An Evening with Amanda Rheaume and Logan Staats
Saturday 11 September 7:30pm // Partridge Hall at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre + Virtual Livestream
$25 IN-PERSON or FREE LIVESTREAM
Two celebrated Indigenous singer-songwriters will light up the Partridge Hall stage with this special Celebration of Nations presentation. With Opening performance from the Strong Water Women.
AMANDA RHEAUME
Amanda Rheaume is a Citizen of the Métis Nation and a singer/songwriter that has self-managed her music career for over 15 years. She has released 5 full length albums. Her album “Keep a Fire” was nominated for a JUNO Award and won a Canadian Folk Music Award for Indigenous Songwriter of the Year. Amanda identifies as she/her and is an active and proud member of the LGBTQ2S+ community.
An engaging performer, Rheaume has developed her career in Canada and Europe, where she tours regularly. One of her great gifts as a songwriter is her ability to take the personal and make it universal, drawing upon her own experience to deliver messages with a wide resonance.
Amanda is the Director of Operations for the International Indigenous Music Summit, Co-Founder of Ishkode Records and Project Coordinator for the creation of a National Indigenous Music Office here in “Canada”.
Amanda is currently finishing her 6th studio album (produced by Hill Kourkoutis) for a 2022 release on Ishkode Records.
LOGAN STAATS
Once in a red moon, an artist emerges on the scene as if fully formed. Born on the Six Nations Reserve and raised in the small ghost town of Brantford, Ontario – Logan Staats started writing and performing music in his early teens.
From a young age, Logan’s haunting and distinct voice has won him multiple opportunities to share the stage with acts like Buffy Sainte-Marie, Keith Secola and Mumford and Sons, to name a few.
Still a young man, Logan is regarded as an accomplished, multi-nominated and an award winning artist. Forever a student of great music – Staats enjoys jamming, collaborating and learning from his contemporaries and other recording artists. A great example is a powerful late night live off the floor version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” in collaboration with peer Terra Lightfoot.
Logan’s live performances are juxtaposed by a level of self-possession and control that still wildly careen through emotions of sadness, hope, longing and joy.
A product of passion, compulsion and tireless musical commitment – Logan’s songs are his own. Armed with his guitar and harmonica, he has transitioned from running the weekend bar circuit to playing sold out venues across Canada including his favourite venue, The Sanderson Centre, in his hometown.
Logan is fresh off his win on The Launch, a new TV show that gives Canadian singers a shot at stardom. Staats was chosen out of 10,000 applicants to be featured on the inaugural season of the series, and was mentored by Canadian country megastar Shania Twain. The song that Staats performed is called The Lucky Ones, and was written by Grammny nominated songwriter busbee.
What’s more, The Lucky Ones topped the Canadian charts as the number one song in the country the day after the release. Ingrained with the mentality that anything is possible when you put your heart and soul into it, Staats is hell bent on raising the bar for Indigenous/mainstream crossover music.
Currently on an open journey of art, expression and culture, no matter which medium you find Logan through – he’s incredible to watch.
