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Menno Versteeg

@mennovers

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aspiring florist, soup lover, dad jokes. @royalmountainrecords @hollerado @anywaygangmusic are the music things I do too

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Saskatoon!! we are coming to do a show in your city for the first time in seven years. And I think possibly the first time we have ever played anywhere that is not Amigos.
Imagine that! I didn’t even know there were other venues there.

Ottawa - we basically play there every weekend because we love it and all our families come and hang out. So we are doing it again in September!

Saskatoon / Sept 12 @capitolclubyxe
Ottawa / Sept 26 @soundscapeottawa

Full ticket info on Hollerado.com / link in bio by @mennovers

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2 months ago

heres a video of me totally pretending I’m reading this book. I did read it though, just before, and I loved it a lot.

It’s about trying to stay healthy/sane and also be an indie musician. Not always the easiest combo. One of my favourite writers, @mikehilleary did an absolutely incredible job on this difficult topic. Each chapter explores the experience of a different artist. The accounts are raw, insightful, funny, strange and a bunch of other things you don’t expect. There are chapters from some of my all time favourite art - @sharonvanhalen, Jim Adkins from @jimmyeatworld, Linnea Eg @ellissongs, and I got to contribute a chapter somewhere in the middle too.
Thanks Mike for making me sound more coherent in your pages than I do in real life, and thanks for tackling this important topic with no BS and a boatload of empathy.

Check out Sound Minds by Mike Hilleary, out now on @utennpress ❤️🤙❤️ by @mennovers

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2 months ago

Because the show is always better when sharing the stage with @mennovers 🤘 thrilled to have ya this Saturday at @base31pec !!!! Get out there 💙 tickets in bio taken in Picton, Ontario by @mennovers

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2 months ago

Sorry, Buffalo! Climate change is real.

if you’re looking for something fun to do tonight - @thesloppyboys are playing @recroombuffalo!! It’s indoors and we just might see ya there! ❤️🤙❤️ by @mennovers

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3 months ago

Good news Buffallo! We’re playing a free show tomorrow at Fountain Plaza! With our friends @amateurhockeyclub and @eliza.niemi! Show starts at 5pm - we’re on at 6:30. Then we’re all going to eat chicken wings (which we invented in 2007) and everyone is invited. 🍗 🎸🤙 by @mennovers

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3 months ago

I posted a couple of memories that popped up because the first time @hollerado played at edge fest was 15 years ago this week. I had so many notes from friends who said they were there even before we knew them so I figured I’d post some crowd shots to see if anyone can find themselves. Where’s Waldo? by @mennovers

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3 months ago

Anyone who has watched my Dad clap along enthusiastically at a concert can attest that he has the rhythm of a dryer full of wet sneakers. My dear Mum doesn’t sing in public, but in private she carries a tune like a high jumper holding a bowl of soup.

I inherited both of these traits.

Thank god, as a kid, they always had great music playing. Bob Dylan the car, Emmylou in the house. Sunday mornings blasting Handel’s Water Music as I learned to scramble eggs, and U2’s Rattle and Hum as I did my after school chores. I learned to love all sorts of music, and although some “natural talent” would be nice, you get what you get. I really had to work at it to become a competent (at best) musician.

Ask any one of my bandmates. Working with me can be quite challenging in this department. And I find cover songs especially difficult. Hollerado fans may notice that whenever we do one, it’s always @nixonboyd (who just put out a great solo record last week!) singing. He’s one of those musicians who can play and sing a song note for note, the first time hearing it, before it even gets to the chorus.
So, during the first months of Covid hobbies, I decided to learn to play AND sing some cover songs. It did not go well.

When things loosened up, I called up Nixon and he, with the patience of an undiscovered planet, showed me the correct chords and held my hand up and down the dark stairways of the melodies. ‘Cause not much else was going on, we recorded them in an afternoon. We liked how the Johnny Nash cover was sounding and at the time, Nix was working on a record with @deannapetcoff . Deanna is one of my favourite artists, and she came in early one day and sang with me on that song. You could add Deanna’s voice to a sheet of plywood, and it might pass for The Eagles.

After, we played her the version I did of Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces”. We were gonna try that one next.
She sounded so incredible doing it on her own, so we took out my vocal entirely and she showed us what’s what. We decided to include both versions on this record, ‘cause that’s fun, too.

