At 18 Manitoba Hal Brolund began to pursue music. "I was hanging out with a buddy and he was jamming on his acoustic guitar to some record. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning it hit me. I would play guitar the rest of my life" says Brolund. Choosing a path at 18 isn't that unusual but Hal didn't play guitar yet and in fact had failed high school band!

That was in 1986 and he hasn't doubted that vision yet. He played covers in talent shows and open mics and by 1995 he was traveling throughout Manitoba and North Western Ontario playing the bar band circut with a duo called Cheap Justice playing top 40 jukebox hits with a drum machine.


© Steven Kennard 2006

In 1996 he grew disillusioned by the bar cirucit and quit to work on songwriting. "I had been writing since I began but never took it seriously" says Hal, "but I started to see that in order to grow as an artist I had to write my own songs."

In 1997 Hal recorded a flood relief song at CBC studios called Manitoba's Under Water. This was the start of his original recording career and the start of touring across Canada.  In the ten years since he began writing and performing his own material Hal has logged over 200,000kms across Canada playing Ocean to Ocean in coffee houses, theatres and festival stages.

He tempers his finger picking style with a sharp sense of humour and gritty lyrics punctuated by the smooth slide of a veteran blues master. Like anyone whose name is a place, Manitoba Hal wears his love for his roots on his sleeve. But those roots aren't just in the prairie soil. Hal's got a songwriter's roots in eerie folk - murder ballads and killer floods - and a player's roots in the deep, dark, fixin' to die blues. This is a man who can sing the word "lonesome" like he means it, and no mistake.

Highlights of Hal’s career include; opening for Kelly Joe Phelps, Mose Scarlett, Fred Eaglesmith and Micheal Jerome Browne, sharing the stage with Dr. John, Colin James, Big Dave McLean, Phil Guy, Ken Hamm, Amos Garrett, Valdy, Tim Williams, Don Ross, Bill Bourne, Lester Quitzau, Washboard Hank, Suzie Vinnick, Danville Dan and Fruitland Jackson.

Manitoba Hal is a member of these Associations;

  • Canadian Guitar Players Association
  • Ontario Council of Folk Festivals
  • Thunder Bay Blues Society
  • Saskatoon Blues Society
  • Delta Blues Society - Regina, Sk
  • Ukulele Hall of Fame
  • Manitoba Independent Songwriters Association (MISC)