This September marks the start of Brampton Folk Club’s 15th season of the Friday Folk Night concert series, a set of monthly coffee-house style shows featuring folk music from southern Ontario and the rest of Canada.

Brampton Folk Club is a non-profit community organization that has been around for the last 21 years. They aim to promote folk music in the Brampton area, as well as provide a forum for musicians and act a resource for entertainment in the city. The Friday Folk Night concerts put on by the club are a popular draw for Brampton residents and other music lovers across the province.

“It was important to us that we have opportunities to showcase talent in the club,” said Glenn McFarlane, president and co-founder of the Brampton Folk Club. “We were ready to take it to the next level and bring in some higher level folk talent for these shows, and that’s how we decided on the Friday Folk Night concert series.”

Because it is an anniversary season for Friday Folk Nights, this year’s lineup boasts a number of high-profile artists, including a 40th anniversary reunion concert of Tamarack, a Christmas-themed show from The Foggy Hogtown Boys, and a special performance from the concert series’ first non-Canadian artist, The Young'uns.

For the Folk Club, the challenge, but also the fun, is finding and deciding which acts to present each year.

“The concert series requires a lot of scouting,” said McFarlane. “We check out a lot of artists throughout the year and look for diversity within folk music, because we want to capture as many different styles as we can. It’s important for us to make sure there’s enough things for our audience members while exploring new styles and challenges.”

The concert series runs monthly starting on Sept. 21 until May 25, kicking off with a Tamarack reunion show and ending with the Brampton Folk Club annual showcase concert.

“If I were to do it again, I would call the concert series Roots Music,” said McFarlane. “A lot of what’s on the radio would be classified as roots rather than folk, but there’s such broad definition of folk. You might be surprised at some of the stuff you get to hear on the stage during each season of Friday Folk Night.”

For more information and access to ticket sales, visit bramptonfolk.ca or call 647-BFF-FOLK (647-233-3655).

