Honeybear, the Band (Past Event)

Live Music Events in Kelowna

Vintage Soul and Blues Roll Into our Backyard

We’re thrilled to welcome Honeybear, the Band to our stage on Saturday, October 3rd, from 8 to 11pm for a night of vintage soul, blues, and roots music that’ll have the whole room swaying.

Hailing from Vancouver, BC, Honeybear, the Band is a vintage soul, blues, and roots quartet that music blog B-Side Guys memorably described as sounding like The Teskey Brothers collaborating with the ghost of Muddy Waters. While the band officially formed in 2023, the four members are old friends who’ve been crossing paths on tours across Canada and the West Coast for decades. Their origin story is pure pandemic-era serendipity: unable to play live, the friends hauled amps and PA systems out to local parks, wiring them up to jerry-rigged motorcycle batteries just to feel the joy of playing music together again. Necessity became invention, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Their debut album, “I Was Wrong,” self-released in June 2025 on their own Playmor label, has racked up over 9 million streams on Spotify and roughly 200,000 monthly listeners, earning spots on major Spotify Editorial playlists like Retro Soul, The New Retro, and Best Blues of 2025. Their follow-up album, The Cure, drops September 10, 2026, with early singles already gaining traction on CBC, NPR, CKUA, and indie/co-op radio stations around the world.

Honeybear has become a fast-rising favourite on the festival circuit, with appearances at Rifflandia, Barnside Harvest Fest, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Calgary Blues Fest, Kitchener Blues Fest, Wapiti, and Starbelly, plus sold-out club shows at storied venues like The Horseshoe in Toronto, the Rainbow in Ottawa, and the Ironwood in Calgary. Their accolades speak for themselves: a Blues Music Award nomination from the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, a “Blues Artist of the Year” nomination from the WCMA, a spot on the Vancouver Sun’s “10 Artists to Watch in 2026,” and Roots Music Canada’s “New Discovery of the Year” title.

Ayla Jean

Kicking things off is Ayla Jean, a local emerging indie pop artist with a high energy sound that pulls from folk and country roots.

A self-described fairytale lover girl, Ayla Jean has a gift for wrapping some of life’s heavier topics in sunshine and rainbows, inviting listeners into the stories and lore she weaves throughout her music while giving them a front row seat to her most intimate thoughts and experiences. Fresh off the stage from Denim on the Diamond, she’ll be bringing her full band to Red Bird for a set that includes tracks from her debut EP “For The Girls,” plus plenty of unreleased music you won’t hear anywhere else yet.

Get there early, this is a set you don’t want to walk in late for.

Whether you’re a longtime blues fan or just looking for a great night of live music, this is a show that will feel like a road trip through the dusty back roads of American music.

Tickets won’t last, get yours early before prices go up!