Skip to content

A once-in-a-six-year experience: Yukon musician Gordie Tentrees returns to Bowen

Tentrees will play at Tir-na-nOg at 7 p.m. November 14
Gordie Tentrees

Small town to smaller town, song writer, musician and storyteller Gordie Tentrees is coming to Bowen next week. 

“I like to think that if you’re a folk music fan, jazz fan, country fan, blues fan, you’ll enjoy the show,” says Tentrees. 

Based out of Whitehorse, Yukon, Tentrees is touring his latest album, “Grit,” released last March.  

The last time the musician was here, six years and three records ago, he was nearing the end of a nearly 150-stop tour.

Tentree’s touring schedule has mellowed over the half decade. This month he’s embarking on a mere 20-stop European tour. Before leaving the continent, Tentrees will be playing a few shows in the Lower Mainland in mid-November, including one at Tir-na-nOg on November 14. 

“There’s a lot of new material for those who came to the last show,” he says. “It’s something they haven’t seen from me or anyone else.”

Though raised in a household with a folk music writer, it wasn’t until Tentrees moved to the Yukon in his early 20s that he became interested in the music industry.

Tentrees says that in the theatre, arts and music-steeped atmosphere of the Yukon, especially in the pre-social media world of 20 years ago, he realized that he could play along to folk music with a guitar. And so he started playing and singing and studying. 

“I had to learn how to be a musician backwards,” says Tentrees. Though he adds that in some ways, his late musical debut was an advantage. 

“I learned to appreciate it more,” he says. 

Two decades later, Tentrees tours the world with his music and he says that his show especially appeals to small town culture. His songs and music come from his experiences in such places. 

“I can’t really make it up,” he says. “It’s real. 

“It’s stuff I’ve gone through and I think people can really relate to.” 

Tentrees’ Bowen show is November 14 at 7 p.m. at Tir-na-nOg theatre. Tickets can be purchased at Phoenix or online