Starpainter w/ Carter Felker and Glass Hand Family Band

STARPAINTER

"I live on the last road at the very edge of Lethbridge," says Starpainter's bandleader Joel Stretch. "It's easy to head out into the country from where I live. That kinda sums up the Starpainter mindset musically: we're a town band, but we drift off into country tones any time we want."

Connecting the dots between cinematic folk, fuzzy country rock, and richly textured pop, Starpainter has been a bright light in Alberta’s indie scene since 2019. Composed of stellar members of Lethbridge’s music community (Joel Gray, Mickey Hayward, Dylan Wagner, Bailey Kate, and Tyler Stewart) and led by Joel Stretch’s assiduous songwriting and plaintive voice, Starpainter highlights meaningful, everyday moments with tender care. Since releasing their sophomore full-length, Rattlesnake Dream (2023), they've played shows and festivals across Canada and Japan and evolved from a four-piece to a six-piece, inviting their sound to travel further afield.

For their new album, Cayenne Flowerbed (2026), Starpainter teamed up with producer Chris Dadge, known for his collaborations with Alvvays and Chad Vangaalen. Dadge’s adventurous taste and irreverent pop sensibilities are a perfect complement for Stretch’s deep-rooted songs, and the album is lush with bright acoustic guitars, searching slide guitar, and idiosyncratic percussion. Equal parts indie-twang and indie-rock, Starpainter’s latest invites you to rest into its reflections on routine struggles and joys.

CARTER FELKER

Intricacy is often overlooked when accompanied by the sort of plain-spoken straight talk fashioned by Calgary singer-songwriter Carter Felker. Evoking the memory of such luminaries as Clark, Van Zandt and Prine, Felker’s nimble self-accompaniment neatly underscores the raw, universal themes he brings to life with his reedy tenor.

Possessing an innate ability to weave no-bullshit narratives that speak to the genuine travails of the hard done by, Felker’s latest LP, Even The Happy Ones Are Sad is a sublime interpretation of the underground country and folk sounds of the early to mid-1970s. Felker has the common touch, introducing audiences to a litany of born losers who still have enough pride to stand their ground, to take care of themselves and their loves, and keep digging through the hard luck, always in the hope that good fortune might be found a little deeper down.

GLASS HAND FAMILY BAND

Glass Hand Family Band: A Simple Story. Heady Jams and A Musical Family. The drifting sounds of prairie winds and a steel guitar.

Our family includes members both past and present from the local sounds that include Shooting Guns, Shirley and The Pyramids, Ancient Pig, Extra Flavour and Raeburn.

“Shall We Go You And I? Through The Transitive Nightfall Of Diamonds?” 

Country-Western Psychedelia For The Flower Punk Generation.