By Lynda Shadbolt

Published Oct. 23 2018

On Friday evening I had the pleasure of attending the Haliburton County Folk’s Society concert at the Minden United Church. It was a full house from what I could tell.

The first half of the show were two young performers Liv Cazzola and Braden Phelan and they are called Tragedy Ann.

I had never heard of them and was so delighted to hear them sing and play together. They are young (like 24 or 25ish) and they write beautiful stories and then use their guitars ukulele accordion and yes a saw to perform their work.

At one point they invited the audience to sing along with them (so beautiful in a church with great acoustics) as they performed “All I Have To Do is Dream” by the Everly Brothers.

Liv pulled out a hand saw and a wooden bow and proceeded to create really interesting sounds with it.

It is just so refreshing and inspiring to see this young talent and the creativity that they bring to their performance.

Their merchandise table sold their latest CDs but also T-shirts they make from collecting used shirts from second hand stores. They sold pillow cases that went with a delightful song about how s/he always falls asleep when they watch a movie.

And they had loose leaf tea that they had someone blend to go with listening to their newest CD.

Liv and Braden said several times how grateful they were to be invited to play and how they hope to return. I find it fascinating to watch how young people carve their ways in the world with their unique talents and perspectives and creativity.

After Tragedy Ann Treasa Levasseur and Sean Cotton performed and they brought the roof down. Their voices and stories filled the church.

The whole evening was incredible.

The Haliburton County Folk Society has more concerts coming up and there are several house concerts this fall as well. Check them out at www.haliburtonfolk.com.

The music just makes our lives so much richer.

On another arts note our DH3 (Dance Happens Here) committee is working on two really exciting projects. We love what we do because we don’t have to organize the event or even sell the tickets.

We just add dance and other performing arts into existing events.

We are absolutely thrilled to be bringing Noriko Yamamoto back to perform before one of the movies at the Haliburton International Film Festival Nov. 2 to 4.

We will also be presenting Starlight a local jazz duo who will perform a piece called “Stella.” And there will be some local dances from Heritage Ballet. Movies with a theme of “Being the Hero of Your Own Life” dance and music together. It doesn’t get any better.

Our second project is that we are working with the Fashion Fallies (Nov. 9) committee and we are bringing some really exciting performances that will be done throughout the evening.

Some local and some from out of town. I guarantee it will delight. It seems that November is just another amazing month in the county of Haliburton!

We are very lucky. Hope to see you at these events.