HARVEST
SESSIONS
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September 25 - 26
October 2 - 3
At the intersection of writing and music, join us for outstanding Newfoundland writers, musicians, and guest performers from Atlantic Canada. Expect unexpected collaborations and a true sense of community in the heart of Gros Morne National Park.
Sonic Harvest is a rich cultural experience continuing the tradition of Writers at Woody Point — connecting artists and audiences not only through performances but through conversations, friendship, and under the magic of a landscape and community that shows up as a character all its own, now in its coat of fall colours.
Come for the shows, stay for the rest: UNESCO trails, full tables, and a town that treats you like one of its own.
Woody Point Heritage Theatre · Doors 7pm, Show 7:30pm
Still Stealing Genius: Writers at Sonic Harvest with CBC's East Coast Music Hour
Authors Michael Crummey, Jamie Jackman, Maggie Burton, and Matthew Hollett have been commissioned by CBC's East Coast Music Hour to write a new poem for this project. Each poet is then paired with one Newfoundland musician. Mick Davis, Nico Paulo, Jing Xia, and Mallory Johnson were commissioned to write a song using one of the poems as inspiration. Neither knows who their partner is until they are on stage at Woody Point Heritage Theatre. Each pair will be revealed at the moment of performance. The show will be hosted by East Coast Music Hour's Bill Roach.
In collaboration with CBC's East Coast Music Hour
Woody Point Heritage Theatre · 8pm
Logan Richard with special guest Noah Hamilton
One of PEI's most compelling songwriters, making waves across the Atlantic music community. Genre-fluid, deeply personal, shaped by Acadian roots and island life. Five-time Music PEI Award winner and ECMA Solo Artist of the Year 2026. One night only at the Woody Point Heritage Theatre. Hosted by Phil & Gerry from The Once.
Woody Point Heritage Theatre · 8pm
Adam Baldwin with special guest Kacie Callahan
Nova Scotia storytelling at its finest. Coastal characters, working lives, and the grit and warmth of Maritime memory. A songwriter's songwriter, beloved from the Maritimes to the mainland and beyond. One night only at the Woody Point Heritage Theatre. Hosted by Phil & Gerry from The Once.
Singer-songwriter Alec Baldwin has been a mainstay of the Atlantic Canada music scene for over a decade. With his sophomore full-length, Concertos & Serenades, Adam Baldwin - born and raised “inside these imaginary lines” that denote Nova Scotia - offers an east coast testimony that challenges the typical tourism marketing gloss.
Through eight masterful yarns, the songwriter bears witness and pays tribute to a tradition of desperation: sinners and losers, perpetual failures, and down-and-out phantoms that haunt his home’s coastlines and back roads - without a passing judgement. Some of the tales happened, some didn’t, and most walk a tightrope between truth and fiction.
Starting as a member of rock combo Gloryhound before joining Matt Mays & El Torpedo in 2009, Baldwin’s own music has continued to evolve since his award winning self-titled solo debut EP in 2013. In 2016 Baldwin released his first full length album No Telling When (Precisely Nineteen Eight-Five) featuring the singles “Daylight” and “Anytime”. In 2019 he released the follow up No Rest for the Wicked, including “Salvation” and “Dark Beside the Dawn”.
In March 2020, with in person performances impossible due to COVID-19, Baldwin launched his Cross-Country Chin Up concert series, almost every Friday evening on YouTube. In addition to making this weekly opportunity to connect virtually with fans, he also raised funds for the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia, Red Cross Stronger Together Nova Scotia Fund, RCMP Fallen Officer Fund, and the Black Cultural Society for Nova Scotia. The online concert series also produced two digital EPs: Chin Up Sessions (originals) and Songs for the Parlour (covers).
Logan Richard is one of music’s rarest creatures—a compelling and diverse songwriter who also shreds. The PEI-born-and-based artist has been sharpening both skills since he first picked up the guitar as a pre-teen, building a reputation as a deft, genre-fluid songsmith and peerless hired gun for some of Canada’s most exciting musicians. But his new full-length, Character Traits, collects the undeniable evidence of Richard’s talents under his own name as he navigates slick pop, spacey R&B, and soulful folk. As the thesis song and title track attests, he’s a 21st-century renaissance man in both skill and style.
Influenced by his axe-slinging brother, artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Mayer, his dad’s record collection, and his Acadian mom’s fiddle-playing family, Richard hit the stage at just 12 years old, cutting his teeth playing gigs around the island with a blues group filled out by his fellow young peers. He’s built his career as both a solo artist and in-demand live and session player, racking up experience over more than a decade and playing everywhere from dim blues dives to historical soft-seaters. All the committed hours have refined his work with nuances in technique and composition that allow him to express his many multitudes—a predilection that powers and deepens his new record, and reveals the wide scope of Richard’s artistry.
