On Sunday, November 5, the Community Center for the Performing Arts proudly welcomes Matt Andersen with special guest Adam Baldwin to the WOW Hall.
When Matt Andersen steps on stage, he brings a lifetime of music to every note he plays. His latest album, The Big Bottle of Joy, is all about hard-won celebration; a dozen songs infused with raw blues-rock, rollicking Americana, thoughtful folk, and ecstatic gospel. Andersen’s stage presence is informed by decades of cutting his teeth in dusty clubs, dim-lit bars, and grand theatres all over the world, delivering soulful performances that run the gamut from intimate to wall-shaking. In the studio, he’s always brought the same attention to detail and commitment to craft as he has to his live show, and the result—a multi-faceted and poignant body of work—has led him to amass over 23 million streams on Spotify and 26 million views on YouTube. In addition to headlining major festivals, clubs and theatres throughout North America, Europe and Australia, he has shared the stage and toured with Marcus King, Beth Hart, Marty Stuart, Greg Allman, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Randy Bachman, Jonny Lang, Serena Ryder, and more. Andersen nabbed the 2013 and 2016 European Blues Awards for Best Solo/Acoustic Act, was the first ever Canadian to take home top honours in the solo category at the 2010 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, won the CIMA Road Gold award in 2015, and has won multiple Maple Blues Awards.
Adam Baldwin
Singer-songwriter Adam Baldwin has been a mainstay of the Atlantic Canada music scene for over a decade. With his sophomore full-length, Concertos & Serenades, Adam Baldwin – born and raised “inside these imaginary lines” that denote Nova Scotia – offers an east coast testimony that challenges the typical tourism marketing gloss. Through eight masterful yarns, the songwriter bears witness and pays tribute to a tradition of desperation: sinners and losers, perpetual failures, and down-and-out phantoms that haunt his home’s coastlines and back roads – without a passing judgement. Some of the tales happened, some didn’t, and most walk a tightrope between truth and fiction. Starting as a member of rock combo Gloryhound before joining Matt Mays & El Torpedo in 2009, Baldwin’s own music has continued to evolve since his award winning self-titled solo debut EP in 2013. In 2016 Baldwin released his first full length album No Telling When (Precisely Nineteen Eight-Five) featuring the singles “Daylight” and “Anytime”. In 2019 he released the follow up No Rest for the Wicked, including “Salvation” and “Dark Beside the Dawn”. In March 2020, with in person performances impossible due to COVID-19, Baldwin launched his Cross-Country Chin Up concert series, almost every Friday evening on YouTube. In addition to making this weekly opportunity to connect virtually with fans, he also raised funds for the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia, Red Cross Stronger Together Nova Scotia Fund, RCMP Fallen Officer Fund, and the Black Cultural Society for Nova Scotia. The online concert series also produced two digital EPs: Chin Up Sessions (originals) and Songs for the Parlour (covers).
