A retired History and Politics high school teacher (1978-2008). Former Publisher/Managing Editor of The Beat Magazine (2009-2014). Freelance Writer. Proud Grandfather.
The 2026 Summer Season at Port Stanley Festival Theatre premieres May 27th, and it’s sure to be a summer of standing ovations.
The season kicks off with Inner Elder, written and performed by award-winning Cree artist Michelle Thrush. Real-life memories told with laughter and grace, join Michelle on her poignant journey; it promises to fill your heart and put a smile on your face.
Get your groove on with Get Down Tonight: The Ultimate 70’s Soundtrack starring Leisa Way and the Wayward Wind Band. From ABBA to Aerosmith, Joni Mitchell to James Taylor, The Rolling Stones to The Bee Gees: the hits just keep on coming! Press rewind and relive the good times.
Opening on June 10th is the classic Norm Foster The Long Weekend. It’s titillating, it’s sassy, and it’s got a couple of plot twists that you will never see coming. Will these two couples survive a weekend full of grudges, hanky-panky, secrets, and lies?
One starry night 12 years ago, Jesse and Hannah met, and it was magical. Now they have a second chance at love. Sugar Road by Kristen Da Silva is a sweet, romantic comedy set in a rundown amusement park full of laughter, colourful characters, and a couple of catchy tunes.
Deadly Memories, a World Premiere comedy/thriller by Steven Gallagher, will leave you guessing and gasping for August. Cassandra can’t remember anything after her terrifying car crash and doesn’t know who to trust. Is it all in her mind? Is someone out for revenge? Who’ll get the last laugh?
Ship To Shore, Norm Foster’s hilarious new comedy, has its World Premiere on our stage starting August 19th. Is it love at first sight or mutual irritation for Erin and James, both bound on a cruise to Ireland? As they say, “What happens at sea, stays at sea!”
Musical Mondays on our Pat and Ali Shakir Harbour View Patio, Talk Back Tuesdays, The Simon Joynes Playwrights’ Festival, and ASL interpreted shows are all back for the summer of 2026.
Don’t miss your chance to save on PSFT’s Early Bird Subscriptions, a savings of over $50.00, and a chance to win two season subscriptions if you purchase by January 15, 2026. Gift certificates are also available; they’re a great holiday gift!
Every seat tells a story at Port Stanley Festival. Visit www.psft.ca for more information and check out all of its shows!
True to traditions of Classic Country, Bluegrass, and Folk, Allison Brown and Mike Houston’s duet performances reveal their authenticity and versatility as two of Southern Ontario’s most enduring roots musicians. Allison’s signature fingerstyle acoustic rhythm guitar accompanies her tuneful, powerful singing, blending seamless harmony with Mike’s timeless country vocals.
(Pictured: Allison Brown and Mike Houston)
Mike showcases his stringed instrument expertise by exchanging fiddle for mandolin and flat-picked guitar (played left-handed and ‘upside down’). Together, their vast collection of roots repertoire stretches from prohibition-era jazz to early Bluegrass, mid-century Country & Western, to obscure contemporary Americana songwriters. From the Carters, Cash and Cline, Monroe and the Stanleys, to Hank and Merle, Mike and Allison’s lonesome sounds of love gone right and wrong, smokey taverns, rhinestoned cities of sin, and reverent bluegrass gospel, bring tales from the wilder side of life to the stage.
Dan Henshall is one of London’s most versatile musicians and has accompanied Allison on many musical adventures.
(Pictured: Dan Henshall)
New on the Ontario Bluegrass scene, The Guichelaar Brothers are rooted in Canadian soil from their home in Seaforth.
(Pictured: The Guichelaar Brothers.)
If You Go:
An All-Star Night of Bluegrass, Classic Country, Fiddle, Folk, and More!
Featuring Allison Brown, Mike Houston, Dan Henshall, and The Guichelaar Brothers
9:00pm (Cover begins at 8:30pm), $10.00 Cash Only at the door or in advance on Eventbrite
Award-winning, world-renowned, and infamously cheeky, Ronnie Burkett is back at the Grand Theatre with his unmatched mischievous, rollicking irreverence. Burkett’s latest work, Wonderful Joe, unleashes his sharp, unrelenting wit on the cities we call home, the people we overlook, and the four-legged friends walking beside them. And he’s bringing Mother Nature, Santa Claus, Jesus, and the Tooth Fairy along for the ride. Wonderful Joe, created and performed by Ronnie Burkett, opens the Grand Theatre’s Auburn Stage for the 2025/26 Season. Already extended due to popular demand, the production will run from Tuesday, November 4, through Sunday, November 23.
