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September 15, 2026 -- House of Miracles, Cambridge, Ontario, CANADA (with Karis Tees) ticketsSeptember 18, 2026 -- Tranzac Main Hall, Toronto, CANADA (with Marker Starling) tickets

Rain from the Eastout June 12, 2026In Search of Winter
The Homeless Theater
Madness, such
Holy Fool
Ballydoo
Trapdoor
Dead Dwarf
Rain from the East
New Elvis
Arthurian Evensong
Sworn to Secrecy
Now I Beginavailable digital/CD on Sud de ValeurSDV009

"It's a profoundly cultured album that never boasts about it... extraordinarily vibrant songs" - 9/10 Atonal"That a record of this quality follows after his last highlight is a testament to Southworth's tenacity and prodigious talent" - 9/10 AllMusic"Everything holds together with an assurance bordering on insolence" - Album of the Day / GBHmusic"His best yet" - Theories of a Deep Understanding of Things"One of his most beautiful albums" - Heaven magazine"Theatrical and magnificent" - Plastico sy decibelios"Once again demonstrates his mastery of pop song" - Muzika

Rain from the East comes just seven months after 2025's The Red Castle, an ornate dissertation on grief and magic that threaded together early music and modern instrumentation. Conversely, Rain from the East takes a more subversive turn. “You have learned to live without,” begins opener “In Search Of Winter,” a sinister romp with nods to prog-rock, jazz and the Irish Otherworld. "The Homeless Theater's" nightmarish yacht-rock with its cast of underworld characters, follows. This unbleached, live-off-the-floor recording - assembled by longtime producer Jean Martin (The Weather Station, Tanya Tagaq) - finds Southworth hunched at a grand piano, sleeves rolled up, alongside some neutral angels - Dan Fortin on bass, Martin on drums, and the effervescent guitars of Patrick O’Reilly and Justin Orok. Mastodon’s Nick Johnston shows up to contribute to the Rachmaninoff-cloaked spell of “Arthurian Evensong”. This is as electric-heavy and off the cuff Southworth has ventured. No overdubs, no fourth wall. The Song is still High King, the bygone spirits of Tin Pan’s golden age having long distilled into an estranged folk-art. And like some lone landscaper in a far-off graveyard, the songs on Rain tend to the grass and the Dead, the premature and overdue. It’s the 19th century still. The Irish famine never truly left ("Ballydoo") and Flanders Field is right there ("Sworn to Secrecy"). “Human for me must be different than human for you,” he confesses midway through the collapsed cabaret of “Madness, such,” before philosophizing, “Can’t stop the old world forming, we’re somewhere in time,” in “Dead Dwarf’s” Weimer lounge-metal. The Red Castle’s medievalism and otherworldly adventure have lingered, turning more contorted - fisher kings, oyster women, shoemaker-seers, holy fools, specters walk among us. The Wasteland is nigh. Elvis is Arthur. In the rising waters, an oar-less boat appears. We proceed from Nashville to Derry, Mackinaw to Museum Island. What is Time? Era? Pay no attention to such artifice. Lay back and relish the topsy-turvy, synchronous song-realms of John Southworth. It’s a small world after all.

