Winnipeg band taking holiday album on tour of small Manitoba communities

Nearly three years to the day after releasing a holiday album during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Winnipeg band is finally going on tour of rural Manitoba.

It’s Red Moon Road’s way of giving back to the small communities where they got their start.

“It feels great to be able to take it to places outside of the urban centres and bring it up to folks who are living in rural situations,” said Daniel Péloquin-Hopfner, one of three Red Moon Road members.

“As someone who grew up in a small village, it means a lot to bring music into places that don’t necessarily have access to that sort of thing on a regular basis.”

The trio of Péloquin-Hopfner, Sheena Rattai and Daniel Jordan hit the road Thursday for six shows.

Jordan says it’s important for the band to always return to their roots.

“We always joke that the key to being big is go to small towns,” he said. “But what we actually really mean is that we love being part of communities. So to take music back there, we have friends and inspiration, is really meaningful to us.”

“The show will be a little bit of a combination of traditional holiday tunes and our original music that we released over the last couple years,” added Rattai.

The band plays in Kenora, Ont., before embarking on the rural Manitoba leg of the tour, with stops in Carman, Manitou, St Pierre-Jolys and Portage La Prairie. There’s also a sold-out Winnipeg show.

“There are incredible artists all over the rural landscape in Manitoba, Prairies and across Canada,” said Péloquin-Hopfner. “Bringing music out to rural communities is sort of just bringing back to them what they may have given to the urban centre. Because a lot of people who are trying to make a career in the arts end up having to move to Winnipeg or Brandon – larger urban centres – in order to facilitate their career.

“For me, bringing music back to smaller villages is really just bringing back what they gifted to the larger Canadian artistic landscape.”

The band members say they’re also excited to perform a trilingual show, with classic carols sung in French, German, and English.

Red Moon Road added three new songs since the original release of “A Simple Kind of Christmas” in 2020.

“We’re really excited about that,” said Jordan.

The band is also liking the release of the album on vinyl.

“We think it looks pretty cool on the clear red,” Jordan said. “There’s something that’s sort of nice in this digital age to have something that’s so clearly analog and old school, so we’re pretty excited about that.”

WATCH: Red Moon Road shares how to still enjoy holiday records without a record player

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Rattai hopes for connection during the tour, especially following the last few years of separation.

“I hope that when people leave the show their takeaway is that they’re just feeling uplifted and maybe a little more in the holiday spirit or just connected to one another, connected to themselves,” she told CityNews. “That’s always what I want. I want the music that we make to connect people to their own selves and to each other.”

Tickets for any of the shows on tour can be purchased here.