(Pictured: The marionette leaning rail as playboard. Photo: Ian Jackson)
Siminovitch Prize winner Ronnie Burkett brings the story of Joe Pickle (and Mister the Dog) to life with his signature style of beautiful puppetry and solo performance, with a glorious score and soundscape by John Alcorn. The Globe and Mail’s Best Theatre of 2024 wrote, “If I had to pick only one favourite piece of theatre from this year, Wonderful Joe was it.” Known to Londoners for his sold-out runs of The Daisy Theatre (2017) and Little Dickens (2023), Burkett returns with a poignant yet audacious story brought to life by his string marionettes.
“Ronnie’s unique insight into the world, as a marionettist from Medicine Hat, Alberta, turned into an internationally-recognized star, is unparalleled,” shares Rachel Peake, Grand Theatre Artistic Director. “The way he sees the world with humanity, heart, and the most daring humour is a point of view I am always hungry to live in, if only for the length of a play.”
Wonderful Joe is created and performed by Ronnie Burkett with Music Production, Arrangements, Vocals, Keyboards, and Digital Programming by John Alcorn, Lighting Design by Kevin Humphrey, Marionette and Costume Design by Ronnie Burkett, Featured Vocals by Coco Love Alcorn, and Mixing and Mastering by Jeff Wolpert, Desert Fish Studios. Wonderful Joe by Ronnie Burkett plays on the Auburn Stage at the Grand Theatre from November 4 to November 23.
Single tickets are $48, and Auburn Series Subscriptions offer a 25% discount ($71.44 for both Wonderful Joe and Mrs Krishnan’s Party). Tickets and subscriptions are available at grandtheatre.com, by phone at 519.672.8800, or at the Box Office, 471 Richmond Street.
To learn more about Wonderful Joe by Ronnie Burkett at the Grand Theatre, please visit grandtheatre.com/event/wonderful-joe. Follow the production and peek behmind the scenes by following @thegrandlondon and #GrandJoe on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky, YouTube, & TikTok.
The history of Lucan’s notorious Donnelly family still resonates 145 years after the deadly event of 1880. Two plays, James Reaney’s The Donnelly Trilogy and Peter Colley’s The Donnellys,were inlocal productions in the last two years. In 2005, the late filmmaker, author, and playwright Christopher Doty developed a dramatized recreation of the Donnelly trial performed at the Middlesex County building, the same courtroom where the trial of the offenders took place. Noted authors Orlo Miller, Ray Fazakas, and Nate Hendley all wrote books on the subject, which remain trusted volumes on the story of this family. In 2021, author John Little published a two-volume book on the tragedy.
But there are still ghost stories of the Donnellys in the ether. Playwright and Artistic Director of AlvegoRoot Theater, Adam Corrigan Horowitz, has added a new branch to the long-standing Donnelly family tree. Drawing from James Reaney’s ‘Sleigh Without Bells’, a short story taken from his 1996 volume, ‘The Box Social And Other Stories’, with director Kydra Ryan, Corrigan Horowitz has created a one-man play; one which views the Donnellys in a new light — Sleigh Without Bells A Donnellys Story.
(Pictured: Adam Corrigan Holowitz as Ephraim Fulmmerfelt. Photo Credit – J Bruce Parker)
The 70-minute production focuses on a young German boy, Ephraim Fulmmerfelt, travelling from Perth County in a horse and buggy to Southold Township, finding his way to the town of Lucan during a snowstorm. It is here he becomes face-to-face with James and Johanna Donnelly. He is a witness to the hatred, suspicion, and prosecution by both the church and the community towards the couple and their family. Being an outsider, Ephraim’s response is unbiased towards the family that has provided both friendship and lodging. There is something in the kindness and charm of James and Johanna extended to the young man, where Ephraim eventually exclaims that he has “fallen in love with the Donnellys”. We see the targeted family in a new light, from a young stranger who trusts their innocence to the point of offering to pay a wrongfully incurred fine thrust upon his hosts.