BooksRialto 2021
Daydream for Night 2015FilmographyRialto 2021

Previous ShowsNovember 28, 2025 - St. Thomas's Anglican Church, Toronto, CANADASeptember 19, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADAAugust 16, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADAJuly 18, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADAJune 20, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADAMay 16, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADAMarch 21, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADAFebruary 21, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADAJanuary 24, 2025 - Tranzac Southern Cross, Toronto, CANADASeptember 28, 2024 - What now now what, Guelph, CANADAMay 4, 2024 - "secret house concert" with Ryan Driver, Toronto, CANADAMarch 21-22, 2024 - Helliconian Hall, Toronto, CANADA (Toronto Songs / Confluence Concerts)November 8, 2023 - Hotel Wolfe Island, CANADAMay 25, 2023 - West End Phoenix Festival, Tranzac Main Hall, Toronto, CANADAMay 21, 2023 - Hotel Wolfe Island, Wolfe Island, CANADAMay 20, 2023 - URSA, Montreal, CANADAMay 13, 2023 - Golden Bus, Guelph, CANADADecember 16, 2022 - Barnyard Christmas Singalong, Tranzac, Toronto, CANADAAugust 13, 2022 - Ryan Driver Backyard Event, Toronto, CANADAJuly 15, 2022 - with Alex Lukashevsky, Bampot Bohemian House, Toronto, CANADAMarch 11, 2022 - premiere of Rialto, Paradise Theater, Toronto, CANADAApril 2-4, 2020 - cancelled
with Art of Time Ensemble, Enwave Theater, Toronto, CANADADecember 8, 2019 - The Tin, Coventry, UKDecember 6, 2019 - The Waiting Room, London, UKDecember 4, 2019 - Nachtasyl, Hamburg, GERMANYDecember 3, 2019 - Monarch, Berlin, GERMANYDecember 1, 2019 - Trafo, Jena, GERMANYNovember 29, 2019 - Blue Bird Festival, Vienna, AUSTRIANovember 2, 2019, Hamilton Public Library, Hamilton, CANADAAugust 4, 2019 - Festival of the Sound, Parry Sound, CANADAJuly 25, 2019 - Toronto Summer Music Festival with Art of Time Ensemble, Koerner Hall, Toronto, CANADAJuly 19, 2019 - private concert, Ottawa, CANADAJuly 14, 2019 - Hillside Festival, CANADAJuly 6, 2019 - Stratford Festival with Art of Time Ensemble, Stratford, CANADAMay 4, 2019 - Imperial Pub Backroom, Toronto, CANADAApril 12, 2019 - KAZOO Fest, Guelph, CANADAFebruary 21-23 2019 - performing at Art of Time Ensemble 20th Anniversary Concert, Enwave Theater, Toronto, CANADADecember 22, 2018 - performing with Fucked Up at Toronto Overdose Prevention Society Benefit, Opera House, Toronto, CANADAOctober 19, 2018 - performing with Fucked Up, Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, CANADASeptember 22, 2018 - performing with Hayden & others at Dave Bidini book release, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, CANADAMarch 13, 2018 - Easterween at MA Scene Nationale, Montbeliard, FRANCEFebruary 21, 2018 - Creative Vision/Accessing & Heightening; Ignite Workshop/ARTSCAPE (lecture talk) Toronto, CANADANovember 9, 2017 - reading original prose-poem selections for Andrew Downing's Otterville, Canadian Music Center, Toronto, CANADAAugust 18-19, 2017 - Summer's End Folk Festival, Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, CANADAApril 29, 2017 - The Bicycle Cafe, Flesherton, Ontario, CANADAApril 7, 2017 - Kazoo Fest, Guelph, Ontario, CANADANovember 24, 2016 - Cafe OTO, London, UKNovember 19, 2016 - Stadtkonzerte, Luzurne, SWITZERLANDNovember 18, 2016 - Karlstorbanof, Heidelberg, GERMANYNovember 17, 2016 - Cafe Hochberg, Hamburg, GERMANYNovember 16, 2016 - Die Wohngemelnschaft, Cologne, GERMANYNovember 15, 2016 - Privatclub, Berlin, GERMANYOctober 28, 2016 - Burdock Music Hall, Toronto, CANADANovember 12, 2015 - BAM, Paris, FRANCENovember 10, 2015 - MA Scene Nationale, Montbeliard, FRANCENovember 9, 2015 - Brotfabrik, Frankfurt, GERMANYNovember 8, 2015 - Private concert, Munich, GERMANYNovember 7, 2015 - Beatpol, Dresden, GERMANYNovember 6, 2015 - Rolling Stone Weekender, Weissenhauser Strand, GERMANYNovember 5, 2015 - NaTo, Leipzig, GERMANYOctober 14, 2015 - Burdock Music Hall, Toronto, CANADAApil 2, 2015 - Moment's Club live on Radio Bremen, Bremen, GERMANYMarch 30, 2015 - Gruner Salon, Berlin, GERMANYMarch 25, 2015 - The Servant's Quarters, London, UKMarch 23, 2015 - The Tin, Coventry, UKFebruary 27-28, 2015 - Lou Reed Tribute/Art of Time Ensemble, Enwave Theatre, Toronto, CANADAFebruary 14, 2015 - Easterween, Western Front, Vancouver, CANADAFebruary 13, 2015 - Yukon Film Festival, Whitehorse, CANADA