Songs of Nick Drake 50th Anniversary Concert @ Hugh's Room, Nov 23

Luke Jackson and friends salute to Nick Drake at Hugh's Room on November 23 is now sold out. 

Here's the scoop...

Hugh’s Room is delighted to announce the return of The Songs of Nick Drake. This labour-of-love show is produced by UK-born Toronto musician and impresario Luke Jackson, who worked with Nick’s string arranger, the late great Robert Kirby, on his 2009 album And Then Some. Luke is one of a handful of people entrusted with Kirby’s original arrangements of Nick’s songs. Faithful renditions of those songs with strings form the bedrock of the concert, and creative arrangements of the rest of Nick’s canon make up the balance of the night.

 

The house band features drummer Cam Giroux (Weeping Tile, By Divine Right), bassist Jason Mercer (Ron Sexsmith, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Ani Difranco), and Toronto renaissance man Kurt Swinghammer on guitar.

 

The string quartet comprises Wendy Solomon on cello, Johann Lotter on viola, and Sahra Featherstone and Alex Cheung on violin.

 

Three featured performers are flying in to participate in the concert: Michelle Willis (David Crosby, Snarky Puppy), Kevin Kane (The Grapes of Wrath), and Suzie Ungerleider (formerly Oh Susanna), along with Toronto singer/songwriters Kathryn Rose, Conor Gains and Trish Robb. Flautist Andrea Kovats and Jackson himself round out the line-up.

 

This concert marks the 50th anniversary of Nick Drake’s death on November 25, 1974, and will be the first Songs of Nick Drake concert in five years. The last concert was held at the original Hugh’s Room in November 2019 and was lovingly recorded and filmed for posterity. You can watch it below.