Rube & Rake

Rube & Rake bring their warm, close-harmony folk to Ebenezer’s in Crewe on Thursday 18th March. Josh Sandu, from Prince George in British Columbia, and Andrew Laite, from St. John’s in Newfoundland, have been playing together since 2013, and their music is a genuine meeting of Canada’s East and West Coasts.

Their songs are about home, the passage of time and the space where ambition meets obligation, carried by two voices and acoustic instruments. Their second album, Leaving With Nothing, earned them SOCAN Songwriter of the Year at the 2022 East Coast Music Awards, and their third, Good Time After Bad, followed in 2025. CBC called their bare-bones delivery “both warm-hearted and accessible, yet technically challenging”, and a room this intimate is the perfect place to hear it.

The story began with Back and Forth, their self-produced debut from 2017, and across three albums they have built a sound that is unhurried and generous, leaving plenty of room for the songs to breathe. Exclaim! put it simply after one of their shows: “The two dudes harmonized beautifully and sang lovely songs and it was gorgeous.” If you love Old Man Luedecke or the gentler side of Canadian folk, this is a night you will not want to miss.

Roots at Ebenezer’s is exactly what it sounds like: real roots music, no frills, in a room where the beer and gin are chosen with the same care as the acts on stage. Tickets are limited, so don’t leave it too late.