Opry Gold brings toe-tappin' tunes to Burlington Performing Arts Centre

NEWS RELEASE
WAY-TO-GO PRODUCTIONS
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To share the Opry’s history is to share the story of Country Music. Canadian songbird Leisa Way and her all-star Canadian cast of award-winning musicians are guaranteed to give audiences a show to remember.

Under the direction of Academy Award-nominated composer and musical director, Hamilton’s own Bruce Ley, Opry Gold raises the roof, celebrating revered country legends and the contemporary artists who have topped the charts and followed in their footsteps.  And you can see Opry Gold with Leisa Way & The Wayward Wind Band live at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1 (five concerts to choose from).

Way and her band have brought Canada many great concerts, including last year’s world premiere of Early Morning Rain (The Legend of Gordon Lightfoot) which debuted this year on Lightfoot’s own stage in Orillia the very week of his passing, and audience favourite, Across the Pond (The British Invasion). 

Way’s Canada 150 concert toured to 44 cities across the country, and Sweet Dreams (Patsy Cline), and Rhinestone Cowgirl (Dolly Parton) which sold-out at BPAC in February, are critically acclaimed and well-loved by audiences everywhere.  And now, Way celebrates the legendary stars of the Grand Ole Opry by raising the roof with the hottest country songs from the last few decades,

The Grand Ole Opry began as a simple radio broadcast in 1925, and is now a live entertainment phenomenon. Opry Gold takes the audience on that journey, when Nashville’s radio station WSM became the first all country music station featuring stars like Bill Monroe, and The Carter Family, through the rise of stars like Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, to today’s great country stars like Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, and The Zac Brown Band.

The show's creator, Way (who was recently awarded the Toronto Musician of the Year award and graced the cover of International Musician Magazine) grew up in northern Ontario, surrounded by country music.  She spent six years in the Maritimes starring as “Anne” in Anne of Green Gables at the Charlottetown Festival, and spent the next 25 years touring the country in musicals and plays. 

With Opry Gold, Way returns to her roots. As a child, she remembers tuning in to shows like The Tommy Hunter Show and Ronnie Prophet Show – both TV shows that her musical arranger and pianist, Bruce Ley, happened to be the piano player on! 

Ley is originally from Hamilton, and began his career in local Hamilton bands such as The Pharaohs, Brass Union and The Rising Sons, who opened for The Rolling Stones at Maple Leaf Gardens in the late 1960s.

Way’s multi-talented band includes Ley, Fred Smith on guitars/banjo (who has shared stages with Vince Gill, The Supremes and Chuck Berry), Broadway star and bassist, Bobby Prochaska (The Buddy Holly Story), guitarist Brant Garratt (Duke Street Turnaround), fiddling sensation Alex George (Natalie McMaster) and Toronto big band player Don Reid on drums. When these fellas vocalize, the audience is treated to world-class harmonies and solos.

Leisa Way’s Opry Gold delivers audiences some of the very best of classic and new wave country, with a heapin’ of good-natured fun!

Opry Gold plays at the Burlington Arts Centre from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1.

Tickets can be purchased online or by telephone at 905-681-6000 or www.burlingtonpac.ca.

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