Musician – Kolby Clunas

Sunny Sask Tour

Four shows – Four towns – 7 hours of playing.

Before we left home

There was so much packing and organizing to do (I am pro at procrastinating laundry, so laundry day). Top priority was getting my nails done.

Done by Karla (Reflexology by Karla, Langenberg, SK)

Day One: Starting close to home; Music in the Park, Binscarth, MB

A lovely little set in front of a listening crowd. It felt like I haven’t been onstage for awhile so it was nice to have this crowd to start this weekend. These little shows really help put into perspective on what I’ve accomplished in this past year. This time last year I played here and sang The Mountain Lion Song for the first time. We did another photo like the one from last year.

2024 (the album cover of the first live performance of the mountain lion song).

Day Two: The Road Trip Out

The road trip mainly consisted of behind of the scenes work, making posters for shows, doing updates on my website, last minute set list changes, all that fun stuff. I added a piece of Merch this time around (that I plan on continuing) called Pocket Poems. They’re very small (four page) poem books that I hand sewn the spines too. I’m bringing two different issues out – Self Reflections of Twenty-One and The Garden Gnomes Smoke When The Streetlights Turn On. So excited to see how they do in the merch trunk.

We stopped in Moose Jaw to check out the world’s largest moose. On the way here I read through the history of this moose loosing and regaining his title. The information building was cool, I picked up a sticker for my guitar case, and looked at some local art.

We kept driving and hit Chaplin, we explored a little nature center on the side of the road. This was one of the coolest side of the road attractions I’ve hit, it’s right near a salty pond so all the shorebirds hit it on the migrations path for the shrimp that live there.

The amount of taxidermy birds found in this area is astounding.

Morse Museum – Morse, SK

When we got to Morse we hit a little bar to play some pool to kill some time. We got a private tour of one of the graduates from the Morse Museum (it previously was a school until 2009). One of my favorite parts of doing shows is the special opportunities I get to do like having a private tour of this museum. Performance wise this summer has been a lot of first time running into issues (breaking strings, technical difficulties, ect) in Morse when they were setting up the lights once it got dark – the lights blew a breaker. So, it made it extra interesting, but I think I played it off smoothly. I love a classic trailer stage but the cat tails behind me was one of my favorite stage set ups.

They let me jump the fence to get this picture

Another stuffed seagull (this was the 7th I saw in a day)

Day Three: SWT Theatre – Gull Lake, SK

We woke up in Swift Current and started the drive out to Gull Lake, once we got there, we had three hours to kill so we headed to the Eastend Dinosaur Museum. It was cool to see all the casts, and I ended up learning a lot about the history of Sask (never would have guessed there was crocs here at one point). I learnt about Scotty the Dino years ago in school, so it was kind of nice to see him in person. We passed through a small town full of murals, Shaunavon, that had a little coffee shop with the best coffee I’ve ever tasted there.

A little creek we stopped at on our way to the museum.

We headed back to Gull Lake, and it was a pretty quick getting set up and sound check until the show. This was my first theatre I got to play on my own and having my name on the sign was crazy. I discovered a Swift Current movie production company (Dead Prairies Production) which has a movie called “Gorephers”, a horror movie about killer gophers, which is on my list of things I need to watch this winter.

The crowd was smaller than ideal but a vibrant night, and I believe the folks who were there enjoyed it.

Day Four: Cypress Hills Winery – Maple Creek, SK

We started the day in Gull Lake and had a few hours to venture since I wanted to hit the little bookstore, The Yellow Canary, before we left. We hit a little cafe and found an ice fishing shack in someone’s yard that dad wanted to ask some questions about the build of it. Afterwards we did hit the bookstore. Lovely little place, really love the small-town businesses. I bought a book that’s been on my read list for a while and then we hit the road again. We found a little church that turned into an antique store, and I found a throw blanket by Laurel Burch (covered in cats). Had to grab it.

Maple Creek itself was such an old timey cute town. People were so friendly here, like anyone on the street would start chatting. We checked out the two busy streets with all the shops, someone told us that one of the toy stores has the largest collection of puzzles in western Canada – so we had to go and check that out.

The Cypress Hills Winery itself was the cutest little place – a long curvy pathway that bring you to the front doors (where two wooden bear statues greet you). The artwork in the winery was all oil paintings of livestock and wild animals which I always appreciate. I believe this winery is ran mainly by a mother-daughter duo – it was such an experience getting the behind the scenes of how the wine is made and of course trying as many wines as I could in a night. One of the waitresses hoped onstage and sang while I strummed along with her (which is something I want to start doing more, I love when other people take the mic for a while).

What was SO cool was someone from the Cypress Hills Grasslands Area organization came out and took a few videos.

