July 4, 2025 |
Waves always come in sets. This year we’re releasing the River & Sky’s (July 23-27) lineup in three wicked waves.
A quick recap … Our first wave featured headliners Descartes a Kant, Shub, Tia Wood, Preoccupations, DijahSB and By Divine Right, as well as bands Thea May, Casper Skulls, Bibi Club, and fauxcils. Read more about them here. As well as our marvelous Second Wave Bands here.
Third Wave acts include Logan Staats, Tara Kannangara, Baby O, R.Flex, Softtub, Harvey King & The Grindstone, Rose-Erin Stokes, Green Jaguars, and Spinsey Lohan.
In 2018, Mohawk singer-songwriter Logan Staats was chosen from 10,000 hopeful contestants vying for a spot on The Launch. Before an audience of 1.4 million viewers, Staats won, beginning a breakthrough that would lead him to Nashville and Los Angeles, and to his single “The Lucky Ones” winning the Indigenous Music Award for Best Radio Single. In the years between now and then, Staats has come home, making the intentional decision to re-root at Six Nations of the Grand River: “I wanted to bring my songwriting back to the medicine inside of music,
to the medicine inside of reclamation.”
JUNO-nominated artist, Tara Kannangara is a second-generation, Sri Lankan-Canadian force of nature, making music that is deeply personal, genre-bending and culture blending. Kannangara has been featured on CBC’s The Signal, The Sunday Edition and NPR Tiny Desk with Lido Pimienta. She also performed on Lido’s Grammy nominated record, Miss Colombia. She has had the privilege to work with extraordinary homegrown artists such as Jeremy Dutcher, Charlotte Cornfield, and Witch Prophet. Her own work has been presented at major festivals across North America.
Green Jaguars is multi-disciplinary Sudbury artist Oli Palkovits’ most recent endeavor. Known as the songwriter/frontman Will Powers, his foray into electronic music led to a residency with La Slague. With a focus on live improvisation and textural compositions, this is for both early risers and those who haven’t gone to bed yet.
Harvey King & The Grinstone (HKGS) is a six piece rock and soul band from Sudbury. Formed in 2019 as a passion project of vocalist Will Himsl and rhythm guitarist Sam King, the band has released three albums to date – its latest offering, Wild Card, in June 2024 with another in the works for 2025.
Softtub is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Keegan McDonald, who has spent the last decade performing, arranging, and recording music. With his 2023 self-titled EP (which found tips on Exclaim’s Eh List, Some Party, Tinnitist) followed up by his single “Trading Pieces” released in Nov of 2024, Keegan is eager to bring his songs to life on stage, supported by a supergroup of Sudbury locals.
Baby O blends traditional influences with earnest lyricism to explore themes of personal power and identity. Their debut single, “Love Letter,” was hailed as a “guitar-pop anthem” by CBC Music’s Songs You Need to Hear. The band’s latest EP is Visions I See Clearly.
Spinsey Lohan is North Bay’s queen of the party, even when the party starts at 10 a.m. Known for her glittery blend of disco, house and campy mash-ups, her sets are a carefully unhinged celebration of sound, sass, and nostalgia. Start your day with a dose of high-energy that blurs the line between wake-up call and dancefloor.
Highlighted by an artistic acumen and an ability to evoke emotion, Rose-Erin Stokes’ music is demonstrative of a songwriting craftsperson at work, with music, words, and vocal performances that connect to the hearts and spirits of all who hear them. Her Sophomore LP, When The Sun Goes Away, earned her a nomination for Album of the Year at the Ontario Folk Music Awards.
R.flex is a bold, unapologetic, self-described “cheeky R&B creator” from Toronto. Blending elements of pop, dance, and house, their music is a vibrant expression of radical self-love, Black queer identity, and the transformative power of movement and voice. Named NOW Toronto’s Artist to Watch in 2022, R.flex continues to carve out space for joy, resistance, and authenticity. Their second EP, FLEX WITH BENEFITS, draws inspiration from the early 2000s.
Huge thanks to our funders Ontario Creates, Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Canadian Heritage and Canada Summer Jobs for making River & Sky possible.
River & Sky will be releasing its a few more acts including Wednesday Warm-Up and Threshold bands.
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