The biggest problem right now for the music industry is that we have opened the doors to the big brown wave. Before we had some kind of gatekeepers in the music industry. It was definitely not good all the time, but better than today when there is nothing to stop people from giving out stuff.

The opportunity to give out something stops artists from really developing a song. When I became a scriptwriter for TV and Film the first thing, they told us was, writing is rewriting. Something I’m not good at, as you can see here in my columns. Sometimes I should just stop reading the text and rewrite it. Stop again and just rewrite. Yes, my columns would be better. Unfortunately, time wise and I need to do so many other things I really don’t have time for it, so you have to bear with me.

When it comes to a song though, it’s a different story. Here you are writing something that should be forever. There is no real deadline; the song is ready when it’s ready. You are also writing a song that should compete with millions of other songs. Not just a column that comes out once a week and then is forgotten. No here you must put your soul into it.

It’s not hard to make a show in your head and everything is there. I would even be the best performer in the world if you just let me have an unlimited budget and complete control. My show would have singing dinosaurs on a real life scale and more pyrotechnic than Kiss or Rammstein. I would just perform my own songs, but since I’m not that good of a singer we would require at least twenty-five people and guest stars that would help me perform by songs. Also, a good sound technician can handle Autotune in any circumstances. It will be a story during the whole show about my journey in the music industry and all the artists that I have met and worked with over the years.

Sounds good?

It would be a spectacle, I promise. The problem here is that, of course, if I would take this to a festival or any gig place for that sake, they probably would say no. You would need a gigantic stage and production around it. Even if I paid for all the production myself many would be skeptical to bring this show in. Of course, it will be good, even if I can’t sing or play all the things around it will be just worth seeing. The music is coming far behind the show.

Just in time for Halloween, Jackie K has released her latest single, “Nurse Jane,” a creepy alt-folk ballad inspired by a tuberculosis sanatorium in Saskatchewan and a troubled nurse who worked there.

Check out “Nurse Jane” on YouTube here:

“On the shores of Echo Lake as the Great War was done / She dressed in white and went to work in the sanatorium / Nurse Jane doled out tablets and help to those in need / She cleaned and fed, they coughed and bled / The valley of TB,” she sings.

“Saskatchewan opened three TB sanatoriums at the beginning of the twentieth century and one of them was located in the Qu’Appelle Valley at Fort San,” Jackie recounts. “It was a completely independent space, except for coal delivery, and an early model for what we now know as Medicare.” Built in 1917, it functioned as a TB clinic till 1971.

I wrote the same line around 2005. Internet was taking over, MTV was dead, and it seems like we were splitting up in our media consumption that there were no trends, just niche things. Back then my question was if Eminem and Britney Spears would be the last Superstars! It looks like it, nothing big really came out.

I was wrong but it took up to three years more, almost to 2009 before it really happened again. Then it was Lady Gaga and after that, we got several Superstars. I don’t know what made it possible. Did we actually start to look on the same channels just to make it possible? Did someone have the formula to get their things in several channels at the same time? I know for a fact that Lady Gaga put all PR in Europe for example, but at the same time was just a fluke.

I have attended many showcase festivals over the past half year. What strikes me is how organized most of them are, but how lost they are in some fields including people. I have been looking for a while now at how many of how them are accessible for handicapped and special needs and to be honest it’s sad to see the lack of support and awareness in this area.

Almost none of them have handicapped speakers, but worse is that they don’t have handicap-friendly venues or facilities. At the same, they almost compete to have small stickers to have on your badge if you are he, she, or them it’s totally ignored that there is around 26% of people that is handicapped or challenged, or if there are people that have special needs. Or that around 11% actually are in wheelchairs, something you very rarely see at festivals. In fact, in Sweden, a person in a wheelchair was thrown out from a festival because he wanted to get further ahead to see the show since people were standing in front of him.

Auction items include music trips, autographed items, original photography prints, vinyl packages, event tickets, and a 15-minute Zoom call with Cmdr. Chris Hadfield

For a complete list of auction items, please visit the website: theawesomemusicproject.com/auction

The Awesome Music Project, a Canadian charity dedicated to raising awareness and supporting research into music’s transformative impact on mental wellness and mental health, will be launching its first-ever Awesome Online Music Auction on World Mental Health Day, October 10, 2022.

“What better way to mark World Mental Health Day than with an auction to raise much-needed funds to help bring music-focused mental wellness programs to communities across Canada,” said AMP Executive Director Cori Ferguson. “We are blessed to have received an incredible line-up of donations from partners across the country, and I think we’ve got something that will appeal to casual and hardcore music fans alike.”