(Pictured: Adam Corrigan Holowitz as Ephraim Fulmmerfelt. Photo Credit – J Bruce Parker)
The story turns when Ephraim, after surviving a fall into a river, becomes haunted by the souls of James and Johanna in the afterlife. It is eventually revealed that young Ephraim’s subconscious created the event while falling asleep near the ruins of the Donnelly home long after the massacre of the family. The ghosts of the Donnellys arise again.
Alone onstage, Corrigan Horowitz carries the story both confidently and convincingly. Being a Donnelly story, we become concerned about Ephraim’s naivety and choice of spending time with those accused of such appalling crimes.
The set is sparse, containing a single riser, with a backdrop depicting the cold and frigid sky. Stage props in the form of black painted arms erupt out of the floor. Initially, the arms work practically, guiding the reins on Ephraim’s coach as well as holding other props, but there is a point when one can sense the undead reaching beyond the grave.
Is the Donnelly story still relevant?
Corrigan Horowitz tells me. “It displays Ephraim diving into the Donnelly story, as he found out who they were and how he fell in love with them. I see this story as a companion to Reaney’s The Donnelly Trilogy. The fact that Ephraim exclaims, “I am in love with the Donnellys,” suggests the autobiographical voice of Jamie Reaney and his deep interest and research into the subject.
He adds, “I think it is fairly rare to see a case of scapegoating to get this extreme in the present day. It speaks of old-world grudges coming from Ireland. Even up into the 1990s, Lucan was not comfortable talking about the Donnellys. The idea of the murderers walking free remains unsettling.”
Sleigh Without Bells ran from October 22nd to 26th to near capacity audiences at Manor Park Theatre and was presented at a most appropriate time of year.
AlvegoRoot Theatre is neatly tucked inside Manor Park Memorial Hall at 11 Briscoe St, and prides itself on Telling Local Stories, Creating Local Theatre
Compiled by Richard Young, Publisher & Content Manager, The Beat Magazine 2025
YOU WANT LIVE THEATRE? WE’VE GOT LIVE THEATRE!
If you are craving some live local theatre, here are three options.
The hilarious The Play That Goes Wrong continues at the Grand Theatre until November 2, while Infuse Productions’ The Rocky Horror Show continues at the Palace Theatre until November 2.
(Pictured: The Cast of The Rocky Horror Show. Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)
St. Marys Community Players’ production of Norm Foster’s Hilda’s Yard continues until November 2.
ART EXHIBITIONS IN THE LONDON AREA
Join Lisa Johnson at the Opening Reception of Full Circle, her incredible solo exhibition at Westland Gallery
Full Circle will be on display from October 28th to November 29th. All are welcome at the Opening Reception on Saturday, November 1st, from 1pm to 3pm, at the gallery.
Enter a world where mystery reigns and music stirs the soul. This Halloween, immerse yourself in a cinematic experience for a one-of-a-kind viewing of the silent-era thriller, The Hands of Orlac.
This thrilling story of madness, mystery, and romance, with flavours of the Grand Guignol, is now reawakened by a powerful cast of over 50 live musicians, singers, and soloists set to capture your senses.
Presented in the grand, gothic beauty of Metropolitan United Church—transformed for one unforgettable night—this event offers a rare chance to witness a masterpiece of psychological drama in a setting as dramatic as the film itself. Glowing jack-o’-lanterns, evocative lighting, and shadow-draped architecture set the stage for a journey into obsession, identity, and the unknown.
Some good things come to an end … Join us for a wicked Halloween Bash and say goodbye to Smile-N-Wave, Friday, October 31.
80’s New Wave all night – Costume Contests – licensed – all ages
$10 Advance $15 Door
Come join us for a spooktacular night of live music and entertainment at Eastside Bar & Grill in London, Ontario. Get ready to rock out to your favorite tunes from G&R and AC/DC! AXL/DC is going to help us celebrate Halloween in style. Costumes are highly encouraged, so put on your best outfit and maybe win some prizes!. Don’t miss out on this epic event! Tickets $20.00 available at the bar & Eventbrite.ca
Get Spooky at the biggest Halloween party in the city at the London Music Hall, featuring Grammy award-winning artist CASSIAN.
Join us for lots of fun at the Dawghouse this weekend!
Kicking things off, we have Electric Popsicle bringing the Halloween fun tonight, so put on your costume and dancing shoes, and get here early! No cover.
Saturday night, Gravity Wagon is back to rock the ´House.
Bands start at 9 pm.
