Hal Brolund
For over 15 years, Canadian blues artist Manitoba Hal has been forging a career as one of the country’s most preeminent roots and blues multi-instrumentalists. With 14 recordings under his own name and appearances on countless others, guitarist, ukulele master and singer-songwriter Manitoba Hal is a musical renaissance man.
Known for his deep baritone voice and mastery of his instrument – whether it be on guitar or his trusty ukulele - Manitoba Hal takes his audience from the deep south to the islands with songs that are mournful, hopeful, silly, romantic and introspective. His original songs have become modern classics and his take on standards and popular blues songs of the past have brought him to the forefront of the blues scene. Manitoba Hal has been influenced equally by artists such as Gordon Lightfoot and Stephen Fearing as much as blues forefathers Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. These influences offer a uniquely Canadian sound to Hal’s blues and work to tie together the exceptional prose in his lyrics with grit and spirit of blues music.
