With their banjos, mandolins, dobros, scrap metal pieces and other instruments in tow, Winnipeg’s The Crooked Brothersare trekking across Canada to debut songs from their sophomore CD, Lawrence, Where’s Your Knife? The Kelowna show at The Streaming Café (596 Leon Avenue) will be broadcast online in a free interactive performance at www.streamingcafe.net.

Fri. Sep. 23 @ 8 pm    West End Cultural Center, Winnipeg, MB     $15 at door
Sat. Sep. 24 @ 7:30    Happy Nun Cafe, Forget, SK                         $20 in advance at venue
Sun. Sep. 25 @ 7 pm  Ye Olde Jar Bar, Medicine Hat, AB              $15 at door
Wed. Sep. 28 @ 8 pm General Store, Twin Butte, AB                      $10 at door
Thu. Sep. 29 @ 10pm Northern Bar & Stage, Fernie, BC                  $5 door (w/ Shred Kelly)
Fri. Sep. 30 @ 9 pm    The Royal, Nelson, BC                                   $10 door (w/ Shred Kelly)
Sat. Oct. 1 @ 8 pm     The Schoolhouse, Ymir, BC                           $10 door
Thu. Oct. 6 at 8 pm     Fort Street Café, Victoria, BC                        $10 door (w/ Sparrow King, O’ Mally)
Fri. Oct. 7 @ 9 pm      Café Deux Soleils, Vancouver, BC                $7 at the door
Sat. Oct. 8 @ 7 pm     The Streaming Café, Kelowna, BC             Free

Their Kelowna performance will be streamed live at www.streamingcafe.net. Viewers can send in their questions and comments during the show – making this a truly interactive performance!

The Crooked Brothers are known for their diverse instrumentation, vocal arrangements, and a fascination with the past. Even their name has a contemplative, seasoned aura about it. “The brothers part of our name relates to the archetypical bluegrass, folk, family band idea. We’re essentially brothers every way but biologically,” explains The Crooked Brothers’ Jesse Matas.  “The crooked part is derived from a book we all read called “Ironweed” by William Kennedy. He used the term “crooked” to described people after they’ve died. He says ‘they’ve gone crooked’, or ‘he was all crooked’. It seemed to fit with our band. One of our original goals was to see beauty in everything including death.”

That includes the first song on Lawrence, Where’s Your Knife? The album comes blazing out of the gate with the song “17 Horses”, which paints a historic depiction of hard times during a rural anthrax epidemic in the spring of 1931. “It’s somewhat historical, rooted in a story about a bunch of horses passing away when they were building the Trans Canada Highway through Manitoba’s Whiteshell Provincial Park,” says Matas. The horses had kicked up some naturally-occurring anthrax in the soil, leading to their demise.

Other songs, like “Winter’s Come” tackle the painful end of relationships. “We have a lot of heartbreak songs which are definitely ‘moving’ to yourself when you’re writing them. ‘Winter’s Come’ is about a woman leaving a man to go south, and the man figuring out what to do now.” Matas says two of the band members went through some “pretty heavy heartbreak” while writing material for their new CD.

“This album is a lot more direct in inspiration. These songs are all based on things that really happened,” says Matas. Despite the sometimes heavy subject matter, the CD as a whole is lively, energetic, danceable and entertaining.

To learn more about The Crooked Brothers, please visit www.crookedbrothers.com