The Halifax Urban F0lk Festival returns for its 9th year at The Carleton and is over the moon to present best-selling author and musician  Tom Wilson‘s Beautiful Scars show at The Carleton, along with Halifax’s own Gabrielle Papillon, on Monday, August 27th. Show time is 8 PM and tickets are $25, available at TicketPro HERE.

It’s hard to imagine anyone more worthy of the term “artist” than Tom Wilson. A fixture on the Canadian music landscape since the early 80s with bands The Florida Razors, Junkhouse, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings and his most recent project, LeE HARVeY OsMOND, he’s also an accomplished painter and can now add best-selling author to his resumé with the publication of Beautiful Scars, the story of his adopted self’s discovered Mohawk heritage.

Tom brings his Beautiful Scars show – a literary recital – words and music – to Halifax and HUFF for this very special show. Don’t miss a chance to see a true creative at the height of his considerable powers.

“When you come to your knees / when you hold what you need / you will know what to keep,” sings Gabrielle Papillon near the end of her sixth, most adventurous album. Hear it as a promise, hear it as a mantra, hear it as a weary warning from someone who’s been there—the sweeping and heart-piercing Keep the Fire is packed full of thoughts like this, wise and poignant, empathetic and understanding, open to interpretation.

Papillon’s music, too, is now open to interpretation—though it remains confidently, almost nonchalantly rooted in folk strumming and gentle vocal phrasings, on Keep the Fire she has embraced her pop leanings and pushed them to the forefront. The songs pulse with strings and drama, keys, and evocative percussion that combine for surprising left-turns, the kind of thing you’d find on a playlist between Florence Welch and Thom Yorke, bold without sacrificing emotion.