Latent Recordings Celebrates 35 Years via Toronto Concert Series with Cowboy Junkies, Skydiggers, Lee Harvey Osmond

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Feb 22, 2017

Believe it or not, Latent Recordings — the label started by Cowboy Junkies' Michael Timmins and Alan Anton — is celebrating quite the milestone the year, as the imprint will be marking its 35th anniversary. And since reaching the age of 35 in the world of music is quite the accomplishment indeed, Latent will be launching a special live concert series to mark the occasion.

Dubbed Latent Lounge, the series will be taking place at Toronto's Monarch Tavern, which will host a run of special shows beginning next month. On deck for the series are Latent artists past and present, such as Cowboy Junkies, Skydiggers, Lee Harvey Osmond, Jerry Leger, HarpAcash & the Morals, Latent alumni Ivy Mairi and special guest Thompson Wilson.

These aren't your run-of-the-mills shows either, as each evening will include a special set of Latent Recording artists and friends joining each other for a collection of themed cover songs. These include cover sets dubbed Coney Island Baby (the songs of Lou Reed), Dead Heroes (the songs of David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Johnny Thunders, Joe Strummer and more), To Love Is to Bury (songs from Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Session) and Canadiana (favourite songs by Canadian artists).

You can see all the dates and performers listed below. As you'll see, the show on April 5 doubles as a release party for Jerry Leger, whose Nonsense and Heartache is due out on March 31 via Latent. (He also has a series of other tour dates in support of the new album that you can find here.)

Timmins, who started Latent Recordings with Anton way back in 1982, had this to say in a statement to Exclaim! about the series:

We are looking forward to using Latent Lounge to showcase some of the younger artists that we have been working with, in some capacity, over the past few years, people like Jerry Leger, Ivy Mairi, HarpAcash & the Morals and Thompson Wilson. We will also be using the residency to present new material from Cowboy Junkies, Skydiggers and Lee Harvey Osmond, who are all working on new albums to be released in the next year.

Reflecting on Latent's long history, he also said about the label's early beginnings:

We found that the indie label scene in Canada was very undeveloped relative to the UK and U.S. scene. I think we were one of the few artist-run labels at the time, and there was very little infrastructure to support a true independent. So we cobbled together a very loose association of indie distributors in order to get our album in to independent record stores across North America and in to the hands of reviewers and college radio stations.

And the rest, as they say, is history — and one well worth celebrating.

You can purchase tickets to the shows here. The series is in part sponsored by Exclaim!

Latent Lounge concert series at the Monarch Tavern:

03/22 — Lee Harvey Osmond, Thompson Wilson and Coney Island Baby
03/29 — Cowboy Junkies, HarpAcash & The Morals and Dead Heroes
04/05 — Jerry Leger (Nonsense and Heartache Album Release Show), Ivy Mairi and To Love Is To Bury
04/12 — Skydiggers, Jerry Leger and Canadiana

Tour Dates

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