Despite the fact that he has been a headline rock and roll act for more than four decades, after one gig, he found himself bunking out on the cold hard floor of an office over the bar far away from Cape Breton and his family. He promised himself he would never be away from home again for the holidays.
In that spirit, Minglewood is on tour with his Christmas show but this time all of the tour dates are close to home.
Begininning during the last weekend of November, the Mingle Bells tour started in Parkindale, New Brunswick, visiting Prince Edward Island and mainland Nova Scotia before finishing in Halifax at the Carleton on Sunday, December 18.
Mingle Bells will be making one stop in Cape Breton, at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre Shannon Studio on Saturday, December 10.
This is Minglewood’s first Christmas-themed show and should be filled with as many stories as songs.
For this tour, Minglewood will be accompanied by Dave McKeough on guitar, mandolin, pedal steel and bass. The concert will highlight some great, lesser-known Christmas songs, like John Prine’s “Xmas in Prison”, as well as some traditional tunes, and a few Matt originals like “Home for Christmas Eve”.
Recent performances have taken Cape Breton’s East Coast blues hero as far away as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Egypt, Israel and Afghanistan where he was given the opportunity to entertain the multi-national troops of the United Nations. Another of his recent highlights was playing hockey and performing across Canada with the Legends of the NHL.
Throughout the years, Minglewood has been honored with numerous accolades, music awards and nominations including three gold albums, an honorary doctorate from Cape Breton University, and entertainer of the year from the Maple Blues Society.
Other upcoming Minglewood shows on Cape Breton are the Annual Rack N Roll Boxing Day Bash in New Waterford on Monday, December 26, and the New Year’s Eve party at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre in Sydney on Saturday, December 31. Both of those events are with the full Minglewood band.
