The all-Canadian roster for this year’s Hagersville Rocks Music Festival, presented by Empire Communities, promises nothing less than the unforgettable moments that have come to define the festival. Day two of the festival in 2023 will feature performances by the multi-award-winning and eight-time Juno Award-winning Canadian musician Colin James, special guest David Wilcox, and the energetic and dynamic 12-piece brass dance band My Son the Hurricane.
The annual festival will be held at the Heaslip Ford Amphitheatre at Grant Kett Memorial Park in Hagersville, ON, on Friday, July 14th, and Saturday, July 15th, 2023.
Colin James’s career has spanned over 30 years, with a track record including 20 studio albums, 8 Juno Awards, 27 Maple Blues Awards, and multi-platinum record sales. His latest release, Open Road, is a celebration of personal connections.
It includes original tunes written with long-time collaborators such as Colin Linden, Craig Northey, and Tom Wilson and reinterpretations of covers by a diverse group of songwriters, including Bob Dylan, Albert King, Tony Joe White, and others.
Colin has set the bar for consistency and talent in Canadian music, and even after 20 acclaimed albums, he remains at the top of his game, constantly challenging himself musically. A consummate professional and a superb guitarist, Colin is a musician’s musician. The confidence that comes with maturity can be heard in his voice and seen in his electrifying stage performance. He does what comes naturally – he always has – he knows no other way or life.
A superb entertainer. A master guitar player. A great, soulful singer. A unique songwriter. These are a few of the ways David Wilcox has been described. None of them do him justice. These are testimony of multiple gold and platinum albums and countless fans of all ages. His music has been skated to by Olympic champions Salé and Pelletier, and his songs have appeared in movies like Cocktail with Tom Cruise.
Whether it’s a backyard barbeque, a TV theme (Street Legal), Carnegie Hall, the Montreux Jazz Festival with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin – the music of David Wilcox is a blend of rock, blues, country, ragtime, and other roots styles that keeps evolving and growing.
My Son the Hurricane is a multi-horn, multi-drummer, multi-singer brass funk beast from Niagara, ON. The 12-piece brass dance crew has toured multiple countries and played some of Canada, USA, and Europe’s biggest festivals. Over 45 sold-out shows in 2022 prove that there is no live show like My Son the Hurricane. We dare you not to dance! In 2023, the band will take over 70 dates in Canada, the United States, and Europe-wide tours.