Terra Spencer & Kim Dunn with special guest Mat Hughes

An off-the-cuff invitation in a Charlottetown hotel bar, a shared stage in a Canso rink, and a mutual love for questionable jokes…award-winning performers Kim Dunn and Terra Spencer paired up for a run of intimate shows off the beaten path in early 2025. Following the rave reception from that tour and the easy friendship that quickly grew, they are bringing the Backroads to the main stage.

Ask his fellow musicians and fortunate audiences, and both will tell you that Kim Dunn’s talent is as enviable as it is undeniable. As one of the East Coast’s most respected accompanists and arrangers, he has toured internationally for over thirty years with Rita MacNeil, Laura Smith, Heather Rankin, Bruce Guthro and many others. In the spotlight, he delivers his own well-crafted, heartfelt songs anchored by a soulful pitch-perfect tenor delivery, incomparable musicianship, and sly charm.

Currently nominated for Music Nova Scotia Entertainer of the Year, Terra Spencer has quickly secured a spot in the Maritime songwriting ranks, with four albums released since 2018. Making the unusual leap from life as a small-town funeral director to one of the busiest musicians on the folk circuit, she has kept company with the likes of Ben Caplan, Matt Andersen, and David Francey, who recruited her for his 2024 Juno-winning album ‘The Breath Between’. Butterscotch vocals, deft guitar, piano chops, and her quick wit led to Ron Sexsmith naming her “the real deal”.

Join Kim and Terra for a celebration of new friendships, old souls, favourite songs, and irrepressible laughs.

Mat Hughes

More than singer-songwriter and piano virtuoso, Halifax-based Mat Hughes is a storyteller and performer of unique magnetism who makes each audience member feel like they’re catching up with an old friend. From playing dive bars and DIY house shows to touring across Canada and gracing hundreds of stages in his home province—most recently, the release show for his latest EP at The Stage at St. Andrews in Halifax—he’s quickly made a name for himself as one of Nova Scotia’s most original talents.

For all its foot-tapping, hi-fi instrumentation and subject matter liable to make you laugh out loud—from hot garbage to a bird flown headfirst into a window—Hughes’ third EP “South-Facing Dumpster” may at face value feel like a lighthearted pop album à la John or Joel. Upon closer listening, Mat’s juxtaposition of upbeat melodies and wry, metaconscious lyricism exposes both the absurdity of our contemporary moment and the all-too-human ways we cope with it. Going for a walk to ward off the doom; sticking your head in the sand when the truth is too hard to swallow; mistaking light pollution for a sunrise. These songs teem with the platitudes of a thinly veiled nihilism, each terse line a live wire straight to the vein.

A cohesive continuation yet refined departure from his previous releases, “South-Facing Dumpster” asks what programmed motions steer us through an often-unforeseeable future; how the sun persists in its orbit despite all odds. And how on a road leading nowhere, full of streetlights illuminating nothing, we somehow find a way to enjoy the drive.
https://mathughesmusic.com/bio