The second slide is the cover art I painted for some cool kids who told me what their favourite animals were. by @mennovers

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3 months ago

Good times on the Euro BTII anniversary tour! by @mennovers

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3 months ago

There is still a payphone in the strip mall in Manotick, Ontario. It’s where we used to hang out as aspiring juvenile delinquents. There was a video store called Videoflicks and a Mac’s Milk, that sold 5 cent candy. This was the age when summers lasted a hundred years. We would just stand around there, leaning on the wall, like our bikes leaning on their kickstands. The older boys would teach the younger ones how to do bottle tokes and then we’d go jump on the river and get ear infections. Kinda makes me wanna to the river right now and throw my cellphone off the bridge.

I wrote a song about that time, and I named it Videostore.

To celebrate the first face melting, (planet melting) heatwave of summer 2026 I thought I would post a video I made last February with my friend @m__mclaughlin , on what was maybe the coldest day of the year. The guitar would not stay in tune, and I love that about this.

I’ve always loved things that are perfect because they are not.

Full video on youtube at Link in bio

Shows with @billybraggofficial start Saturday @festivaljazzmtl , and I could not be more jazzed. by @mennovers

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3 months ago

It’s just a week now before I head to Nova Scotia to begin my North American tour, finishing in Vancouver on the day of the World Cup Final. Doubt I’ll get to see any of the matches, but I hope to see some of you as I cross Canada and the upper US. Pleased to announce that I’ll be joined on different dates by @CarsieBlanton, @SweetPetuniaBand, @ThatEvanGreer & @Mennovers.

bb

🎟️ billybragg.co.uk

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Wed 17 Jun - Halifax, NS - @LighthouseArtsCentre
Thu 18 Jun - Halifax, NS - @LighthouseArtsCentre
Fri 19 Jun - Saint John, NB - @ImperialTheatre
Sat 20 Jun - Moncton, NB - @TideAndBoarMusic
Mon 22 Jun - Waldboro, ME - @TheWaldoTheatre
Fri 26 Jun - North Adams, MA - @SolidSoundFest
Sat 27 Jun - King Of Prussia, PA - @RiverRoadsFestival
Sun 28 Jun - Red Bank, NJ - @TheVogelNJ
Tue 30 Jun - Hudson Valley, JY - @CityWineryHV
Fri 3 Jul - Orillia, ON - @MariposaFolk
Sat 4 Jul - Montreal, QC - @FestivalJazzMTL
Sun 5 Jul - Kingston, ON - @TheSpireKingston
Tue 7 Jul - London, ON - @LondonMusicHall
Fri 10 Jul - Bayfield, WI - @BigTopChautauqua
Sun 12 Jul - Winnipeg, MB - @WinnipegFolkFestival
Tue 14 Jul - Quebec, QC - @FestivalEteQC
Fri 17 Jul - Ottawa, ON - @OttawaBluesFest
Sat 18 Jul - Vancouver, BC - @VanFolkFest

#billybragg #canada #usa #ontour by @mennovers

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4 months ago

Here’s a wild one.

So the last time @hollerado toured Europe and uk we were supporting @sum41 . It was almost 10 years ago. I remember my old bud @officialconemccaslin who plays bass in that band texted me one day and was like we have a long tour of Europe coming up, do you guys wanna come with us? And I was like heck, yes please. It was one of the most fun ones we ever did. Over 20 shows. Brixton Academy, Zenith in Paris, Finland, Sweden, a crazy one in Moscow where the crowd set fire to the mosh pit, and after we drank 30 cent shots of vodka and made some dear friends for life.
That was 9 years ago.

Fast-forward almost a decade to yesterday when I arrive at my hotel in London. (I’m starting the tour a couple days before the rest of the gang because I have a show in Manchester tonight).

When I got to my hotel, I was told I could not check in because the person in my room got a late checkout.

I waited in the lobby for like 20 minutes and then the man at the desk says - here comes the guy that was in your room - so it should be ready soon. I looked up and no shit it was Cone in my room. He was DJing the emo night down the street and was about to head back to Toronto - probably on the same plane that took me here.

Like what the absolute hell are the odds of that?? Same guy who put us on the last tour of uk and Europe, had my room in a London hotel immediately before me on the day I arrived to start the very next tour that we are doing there.

I’m no mathematician but that’s gotta be like 1 in a 100!!

We play @thelexingtonlondon on Thursday. Tickets at Lincoln bio.

Here’s a pic of me and Cone from yesterday and then a bunch of pics from that really fun tour in 2017. by @mennovers

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4 months ago

Last time we toured Europe, Dean got stuck in falsetto for like a week. Crossing our fingers for more of the same this time. First show is this Thursday in London. @thelexingtonlondon. by @mennovers

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4 months ago