Esther Pennell & David Laronde

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Esther Pennell is a Mi’kmaq singer songwriter living in North Bay Ontario. As a solo performer sheaccompanies herself on banjo. In a non-traditional style all her own, she has made a name forherself as an innovator in the Folk musiccircles if Northern Ontario and Montreal Quebec.

Esther is a prolific songwriter with 3 full length albums of her original musicreleased since 2016. Her newest album wasrecorded with and produced by well known local artist Peter Cliché.This album, BIG DREAM,was released at the beginning of 2020 and has been a great success.

Esther’s music is infused with lyrics that evoke deep emotionand a genuine understanding of what it means to be human. Esther’s music connects with her heritage and a profound love of the natural world. Songsfilled with honesty, emotion and feminine resilience are her gift to her audience. She sings from the heart with a voice that is both haunting and full. She has a quality to both her music and voice that has been compared to Joni Mitchel and Sarah McLachlan.

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DAVID LARONDE is a contemporary Indigenous singer-songwriter performing original folk, rock and blues.  He hails from Teme-Augama Anishnabai (Deep Water People) in beautiful Northern Ontario.   With the David Laronde Band, or solo, he delivers an energetic and soulful  performance.

His Debut CD, "Right City Wrong Town" was nominated Best Blues CD by Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards 2013. 

David’s storytelling is a fresh take on heartbreak, loneliness, love, hope and joy with a cool summer breeze in the background.  His music transcends an urban influence and the mystical magic of his homeland and its ancient people.  In the songwriting is an ever-present backdrop of natural forces of nature.....wind, water and waves. 

Direction home and a re-rooting of personal beliefs inspired the writing of "Under the Raven’s Wing” in 2015.  This homecoming took shape as a healing and deeply personal writing and recording project defining David as a gifted contemporary indigenous songwriter and singer.  His music makes the transition from folk to rock to blues seamlessly as the songs “get personal” one minute with Can’t Take You With Me or Brothers and Sisters and then “exploding into universal themes” like Northwind Track and Whispering Wind painting the scenery for the journey home.  This music seems to navigate universal mysteries and personal journeys and roll them into a single song that just has to be shared with you. 

In 2021 David’s songwriting got rolling again with a third album entitled “I Know I Can Fly”.  He was inspired by a desperate need to respond to escalating numbers of teen suicides, single mothers and unjust incarceration statistics in Canada.  These are modern paradoxes affecting Indigenous people across the country and we need to act to do something David says.  One Last Time, Right Here For You and Leonard tell these stories in truthful, eye opening accounts.  A personal need for spiritual freedom is evident as David’s journeyman songwriting matures to untested places in I Know I Can Fly, Footsteps and Run With My Father. Freedom is a personal mind-set claims David and requires an accompanying soundtrack. The recorded songs feature a vocal maturity and a very interesting musical sensibility. To counter the serious side of the album a few toe-tappers like Gonna Be Alright (David’s Covid song) and Where Are You This Christmas were deliberately injected.   Finally the time transcending ancestral gem I Need You ties us back through time to our forerunners in an upbeat and nature driven tribute song.