Mallory Johnson is a 4x ECMA (East Coast Music Award) winner, 4x CCMA (Canadian Country Music Award) nominee, and one of the most compelling voices in Canadian alt-country. This genre-bending artist, who has amassed over 1M streams across her catalogue, demonstrates a captivating fusion of dark Americana with her Celtic/folk roots - a sound that takes centre stage on her newly released sophomore album over the party. Produced by Andrew Petroff (Sheryl Crow, Madeline Edwards, Meg McRee), the project showcases her evolution as a songwriter unafraid to confront emotional complexity and creative risk. With a #1 charting position on iTunes Singer/Songwriter albums, five 2026 ECMA nominations, and a recent win for 2025 MusicNL’s Country Artist of the Year, over the party continues to prove that Mallory isn’t just an artist to watch - she’s one to sit with and truly hear.
Her live show is equally noteworthy, having shared stages with icons such as Shania Twain, Alan Doyle, Serena Ryder, and Joey Landreth, and hosting her own songwriter show at the world-renowned Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, TN.
“Mallory took a roaring room to silence with her excellence. There are few artists that innately have this kind of command. What a gift it is to witness artistry at this caliber. Mallory is someone you want to know and remember.” - Jeff Ojeda (Phase Entertainment)
Her critically acclaimed debut Surprise Party earned praise from PEOPLE, CMT, The Boot, and the Toronto Star, and featured the viral single “Married,” which garnered over 26 million TikTok views. The album also took home the 2023 ECMA for Country Recording of the Year, while earning Mallory 6 MusicNL nominations (including a win for Country Artist of the Year) and 2 CCMA nominations for Alternative Country Album and Innovative Campaign of the Year.
(pronunciation: KNEE-COE-POW-LOO)
Nico Paulo is a Portuguese-Canadian musician and visual artist. Her critically-acclaimed, self-titled debut (April 2023) introduced listeners to her melodically dynamic, open-hearted songwriting as she explored the interconnected nature of relationships and the flow of time in lush, sophisticated pop arrangements. Her latest EP, Interval_o (March 2025), finds presence in the process of becoming, celebrating transformational time with intuitive songwriting in warm ambient and minimalist soundscapes. Both records owe their textural intricacy to friend and collaborator Joshua Van Tassel (Bahamas, Rose Cousins).
Paulo moved to Canada in 2014 to pursue her art and music, originally setting down roots in Toronto and installing herself in the city’s vibrant creative community. In the early 2020s, she moved east to St. John’s and became an essential part of Newfoundland’s celebrated music scene. Lighting out from her home base on the island, Paulo has established herself as a spellbinding live performer—warbling, swooning, fluttering, dancing—on stages around the world.
Michael Crummey is the author of thirteen books of fiction and poetry. His latest novel, The Adversary, was the winner of the 2025 International Dublin Literary Award. His work has been published in a dozen countries and has won or been nominated for many Canadian and international awards, including the Giller Prize, the Governor Generals Award, the Commonwealth Prize, and the Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.
His most recent poetry collection, Passengers, was published by Anansi in 2022.
Matthew Hollett is a writer and photographer in St. John’s, Newfoundland (Ktaqmkuk). His work explores landscape and memory through photography, writing and walking. Optic Nerve, a collection of poems about photography and visual perception, was published by Brick Books in 2023. It was shortlisted for the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award, and longlisted for the BMO Winterset Award.
Matthew won the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize, and has previously received the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers and The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem. He is a graduate of the MFA program at NSCAD University.
Maggie Burton lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador though she is originally from Brigus. She is a writer, violinist, mother of four, and medical student. She is the author of one book of poetry, Chores (Breakwater Books, 2023) and one book of short fiction, A Temporary Grace (Breakwater Books, 2026).
Chores received the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize’s Canadian First Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the E. J. Pratt Family Poetry Award, and was awarded a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. In 2025, Maggie was awarded the VANL-CARFAC Critical Eye Award for her writing on visual art by Newfoundland and Labrador artists.
Burton’s writing often explores the social and physical realities surrounding women’s domestic labour, sexuality, and relationships through a queer, feminist, working class lens. Recent work can be found in Riddle Fence and The Fiddlehead.
Mick Davis is a Canadian singer-songwriter & founder of the internationally acclaimed rock group, The Novaks. A near thirty-year veteran of performing, record-making & touring, Mick’s music trek boasts of alliances with Steve Van Zandt & opening dates with KISS, The White Stripes & The Psychedelic Furs. As a guest musician, Mick has performed on stage with Big Sugar, Sloan & The John Prine Band.
Mick is the recipient of numerous MusicNL & ECMA awards. In 2025, Mick earned MusicNL’s prestigious Ron Hynes Songwriter of the Year Award & a SOCAN No. 1 Song Award for his composition “Vibrations”. He lives in St. John’s, NL.
