Blue Rodeo & Joel Plaskett Emergency Headline 2015 Event

FredRock Music Festival has released its 2015 lineup, and is proud to announce Blue Rodeo as its headlining artist for the Saturday July 18^th show. This performance marks the band’s first time in Fredericton in over a decade and its first time since being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Direct support for Blue Rodeo on Saturday will be Newfoundland’s Hey Rosetta! The Friday show features a co-headline bill with Hamilton’s Monster Truck sharing headline duties with the Atlantic Canada’s own Joel Plaskett Emergency. Both nights will also feature solid support making this year’s lineups one of the festival’s best over its seven years. Still to be named are one support performer for each day which will be announced in the near future.

Friday lineup:

This Friday show lineup is truly one of the best rock lineups that FredRock has put together and is a great way to kick-off an amazing weekend of live music at the 7^th Annual FredRock Music Festival.

The Stanfields

Celtic rockers,The Stanfields, have been described as “working class heroes” and “the bastard child of AC/DC”. Everyone has a story to tell about The Stanfields – if you don’t, give it time. Inciting mosh pits and still making Mom proud, The Stanfields attract fans of all classes and creeds with their rhythm-fueled hard rock laced with traditional roots sounds. There are no glamorous motives – just five working class Canadians with an honest desire to entertain. The band’s first acoustic project, For King and Country, released in Canada on GroundSwell/Warner and in Germany on Rookie Records in October 2013. Stanfields frontman and lead writer, Jon Landry explains: “There was no motive to write For King and Country other than trying to challenge ourselves. As songwriters, we always have an axe to grind in terms of lyrical expression. That will never change. Our world is too fucked up to let things slide. Rest assured to the initiated, we will continually attempt to peel the paint off the walls of your local tavern, legion, youth centre or arena. We haven’t gone soft. In fact, I think we went harder.”

Monster Truck

Some festival goer’s might recognize one of this year’s headliners as having played as a little known support artist at the 2012 edition of the festival. Since playing at FredRock in 2012, Hamilton’s Monster Truck have won a Juno Award and have received endorsements from some of rock’s most influential and legendary performers. “The Truck” have been championed by the likes of Slash and Alice in Chain’s Mike Inez which have led to many opportunities playing the world’s largest festivals and to tour with some of the largest rock bands there are. Monster Truck returns to FredRock as a co-headliner on Friday’s show and will continue doing what they do best, steamrolling from town to town leaving legions of fans in their wake.

Joel Plaskett Emergency

Another familiar face will be co-headlining the Friday night of FredRock this year with Monster Truck. Joel Plaskett returns with his band, The Emergency after playing the 2011 FredRock festival as a support artist. This time, Joel will be playing songs from his critically acclaimed new record, Park Avenue Sobriety Test which has been described as one of the most diverse and fan-pleasing albums of his career. Joel is one of Atlantic Canada’s most accomplished songwriters and producers and is known for his versatility and ability to blend in on any festival lineup. Pairing him with an up tempo, rock and roll band such as Monster Truck will bring out his edgier rock side his band show is known for.

Saturday Lineup:

The Wooden Sky

Juno Nominee, Toronto’s The Wooden Sky return to Fredericton with a new record (Let’s Be Ready) which they released on their own record label (Chelsea Recrods) showing that they are more than your average touring band.

Since the release of The Wooden Sky’s last LP in 2012, Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun, the intervening world has grabbed hold of the band, twisting and shaping the production of what will be their fourth album: Let’s Be Ready. Navigating the strife and uncertainty of evolving friendships, lost loves, death and the ever-shifting challenges of the music industry, Gavin Gardiner (vocals/guitar), Andrew Kekewich (drums) and Simon Walker (multi-instrumentalist) found themselves in a new place: holed up in Toronto’s west-end Gardiner’s garage-turned-studio to be exact.

With the help of familiar collaborators Edwin Huizinga (violin) and Andrew Wyatt (bass and vocals), the band spent grueling hours together digging deeper into their sound, looking both for answers to their doubts, and a way to quiet them. The results, you could say, are loud.

Eastcoast Love Story

Handpicked by FredRock to kick off the Saturday show off are New Brunswick’s own Eastcoast Love Story, who are this year’s “FredRock Band to Watch”. This opening slot is a focus of the festival to help develop the region’s best new talent.

Eastcoast Love Story is folk music turned up to 11. Frontman Zac Hackett`s songs evoking images of love in the frozen north, life on the road, and the hardscrabble experience of modern Maritime culture are backed by a seasoned band who make rock & roll you can dance to. Blurring lines between country twang and indie-rock, the group’s creative force lies within its’ ability to take the listener from a whisper to a yell, all in the same moment. With a sharp, powerful stage show and a soon-to-be-released debut EP (with ‘Cold World’ already receiving airplay across Atlantic Canadian radio), this foursome is ready to tell the Eastcoast Love Story far and wide.

Hey Rosetta!

Newfoundland’s Hey Rosetta! have been playing together for over a decade now and have developed a ‘collective’ sound that has been lauded as ‘unmistakable’. They are a band that connects in an almost intangible, inexplicable way. Their upcoming FredRock performance will showcase songs from their most recent record, ‘Second Sight’ (October 2014). The band features multi-instrumentalists combining cello, violin, French horn, with lead singer, Tim Baker’s haunting and distinctive voice and the traditional instruments found in a conventional rock band. This combination along with a lyrical sensibility defines the band as one of the most poetic Canadian exports; the rolling indie-rock precision meeting hooky pop sensibilities, cuts through the most cramped club or across any vast open air festival stage.

Blue Rodeo

Headlining the Saturday show at FredRock is Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee and multiple Juno Award winner, the legendary Blue Rodeo. This performance marks a return to the region, ending what was over a ten year hiatus. For close to thirty years now, Blue Rodeo has taken the road less travelled – and succeeded far beyond anyone’s expectations. The band emerged in the early 80’s as a countrified rock band in the era of hair metal and glossy pop. Despite sticking out like a sore thumb (or maybe because of it), their single “Try” became omni-present on radio across Canada and set in motion a three decade long career of headlining every club, theatre and arena in Canada. In 1993, when grunge rock was squeezing commercial rock off the radio, they recorded their most acoustic album, Five Days In July, and scored their biggest hit selling over a half million copies of that one record alone. And now, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame band has released their 13th studio album In Our Nature, being hailed by critics as among the best of their career.