After trick-or-treating, join us for Night of the Living Brass. Consider this your invitation to Brassroots’ big Halloween party/concert. There will be spooky and fantastical music ranging from classical to novelty tunes…and a certain Phantom may even appear at the organ!
A fundraiser supporting El Sistema Aeolian Children’s Music program and the charitable work of the Rotary Club of London Hyde Park. Saturday, November 1st, 2025. Main Floor Seating: $125 per person (tables of 4 & tables of 8); includes 2 cocktails & charcuterie. Balcony Seating: $60 per person; concert & amp; dancing only.
We’ve had an un-BOO-lievable season sharing the glow with all of you! Just two magical nights left – tonight and tomorrow before the lights go out until next year.
If you haven’t strolled through the pumpkins yet, this is your last chance to catch the magic before it disappears!
Sarah Legault is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist recognized for her dark aesthetic. She is an alternative art doll-maker, illustrator, set and character designer/builder, animator, practical lighting technician, motion control technician, occasional curator, and last but not least, a film director.
This skill set led her into stop-motion film, where she was fortunate enough to contribute to television series, feature and, short-length films, commercials, and music videos. Stop-motion is a process, Legault says is slow but ultimately rewarding
Legault credits her deep dive into art to health issues as a child.
She recalls, “Anytime I felt unwell, I would draw and tune out everything around me.” Eventually, she would feel better, and thus began to associate creating with comfort and healing.
As a teenager, she fell in love with the MuchMusic TV channel and the art of music video production. She became a music collector. In her early 20s, she was inspired by friends who shared the same interest in alternative arts. Together, they started The Shadowood Collective, which is still a collective 20 years later. The group has included visual artists, fashion designers, performers, and musicians. By her mid-20s, Legault was curating and managing Dollirium Art Doll Emporium, a shop that showcased artists from around the world.
(Pictured: Housing Crisis, mixed media art doll by Sarah Legault, 2021.)
It was a 2013 trip to the MoMA in New York City to see an exhibition by iconic stop-motion filmmakers, The Quay Brothers, that prompted her to build her first set and write her first film titled Dear Love. This film premiered at a group exhibition in Berlin, Germany, and then continued on to win Best Animated Short at the 2014 Toronto Independent Film Festival.
Little Star (2019), which premiered on Billboard.com and gained attention from CBC Music, NOW Magazine, earned her the 2020 Juno Award for Music Video of the Year and became a recipient of the Stingray Music: Rising Stars prize.
Since then, she has been hired to work on numerous stop motion productions. Most notable is being on the camera/lighting crew for a six-episode television series for Stoopid Buddy Studios called Ultra City Smiths, which was released on AMC in 2021.
She says, “Going to work felt like being a kid playing in a sandbox with your friends.” It gave her the opportunity to work with 100 other artists, animators, and technicians, and to expand her technical skills.
(Pictured: Sarah Legault’s cover art for Kevin Hearn’s Wishbone. Still image from the Wishbone stop motion music video.)
Over the past 12 months, Legault has directed and animated Wishbone, a music video featuring Kevin Hearn (keyboardist of the Barenaked Ladies and Musical Director for the late Lou Reed), and The Inland Sea for Rheostatics (featuring Alex Lifeson of Rush). She also created the cover art for their singles.
(Pictured: Sarah Legault’s cover art for Rheostatics’ The Inland Sea is digitally composed, primarily using a still from the music video.)
Earlier this year, she started Dark Harmony Soap Co. through which she makes sculptured soaps celebrating artists, writers, musicians, and cinema.
Sarah is currently working on an animated hybrid. She can’t say too much about this project other than it involves some talented folks from Los Angeles.
Admit it. Halloween is not your favourite holiday. But what worries you most about it?
That the neighbours in your suburb have decorated their housefronts with draperies, gravestones, witches that move and cackle – while rolling their eyes at your miserable single pumpkin on the porch?
That you’ll run out of candy early- and some irrepressible toddler will peer through a crack in your drapes and yell, “They’re in there!!! I can see them!” to the horde following?
That your teenage children claim they’re just going out for nostalgic fun- but their goodie bags clink oddly when they return home … late …
The solution to every Halloween worry has been provided this year by the talent and imagination of Scott Good! Scott is the local genius who dispenses music as the Composer-in-Residence of London Symphonia.
(Pictured: Dr. Scott Good, Composer-in-Residence of London Symphonia.)
