Entertainment Series kicks off a new season in a new space

Jesse Bonello - Staff Writer

Irish-born Canadian contemporary folk singer-songwriter Irish Mythen helped kick off the 2019-2020 Sioux-Hudson Entertainment Series with a performance that featured talented guitar playing, humorous storytelling, and a soulful voice that filled the Sioux North High School cafetorium on Sept. 19.
“It was stunning. We couldn’t have asked for a better season opener, and she really did set the tone for our season and that beautiful space. For that, we are so thankful,” said Alyson Martin, Sioux-Hudson Entertainment
Series chair.
Throughout her career, Mythen has performed with Rod Stewart, Gordon Lightfoot, and Lucinda Williams at major music festivals around the world. Some of her recent career highlights include playing at the Sydney Opera House in 2017, closing the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2016, and winning the Roots Album of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards in 2016.
Prior to her final song during her entertainment series performance, Mythen told the crowd that she was thankful for the love they showed her. She also had high praise for the Sioux-Hudson Entertainment Series.
“It is an extreme honour to be able to travel around this country… I love coming to places that I have to Google Map, and thank you for showing me your community. I know it’s the briefest of times but the love I felt coming on to the stage has been absolutely incredible. You have a very special concert series going on here. I’m preaching to the converted because you’re already here, but please keep telling people about it. This needs to stay here, and this needs to happen again, and again, and again, season after season, and it doesn’t happen without you. Thank you for supporting it,” said Mythen.
This year is the first season that Sioux-Hudson Entertainment Series performances will be hosted in the newly-built Sioux North High School cafetorium.
For this week’s Question of the Week, The Sioux Lookout Bulletin asked audience members about their experience during the first Sioux-Hudson Entertainment Series show inside the cafetorium.
Both Mythen and Martin had nothing but good things to say about the new space.
“People commented that they didn’t have to look around the person in front of them. They can actually see the stage and people actually made comments about the sound being fantastic, and that was people from the front of the room to the back of the room. The sightlines were really good, and it’s just great acoustics. It’s really powerful acoustics. The set up time was way shorter then it historically is… The school staff are hugely helpful, the custodial folks are with us through thick and thin, and there’s no problem, I feel, that we can’t solve. Tonight was a success. It was enjoyed by everybody,” said Martin.
“It was great, and that’s why I knew I could go off the mic at the end and it filled every bit of the space so that was really nice. The crew here know what they’re doing. The sound was great, the lighting was great, and it’s a really well run series. There’s a bit of nerves when you are coming in to a new space, but they nailed it. The cool thing is we put something in to the walls now. We put it in to the stage, and then the next person that comes along will put something else in to the stage. That’s how we get fibres in to buildings of stone, when you have powerful things happen in the space. That’s very cool,” said Mythen.
When asked about performing in Sioux Lookout, Mythen emphasized the importance of travelling and playing in small communities.
“Going into any small community is very important because people look after each other in small communities, and that’s sometimes lacking in bigger areas. It’s a real privilege to be able to come to smaller communities because, often, the arts are overlooked… It’s a privilege to be able to do this, so why wouldn’t I go see a place that I haven’t seen before and meet brilliant community-minded people,” said Mythen.
“The main thing I just want to get across is how important it is to come to smaller communities. It’s almost like smaller communities get punished for not being a big city, and I think that’s incredibly small-minded. I think artists need to come here, they need to come to communities like this, and they need to get behind series like this. It’s an incredible thing that happens here, and I’m just really privileged and I’m happy to be a part of it,” she said.
For more information on Mythen, or to check out her music, she suggests checking out her social media pages.
“I’m all over social media. It’s just irishmythen.com, and I’m on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook,” she said.
The next entertainment Series show takes place on Oct. 16 when award winning actor and writer Melody A. Johnson performs Person of Interest, which is a 70 minute comedy drama about living next to neighbours from Hell. All shows are 7:30 p.m. at Sioux North
High School.
For more information on dates, artists, and ticket prices, visit the Entertainment Series website: siouxhudsonentertainmentseries.ca.