{"id":27612,"date":"2020-10-01T23:06:42","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T03:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=27612"},"modified":"2020-10-08T23:51:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T03:51:04","slug":"bands-prepare-to-take-over-historic-armoury-for-trailblazer-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/bands-prepare-to-take-over-historic-armoury-for-trailblazer-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Bands prepare to take over historic Armoury for Trailblazer festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There aren\u2019t that many opportunities for musicians to perform live in front of an audience these days, but when the chance to play before a hometown crowd presented itself, The Beresfords jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country-infused brother-and-sister duo will be bring a five-piece band to the historic Aurora Armoury this Friday, October 2, for the first installment of the rebooted Trailblazer Music Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presented by the Aurora Museum & Archives along with musician Jared Stafford, the Trailblazer Music Festival was first presented at the Armoury in 2017 as part of the Canada 150 commemorations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that the venue has been renovated, restored and re-opened to the public as the new home to Niagara College\u2019s Canadian Food & Wine Institute, it is once again a place for local music-makers to do what they do best \u2013 just in time for Culture Days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 6.30 \u2013 9.30 p.m., music will ring out from the Armoury at this free ticketed event which will bring The Beresfords \u2013 Shannon and Brendan \u2013 together with Essa Township\u2019s Rob Watts, and a host of up-and-coming performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t that many opportunities [to perform] and even if there were, we would still have jumped on this as we did,\u201d says Brendan. \u201cIn our hometown, this is a very special thing. Every time we get a chance to play in our hometown, it is something we look forward to: seeing familiar faces and experiencing that sense of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beresfords, who grew up in a home infused with country music, used to be solo performers, but have been performing as a duo ever since Shannon brought on her brother to play guitar when she was a finalist in the Hoedown Showdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a pretty fun ride to do with your brother and it is special to have it a family thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beresfords say they are inspired by the music of Lady A, Brothers Osborne, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley. Indeed, their sounds have helped fuel their latest creative streak having spent the last few months working on new original music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Watts was also raised on the sounds of country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ended up being born into it, but I kind of got away from it for a little while when I was in high school, as I think every musician gets away from their original genre,\u201d says Watts. \u201cI got back into it naturally \u2013 working for a country music station, dating a girl who was a crazy country girl \u2013 and I ended up falling back in love with what I had known my whole life. I realized how much I was missing. Now here I am five years later having returned to the country genre and I think I have finally found my home again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watts says he loves the storytelling aspect of country music, which is fitting because song-writing is a creative outlet to express the inspiration he finds in life every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the Trailblazer Music Festival, I plan on playing a bunch of new stuff I have written [over the last few months] during COVID, along with some covers, stuff that is upbeat and fun to listen to,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is the perfect opportunity for people to come out and enjoy a night of really great quality live entertainment, while still being able to physically distance. I think people should take advantage of this because we\u2019re in for a long winter. If people really do value live music, they should definitely be investing their time and effort to come to see this and really enjoy what they love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Shannon: \u201cIt is going to be a super-fun night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the 2020 Trailblazer Music Festival, including registration, as well as its second installment on Friday, October 16, visit aurora.ca\/culturedays and select either \u201cFriday, October 2\u201d or \u201cFriday, October 16\u201d from the drop-down menu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
<\/strong>Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There aren\u2019t that many opportunities for musicians to perform live in front of an audience these days, but when the chance to play before a hometown crowd presented itself, The Beresfords jumped at the chance. The country-infused brother-and-sister duo will be bring a five-piece band to the historic Aurora Armoury this Friday, October 2, for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2020-10-01-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7bm","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 18:48:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}