A very special concert extravaganza will be held this Thursday night, May 17th, at The Heartwood Concert Hall, featuring some notable music acts and some special added surprises.
We have the world debut of The Rob McLean Trio featuring Rob, Pete Devlin, and Fred Dawson doing a short set of some very cool blues/jazz. Aaron King, relatively new on the local scene and already making a splash as a solo act and with his group "The Hot Dogs From Hell," will do a short solo set and Trevor MacKenzie and some of his talented friends to do the big closing set.

The concert is partly to celebrate the book launch of Robert Menzies' book, a collection of poetry and editorial cartoons called "Outside The Box, Volume 1." The book will be on display and for sale at the show.

Also at Thursday's concert there will be a set by Robert Menzies and his group "The Shruggs." They will perform 4 spoken word pieces with musical backing. His wife, Caroline will join him on one piece, and Esther Gieringer will join the group on a couple more.

Two other very special poets will join them to do a couple of short pieces that night. First there's Kaitlyn Neath. If you've ever heard her you know that she is an amazing and powerful wordsmith and is the future of spoken word and slam poetry in this area and beyond. The second guest poet is local legend Steve Santini, who is probably better known as a former escape artist of international renown. He is a collector of historical memorabilia and he has appeared around the globe with exhibits at some very prestigious museums. Steve is also a gifted poet with a strong social heart. Steve plans to be at the concert and Caroline, along with The Shruggs will be performing one of his tremendous pieces. Robert may also read another Santini piece.

Some surprise guest performers who will pop up here and there throughout the show including Slim Buck 2, (a country swing artist created by local legend, Richard Knechtel) Slim Buck 2 is one of Knechtel's characters from the cable comedy show "That Show" (soon to go to internet... according to the rumours.) Thursday's show will open with a couple of short video clips from the new "That Show" on the giant Heartwood screen. Then the entertainment will continue quickly with a real bang ... Mr. Steven Danard will do a short timboli spectacular that's just plain astounding and fun. All this and more. Come and join the fun.

Tickets are available until Thursday afternoon at Heartwood Home, 2nd Ave. E. in Owen Sound and through ticketfly.com

Tickets may possibly be available at the door Thursday night, depending on sales.