Featured auction items include:

Anyone who’s ever had a fake friend knows that, in contrast, loyalty in a friendship is an important quality that is worth its weight in gold!  JUNO-nominated Canadian pop group Girl Pow-R captures the unique agony of knowing a backstabber with their new single “Slam” – check it out on YouTube here:

The fifth single from Girl Pow-R’s sophomore album, “Slam” begins with funky flute and ominous beats, and then dissolves into a head-bopping groove as the group sets their boundaries with a “friend”:
You snuck around my back
And I will not take that
I thought that you were real
Yo, what’s the deal?

With 2+Billion digital streams across platforms and counting, Canada’s original, best-selling kids’ music group the MINI POP KIDS celebrate their Bright Lights Relit tour with a new video for “About That Time” – check it out on YouTube here:

A kid-friendly cover of Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” the ’70s-inspired disco-funk earworm gets the video treatment with highlights from the tour thus far, depicting a montage of the kids’ high-energy performances and fun-filled interactions with fans.

After a temporary touring hiatus due to Covid-19 restrictions, the MINI POP KIDS finally returned stateside this summer, where they will be touring through the fall. They have also added several new dates in Canada.

Wintersong Music Festival has officially announced the headliners for their 4th edition, taking place January 20th - 21st, 2023 in Stouffville, ON. The annual festival draws thousands to the local area in the shoulder-season of Winter, giving a much-needed boost to the local economy.

Wintersong will be headlined by Montreal indie-pop band Stars; two-time JUNO award winning musician Dan Mangan; and 80’s new wave/synth-pop band Men Without Hats.

They will be joined by 2022 Polaris shortlisted OMBIIGIZI - a collaboration between Zoon’s Daniel Monkman and Status/Non Status’ Adam Sturgeon; and local indie-folk band Man Made Forest.

I have been attending a lot of meetings with industry people the past week. Since it’s a lot of people from the live industry the discussions have been about what has happened since COVID was left behind and everything opened up again.

This is mainly in Sweden so I can’t really say yet if it is an international trend. Of course, here we got an overproduction of events this summer. You had several events that were postponed during COVID that now had to take place at the same time as new events were coming around. I thought that we would see some events going really bad since it was so many and that people now with economic crisis would keep their money tighter.

In the end, though most events seem to have succeeded. The ones that got hit and didn’t go that well are located in bigger cities. Events in the countryside seem to go fine. But one big problem seems to be the same for everybody. People are buying tickets late.

Jeff Bova may not be a household name but his body of work and the list of the iconic artists he has produced and worked with is known in most households that have radios, televisions or computer, phones and all streaming services.

Bova is a Grammy Award-winning producer, arranger, and musician with hundreds of platinum and gold records to his name. He won his Grammy for Album of the Year as the producer on Celine Dion’s, “Falling Into You” and during a career spanning over 40 years, he toured as a member of Herbie Hancock’s Rockit Band and has contributed to hundreds of recordings by significant mainstream artists, including Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Robert Palmer, Billy Joel, Bee Gees, Backstreet Boys, Cher, Meat Loaf, Cyndi Lauper, Iron Maiden and many more.

CMW recently celebrated its 40^th Anniversary so it’s a legendary music mainstay that has been there for many years. The festival has changed locations various times during those years as well. This year they went back to InterContinental Toronto Centre in downtown Toronto.

This was CMW’s post-COVID comeback to be held in person. Of course, during the pandemic, there were some digital things for CMW but being back in person was an important step. COVID  had so much impact on the festival since Canada has been one of the stricter countries with its COVID rules and the festival has been forced to switch dates a couple of times as well.  This year it was 6 to 11th of June, quite late compared to earlier editions.

You can say that Athens Music Week is the last showcase before the summer break. It’s the end of June and after it, nothing really comes up until the end of August. This year the whole south of Europe had extreme heatwaves so during Athens Music Week the temperature out in the sun reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). So, getting to the place where the panels are held is like a sanctuary with air-conditioning that is working hard trying to cool it down.

Canadian 3x JUNO Award-nominees and 4x Canadian Folk Music Award-winners Sultans of String & Friends are now embarking on the most ambitious and essential project of their career: Their ninth album entitled “Walking through the Fire”, which will be a beautiful collection of collaborations with First Nations, Metis, and Inuit artists across Turtle Island/Canada. The band has launched an INDIEGOGO campaign to raise funds and they would love your support. With your help they we can make this recording a reality! 

Visit Sultans of String's INDIEGOGO page: indiegogo.com/projects/indigenous-collabs-w-sultans-of-string-friends#/

During COVID, we had to go over to online showcases and meeting points. It was interesting to make that experiment. We had heard that online will be the future. Now after two years of online events, we are getting the answer. And it’s so clear. No, online is not even close to doing what a real event is doing.