I hope you’ve met Scott- and even heard some of his compositions, but he keeps pretty modest about being “a composer, conductor, concert designer and trombonist whose music is driven by the desire to create beauty, evoke emotion, and play with groove. With a belief in the power of art to enable cathartic events, he has worked with a rich community of musicians, orchestras, ensembles, choreographers, actors, and artists to create intense, emotional, live performance experiences.” I Googled that
And his latest stroke of genius? Creating a score for a 1924 silent movie, the classic The Hands of Orlac. The “creepy movie” leaves ample space for the composer to utilize dissonant and esoteric sounds. With soloists Greg Oh and Stacie Dunlop, and strings from the incredible YAPCA school, our composer’s imagination has run wild! Scott has mixed in local and Toronto artists who play accordion, saxophones, trumpet, trombone, and harp – as he calls it, a dream band of over fifty live musicians!
And the movie that’s on the screen at The Met? Movie buffs praise it as a psychological tour de force. Paul Orlac, a concert pianist, loses his hands in a dreadful train accident, but a clever surgeon replaces them with the hands of an executed murderer (Oh, how I wish Marty Feldman could have done the fetching.). Director Robert Wiene, after the success of his The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), created this masterpiece of “body horror” just waiting for London’s composer and musicians to make this silent film scream again.
Underscoring – see, I did a “music” there – the actions are groundbreaking ideas familiar today. Body identity, medical transplant science, expressive and unsettling visuals that prefigure psychological thrillers on Netflix.
So, how could attending this cathartic experience on October 31st be perfect? Why not unleash your own creativity and bring a Goth element to the audience? You may be too old to go trick-or-treating, but why not trick yourself out to make the event totally immersive?
Remember the basic canon of Goth fashion –
BLACK is essential.
Layer on the textures- lace, leather, velvet
Chokers, heavy necklaces, an abundance of bats…yes, bats
Chains wherever you can tuck them.
Dramatic makeup – eyeliner, dark shadow, bold, deep lipstick
Hair that’s dyed or streaked, backcombed from roots to ends.
The Globe and Mail has described Scott Good’s music as having “a kind of majestic bestial reality.” When will you ever get a chance to be part of a really majestic and bestial concert experience like THIS, again?
If You Go:
What: Forest City Film Festival presents The Hands of Orlac – A Gothic Experience
When: Friday, October 31, at 8:30pm
Where: Metropolitan Church, 468 Wellington St, London, ON
by Richard Young, Publisher & Content Manager, The Beat Magazine
If you were one of the fortunate people who took time off from watching the Blue Jays World Series games to attend Odesa Company’s all too short four-day run of Misery at the Princess Ave Playhouse in St. Thomas, lucky you. If you didn’t, pity.
Produced by Laura Williams and co-directed by Chris and Scott Smalley, the tautly staged thriller based on the Stephen King novel was a delight and filled with tension from beginning to end.
The story is familiar. Paul Sheldon, a well-known author of a series of highly successful Misery romance novels, wakes up to find himself severely injured and confined to a bed with no recollection of how he got there. He discovers he was badly hurt in a car accident and is now convalescing in the remote home of Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who claims to be his biggest fan. Grateful and flattered at first, Paul gradually realizes that he is being held prisoner by his menacing and increasingly violent caregiver.
To be sure, the Princess Ave Playhouse was the ideal venue for the Odesa Company’s production. Small and intimate, it gave audience members a front-row seat to the action on stage and made them feel that they were in the cramped cabin with the play’s protagonists.
The play’s leads were both outstanding.
(Pictured: Helen Wrack-Adams as Annie. Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)
Helen Wrack-Adams shone as the physically dominating and sadistic Annie who turned on a dime throughout the play. One moment she was affectionate and fawning, the next minute she was taking a mallet to Paul’s ankles. Her increasing menace was definitely felt by the audience who, like Paul, dreaded each time she entered the bedroom.
As Paul, Andrew Dodd spent much of his time on stage in bed or in a wheelchair. He deftly conveyed his character’s gradual realization that he was being held captive by a seriously deranged God-fearing, moral absolutist. The scene in which he cast himself out of bed and crawled across the floor in an attempt to escape was so convincing that members of the audience were wincing in pain, including this writer!
(Pictured: Andrew Dodd as Paul. Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)
Patrick Hoffer, as Buster, the small-town sheriff and Paul’s would-be rescuer, breaks up the tension with his brief appearances on stage. Unfortunately, he ended up being shot by Annie for his efforts.
