What's New

Winter is Coming! 

We had a really great fall season, and we would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the folks in Eden Mills, the congregation at St. Paul's United Church in Milton, and all the lovely and inspiring people we met at the Folk Music Ontario conference! We're heading into the holidays feeling good and motivated, and have a few cool new projects in the works that will be in production early in the new year! 

We've also been grinding out logistics on our 2018 summer schedule, and are thrilled to announce what we hope is just the first of many awesome festival appearances: The Barrel Boys will be teaching and performing at the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme Camp and Festival in Saskatchewan from August 13-20. You can find out more about both the camp and the festival at www.northernlightsbluegrass.com. 

On a more short-term note, we're thrilled to be back at The Hole in the Wall tonight (Nov. 18) and hope to see some of you there!

FMO 2017!!! 

We're thrilled to be back at Folk Music Ontario this year! We'll be playing a few private showcases on Saturday night, and will be floating around the conference all weekend. Come find us and say hello if you have the chance!

Charts, Grants, and Reviews... 

September has been a quiet month for performance, but it has been a great month for feedback! We're pleased to share that we broke the top 10 on Roots Music Report's Top 50 Canadian Albums chart. We're on the way back down now, but it's worth noting that we surpassed The Weeknd and Shawn Mendes on our ascent, which suggests that it's still not too late for us to be an immensely successful pop crossover act! 

We also got a really nice review from Kristin Cavoukian at Exclaim! click HERE to read the review for yourself!

One other great piece of news out of Barrel Boys camp is that we've been awarded an Artist Development grant by FACTOR Canada. The plans are to put the funding towards some new content, so keep your ear to the ground for new rumblings!

Big Week Ahead - Attn. Eastern Ontario! 

How it got to be mid-August already, we're not too sure... must have happened overnight(s)! In any case, while it's tough to see the summer beginning to wind down, we're so excited for all the incredible playing opportunities that August brings. This past weekend, we were joined by the incomparable Bruce Ley at the Shelburne Heritage Music Festival, and then we played an incredible crowd at a house concert in the O'Reilly family backyard in Scarborough.

Tonight (Aug 14) we play the Burdock Music Hall in Toronto alongside Jessica Pearson & the East Wind, we will be heading east on Wednesday for a short tour - Peterborough, Ottawa, Westport, Morrisburg, and then we're up in North Bay for the Windsong Music Festival August 26. If any of those places is home (or near home,) for you or some friends, please check out all the details on our shows page. We'd love to see you there!

We're also thrilled to have received our first FACTOR grant. We've got a number of exciting plans for the upcoming year, and we are thrilled to have the support we need to execute them. Keep your ears to the ground for big things!

Cold Spring -> Hot Summer 

Hello friends, hope everyone is keeping cool in the July heat! Hard to believe it has been almost a month since the album release show, but the calendar doesn't lie. We're thrilled with the feedback we've been getting on the record, and were delighted to find this awesome review, courtesy of Elizabeth Andrews at Disarm Magazine (click on any part of this sentence for the link!).

In other news, our July date at the Hole in the Wall has been pushed back to the 22nd, rather than the 3rd Saturday we usually play. We're also thrilled to have added a few August dates to the calendar, including a 'home and home' double-header with Jessica Pearson and the East Wind, a killer band out of Ottawa. We'll be playing Monday August 14 at Burdock Music Hall in Toronto, and then August 17 at LIVE on Elgin in Ottawa. Check out our 'Shows' page for more details!

Released! 

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the release party, and to all the people who made it happen! It was a great night, and we are incredibly grateful for all of the support. The album is now available in both physical and digital formats - if you click on the album art above, it will bring you right to the album on Apple Music. If you'd like to acquire a hard copy, they will be available through CDBaby very soon.

It's almost here! 

We're so excited for the big show next week! Do you have your ticket yet? Click through the poster link above to get yours now!

Album Release Show June 13 

We're so excited to announce that we'll be releasing our brand record on Tuesday June 13th at the Tranzac Club. Produced by Ivan Rosenberg and recorded live off the floor of The Sound Still in Toronto, Cold Spring is an exciting new chapter in the Barrel Boys songbook, and features 15 brand new original pieces written by the various band members.

We will be joined by our dear friends, The O'Pears, for what promises to be an unforgettable night of song. Tickets are available at barrelboyscoldspring.eventbrite.com

Heading North! 

We're thrilled to have been invited back up to North Bay by Windsong Music Festival! They create incredible environments for both audiences and performers, so if you can make it out, you're in for a time!!!

Spring has Sprung! 

The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, and the Barrel Boys have been hard at work! In early March, we finally got back into the studio, this time with the help of Bluegrass master, Ivan Rosenberg. It was a jam-packed few days, but the tunes really came to life, and we’re very happy with how things are sounding. Stay tuned for details on the June release! 

We’ve also been spending some time at the Canterbury Music Company, laying down tracks for the Ashkenaz Foundation’s Leonard Cohen tribute project. We’re really honoured to be working with such a great team, and being part of such a powerful project. 

Check out the calendar for upcoming performance dates! We are playing at the Local on Thursday March 30, and we also have a few fun dates in April, including shows in Guelph, Sudbury, and North Bay.