Photos and a review of Strumbellas and School House in Ottawa

[Tom Mtpleasant took the photos and Karen Coughtrey wrote the review. – AC]

Freezing rain warnings weren’t enough to keep fans at home, and the crowd showed up to see The Strumbellas bring their Into Dust tour to Ottawa venue The Bronson with opening guests School House on Saturday, November 15, 2025.

Local Ottawa Folk group School House, named for the house they lived and created music in, got the night off a great start. They started with some of their newer tracks ‘Interstate’ and ‘Towards The Light’ and then shared the story of getting together as a band and discovering the house they lived in was a century old French school house and the incredible journey they’ve been on the last 4 years leading to now opening for The Strumbellas on their tour. They followed this up with ‘Colours’ a song off that first album.

Their music is both beautiful and mellow, and upbeat and catchy, and the inclusion of the harmonica and banjo brings a brightness that although done many times before still feels unique and sets them apart from other folk groups.

This was one of their largest hometown shows and they were thrilled to be playing The Bronson, a venue at which they’ve attended their share of concerts. If the larger than normal early crowd wasn’t enough of an indication, their hometown is proud of them too, awarding them group of the year at the 2024 Ottawa Music Awards and their debut EP was awarded album of the year by Faces magazine.

They are, unsurprisingly, getting noticed elsewhere as well, winning the Mariposa Folk Festival artist showcase and having the festival name them fan favourites. They also won the Boots and Hearts Festival emerging artist showcase. They played The Band’s ‘The Weight,’ for the Ottawa audience, the song that won them that showcase.

They were excited to share that their second album, the songs of which they’ve been releasing one by one, will finally come out in February of next year. They played one of the first songs they released from this album, a love song, ‘Morning Light’ and followed it up with the catchy track ‘Touch Down In Texas.’ They ended the set with a treat for their fans, an unreleased song.

With the freezing rain continuing outside, the crowd was warned before The Strumbellas took the stage that they would need to take care in getting home. The Strumbellas for their part (after opening with ‘Hanging Out In My Head’ and ‘Salvation’) encouraged the crowd to forget their worries. “Whatever is happening outside these four walls, forget about it for now. You have us, we have you,” lead singer Jimmy Chauveau told the audience before the band joined him in performing ‘Hold Me.’

The stage backdrop was simple yet very cool and eye-catching. White wavy lines, like those used to illustrate topography, gave a 3D effect bringing to mind, a flag mid wave, or ocean waves or air currents and a large circular screen located centre stage, reflected the lights with a glow that would make it appear as if Jimmy was singing in front of the sun or moon depending on the mood the band wished to project.

A fun part of the night and one they may have taken from the playbook of fellow Canadian rockers The Arkells, was the playing live of fan submitted voicemails. As a promotional effort for the new album ‘Burning Bridges Into Dust’ (released October 25, 2025) they set up a toll-free phone number earlier this year and if you’re a fan wishing to leave a voicemail, to tell them a joke, a story, something you connect with in their music, you can still call the band at 1-855-HRD-LINE. They followed this up by playing ‘Come Back Around’ from that new album but the song behind the phone number, ‘Hard Lines,’ was played later in the night.

Of course the set contained fan favourites like ‘Shovels & Dirt’ and ‘Young & Wild’ but the band was in charge and would play what they wanted. Keyboardist David Ritter was his usual comedic self as he picked up a banjo and declared that they were going to play a version of ‘Greatest Enemy’ that was different from the recorded version and even though they had received much negative feedback from fans about it , they were going to do it anyway and were not sorry about it.

Ritter continued to get the crowd laughing later in the set when most of the band took a break and he and Chauveau were left alone on the stage to play the beautiful number ‘Running Out Of Time.’ He then continued the bit as intro to ‘Hired Band’ which saw the rest of the band rejoin them on stage.

The band does a great job of balancing livelier music and comedic moments with those that get an audience in their feels with a soupçon of sentimentality and Jimmy did just that, telling a story of sharing ‘Diane’ with his mother and asking the crowd to sing along on ‘The Night Will Save Us.’

One of the many things that make The Strumbellas a unique musical group is the inclusion of the violin and the audience in Ottawa couldn’t get enough of Isabel Ritchie and her violin and chants of “more violin!” could be heard throughout the night. Bassist Darryl James also had fans in the crowd, and got the audience to chant his name too.

The fantastic night of Canadian music ended with a cover of Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn,’ ‘My Home Is You,’ and ‘We Don’t Know.’ Unsurprisingly, they chose to cap off the night with the ever popular ‘Spirits’ before sending the crowd to make their way home bravely and safely in the dark, cold, wet, and icy fall night.

The Strumbellas
Jimmy Chauveau – lead vocals, guitar
David Ritter – keyboards, vocals
Jon Hembrey – guitar, backing vocals
Isabel Ritchie – violin, backing vocals
Darryl James – bass, backing vocals
Miles Gibbons – drums

School House
David Campbell – bass, harmonica
Joel Ryan – guitar
Mitchell Jackson – guitar, banjo
Geoff Lemmon – drums