(Pictured: Patrick Hoffer as Sheriff Buster. Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)
The final physical altercation between Paul and Annie was startingly realistic, thanks no doubt to the contributions of London’s Shrew’d Business.
(Pictured: Annie (Helen Wrack-Adams) and Paul (Andrew Dodd). Photo Credit: Ross Davidson)
*********************
I had the good fortune to buttonhole Scott Smalley during the Intermission for a brief impromptu interview about the play and Odesa Company. Here’s an edited summary of that chat.
Q. How has the play’s run been so far?
The run’s been really good. Sales have been really good. I’m a Blue Jays fan, and I’m really grateful that they’re in the World Series, but we have found ourselves competing with their success. Our matinees have been selling well, and audiences have been really enjoying the production.
Q. Could you have extended the play to a second week?
We could have. It’s one of those things where we look at our sales data. We picked up momentum thanks to good word of mouth. Unfortunately, it’s one of the drawbacks of doing a one-week run. You don’t have as many opportunities to build interest and momentum in your production.
Q. Is there any particular reason why you chose Princess Ave Playhouse as the venue for Misery?
It’s well-suited for this show. A more intimate space is really helpful for the type of story we’re telling, especially in the second act when things get a little bit crazier on stage. After we did The Elephant Man here, it became very obvious that St. Thomas audiences are interested in great theatre, and they’ve been very supportive of our efforts. We’ve had people come from London who said they didn’t know this place even existed, so that’s pretty cool.
Q. Any comments you would like to make about your Cast?
They’re wonderful! When it came to auditions, we had a lot of options. They were all excellent, and they all brought different things to the roles, but the chemistry that we’ve developed during the rehearsal process was really amazing, and the on-stage product reflects that. I’d like to point out that our Techs have been just as much of the play’s process and success
Q. One final question. What’s up next for Odesa Company?
We were going to do StageQuest next, but we’ve bumped it to next year. We’ve got a few irons in the fire, and we’ve had folks who have pitched various shows. We’re kinda navigating those things, and we look forward to having a very full 2026 season.
When I agreed to start doing reviews for The Beat Magazine, I knew that I wanted to review some new up-and-coming bands’ records in the future, but I also knew that some had been out for a while, and that I felt needed more attention. So, in the future, you can expect a mixed bag. All of the reviews will be local within a certain catchment, which basically means bands that you can expect to see live in London regularly.
As a musician and sound guy, most of these people are friends and colleagues of mine, so there will be some bias, but I am here to promote and not to tear down. When I wrote for ID magazine (Guelph) in the 1990s, I admit, I could be a scathing critic, but that is no longer part of my voice as a writer. My job is to make you aware of local music you may not have heard about yet and give you a reason to discover it for yourself. If you want to criticize after that, well, you’re on your own. The following review is for someone I consider a dear friend, if not a “brother from another mother”, Brent Jones, and his latest album, The Truth Window.
(Pictured: Brent Jones. Photo Credit Belinda J. Clements Photography)
Brent Jones is well-known in the London area as a singer-songwriter, session musician (piano), engineer, and producer. In recent years, he has transformed his family’s old barn into a unique multi-purpose venue that he shares with the community at large. Over this past year, he has been releasing and promoting his newest project, which has been touted as part 2 in an eventual trilogy of releases.
A conceptual six-song piece with a total run time of 36 minutes, The Truth Window contains themes of war, revolution, death, destruction, rebuilding, healing, and ultimately, the value of love. The recurring mentions of soldiers and battles are likely metaphorical references to the cycle of life itself, which would seem natural to the author, who spends a large part of his time on the family farm.
The lyrics throughout the album are cleverly disguised references to life experience and personal growth, throughout the good and bad times in our lives, as well as the idea that we never go through these “battles” truly alone. From the first song, “Turbulent Flow” which may describe family that grows and falls together through the seasons of our existence, to the very last strains that ask, “What if loving was the key to our survival?”, The Truth Window feels like the original revelation, down to the final resolution of a personal epiphany for the artist in question.
There are lines all over this record that read like ancient quotes from the greatest philosophers and theologians alike, for example, “The space of history will turn the lens a shade of rose” or “Don’t you know that the smell of victory is sweeter with a bloody nose?” both from “Good Soldier”. I have to wonder also if the title “Alms of Harvest” may be tied to the scriptures of Leviticus 19:9-10, which commands the leaving of the edges of your farmers’ fields to the poor and the travelers of the world and neighbouring communities (described in the texts as aliens or foreigners).
