| Nov 18-20 | Huntsville, ON |
| Dec 3 | Manotick, ON |
Click here to see all of our latest pictures...
Click here to download a free song from our new CD, Wandering Steps.
North To Ontario 2010 - Featuring "Walter and Alice".
Welcome to the Concession 23 website - please come in and look around!
Concession 23 is an energetic, award-winning Canadian bluegrass band based in and around the valley region surrounding Canada's capital city of Ottawa. The band's musical strength lies in its teamwork, its energetic playing style, and in the relaxed relationship it establishes with its audiences. The band is Jonathan Ferrabee (acoustic bass/vocals); Kevin Golka (mandolin/vocals); Sherry Philp (banjo/vocals); and Nick Strachan (guitar/vocals).
Concession 23 will be backing up Mike O'Reilly Saturday December 3 in Manotick. As many of you know Mike is one of Canada's greatest bluegrass performers. When it comes to entertainment he is second to none.
In between Mike's sets we will perform as Concession 23. For more information about the show, or how to obtain tickets, please follow this link...
We are proud to announce that Sherry has once again been awarded Female Vocalist of the Year at the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards in Huntsville. This is the fifth straight year that Sherry has won the award.
We would like to thank everyone who voted for Sherry and supported the rest of the band nominations. We appreciate all the kind words and support we received throughout the year.
It is that time of year again. The Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards signal the end to another great music season. This year we are nominated in a number of categories including Mandolin Player, Guitar Player, Female Vocalist and Overall Group.
Aside from the awards ceremonies, we are looking forward to relaxing and catching up with friends. We hope to see many of you there again this year.
For the fourth straight year, Sherry was awarded Female Vocalist of the Year at the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards. We are very proud of Sherry's accomplishments. We would like to express our thanks to everyone who has supported Sherry and the rest of the band for the CCBMA nominations and awards again this year.
Thanks to all the bluegrass fans who supported us on the nomination ballot for the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards again this year.
Everywhere we've travelled this summer, from the Sally Creek Festival in western Ontario all the way out to the Red Clay Festival in Tignish, P.E.I., we've been fortunate to meet wonderful and supportive fans, and we'd just like to take a moment to thank you all.
Once again, we've been nominated in a number of categories, including Female Vocalist (Sherry Philp); Mandolin Player (Kevin Golka); Guitar Player (Nick Strachan); Overall Group and Best Recording (for Wandering Steps).
The awards weekend is held at the fabulous Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, on November 26-28. We'll be playing sometime on Friday evening, so please drop by and say hello if you're in the neighbourhood.
We've just returned from the fabulous Red Clay Festival in Tignish, P.E.I. - what a great time! Excellent jamming, more seafood than we could possibly eat, and a home-made beverage that looked like water but had an entirely different effect...
We made a bunch of new friends, including Lindsay and Tristan who made a lovely picture for us - we'll hopefully have this uploaded shortly with more pictures from PEI. Thanks guys! And thanks also to John Gavin and all the volunteers who helped make the weekend such a memorable experience.
Thanks so much to everyone at the Sally Creek and Renfrew bluegrass festivals, and to the kind folks at Mattawa Voyageur Days, for your kind words about our newest, original song entitled, "Walter and Alice." As promised, you can DOWNLOAD IT FREE right here!
"Walter and Alice" is inspired in part by Kevin's mother who passed away in 2005 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Although Mrs. Golka is the inspiration, the song is not biographical; instead, it tells the story of a terrifying disease that afflicts thousands of Canadians each year through the lives of the fictional characters of Walter and Alice.
The song is available on the North to Ontario 2010 compilation recording. North to Ontario is a project spearheaded by Tom "Old Coot" McCreight and Gene Guthro (Athlone Studios) that features original songs by Ontario bluegrass artists and promotes them across North America and beyond. It is a really worthwhile project, and we hope that you'll support it by purchasing a copy and checking out all the other great, Ontario bands.
Please download the song, share it with your family and friends, and say a silent prayer for the families, friends and loved ones who also suffer along with the victims of this terrible disease. Our hearts go out to them.
We have once again been invited to play the Ottawa Opry, at the National Library and Archives Auditorium. If this is anything like last year, it will be an unforgettable concert done up in the Grande ole Opry style. Proceeds go to support Amnesty International.
If you love great musicianship, theatre, comedy, enjoy an evening of fun, or just want to support Amnesty International, head on down to the 3rd annual Ottawa Opry!
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION click here or contact Pat Moore at patmoore@patmoore.net
The James King Band is coming to Ottawa in February, and Concession 23 will be opening the show with a full set of music. We've been big fans of James King since forever, and have fond memories of seeing him play at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival and other fine festivals. This will be so much fun, we should be paying for the privilege! Click here for more...
Sherry was awarded Female Vocalist of the Year at the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards for the third consecutive year. Thanks to everybody who supported us by nominating Sherry and the rest of the band for awards again this year.
We're pleased to announce the release of Wandering Steps, our latest full-length recording. Thematically, Wandering Steps is a meandering tribute to some of the greatest bluegrass composers of the past, people like Red Allen, B. Bryant and Karl David and Harty Taylor, people who influenced the musical direction of the genre and inspired The Blue Sky Boys, the Everly Brothers, Bob Dylan and others.
The recording features two original songs, each one reflecting a distinct but divergent stylistic trend in early American folk music. "I Wasn't Born in Carolina" is an upbeat number about living, loving and losing north of the 49th parallel. "Wandering Steps (and Slow)" is a more reflective song about the archetypal journey from home to the grave.
Thanks so much to studio wizard Jason Jaknunas at Metropolitan Studios, for his talent, enthusiasm and friendship. Click here for more...
Concession 23 has once again been invited to record a new, original song as part of the North to Ontario 2010 recording project. North to Ontario, which is the brain-child of Tom (Old Coot) McCreight, is as an annual recording project designed to promote Ontario bluegrass to the world. We're honoured to have been asked to participate again this year, and we're really looking forward to it!
Concession 23 recorded "On the Mountainside" for North to Ontario 2006, which won Recording of the Year at the Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards, and "Wandering Steps (and Slow)" for North to Ontario 2008, which became the title track for our latest CD.
