The Halifax Urban Folk Festival is happy to announce Nathan Wiley (with a full band), along with Two Hours Traffic’s Liam Corcoran and his band, as well as Cassie Josephine & Gabriel Minnikin will play The Carleton on Thursday, August 31st. Show time is 7:30 PM and tickets – $17.50 (including taxes) are available at TicketPro HERE

Nathan Wiley released his first solo project, Bottom Dollar in 2002. Not only was it his first solo effort, but it was a fully professionally produced CD, as opposed to the low-tech cassettes produced by all of his previous projects. While the surf influence wasn’t evident, his talents as a singer and songwriter were startling, after so many years of being known as primarily a lead guitarist rather than a frontman. Some media reviews drew a comparison to Tom Waits, but most fans seem to agree that, while some of the lyrics are similar to Waits’ style, a closer comparison in lyric style would be Bob Dylan.

Bottom Dollar gained much critical acclaim: Wiley won Definitely Not the Opera‘s Big Break contest in 2002, and then won awards from the East Coast Music Association and SOCAN. Tracks from the album received repeated airplay on CBC Radio. The video for the lead single Bottom Dollar Baby was played in rotation on  MuchMoreMusic, and remained in their Top 40 for several weeks. The album was released through the indie-friendly group Sonic, and was eventually picked up for distribution by Warner Bros. Records.

The follow-up High Low was released in 2004, also gaining similar awards and acclaim and The City Destroyed Me was released in 2007.

Though he keeps a relatively low profile, hunkered down in Summerside, PEI, Nathan continues to record independently and remains one of the region’s finest songwriters. His latest – Bandits – was released in 2015.

Liam Corcoran (Two Hours Traffic)

Cassie Joseph & Gabriel Minnikin