For emerging and established artists, getting the word out about upcoming gigs is the secret ingredient for a great show. Real Love Winnipeg recognized this need and now works to build community between music lovers and makers.

To celebrate their tenth anniversary, the concert promotion company is presenting a three-day concert showcase that will run on March 25, 26 and 31 at the Good Will Social Club and the West End Cultural Centre.

Founded by Adam Soloway and Gil Carroll, Real Love started out with a small project called Beach Station Blues, a series of compilation albums filled with tunes that were created by emerging bands in a studio at Winnipeg Beach. From there, the company transitioned to concert promotion and festival planning.

“We started putting out concerts with the bands involved in those compilations, as well as different bands that we met along the way. In 2014, we were asked to do our first festival in Gimli. It all just blossomed from there,” Carroll says.

One of the bands involved in the Beach Station Blues initiative was alt-indie local group Slow Spirit.

“They helped us put out our first album release show at the Good Will Social Club, and it was a very beautiful event,” Slow Spirit singer/bassist Natalie Bohrn says.

The band is included on the lineup for Real Love Winnipeg’s 10-year anniversary concert series. Slow Spirit plans to play their popular tracks, as well as a couple of fresh tunes from pandemic songwriting sessions.

“Real Love has done such a great job connecting the Canadian and the American music community with travels and opportunities to meet people, as well as putting on shows for artists to come to Winnipeg and build a network,” Slow Spirit guitarist/saxophonist Eric Roberts says.

A surprise addition to the show lineup is the inclusion of Living Hour, a band that includes Real Love’s founding members.

“It’s pretty rare for Living Hour to be performing at a Real Love event, because we are so busy promoting opposed to performing, but we thought it would be appropriate to perform for the 10-year event, because it would be special to celebrate how our music developed alongside Real Love,” Carroll says.

For Carroll, one of the major takeaways from working with Real Love was having a well-rounded understanding of the process of coming up with events and making sure everything is alligned.

“By booking a lot of shows and focusing on our music scene, we always try to make opportunities for up-and-coming artists to put together their own show or open for another band. We have learned a lot throughout the years about how to put a build together or the best venues for a certain type of music. We are very lucky to have this gig,” Carroll says.

For more information about the 10-year anniversary shows, visit reallovewpg.com.

Published in Volume 76, Number 20 of The Uniter (March 10, 2022)