Joining them are Paul Weller, Bloc Party, Stereophonics, Wintersleep, Constantines, Spiritualized, Pigeon Detectives, and The Weakerthans with more acts to be announced shortly.
WANNA GET YOUR HANDS ON EARLY BIRD TICKETS?
A limited number of early bird tickets for Virgin Festival Toronto. Buy online from Wednesday March 26th at 10 AM EST until Friday, March 28th at 5PM EST using code VFESTSUB.
General ticket sales begin Saturday, March 29th at 10 a.m. EST through select Future Shop locations, futureshop.ca, all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.ca, and by calling 416-870-8000.
For the low-down on anything and everything Virgin Festival, click on virginfestival.ca.
Oh Justin Rutledge, an alt-country singer/songwriter taking the country by storm. He’s a well mannered, humble guy with a piercing stare and stark resemblance to a young Elvis that’ll make your hair stand on end. And that’s before he even hits the stage.
I was lucky enough to catch him a few times over the past few months, some here and some in nearby town. His mellow “sway” songs (as he likes to call him) cast a mellancholy spell on the crowd as he performs. When I saw him at the Horseshoe, he put on a 2+ hr set, going well past 2AM. Here I was thinking it’d be done by midnight like most acoustic shows. He has a devoted following of fans young and old, thanks to his timless country roots, but with a modern twist to keep him relevant.
His sophmore album, The Devil on the Bench in Stanley Park, pilots the listener into his world of love songs, yearning woes, haunting darkness, and drinking. One can’t mistake his token whiskey drinking sunday afternoon songs; it’s as if we’re sitting with Lucinda, Emmylou or Willie in Texas. Then I look out at the 6-foot snowbanks and remember where I am!
If you haven’t yet seen Justin Rutledge around in the city, do so before it’s too late. I reckon, it may already be.. he frequents the Horsehoe, Dakota Tavern.. if you’re lucky he may pop up at the Cameron House, where he paid he dues cutting through a weekly residency.
