In-Store Concert, October 24th - Showman & Coole, Chris Haddox - 1 TICKET

Saturday, October 24th: it's the pride of Toronto, Showman & Coole!

Through twenty years and a couple of thousand shows together in bands such as The Foggy Hogtown Boys and The Lonesome Ace Stringband, John Showman and Chris Coole have developed a deep and instinctual musical bond.  Their music lurks in a truly unique space that is somewhere on the outskirts of old-time, bluegrass, and folk. The songs of John Hartford, Hank Williams, Dock Boggs, and The Band share space with the fiddle tunes of Eck Robertson and Ed Haley. The duo’s original songs and tunes take in all these vistas and paint something both personal and timely.

They have performed across North America and Europe at festivals such as Merlefest, Rockygrass, Greyfox, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Mariposa, Wintergrass, The Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival, and The Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum. In addition to the five Lonesome Ace albums, John and Chris have released two duo albums -  “ Afield” a collection of old-time fiddle tunes, and   “Much Further Out than Inevitable – A Tribute to Some Music of John Hartford.”

“John Showman has made his mark as “one of the very best and most influential fiddle players in Canada”   (Steve Pritchard, CIUT 89.5 FM).

“Renowned for his clawhammer banjo picking, Coole now establishes himself as a gripping songwriter.”
(Roddy Campbell, Penguin Eggs Magazine)

Opening the show will be Chris Haddox.  Chris Haddox is a Logan, West Virginia born and raised songwriter/singer/multi-instrumentalist who is now based out of Morgantown, West Virginia.  He writes and sings his voluminous collection of songs about (to quote him) “religion, firearms, courthouse squares, goats on trampolines, shoes, fiddles, and hurricanes”—whatever catches his eye. He deftly combines humor, sarcasm, and blunt honesty to create songs that are accessible and relatable to a wide variety of audiences.

This stellar musician is also a community leader who has directed Habitat for Humanity and worked to preserve old neighborhoods, a WVU professor of sustainable design, and an amateur musicologist who researches musicians from the southern coalfields of West Virginia. That’s a lot of breadth for someone the music community knows as a well-loved, easy-going consummate picker and gifted songwriter in the traditional folk, country, and Americana vein.

Chris released his first album on March 25, 2022 at the age of 61.  By April it had climbed to #11 on the Folk Alliance International chart, with all tracks from the album receiving steady airplay on 60 or so stations across the U.S., and a few further afield.