Sunset Country Music Festival five years ago, the goal wasn't to build another summer concert. It was to build something that mattered. Since its inception, the annual festival has combined Saskatchewan country music with community fundraising, inviting fans to spend an evening on the Stumpf family farm near MacDowall while supporting local charities. Every year, the beneficiaries change

by Scott Roos photo by Deanna Roos Padgett performing his 6 Guitars show in Prince Albert (2024) Before 6 Guitars made him an international Fringe favourite, before audiences across North America knew his name, Chase Padgett was just another kid trying to make sense of life with a trumpet in one hand and, eventually, a guitar in the other. On Sunday, August 9, Saskatoon audiences will have one final opportunity to celebrate the Fringe Festival with a special Encore fundraiser