Seventh Town

Sunday, March 23, 2025, 2:00pm

MERA Schoolhouse, McDonald's Corners

Tickets are $30 plus fees available at TICKETS PLEASE

Seventh Town was established in 2008 by Martin Smit on guitar and Meghan Balogh on fiddle. Soon after, Trisha Elliott added tin whistle to the mix and then a few years later Fraser Hardman was invited to join on bass. All four members are vocalists too. The band plays a mix of acoustic Celtic folk music of Scottish and Irish origin, but also includes traditional Canadian and American folk tunes in its repertoire. “Canadian traditional music is a mash-up of many styles and cultures bringing their music together,” says Smit. “Canadian music was always heavily influenced by Celtic fiddle music, as well as East Coast and French-Canadian sounds.”

The band name was chosen a little bit by happenstance. “Naming a band is like naming a child, because it stays with them for life,” says Smit. “Trish and I actually live in Seventh Town, which is the Ameliasburgh area. The original towns of Upper Canada were given numbers before they were given names, so Bath was First Town, and Fifth Town is familiar from Fifth Town Cheese. So living in Seventh Town we thought that was a good name as a placeholder until we could come up with a better name, and it just stuck and we haven’t even thought about changing it since then.”

The group has recorded two albums, “Seventh Town” in 2009 and “10,000 Miles” in 2024. Seventh Town has entertained audiences on festival and theatre stages, for live music series, house parties, weddings, and church and nonprofit fundraisers throughout Ontario.