This year, Toronto’s annual Winterfolk Blues and Roots Festival will go virtual.
We have decided to chat with some of the artists that are set to perform on the 19th instalment of this prestigious festival. First up, we had a chat with Suzie Vinnick, who will perform on February 19.
Check out her album, Shake the Love Around below, and find out more about Suzie via our mini-interview.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Suzie Vinnick and I am a Juno-nominated Roots & Blues vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter originally from Saskatoon SK, now based in Wainfleet in the Niagara region of Ontario.
You will be taking part in the upcoming 19th edition of Winterfolk, how does it feel to be a part of such a long-running festival?
I’ve played Winterfolk a bunch of times over the years and I’m very grateful to have been invited to be a part of this year’s virtual edition.
This year, Winterfolk will be virtual for the first time, due to the ongoing Pandemic, does this change your strategy for preparing your set?
I’ve been doing streaming shows since the beginning of the pandemic so I tried to mix my Winterfolk set up with some of my fan favorites for new listeners and a few tunes that I don’t regularly play to shake things up a bit for my regular listeners.
What can someone who has yet to see you live expect to see from your performance?
They can expect some big vocals, some bluesy acoustic guitar, roots and blues music, and a song or two featuring electric bass and voice thrown in.
Last but not least, how have you been keeping creative during the Pandemic?
I’ve been doing a weekly online stream since the end of March 2020 on a website called www.StreetJelly.com (www.StreetJelly.com/suzievinnick is my personal page there). I’ve had a great group of fans tuning in weekly and have been inviting them to make musical requests so I’ve been learning some old country, folk, classic rock cover tunes, and more! I’ve enjoyed adding all of these songs to my repertoire and it’s been helping me to stretch a bunch musically which has been fun. I haven’t been doing any songwriting but hope to dig in a bit more in the coming months.