It was a busy weekend, and an even longer drive home the next day but overall Western Sask is such a nice place to be.

July / August Shows ’25

I had two goals this year, which in January, were pretty ambitious goals. The first was to play in all the western provinces and finish in Manitoba. And the second was to hit three locations; lake side, in front of mountains, and to play music in a garden. I can proudly say that both of those goals I accomplished this year. These are my July and August shows, minus the final little tour of MB/SK at the end of August.

~ July ~

Carlton Trail Golf Course – Langenberg, SK

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures or videos of me preforming but this was a tiring day – I got off work and raced to the golf course to play for an hour. It was a good turnout.

Brandon, MB – Lady of the Lake

I have been excited to play at Lady of the Lake for about a year there’s been chitter chatter about it. The photo above is my favourite of me onstage. The staff here were amazing friendly; the atmosphere was so casual and welcoming. I was just coming off of a few weeks of heavy artistic burn out and this show swept my attention back to why I love doing this.

This was the first show I played with my Green Trunk, which holds everything I sell at shows (my music, merch and poems). It felt very fitting for this atmosphere too. Plus, this mosaic truck is the coolest thing.

Russell, MB – The Asessippi Inn

This show was so special because I was playing it with Sam Diores and Shae Rose. It was Shae’s first time performing in 8 years, which after a few weeks of not being on stage I can feel the nerves coming back, and she did wonderful. Sam was belting Adele songs beautifully, she’s always one of my favourite local artists that I look forward to seeing.

Winnipeg, MB

Before I headed to the bar to open for this little karaoke night for “Sip N Bitch” I had a few hours in Winnipeg to kill some time. I started with the Human Rights Muesum (the Cloud Cafe’s dirty chai was great). Once I got to the very top of the building, I noticed the yellow river boats making their way up the river.

I headed down to The Forks (with the intention of going on a boat tour), but I ended up strolling into an art gallery than into a psychic shop. I found a cigar shop, and I happily bought my first Cuban.

Lakeside Grill and Lounge – Round Lake, SK

Round Lake is lovely as always, last year I played at the end of the year summer bash in front of the little ice cream shop, and it was nice to come back. Chris Godwin played right after I did and seeing his stage skills with the audience was refreshing – that’s something I’m still working towards. It was a sweet night. I played the banjo here for the first time in a while.

Spear Lake Art Day – Russell, MB

Spear Lake Art Day was an intense day of running around for me – lots of chatting, lots of new folks, and lots of fun. My dear friend’s daughter, Raya, came up onstage and freestyled while I accompanied her. This chick was rhyming better than I can. I bought a painting by a local artist and had such a blast.

We raised about $150 but the great news is there will be a Spear Lake Art Day 2026. The woman who was one of the organizers for Regina Folk Festival attended and she pulled me aside and made it a point to tell me that when the folk festival started it was four people in the park – so having the smaller turnout we did for the first little art day at Spear Lake, it was successful.

~ August ~

Music in the Garden (Pollinators Paradise) – Saskatoon, SK

One my goals this year was to play music in a garden, which I thought would be an easier goal, but it proved not to be. Until I found Pollinators Paradise YXE. It’s an amazing non-profit group that encourages bringing back Sask’s native plants. Making the poster for this event (all the way back in March) I learnt so much, with the committee’s expertise, about native plants and I’m continuously learning more. I made sure to get my nails done with little lady bugs and bees for my two garden shows I have this year.

Photo Karla (nail tech) took of my nails.

This was also my first sold out show I believe – which was amazing to hear that news. One thing I’ve learnt from last year is I love the smaller intimate venues and this fit right in. So, to celebrate my first sold out show I booked a tattoo.

We got to the city pretty late the day before but I had the opportunity to see some friends I haven’t seen in awhile (pictured is Kyla the dog, who you can see we missed each other a lot).

The day of the show, the location switched to another Pollinators Paradise members garden (incase it started to rain). Jay’s garden had a lovely deck in the backyard and a big fluffy dog, named Bear.

One of the members, brought some Black Eye’d Susans to give away. I found out afterwards she owns a native plant nursery, A Prairie Bouquet – Native Plant Nursery. Afterwards we headed over to another members garden to get a little tour of her garden.

After the garden tour, we started to hit the road home because later that night I was playing in Otthon, SK. It was about a four hour drive from Saskatoon to Otthon.

Otthon Hall Fundraiser – Otthon, SK

Dad and I love this little town, I played here last year, and it was so sweet to see the community come together, for a very small village there was an amazing turn out. Having two shows in one day with a five-hour drive in-between is exhausting but we made it a point to hit Otthon again if we could this year. The old vintage sign with a few overgrown tree’s advertising perogies really sets the tone for the environment you’re walking into – such friendly people.

