Through musical connection, Luke Wallace conjures hope at the Kay Meek Arts Centre, October 22 to 24
The veteran folk songwriter mixes musical warmth and political urgency to forge new approaches to the world’s biggest shared challenges
Luke Wallace.
The Kay Meek Arts Centre’s Cabaret Series presents Luke Wallace from October 22 to 24
IF YOU’VE BECOME used to thinking of folk musicians as wistful people singing quietly about their own troubles, an evening at one of Luke Wallace’s performances will be enough to remind you of the genre’s rousing firebrand roots.
The Vancouver-based songwriter and guitarist blends a love of the land with a commitment to political justice in ways that recall the fiery, era-defining work of figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. And like those legends, Wallace’s witty, genial presence illuminates his clear belief in music’s power to inspire the changes needed to meet our heaviest environmental and social challenges.
With deeply melodic arrangements behind an assured and buoyant voice, Wallace’s latest album, The Dandelion Resistance, shows why he was a featured performer at the United Nations Water Conference a couple of years ago. For more than a decade now, Wallace and his guitar have been on a mission to replace cynicism and apathy with hope and the sense of open solidarity that shared musical moments can create.
If you’ve had enough of the doom-scrolling and alienation that our online culture runs like an economy, you may consider looking for other, brighter options at one of the three shows Wallace will be playing at the Kay Meek Arts Centre from October 22 to 24. 
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