Fortunate Ones are Andrew James O’Brien and Catherine Allan. Their earnest blend of acoustic folk/pop and roots, bare-bones arrangements and delicately precise harmony allows for the intimate musical conversations that make their performances so special.

Most Canadian music fans are aware of St. John’s, and the hyperactive pub scene that has produced so much music and theatre over the past two decades.

Less known is Corner Brook, Newfoundland’s other city, the sturdy west coast blue-collar mill town situated at the base of a breath-taking fjord. It is a city of contrasts – the town and economy is built around a huge paper mill, there are no colourful row houses or winding lanes, and it is rarely featured in the province’s popular tourist ads. On the other hand, it boasts a site rich in natural beauty, and it is the gateway to Gros Morne Park, the Island’s natural treasure. In winter it becomes a city of skiers and snowboarders filling the surrounding pine-hills and valleys with the energy of outdoor sports. And above the city sits the Grenfell campus of Memorial University, home to the province’s school of Fine Arts. In the past decade, this school has become a wellspring for artistic creativity, and now Corner Brook’s millwrights and lumbermen have been joined by a growing population of dreamers.

It is this city that gave birth to the Fortunate Ones.