Canadian folk band Maggie’s Wake is returning to Owen Sound to spread some holiday cheer.
The band is bringing their “Spirit of the Season” show to Heartwood Hall on Sunday, December 1st.
Vocalist Tara Dunphy and fiddle player Lindsay Schindler spoke with Bayshore News to talk about the band’s spin on the Christmas season.
“Our spin on Christmas is very much a Canadian spin,” says Dunphy. “We sing about the wonderful snow squalls that we all get to experience and the life of growing up in a place like Ontario where we’re playing hockey on the ponds and building forts in the backyard and that’s kind of our take on it, and so we actually have a new Christmas song that is all about that.”
The band, which includes Andrew Kosty on upright and electric bass, Ken Palmer on acoustic and electric guitar, is touring around Ontario from the end of November until Christmas Eve, sharing their music with people from across the province.
They’re happy to be returning to Owen Sound, given their last visit was so positive.
“Oh my gosh, it was amazing! The last time we [played at the Roxy] when we were there, a children’s choir came and sang with us,” Dunphy recalls. “It was so beautiful. And it was actually pretty amazing afterwards in the lobby when we were talking to the audience members, everyone had such a warm feeling about the show, because it was really about community, about bringing in people from Owen Sound and keeping them as part of the show and we really [would like that] this year, even though the venue doesn’t have the capacity for us to bring in a choir.
After they’re done with their shows in the coming weeks, they’re looking forward to celebrating the season with their own families.
Dunphy and Schindler both have plans that involve hosting their families for dinner and festivities, but finding time to do Christmas shopping while on tour can be a challenge.
“Believe it or not, we don’t end up with a ton of time, when you factor in the drive times and the performance time, but we’re certainly going to try to check out some local stores in the various places that we’re playing and check some shopping plazas,” explains Schindler.
That said, it does present interesting and unique opportunities to find gifts from local businesses before heading home.
Says Dunphy, “It’s one of our favourite things when we get to go to the different towns and even if it’s just 20 minutes between a sound check and getting back to the hotel to get changed, going into the local shops. We actually are just on our way home from some shows in New England, and when we were leaving Portland, we left the hotel, pulled over to the side of the road, someone stayed in the car, and the rest of us went into a local artisan shop and picked up some presents, and that’s how our Christmas shopping’s going to go this year.”
Aside from the Christmas season, Maggie’s Wake has something else to celebrate: the band has been nominated for a 2025 Canadian Folk Music Award in the New/Emerging Artist category.
Tickets for their matinee performance at Heartwood Hall are available here.