https://iamkentucky.bandcamp.com/
Communities along the Trent-Severn Waterway will be rolling with a whole new sound this September as Music on the Water brings a series of free, live music performances by Kentucky, the musical project of Ontario singer-songwriter Jordan Holman.
Music on the Water will run from Friday, September 11 to Thursday, September 17 and include stops in Peterborough, Lakefield and Buckhorn. The series showcases the connections and culture that make Peterborough and The Kawarthas a memorable place to visit and explore.
Kentucky, the musical project of Almonte, Ontario-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jordan Holman, is a fitting artist for a tour built around Canada's waterways. Following his 2025 Tour-By-Boat of the Rideau Canal, Holman returns to the water with a new chapter that coincides with his stirring new single, "In Kingston Tonight," a song that arrives as both a love letter to one of Canada's great music cities and a deeply felt call to every Canadian to take what The Tragically Hip gave us and carry it forward.
Written, recorded, engineered, produced, mixed, and mastered entirely by Holman at his home studio The Kentucky Bend, the single is his most passionate and fully realised work to date. The song grew from a real and specific moment: a Filipino girl at a Kingston bar singing traditional Irish songs and eating poutine, the kind of quietly extraordinary Canadian scene that holds a whole country's story in a single frame. "There's music outside / In Kingston tonight / In the square where we prayed, cried, and stayed," Holman sings, before the lyric opens up into something larger, reaching toward the night of August 20th, 2016, when The Tragically Hip played their final show in Kingston and an entire nation gathered around screens and in public squares to witness it together. "So here we are / And now we're the stars / Now we're the stars" is not a boast but an inheritance, a recognition that the torch has been passed and the only question is what we do with it.
Kentucky's sound occupies a space he has carved out entirely on his own, a genre he and his listeners have taken to calling Northern Americana, rooted in rock, folk, blues, and ambient music but shaped by the landscapes, stories, and spirit of Canada. Holman plays and sings everything on his recordings, a one-man orchestra of soaring melodic vocals, dynamic acoustic and electric guitar work, bass, drums, piano, keys, and percussion, all of it recorded and produced in-house with a precision and warmth that belies the solo nature of the enterprise.
His story is as compelling as his music. After triumphing over a near-death battle with drug addiction in 2020, Holman embraced his second chance at life as a second chance at music. His debut solo album 'Second Chance Music,' released in 2025, chronicled that transformation with gritty honesty and enduring hope, and was followed by a live album, a string of standalone singles, several music videos including one banned by TikTok, and a documentary of his 2025 Tour-By-Boat of the Rideau Canal. The Trent-Severn performances continue that uniquely Canadian journey, bringing live music directly to waterfront communities connected by one of the country's most historic waterways.
The tour kicks off with a performance on Friday, September 11 at 5 p.m. at the Peterborough Visitor Centre at the Lift Lock, supported by Peterborough Tourism. Music on the Water is presented by Le Boat, an international boating vacation company, with the base of their Trent-Severn Waterway operations located in Peterborough and The Kawarthas at Horseshoe Bay Marina.
Music on the Water Live Performance Schedule
- Friday, September 11 at 5 p.m. – Peterborough Visitor Centre at the Lift Lock, 353 Hunter St. E., Peterborough
- Saturday, September 12 at 8 p.m. – Canoe & Paddle Pub, 18 Bridge St., Lakefield
- Monday, September 14 at 5:30 p.m. – Beachwood Resort, 3043 Beachwood Rd., Lakefield
- Tuesday, September 15 at 6 p.m. – Tankhouse on Trent, 1926 Lakehurst Rd., Trent Lakes
- Thursday, September 17 at 9 a.m. – Lakefield Farmers' Market, 20 Concession St., Lakefield