The plaid & printed skirt was not a planned outfit.

White City Gardening Club – White City, SK

This day trip was packed with exciting stuff. We drove into the city early to do some video shoots for one of my songs (by the lovely Ashdynn Bradley). We stopped in Fort Qu’Appelle on the way to get a photo with the turtle.

Later in the evening we headed to Emerald Park for the show – it was a little private event hosted by the White City Gardening Club for volunteer appreciation. The host (Joy) was amazing kind. This is my first show that I snapped a guitar string when I was playing, which made me a little flustered but the show continued smoothly. I made sure Dad recorded one song to get a live version out on streaming services.

Next week I hit the road to a little Saskatchewan tour, 5 shows in 5 days!

Okanagan tour

Little journal of the tour, plus everything else we did with a weekend in the Okanagan.

Day one: Kamloops

When we landed in Kamloops I did not sleep a wink the night before – it was a rough day. We got our rental car and ran around the city finding equipment for the tour. We grabbed some supper and checked into our little cute motel.

Once we were settled in a little (we had to run back to the music store a few times because the system wasn’t working – every touring musician I’ve talked to has told me you’ll always have one mini heart attack on your first tour. I’m so happy I got mine out of the way on the first day). We met up with a photographer (@threevixonsphotography) and hit a little park to take some pictures. The photographer took us to a little natural sound thing, where if you stood in a certain spot and clapped, the sound would come back as a squeak. It was so cool. We headed back to our motel – it was a very early night for me.

Day Two: Kamloops shows & traveling to Salmon Arm

The day started early with two little busy cafe shows. The first show was at a cafe called The Art We Are. The walls were covered in art and there were raw wood tables all over. It was a very welcoming vibe. We had coconut curry and a breakfast wrap which was delicious. We came out a little early but I found the most gorgeous pair of earrings I had to buy.

The second show in Kamloops was down the street at He Brews Havanas. The vibe of this cafe was a lot more modern and spacious. We snuck into a few shops looking for souvenirs.

We packed up everything and started to hit the road to Salmon Arm. The drive there was so gorgeous. We passed by cliffs and Shushab lake.

When we arrived at Salmon Arm we checked into our hotel right away and went for a little walk. We hit the longest wharf in Canada, and did some hefty birdwatching. We came at the right time to see werbes and some cliff sparrows. It was another early and relaxed night.

Day three: Salmon Arm show and mountain drives.

The show in Salmon Arm was very special, my aunt drove from the other side of BC to come see me play, the cafe was so welcoming, and one of the waitresses came up and sang a song with me. The cafe was Sweet Magnolias, and I was the first musician to play there (which was so cool!!). This is where the “Live In British Columbia” album cover was taken.

Afterwards we drove around town looking for something to do, we found a wall with a pretty mosaic on it so we stopped and took some pictures.

We wanted to go for a drive and see some more nature, so we decided to drive down to Enderby. It was a gorgeous little town and we hit a retro restaurant that served caesars made with pineapple juice (10/10). Afterwards we ended up taking a very off road drive through the mountains following the hydro lines. It was definitely unexpected.

Day four: Canooligans Show & Hiking day

We started the day early and headed to Margaret Falls, it’s a short hike the falls and definitely a must hit. We walked all along the beach for a few hours and chatted with a lot of locals.

We realized we lost track of time and rushed back to our hotel to get ready for the show. Canoe, BC is right on the water so when we got there we walked all along the dock. Canooligans is such a unique little bar. The stages backdrop was my favourite, all old record covers.

Found this “Mayor of Canoe” painting in a gas station.

Day five: The long way to Monte Creek and my first winery experience

We started the day with about a two hour drive from Salmon Arm to Falkland. We stopped at a few little towns along the way for coffee and hit little shops where we could. Falkland was my favourite small little town we hit, the towns famous for the largest Canadian flag. We stopped at a cute shop and bought some fudge from a sweet lady selling it, I found a little spoon ring with a blue heron that I needed to take home.

We had to hustle to the Monte Creek Winery, because I had plans to try to wine before I got there. We did sound check in front of mountains – which the manager pointed out to me it’s shaped like a lion head. The Monte Creek Winery treated us so good, we had lunch and did a wine tasting (I had never done one before). The winery had amazing views. We ended up buying a bottle of blueberry wine – which are all grown in BC. Definitely one of the best wines I’ve had.

Afterwards we headed back to Kamloops and checked into a different little motel. There was a couple drinking outside that we hung out with for a while, while dad and I had some blueberry wine. We called it an early night and flew out the next morning.