from the Kitchissippi Watershed
We’re going to be playing another haunted house concert right on Hallowe’en itself this year.
As you can hopefully see from that poster, it will be Oct 31st at 274 Flora, music starting at 8pm, $20 or pay what you can.
We’re going to be playing some new songs and making some new sounds with pedals and amps. Don’t worry, though there will still be acoustic instruments and sing-alongs about spooky deaths.
We’re thrilled to be playing a concert with Willow Switch (London, ON) on March 8th and then Milkweed (London, UK) on March 29th. Here’s the details:
When: 3pm, Sunday March 8
Where: Avant Garde Bar (135 Besser St. in the Byward Market, close to the Rideau Centre)
We’ve been hearing for years about witchy folk duo Willow Switch, who feel like they could be a sibling band Wychwood was separated from at birth. Check out this video in an abandoned church for all the ritualistic, raw, eerie goodness:
Meanwhile, we’re going to be doing a crossover set with our friend Sarah AKA Princess Unlucky, who plays harp, mixes a little freak folk and goth into her songs, and might just be the best new(ish) act in Ottawa.
Myle Bullen is touring with Willow Switch, and plays some vulnerable, lo-fi hip-hop it’s going to be very different and very cool. Listen here:
https://mylesbullen.bandcamp.com/album/mourning-travels-4
And Avant Garde Bar might just be our favourite Ottawa venue. They have Soviet propaganda decor and a pickle platter, what more could you want?
When: 7pm, Sunday March 29
Where: Le Spot (a private rehearsal space in Hull, please message us for the address)
Cost: 20$ / pay what you can / no one turned away for lack of funds
We became fans of Milkweed as soon as we listened to them. The way they bring together spellbinding folk, cassette hiss, and J Dilla-style beats is really compelling. Proof: https://milkweedfolk.bandcamp.com/album/remsc-la-2
Bambini is also going to treat us to bedroom freak folk, while Sheep Skin Rain is going to bring cassette loops and musique concrète to our set and their own.
Bonus: Here’s a couple of fascinating articles about Milkweed, if you want to dive deeper into the mystery:
Still Listening Magazine: Start Listening to Milkweed
Riverfest is back again this Monday, with ourselves and transatlantic duo C Joynes (guitar, Cambridge, UK) and Mike Gangloff (fiddle, Southwest Virginia, USA) playing.
Veterans of many albums and projects, you can check out their collaborative album here: cjoynes.bandcamp.com/album/tom-winter-tom-spring-2
Lucky for us, these two compelling sonic explorers are making a stop on their Canadian tour to play Riverfest. Come out to hear some jaunty frolics, improvisation, with touches of drone, psychedelia and other fun stuff in the gorgeous ambience of Pangishimo Park overlooking the river.
PANGISHIMO PARK is a new-ish gem of a lookout point between Chaudière/Akikodjiwan waterfall and the War Museum. Here’s shot of how things can look there:
More info, including how to get there:
We’re going to be playing a ton of music in July!
Here’s all the details…
We’re going to be playing at mini-set as part of a Canadian Spaces radio show on CKCU that be broadcast live from The Turning Point record store at 10am on Saturday, July 13.
And finally, the community sing/jam-along we host will take place the next day (Sunday, July 14, at 6pm) in Patterson Creek Park. (More details here.)
We’re playing a concert Thursday, February 8, 8pm at House of Targ!
Targ has perogies & pinball, Scrip Issue will bring their shoegaze punk (spotify), Preloved will serve up beautiful homemade dreampop (bandcamp), and bring the blackgrass, of course.
In particular, if you like watching us fight with pedals – and sometimes produce wild and beautiful sounds –this’ll probably be the show for you.
As a gift to you and ourselves, here’s some Christmas music for weary hearts:
wychwood.bandcamp.com/album/winter-star
For a couple of years now, we’ve been hosting a community jam/sing-along once a month in Ottawa.
The next one will be Sunday March 23 (2025!) at 7pm at EP Cafe, 139 Bank St, just a few blocks south of Parliament.