These are the usual comments on why you should do it online. The cost to be at an event is hundreds of dollars for registration and with the trend of inflation, flights and hotels the costs are high. Expenses besides the conference itself such as meals and other miscellaneous expenses.

On Tuesday, September 27th, live at Bar Cathedral (54 The Esplanade), The Magnettes are performing a free show at 10:00pm to launch the new global initiative EuroCan. Industry professionals and true music fans are expected to attend in celebration of the new initiative and to experience the transformative blending of cultures. Spark Houston, one of Canada’s most promising and exciting rap talents and The Magnettes, Sweden’s brash, beautiful, feminist punk icons are sure to own the stage.

This pop-trio was founded in Pajala, Sweden and speak the language Meänkieli, which was forbidden in Sweden and was not recognized until 1999. The Magnettes incorporate parts of Meänkieli into their songs. They crafted their own blend of electro-pop and riot grrrl punk. In 2015, they performed at SXSW in Austin, TX and signed with the label Digsin, where their debut album Ugly Youth was released in 2017. Their single “Young & Wild” premiered on prime-time TV and became the 10 most played Swedish song on Swedish radio the same year.

 The highly anticipated Kensington Market Jazz Festival (KMJF) returns this year for the 7th year of performances, boasting an incredible lineup. Since its inception, the can’t-miss festival has brought the biggest names in jazz music and up-and-coming superstars to Toronto in a series of ticketed and curated busking shows.

The KMJF will return to in-person entertainment Oct. 1-2 in Toronto’s vibrant neighbourhood of art, vintage shops and multicultural cuisine, a designated National Historic Site of Canada.

Created and helmed by award-winning jazz vocalist Molly Johnson, KMJF will kick off at Tom’s Place (190 Baldwin St), the hub of the festival’s solo piano series, hosted by Holly Nimmons. The other participating venues include Tapestry (formerly Poetry Jazz Café), Handlebar, Supermarket and Pamenar with seven shows each per day. There are also Pay-What-You-Can shows in Bellevue Square Park on Saturday and Sunday from 1-2:30pm and 4-5:30pm.

The weekend concerts run from 1 p.m. until 11 p.m. The media invite and details to the festival’s kickoff is below.

On September 30, Steven Page will release Excelsior digitally; it’s his first solo album since 2018. The album on Page’s Fresh Baked Goods imprint will be available on CD November 11 with a 2-LP vinyl version out early in 2023. 

The album’s 11 tracks were composed and produced entirely by Page, who co-founded the band Barenaked Ladies, before departing on a solo career in 2009. The lion’s share of material on Excelsior was “workshopped” for audiences on his wildly popular virtual concert series Live From Home that Page has been conducting via Zoom since April of 2020 from his home near Syracuse, NY. Thousands of fans throughout the world have been tuning in on Saturdays (5 PM Eastern, 2PM Pacific,10PM/UK, 7AM Sunday - Australia-Eastern), which are limited to 1000 ticketed audience members per show, with an estimated to-date paid viewer total of 85,000+. The more than 90 episodes of Live From Home are available through Patreon.  The Excelsior track titled “Zoom” is, in fact, the album’s first single and out this week.

Today, emerging Canadian Pop R&B artist, and the 2022 Toyota Searchlight winner, Chad Price is releasing a brand new album titled “Introversion”, available everywhere and distributed via AWAL. “Introversion” marks Chad’s third full-length effort in his rapidly rising career, but in many ways, feels like his first:
“I’m incredibly proud of this album and proud of myself for reaching emotional and creative depths that I was too afraid to reach for in the past. This one feels like an actual representation of who I really am and all the things that swirl around in my head that I’m usually apprehensive to talk about as an introvert. For me, this is how I’ve always wanted to present myself to the world.”

Check out “Love Song” on YouTube here:

An evening of music celebrating Canada's shared history with the US titled "A Tribute to Blues and Jazz" starring Jay Douglas and Kollage featuring Alexis Baro.

Singer Jay Douglas’ untold musical history is played out on stage with selections from his ground-breaking new album “Confession.”  The album was inspired by his love for Blues and Rhythm & Blues then a new music in post WWII America that was coming out of Memphis and New Orleans. All this music had a big impact on Jay as a young artist growing up in Jamaica and that influence would eventually travel with him to Canada. Jay has been awarded NOW Magazine’s Best R&B Act, the Annual Toronto Reggae Awards’ Male Reggae Vocalist of the Year, and the BBPA Harry Jerome Awards’ G98.7 Entertainment Award.