Was it Elvis that said, I will have a Bluegrass Christmas without you? Well, if you do not attend this fun evening that is exactly what you will have.

Acoustic Harvest is hosting an evening of Christmas music featuring the Barrel Boys. They are a bluegrass band that does a small December tour of Ontario singing a variety of Christmas songs. I had a short conversation with Nathan from the Barrel Boys and this is what he told me.

The Barrel Boys is a five member band that stared playing together in 2012 and did the bar circuit for awhile. They even had a residency at the Cloak and Dagger on College Street for a couple of years.

They began writing music and since then have come out with 3 full length albums and an Ep. The albums are called, “Mainline”, “Cold Spring”, “Gospel Hour” and “Early On”.

The Band created a Christmas Ep a few back and kept adding a few more songs to their repertoire and decided to create a Christmas tour sp they could continue playing these songs. They would bring other musical friends along to open the show and share the night with.

 When Covid showed up, they switched gears and videotaped 30 minute specials in a traditional Christmas way where people would drop by their place and sings songs together. It was both campy and fun. By the time Covid was over the band found themselves living away from the city in other small towns. So they decided to do a small tour starting in Toronto and then playing in each of their hometowns.

What makes this band works is the simple fact the music is fun, and each member has a turn at the lead vocals which keeps the show interesting. The music usually doesn’t have a drummer, and we rely on our harmonies to carry the song like a rhythm machine. The songs usually come from the human experience. In fact, we do write about our own lives. This is the kind of music that any age could understand and love. It carries a very community-oriented message and connects you together like a bigger family.

The Barrel Boys will be a part of the Acoustic Harvest festival. I will add the information at the bottom of this article. In Toronto you can go to see them play on December 8.2024 at

If you can’t make it out to this show or live near one of these towns, I urge you to discover new music and go check them out. It could be a new tradition around this time of year.

I will also add the Acoustic Harvest schedule so you can discover a variety of different band over the next many months. In fact, if you want a pair of tickets to see the Toronto show, Blast Toronto will be giving a pair of tickets away. Just go to www.blasttoronto.com/contests and sign up to win.

Here are the details for this show.

Sunday, Dec 8th at 8:00pm

St. Paul’s United Church

200 McIntosh Street, Scarborough ON

Advance tickets available at www.acousticharvest.ca