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A little love at Shiver & Sky

Northern crooner bringing folk tunes to winter festival
20180123 Rose-Erin Stokes courtesy Liz Lott
Rose-Erin Stokes has music in her bones: hopefully she won’t be too chilled to them this weekend to share it.

Rose-Erin Stokes has music in her bones: hopefully she won’t be too chilled to them this weekend to share it.

“I grew up in a  musical family; my mom is a piano teacher and my dad is a poet, so I kind of had the music and the words surrounding me growing up,” said Stokes.

The North Bay born-and-raised musician is coming up to FIeld, Ont.—about an hour east of Sudbury—to play Shiver & Sky this Monday, Feb. 19. The Family Day edition of River & Sky is promising attendees a cool day of live music, classic winter activities like shinny hockey and saunaing, and hot food and beverages to fuel it all.

Stokes has played the summer edition of the festival with the Hidden Roots Collective, but this time she’s going it alone.

While she’s been an active musician since high school, when she first wrote her own music, Stokes said she started taking music more seriously in 2014 when she started her solo work.

Just a few weeks ago she released her second solo album, “relaunching” her solo career. She describes it as “ambient folk music” and says the album deals with love and relationships.

For someone accustomed to collaborating with several bandmates, Stokes said going solo has been a different sort of experience.

“It’s always fun making music with other people rather than on your own, but I’ve also had a great team if people helping me out with the solo work,” she said. “It’s exciting to launch all these songs because a lot of them had been in hiding for a period of time, it’s exciting for them to be heard finally.”

She’s been on tour since early this year promoting the album with her guitarist. So far they’ve hit up cities and towns from the Sault to Ottawa.

Stokes describes herself as more of a summer or autumn person, but she has a soft spot for winter too.

“I think being in the north, especially in the winter time, has provided a good atmosphere for writing, even just in that I feel like winter is a good time for self imposed solitude to write and reflect,” said Stokes.

While the show might be chilly, she’s still looking forward to it.

“I just love performing in general,” aid Stokes. “River and sky is always a very positive, relaxed atmosphere, and think it will be a really cool thing just to kind of get everyone outdoors and excited about music and art.”

Other musicians playing Shiver & Sky include Dany Laj and Jeanette Dowling of Dany Laj and the Looks, Lazy Daisies, The Almighty Rhombus and Little Junior.

Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door, if you were a volunteer at the 2017 River & Sky it’s only $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

The festival will run from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m., giving attendees time to wake up, and time to get home before it gets dark. There’s an alternate date of March 4 if the weather turns sour, so stay tuned to River & Sky’s Facebook page to make sure you get any updates.


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