Dr. Jing Xia is an award-winning guzheng artist, composer, producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Newfoundland, Canada. Originally from Hunan, China, Xia began learning the guzheng at age six, developing a practice that bridges traditional Chinese musical languages with contemporary composition, improvisation, and intercultural collaboration.
Her work explores cultural memory, migration, identity, and the connections between sound, place, and human experience. Through composition, performance, and interdisciplinary projects, Xia brings the guzheng into dialogue with experimental music, visual art, theatre, and community-based creation.
Drawing from her experiences as a musician, researcher, and immigrant artist, Xia creates immersive sound worlds that weave together traditional and contemporary approaches. Having performed at festivals, galleries, and concert halls across North America, Europe, and Asia, she continues to explore how music can preserve memories, transform stories, and build spaces for connection across cultures and generations.
Jamie Jackman is a poet, songwriter, and scholar from Happy Valley–Goose Bay, Labrador, whose work is informed by his Inuit heritage and strong ties to Nunatsiavut. He is the author of the chapbook And You Can’t Help But Listen, a collection of poems, sketches, and lyrics.
As lead singer, songwriter, and founding member of ECMA-winning Silver Wolf Band, Jamie blends folk and rock to investigate the intersections of story, place, and song. His lyrics foreground narrative and place-based perspectives, toward creating intimate connections between audience and environment.
Jamie holds a Master’s in Arctic and Subarctic Futures from Memorial University. His research treats songwriting as a way of knowing, investigating how simple songcraft can deepen connection to place and support personal and community wellbeing. He leads songwriting workshops that encourage participants to draw on local knowledge, culture, and personal histories as a foundation for lyric writing.
Megan Samms (they/she) is an L’nu and Nlha7kápmx visual artist, emerging Ancestral Skin Marker, Indigenous agriculturalist, beekeeper, and community worker who, drawing from her varied practices, works collaboratively with mediums to articulate story, messages, and continued dialogue within their respective historic and contemporary place-based contexts.
She’s known for weaving and natural dye work, but uses photo, and performance interventions to remember and triangulate entangled presence and relationality with place and time. Samms is a collaborator and is currently an apprentice in Ancestral Skin Marking with Dion Kaszas, Keith Callihoo, and Jerry Evans. She lives in her home community in one of their two ancestral territories: Katalisk, Ktaqmkuk, Mi’kma’ki, Wabanaki Territory.
Samms shares work in non conventional or non institutional art spaces like abandoned buildings, Land or community spaces; in solo and group exhibitions at Artist Run Centres, as well as at the Rooms provincial gallery in Ktaqmkuk, regional galleries, and at various festivals; Samms was a participating artist in the Bonavista Biennale in 02023 and an Anchor Artist at Nocturne Festival in Kjipuktuk in 02025.
In 2025 Samms administered the Second Wave Ancestral Marking Group Mentorship with mentor, Dion Kaszas; she was a Leighton Independent Artist in Residence (Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity), a TC2 Weaver in Residence (Centre for Research and Innovation and in private studio); and was long listed for the Sobey Art Award (National Gallery).
In 02024, Samms was awarded the Theodore Prize from the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, Wabanakik; in the same year she was nominated for the Sobey Art Award (National Gallery), and for various awards from VANL-CARFAC and was shortlisted for the Craftsperson of the Year.
Samms’ work has been shared in a variety of artful and peer-reviewed publications including the Journal of Creative Cartography from the University of Arizona, Riddlefence Magazine, and Beside Magazine. They have received generous attention from media like CBC, Visual Arts News, and the Globe & Mail.
Megan is the chair of the board of Union House Arts in Port Union, Ktaqmkuk. Their (continued) education is Land, peer-to-peer, and mentorship based.
Sonic Harvest Sessions would not be possible without the generous support of our funders, sponsors and community partners.
Sonic Harvest Sessions is an annual fall festival taking place in October at the Award-Winning Woody Point Heritage Theatre and in the community of Woody Point. Sonic Harvest highlights the diverse and emerging musical and other creative talent in Newfoundland & Labrador, and beyond.
In 2021, Friends of Writers at Woody Point launched the Sonic Harvest Sessions initiative to increase cultural offerings at the Heritage Theatre and Gros Morne National Park outside the primary tourism season and foster live music creation and presentation in rural Newfoundland. Entering its fourth season and to celebrate year of the arts, Sonic Harvest Sessions continues to captivate audiences to experience the intimate magic at Woody Point Heritage Theatre through music, stories, and friends and to enjoy the unique hospitality of the community and town of Woody Point, nestled in the heart of the beautiful Bonne Bay, Gros Morne National Park.
The lineup has featured such talents as The Kalimbas (Ireland), Dennis Parker, Fairgale, Rosemary Lawton, The Catch, Graig Young Trio, Kacie Callahan, Baraka, Glen Tilley & Bill Rose, Pretty Archie, Nick Earle, and the Proper Things.