Cassie Dasilva

The future looks bright for local musician Cassie Dasilva.

The Orillia native, who just finished recording her first album and plans to release her debut single, Unicorns, next month, has been selected to play at Summerfolk 41, Georgian Bay’s famed annual folk festival, in Owen Sound in August.

“It’s pretty exciting and is going to be fun,” the 22-year-old Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School graduate said, noting being chosen to perform during the Aug. 19 to 21 festival is a feather in her cap. “It’s nice to get in this year.”

But getting chosen for Summerfolk isn’t as easy as simply completing an audition. During a preliminary round, potential performers are divided into three groups consisting of 12 musicians each as part of the festival’s Youth Discovery finale. From those initial artists, judges whittle the list to 11, with the top five getting a festival invitation.

This marks the 10th year the festival has held the youth competition for performers ages 14 to 22. This time around, Dasilva will be joined by hometown boy Marshall Veroni, Toronto’s Jimmy Pearson and Jake Feeney and Brontae Hunter of Stratford.

Summerfolk artistic director James Keelaghan, who has overseen the auditions for the past five years, said this year’s group of entrants was the best he’s ever heard.

“I think what happened is we cast the net a little bit wider this time and brought some more people in,” Keelaghan said. “I don’t know what it is. Some years, there are more. Some years, there are less. But this year, it was just such an exceptional crop.”

Keelaghan said the amount of “daylight between the acts” was almost non-existent and the judging panel, which also included Tara MacKenzie of the MacKenzie Blues Band and Steve Ritchie of RPR, had to make some difficult decisions.

“We get 400 or 500 applications to this festival every year and we have to get 40 acts out of that,” Keelaghan said, referring to the overall festival lineup.

“A lot of those acts are people who easily fit with the festival, but we only have so much room and we can only do so much. It is the same with (the youth competition).”

Dasilva said it’s an amazing feeling to be on the same bill as folk legend Bruce Cockburn, fiddle player extraordinaire Natalie MacMaster and country singer-songwriter Lindi Ortega.

“This is pretty awesome,” said Dasilva, who recently returned to the city after attending recording school and gigging in Vancouver. “I admire genuine songwriters.”

Identifying herself as a folk-pop acoustic singer-songwriter, Dasilva likens her musical stylings to Canadian indie favourite Feist and U.S. singer Ingrid Michaelson. She also pointed out she has transformed “several hilariously failed attempts at a love life” into a committed relationship with music thanks to a unique voice full of quirk and sarcasm.

As she has garnered attention from the west coast music scene, Dasilva has also started to take writing trips to Los Angeles with the support of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada and other Canadian songwriting organizations.

“In addition to my own music, I’ve been having a lot of success writing and performing on electronic dance music tracks,” she added. “I currently have a track out that’s being circulated on a few Canadian radio stations titled Villains.”

While she just finished recording her debut album, Dasilva said she’s been playing since elementary school, after starting out on the piano.

“I did some open mikes in Orillia,” she said, adding she eventually became involved with the local folk society. “I grew up going to the Mariposa Folk Festival.” - Andrew Philips, Special to Postmedia Network

Making it to the Summerfolk stage was bittersweet for Owen Sound musician Marshall Veroni.
While he appreciates the opportunity to play at the popular event at Kelso Beach Park in August, he was feeling down after some good friends weren't selected to advance at the Youth Discovery Series finals in Owen Sound on Sunday.
"I am happy to be playing, but there are so many crazy talented people who tried out who I have grown to know recently and over the years," Veroni said shortly after he was named one of six acts from Sunday's event at the Harmony Centre that will now play at Summerfolk. "It hurts because they are so talented and ideally you would like to have everyone go and play, but it is the nature of the competition."
Veroni will be joined by Cassie DaSilva of Orillia, Jimmy Pearson of Toronto, Jake Feeney of Toronto and Brontae Hunter of Stratford at the 41st Summerfolk Music and Craft Festival. Artistic Director James Keelaghan also announced that the Guelph-based band, The Lifers, who also competed on Sunday, would be part of the festival as part of the regular lineup of more than 40 acts.
This year's festival runs Aug. 19 to 21 and includes such acts as Bruce Cockburn, Natalie MacMaster, Lindi Ortega, and Big Little Lions.
Veroni, 21, said he is extremely excited to play alongside such high-profile performers.
"I am in the Youth Discoveries series, but there are many people who aren't who I will be able to network with, to work with and jam with and hang out with at the end of the night," said Veroni, who played Summerfolk three years ago with the band Mack and the Boys. "It will be my fourth or fifth time going to Summerfolk."
Veroni has been performing for eight or nine years, and started to take music more seriously about four years ago. He plans to put an album out in the next three months.
Th 2016 Youth Discovery event marked the 10th year the series has been held. It was open to performers between the ages of 14 and 22 with Sunday's 11 finalists chosen from preliminary events in Owen Sound and Kitchener, the first time that a preliminary event was held outside Grey-Bruce.
Keelaghan said Sunday's event, which most likely finalizes the Summerfolk lineup, said he has been doing the competition for five years and Sunday's was the best he had seen yet.
"I think what happened is we cast the net a little bit wider this time and brought some more people in," said Keelaghan. "I don't know what it is. Some years there are more, some years there are less, but this year it was just such an exceptional crop."
Keelaghan said the amount of "daylight between the acts" was almost non-existent and the judges, who included Keelaghan, Tara MacKenzie of the MacKenzie Blues Band and Steve Ritchie of RPR, had a difficult decision to make.
He said even those who didn't make it on had bright futures in music and the judges provided them some guidance.
"We get 400 or 500 applications to this festival every year and we have to get 40 acts out of that," said Keelaghan. "A lot of those acts are people who easily fit with the festival, but we only have so much room and we can only do so much. It is the same with this."
Keelaghan said they had a really good mix of artists at Sunday's event.
"It was nice to have sort of a big band action, it was nice to have somebody on piano and straight voice, it was nice to have some duos," said Keelaghan. "Just not having singer-songwriter after singer-songwriter I thought was a good thing." - Rob Gowan, Sun Times, Owen Sound

This SOCAN writer came across our desks and we were so excited that we had to tell you about her!

Cassie Dasilva

Cassie Dasilva is a young singer/songwriter from smalltown Ontario. Several hilariously failed attempts at a love life have inspired her committed relationship with music. The young artist is clumsily navigating the world, writing songs and preparing for the release of her debut single, "Unicorns". - SOCAN

Peter Takis – Villains ft. Cassie Dasilva
Months can go by searching without uncovering someone that has that spark where you know just from one listen they are destined for great things. I try to run through my social feeds and check out any artist that has followed me recently or reached out in some way. That’s how Peter Takis found his way into my rotation with his wonderfully produced and arranged song “Villians“. What immediate sent me bolting down the music blog rabbit hole were the vocals attached to that steadily building beat. I had to know who she was. I’ll be sharing a new song from Peter and the awesome video that goes along with it really soon.

For now let me introduce Ms. Cassie Dasilva. This 21 year old folk/pop singer from small town Ontario has honestly left me completely frustrated this morning. This song can only be played on repeat for so long so we are really hoping that work on her debut single “Unicorns” is going very very well!

I cruised though Cassie’s social profiles and picked up the gist of her vibe. Her voice is refined with a quality that defies her years and could seduce me into some embarrassing situations. Enough of my talking though. You guys need to check out “Villains” and I’ve also linked a couple of her videos here too. Hope you don’t mind Cassie! It’s been a pleasure this morning. - Jake Via Cadence Contingent