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About the Winter Island Tour
After a 5 year hiatus, the Winter Island Tour returns! Matthew Byrne and Sherman Downey will once again bring their unique collaboration to venues across Newfoundland.
Byrne and Downey - great friends and fans of each other’s work - first teamed up in 2015 for a run of small, intimate shows around Newfoundland during the off-season.
“We’re obviously a bit nuts to load up a van and hit the road in February” says Byrne. “But it makes for the most appreciative crowds and people feel like they are part of something special”
The duo approach folk music from different angles - Byrne a traditional singer and interpreter of older material and Downey a contemporary singer-songwriter. The collaboration blends their styles and repertoires in a way that audiences have really come to love. Just as important, though, is the storytelling.
“We’re both born storytellers who love smaller rooms where this works best”, says Sherman. “We give a lot of time to the people and stories behind our songs…and then there’s the foolishness we get on with….so the banter has become an important part of the show.”
Matthew Byrne and Sherman Downey are masterful storytellers with a dynamic stage chemistry and a live show that demonstrates how traditional and modern worlds of folk music can merge seamlessly. But they only come together once a year!