The core members of Eastern Ontario’s Riverthieves have been playing music together since the early 2000s, first as the house band at the Royal Oak on the Canal and in scores of other bars and pubs from Renfrew to Trenton. Eventually, as the bar gigs were interspersed with festival shows and small halls - venues friendly to original music - the Riverthieves began presenting their own songs. In 2009, the band recorded a very memorable live show of original music at the Almonte Town Hall before a sold-out audience. It was released as their first album, Bandit Queen, the following year. 

Operational service interrupted the band’s output between 2009-2015 with the two serving military members of the band completing two Afghanistan tours, a deployment  to Haiti and a posting to Valcartier, Quebec. The Riverthieves dedicated themselves to a second album, composing and arranging relentlessly through 2016, and recording between January and March 2017 with Mike Kay. The tracks were mixed by Chris Bradley. The Riverthieves’ first all-original studio album, Soldier, was released and toured through 2018 and 2019.

The post-pandemic Riverthieves have teamed up with musician and producer, Hugh McMillan, and have embarked on a very focused exploration of their songwriting and arrangement. 2023-2024 has resulted in an album’s worth of new original music and a reimagining of the band’s sophomore album, Soldier. Live shows, recording and releases of new music are planned for 2025.

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A nod to our Alumni 

Devon Matsalla was a foundational member of the band, performing bagpipes, whistles, keyboards and the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) from 2005 to 2010; and again from 2016 to 2019. His tenure was interrupted first by military deployments and then by a romantically-inspired move to Australia. His playing and song-writing is featured on both Bandit Queen and Soldier.

The constantly-kilted beatmaster, Terry Kittmer, played with the band from 2006 until his relocation to Nova Scotia in 2016. Terry was the percussionist on Bandit Queen. Drumming duties were passed on to Oscar Mullally until 2020. After COVID, Dave Hebert assumed the drummer’s throne (yes that’s really what they call it) in 2023. 

A bevy of famous fiddlers have passed through the band’s ranks over the years: champion valley fiddler Terry-Lynn Mahusky; the gypsy-styled Finnish-Canadian Shanthi Minor; and the great, versatile session player, Greg Brown have all rosined up their bows in the service of the ‘Thieves. Javier Mullally and the classically trained and Irish-inspired Evan Lewis currently handle fiddle duties for the band. Shanthi was the featured fiddler on Bandit Queen and Javier on Soldier.