Saskatchewan – Kolby Clunas

A Cozy Winter as an Artist

As the spring slowly makes its way to Saskatchewan – I wanted to share what I’ve been not so busy with this winter. This winter has been filled with so many good things, one being there was so many bright vibrant northern lights.

Discovered one of my favorite meals to make is fried potatoes and turkey bacon. Low effort.

The winter was filled with tattoos, here’s a little tea kettle on my arm (a last-minute decision). Funny enough, I ended up getting my first non-electric kettle for Christmas a few weeks after I got this tattooed.

My half-done bat tattoo (which is now done – colour and all but I don’t have any great pictures of it).

Playing at the Fox & Barrell (Inglis, Manitoba)

Mid-November I played a little wing night tucked into a corner of the Fox & Barrell.

The Saw

This started and finished pretty quick, but it was cool to do. Just managing to get sound out of it was hard to do.

First Session of Writing Workshops with the Youth

Thanks to Huddle Manitoba, I was able to come to a youth center three times this winter to do writing workshops with some students. These were a new experience for me, but they ended amazingly. A lot of good chats and each student was so thoughtful with their sharing of their writing. It was really an open vulnerable environment.

The Huddle journals that the students got.

Some of the decor.

My first poster for the writing workshops (feels like when I saw my first poster for my music, such a good feeling).

Jethro’s Bites & Brew (Binscarth, MB)

This was a little valentine’s day supper that I sang it; was super fun and Jethro’s is a cute place (that has espresso martinis).

New Guild Guitar

2026 is coming with a new sound, new songs, and new setlist. I am so happy that after trial and error we found a good sound (waiting on a few more pieces of the puzzle to be delivered but overall, we have it pretty good).

Of course, with an electric guitar. this opened up the world of guitar pedals to me (and it’s a slippery slope from one to multiple). Interestingly I somehow ended up with two older Flanger pedals (they make a very niche interesting sound that doesn’t suit my music, so not for me, but somehow there’s two there)

I have so much to learn about all of this but the set up so far is a newer amp, all type of sound altering pedals, and of course the Guild guitar.

This little bear pedal, I did not buy, but it’s what of my favorite ones that I’ve seen so far.

Writing

Of course, I spent most of this winter writing – there is so much I cannot wait to share with everyone, from poems to proses to songs.

The other is a little book of poems and prose called “I Swear to the Garden” which is nature-based poetry I’ve written this winter, while waiting for spring. One poem, Grandmother / Grandfather is available as a spoken word with some guitar in the background on youtube.

I Swear to the Garden, I received the printed copies a few weeks ago, and I am finally putting them out into the world. This little poem book has really encouraged me to keep writing in forms that I typically would not.

I’ve been recording lots of music and trying to improve the quality (well my boyfriend is learning everything so technically he is the one improving things).

Cork and Bone Bistro (Moosomin, SK)

I was close to home playing this little bistro, I loved it. It’s such an intimate show, with folks who stop and listen to you for a while. So sweet.

The pretty set up – I love the lights

Forgot about the crocs here! Well, the green shoes I like.

New Song – Rollin’ with the Big Dogs

I have so much I want to say about this song, but to start the artwork was painted by Luis Gabriel.

There’s a whole different post coming on this one.

There are already some stickers made of this beautiful painting, and some more new merch to come.

Finally, and most recently, I stumbled upon this Fender classical guitar from the 70’s that has a case with bright yellow interior and plays beautifully that I had to call mine. It has an interesting story but found it’s home with me.

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!