The Ottawa Grassroots Festival Saturday, April 22, 2023 @ 1pm
If you have children in your life, either your own or otherwise, you don’t want to miss this performance by Hey Buster. Sherwood Lumsden and Tom Stewart are neighbours who thirteen years ago started playing for neighbourhood parties in Centretown, Ottawa. They started out doing songs about community and bike riding and ended up evolving to boogers and stinky feet. Their kids and the neighbourhood kids, were in all of their videos that you can see on their youtube channel: https://youtu.be/zBT7hLHrtdo
Hey Buster playing a gig before COVID hit – 2020
Sherwood remembers when they would play at bars on a Sunday afternoon and the parents would be having an “adult beverage” while the kids ran around the bar. Oh the good old days! Today they have revamped their show from rockabilly to a “Friendly Giant” feel, by adding a puppet! How cool is that? Sherwood’s wife is a teacher so they have been able to bring their show into the schools and now, to The Ottawa Grassroots Festival!
Sherwood is a singer-songwriter who works in renovations, while Tom, he says, is a famous rock star from a 90’s band called Furnace Face. A Canadian punk indie rock band, “Slo Tom Stewart”, was a vocalist and the bass player. Now, in their later years, these two friends have formed an entertaining enterprise they called Hey Buster.
They are going to see how this gig turns out before they decide what their next step will be. They were quite busy playing schools and festivals when Covid hit in 2020, and now, three years later, this is their first gig since then. I hope to see them around the Ottawa area this summer because if there was ever a time when we needed our artists, it’s now. The shows during the day on Saturday are FREE. So make sure you bring your kids and your neighbours’ kids for a fun and entertaining day at The Ottawa Grassroots Festival. You can get your tickets for the evening concerts here: www.ottawagrassrootsfestival.com
Laurie Bowen is a freelance music journalist, author and scriptwriter and can be reached at laurielynnbowen@yahoo.ca