Hi, I’m Chris Morris! Driftwood Agency is a small entertainment agency that I’ve got going based out of the Ottawa Valley in eastern Ontario. If you see “we” and “us” tossed around, generally speaking, it’s just me.
I’ve been working in the music business for over 20 years as a promoter (Doghouse Studios, Arcade Fire, Fred Eaglesmith, Tegan & Sara, The Arrogant Worms), festival coordinator (Homegrown Live Music Festival), artistic director (Back to the Farm: MacKinnon Brothers Beer & Music Festival), booking agent (Jon McLurg, Dead Root Revival, Christopher Jackson), and performer. I’ve worked with well over 1000 bands and hundreds of shows. Whether I’m playing, booking, promoting, or just hanging out, I love live music and the good people who make it!
I lived in Kingston for most of my life until 2023 when my wife and I moved up to the Ottawa Valley for a spell. She’s extremely crafty and very involved in most art forms except for music, and I’m not involved in any art form but music. We like travelling, hiking, and hanging out with our awesome kids and grandthing.
I got my start as a promoter in high school in Kingston in the mid-90s. No one was jumping at the chance to put me on a bill, so I started putting on my own shows and getting my (often more talented) friends to play with me, because I thought it would be great if more people knew about them. In 2002, that became a business (“hey, we can go out for beer, talk about music, and write it off!”) called Rock Crew Productions, which produced over 300 shows in Kingston from 2002-06. I had a young family then and found a job with better hours, but concerts kept calling. I made some time to make my own music, and slowly drifted back into various roles as a promoter, booker, and festival coordinator.
In 2014 I went back to school to enhance my lightly-used radio broadcasting diploma with a post-grad certificate in public relations. Event management was a big focus of this program, and I used that education to help start Back to the Farm: MacKinnon Brothers Beer & Music Festival as festival coordinator. As the festival has grown from 800 attendees to close to 7000, my role is now artistic director, and being part of this festival is one of my proudest accomplishments.
I’m a board member of Homegrown Live Music Productions. We produce Homegrown Live Music Festival every May in Kingston. It’s a one-day festival with 80+ local bands playing in 10-15 venues to raise money for Joe’s M.I.L.L. I’ve been a venue coordinator, marketing coordinator, and a festival coordinator. It’s like Christmas for the Kingston music scene, and I’m honoured to have been a part of it for over 15 years.
I also book shows for some very talented musicians, do some marketing and merch support for The Arrogant Worms, and I promote a few shows a year usually at Doghouse Studios. Oh, and I try to play my own music for people a few times a month, either solo or with my band The Goodnight Irenes.
