Steve Strongman

SMOKESTACK FESTIVAL DAY ONE • DAY TWO TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE

Award-winning Hamilton bluesman Steve Strongman is a versatile talent, and a restless one. By constantly pushing himself in new directions, he has kept himself vital. His talent is huge and impossible to miss, and it’s matched by his staggering musical ambition — as guitar-slinger, songwriter or vocalist. The same structures and progressions that animate blues and roots music can also choke the air out of it, smothering it in caricature and cliché. But Strongman is a subtle shape-shifter who manages to slip that trap without betraying the music he loves. Throughout, he never sounds an inauthentic note or loses touch with the essence of the blues. Strongman’s impressive resume includes stints opening for guitar legends such as Johnny Winter, B.B. King and Buddy Guy. The performer’s breakthrough 2012 release A Natural Fact was hailed as a standout, earning Maple Blues Awards for Recording, Songwriter, and Guitarist Of The Year as well as a 2013 JUNO Award for Blues Recording Of The Year. In 2014 he was thrice-nominated at the Maple Blues Awards (Guitar Player, Electric Act, and Entertainer of the Year) and in 2015 received a second JUNO nod for Blues Album of the Year (for Let Me Prove It To You). In 2018, No Time Like Now was a JUNO nominee for Blues Album of the Year, and 2019's Tired of Talkin' earned rave reviews. The same year, Strongman won Best Guitarist for the Solo/Duo category at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. With 2022's Strongman Blues Remedy, Volume 1 (Stony Plain Records), a new collective project is launching on the global blues scene. Conceived in the middle of the global pandemic, the Strongman Blues Remedy is an antidote for the weariness that the past two years have brought to music lovers everywhere. By doing songwriting sessions with a stellar cast of Canadian blues artists, Strongman developed an album of songs that touch upon multiple experiences and viewpoints, with the overarching message that the best remedy for the world we’re living in right now is to fill it with music that celebrates life and focuses on the joys of being on the other side. Special guests include: JUNO and Maple Blues Award winners and Dawn Tyler Watson, Crystal Shawanda, Harrison Kennedy and Steve Marriner — a who’s who of the blues scene. Already seven albums deep into his career, Strongman is well-known as a solo artist and stellar songwriter within the blues community. For Strongman, the opportunity to work with these musicians and vocalists was a dream come true. As a recording artist and performer, Strongman has been delighting audiences around the world for decades, liberally applying swampy swagger and sweetness to shuffles, blues ballads, and four-on-the-floor chuggers alike.

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Since 2008, the name MonkeyJunk has been synonymous with the emergence of a new kind of blues on the Canadian and international scenes. Continually pushing boundaries and blurring genre lines, the Ottawa-based trio has added an edge to their music by incorporating swampy blues & rock with thoughtful and intelligent lyrics, earning critical praise and armfuls of awards (23 Maple Blues Awards, two Indy Awards, a USA Blues Music Award, and a pair of JUNO Awards). MonkeyJunk is Tony D on lead guitar, Steve Marriner on lead vocals/baritone guitar/harmonica and Matt Sobb on drums. The band has released 5 full-length albums and are poised to release new music in 2023 - just in time to celebrate 15 years as a band! As one of the hardest working bands on the scene today, these Canadian ambassadors of blues/rock are constantly working to up their game in terms of songwriting and musicianship, on record and especially live!

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The Hogtown Allstarsis the newest band of not-so-new blues players making its debut in the blues scene with 2022's Hog Wild via Stony Plain Records. Built with some of the most experienced players in the global blues music industry, the Hogtown Allstars is headed by Downchild Blues Band alumni Chuck Jackson, Pat Carey, Gary Kendall, Jim Casson and Tyler Yarema with Maple Blues Band alumni Teddy Leonard and Howard Moore. Individually and with these bands, the members of Hogtown Allstars have won more than 20 Maple Blues Awards, 5 JUNO Awards and numerous international blues and jazz music awards. Inductees into both the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Blues Museum Hall of Fame in addition to a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Maple Blues Awards, Downchild Blues Band is one of the planet’s foremost, most fêted, longest-running blues outfits – but add to this members of legendary bands Fathead, Powder Blues, The Cameo Blues Band, David Vest & The Willing Victims, The Swingin Blackjacks, Braithwaite & Whiteley, Johnny Rawls, The Robin Banks Blues Band, The Mighty Duck Blues Band and Lance Anderson’s The Last Waltz – and you’ve got a blues supergroup that cannot be underestimated.

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Limited seating will be available. Mobility accommodations available upon request.