This semi-secret hootenanny is informal and not performance-orientated or particularly artsy – we just sing and play songs together as a group. Bring an instrument or just your voice and enthusiasm. You don’t need to consider yourself a musician to come, just someone who enjoys music. We pick songs on the spot out of a songbooklet, which has familiar folk/rock/pop/country and friendly traditional folks songs. You’re also welcome to bring songs to share.
It’s “semi-secret,” in that we don’t usually talk about it on social media or spend a bunch of time promoting it like a regular concert. We just invite friends and pick which week of the month to do it with whoever shows up the month before.
If you’re reading this, you’re now in on the secret – and officially invited to come!
We’ll post the date for the next hootenanny here on the site.
We’ll be playing two sets this weekend on short notice.
First, we’re opening for Benj Rowland at 9pm, this Friday Oct 6 at Irene’s Pub, 885 Bank St.
Tickets are $15 in advance on Ticket Tailor and $20 at the door.
If you’re unfamiliar, Benj has been the main driving force behind the Mayhemingways and has recently released a great album, Community Garden, under his own name. If you like your folk to be a little quirky and to feature offbeat instruments and effects (and if you don’t, why are you signed up for this list?), you’ll enjoy Benj’ live show. He’s been a bit of an inspiration for us, so we’re stocked to have been asked a little last minute to join the bill.
We’re also gonna play a set starting at 11am at the Art Market organized by our pals at the Arlington Five coffeeshop (5 Arlington Ave, just off Bank St) .
If you find Valentine’s Day to be a) icky b) annoying c) a scam or d) all of the above, you’re welcome to come join us for an Anti-Valentine’s Day Show/Get Together this year.
We share your aversion to this rather weird holiday where you’re supposed to prove your love by buying stuff and where the “love” that’s idealized is a really specific, exclusive kind. It’s not that we don’t believe in love; it’s just that there’s so much more than one kind of emotional attachment or one relational ideal to celebrate. If you feel skeptical or excluded by V-Day, consider this an antidote, a show/get together featuring music from us and Libby & Cal.
Wychwood, the world’s first blackgrass band are excited to play a bunch of old songs about rejecting or escaping conventional romance (sometimes tragically but more often happily).
Libby & Cal, purveyors of jangly strings and smooth harmonies, will play songs about alternative love. In response to popular lyrics about self-sacrifice and unrealistic devotion, their new album proposes something different: a step off the relationship escalator. There are many roads to Happy Ever After and marriage is only one possibility. You can listen to Libby & Cal’s album “If You’ve Given Up on Love then Let’s Call it Something Else” on Bandcamp,
When: Tuesday February 14, 2023
When exactly: Doors 7:30pm~ Show 8pm
Where: Avant-Garde Bar ~ 135 Besserer St.
Tickets: $20 in advance on eventbrite or at the door
$15 in advance if paying direct via e-transfer to info@wychwood.xyz
No one turned away. In other words, Pay-what-you-can options are available (send an email to info@wychwood.xyz or direct message us on socials to arrange a PWYC ticket)
Merry Christmas! Here’s a present from us, a new recording of a couple of our favourite carols:
wychwood.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-bleak-midwinter-silent-night
Christmas music’s weird. In a way, it’s just about the only remaining music in our culture that acts as that musical commons we drone on about. (Nobody really knows or cares who wrote or first recorded any carol or Xmas song, yet we all kind of know them and could probably sing along.) There’s loads of gorgeous and fun carols – and yet somehow Christmas is a season when we’re mostly likely to get subjected to aggressively schmaltz and annoying music. (It’s like commercialism ruins everything good, or something?) Anyways, making these recordings is our tiny “be the change” act, and we hope it brings a little more beauty and a little less schmaltz into your holiday season.
Just like its music, Christmas itself can be an annoying and/or bad time for some folk. If that’s you, we see you and care! However the holiday season goes for you, we wish you festive times in there too, with genuine warmth, peace, and things you love.
In this quiet season of long, cold nights we’re grateful for all you lovely people we’ve met through music and everyone who’s listened and played and sung with us. Here’s to lots more music making in the new year.
Love,
Chrissy & Tim ~Wychwood
