Stephen Fearing

A king amongst minstrels

Stephen Cooke - Halifax Chronicle Herald

There are celebrated musical troubadours. And then there is Stephen Fearing, whose vivid, lyrical songs are exalted by his masterful guitar playing and melodic, cobalt voice.  Over a long and varied career highlighted by critically acclaimed albums and two JUNO Awards, Fearing has shared studios and stages with an eclectic assortment of marquee artists, from Merle Haggard to Richard Thompson to Cassandra Wilson. In addition to his extensive solo achievements, Fearing is also co-founder of veteran Canadian roots-rock giants Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. The through-line is Fearing’s highly relatable, genre-busting music, which invariably locates the human condition in all its messy splendour. “I am a storyteller much more than a singer/songwriter,” Fearing says, “because I realized a long time ago, that my story was much less interesting than the story.”

Stephen Fearing & the Sentimentals

Nordic Noir meets Canadian Cool

Jens Ole Amstrup - Musical Director - Maskinhallen

 

I met The Sentimentals in 2018 through the generosity of Jonathan Byrd – US Songwriter and troubadour extraordinaire. I’m a fan of Byrd’s and was watching his Instagram feed as he toured through Scandinavia with a certain amount of envy (I’d always wanted to visit that part of the world), so I asked him for his contact in Denmark and was pleasantly surprised when he got straight back to me with an email for MC Hansen. Six months later I found myself on a red-eye to Copenhagen wondering what I had gotten myself into. Turns out we had a blast that first tour and have been fast friends ever since – working our way through Denmark, Germany, Holland, The UK and Canada in the following years and despite the forced separation of the plexi-glass years. We have released an album (Vejpoesi) and continue making plans for the future.

For more information – click here to get to our website

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings

The best band in Canada

Graham Rockingham -Hamilton Spectator

In 1996 I got together with Colin Linden, and Tom Wilson to record a one-off tribute album to our friend and mentor, the great Canadian songwriter Willie P. Bennett. We were all up to our necks in solo careers and had no plans to turn the collaboration into a going concern (hah!). We picked a band name for the project (a reference to Bennett’s 1978 album Blackie and the Rodeo King) and released High or Hurtin’: The Songs of Willie P. Bennett a 14-track collection that included the core band of Gary Craig (Drums) John Dymond (Bass) and Richard Bell (Keyboards) with guest appearances by Bruce Cockburn,  Rusell deCarle , and even Willie P. himself on the iconic White Line. The rest is a wonderfully convoluted and highly irregular story that has stretched into three decades and 11 albums (and counting). For more on the Hairy Brethren click here

“Blackie and The Rodeo King, they were just good friends,
been to every rodeo and they rode on every old train.”
~ Willie P. Bennett