***
9 When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.
***
The Truth Window almost feels, at times, like an autobiography for Brent. Here’s a man who has the privilege of watching the cycle of life on an annual, if not daily, basis. The song “October Surprise” feels like the most personal statement on the album when it says, “You better make it count, boy!”, as if Brent is reflecting on the gifts he’s been given and how he can give back to the universe. Just how has he given back? Well, he created Quiet Earth, which is the venue on the farm that hosts concerts and weddings, plus a wide variety of other community-minded events that give, in the songs’ refrain, “Voices to the voiceless, choices to the choiceless, [and] noises to the noiseless.”
We live at war with time, and it is not always about how we approach the battles as much as who we approach them with. I personally have a unique perspective on this, having been a past band member with Brent (Pete Denomme and the Cosmic Cowboys), as well as having been involved with production for shows at Quiet Earth. I’ve discovered that every single show always begins and ends with the same thing. Love.
By that I mean love of self, love of friends, love of family, love of music, love of life, but ultimately the love of community. The Truth Window encourages us to not just look out our windows at the world by itself, but also to see our own reflection as it blends in with the images we see in the passing seasons. It encourages us to not look at the barren fields in winter with a sense of mourning but with love.
The album was recorded partly in the UK at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, which inspires awe and envy in most musicians I’ve ever told that to, as well as being recorded here in Canada at Brent’s home studio in Dorchester, Ontario. It was mixed and mastered by the award-winning engineer/producer Stuart Bruce (Loreena McKennitt and more) and features vocals by his life partner and collaborator, Jennifer Crook. Another notable contributor is popular Canadian singer/songwriter Emm Gryner, as well as a diverse cast of musicians from the London, Ontario area.
While this music has been publicly available for almost a year to the day of this writing, the actual vinyl LP was released this past summer (June 29th, 2025) with a theatrical and musical performance at Quiet Earth, directed by London’s John Pacheco with a four-person crew of regional actors.
Now this is where the bias comes in, I FREAKIN’ LOVE this album! From the moment Brent put the CD in my hands, I knew so much about the process to that point that I was convinced it would be a masterpiece, and in my mind, it is nothing short of that. It is never overbearing in its messaging or arrangements and production. There is enough air between the words and notes that allow you to experience your own emotions and never force feeds you on how to feel. When its last notes ring out, all I can feel is that which can never be overstated, an overwhelming sense of love.
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars. Be sure to listen to it as a full album for full appreciation. It is a complete piece of art! Recommended if you like progressive pop like Peter Gabriel, Elbow, Tears for Fears, Kate Bush, and more.
(Pictured: Cora Linden, Over the Hedge, Collaged paper on wood panel, 12″h x 12″w x 1″d. Courtesy of the artist.)
Cora Linden is a mixed media artist and a long-time fixture in the London art scene. She is known for her unique two and three-dimensional assemblages into which she incorporates repurposed materials, specialty papers, and distinctive textural elements.
Linden’s work is driven by a few core principles. First, anything can be transformed into an art supply. Perhaps the weirdest thing she’s repurposed is a cracked beaver skull. She believes creativity thrives in resourcefulness. This is evident in her one-of-a-kind pieces. Linden rejects the idea that people should settle for mass-produced décor and believes that art should be accessible to all. She seeks diverse audiences and places. This is why Linden’s work can be found at craft markets and at conventions in addition to traditional galleries.
(Cora Linden, Breaking Through, PVC with collaged paper & thread, 26″h X 16″w x 6″d. Courtesy of the artist.)
At this time, Linden continues to work on her Human Evolution series. The first piece, titled Breaking Through, with its bold vertical stripes and collaged excerpts from a vintage medical reference book, was exhibited at the Pride London Art Show 2025. In the text, a male doctor explains three types of women. Linden says, “The ideas are incredibly outdated now.” The piece illustrates how one’s true nature inevitably overtakes the path prescribed by so-called experts. Linden promises there will be more pieces in this series in 2026.
(Pictured: Cora Linden, Horn Solo, horn with faux florals in wooden frame, 15″h x10″w x 2.25″d. Courtesy of the artist.)
The Beat Magazine 2025 