Tunes on the Town North Sydney - Carmen Townsend and Rob Murphy

Aug 4, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Cape Breton’s Carmen Townsend is a 4 time Music Nova Scotia Award-winning artist and has most recently picked up an ECMA for Rising Star Recording of the year. She was named Best Female Artist by local Coast Reader’s and was also invited to take part in National Hockey Day where she shared the stage with Dave Bidini, Sarah Harmer and Chris Murphy (Sloan). Upon releasing her debut album in January 2011, she was selected to be the opening act for Heart’s cross-Canada tour and has also shared the stage with INXS, showcased internationally at SXSW, The Great Escape Festival and Liverpool Sound City. She also spent 11wks in Australia and performed at The Woodford Folk Festival as well as The Peats Ridge Festival. Ms. Townsend is currently writing her 2nd release and will be travelling to New York City to co-write with Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jesse Harris. Her self-penned “Without My Love” was also featured on ABC this summer in a television series. Carmen’s first single will also be featured on “Lost Girl” and in the indie film ” Love Me”. She was selected out of hundreds of entries as a semi-finalist for the She’s The One Emerging Female Contest at the Ottawa Blues Festival. Ms. Townsend has also performed with the Halifax local Jubilee Swing Orchestra and a future album collaboration with John Wesley Chisholm is in the works. Carmen was also featured at this year’s Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival and Celtic Colours.

” If Rock and Roll was walking down the street …it would be wearing a Carmen Townsend T-Shirt”

– International Bluesman, Matt Andersen.

Rob Murphy

Rob Murphy is a Singer / Songwriter from Cape Breton Island and is known for his raspy vocals and heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics. Rob’s raspy weathered vocal style can easily show influences from the likes of Johnny Reid, Jason Isbel, Blue Rodeo and The Band.

Originating from the small town of New Waterford, Rob began playing guitar at the age of 10 and writing in his early teens at around 14. Songwriting and storytelling is strong in Rob’s family roots with a strong history of Songwriting and Storytelling. During winter 2017 Rob wrote “300 Days” a song about devastating mental health wait times in Cape Breton. Recording a demo at home and releasing a homemade video. Within 48 hours the video had over 25,000 views and launched Rob into the Singer/Songwriter scene.

Songwriting has always come naturally for Rob, he has the ability to create songs that listeners can easily relate to whether fiction or reality you’ll be wondering if a song came from real-life experiences or the thoughts of a natural Storyteller. On the heels of his 2019 releases “O’lala”, “You” and “Ghosts” Rob has released his new Single “Tell Me To Stay” a beautiful heartfelt duet with Canadian Rocker Carmen Townsend and “It’ll Be Alright” with Sarah Harralson.

Be sure to spend some time in town before and after the show – grab a bite to eat, visit the shops and stay for the night.

Tunes on the Town is a live music series in downtowns throughout Cape Breton Island during summer and fall 2022. The program is supported by funding from the Government of Canada through the Rediscover Main Streets program.