Ann Wilson, known the world over as a founder and the lead singer-songwriter of the barrier-breaking band Heart, is here to stay.

Widely praised among the greatest singers in the history of rock, Ann’s extraordinarily powerful voice has been sending chills down her audience’s collective spine for over five decades, earning record sales of more than 35 million, an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award.

“Barracuda,” “Crazy On You,” and “Magic Man” are among the many songs she’s written that now reside in the pantheon of rock’s greatest hits. “Greed” from 2022’s Fierce Bliss plays seamlessly alongside the classics in her current live set.

It never ceases to amaze me how people think. When I plan my festivals, we research other music dates globally and check what we are up against even if it is on the other side of the world if it’s big enough. At the same time,  we check what happens in closer proximity or any other events that might attract people to get hotel rooms or not attend our event for some other reason. It’s part of being professional and thorough in our position.

Organize a local showcase for local bands and put it on the same day as when the biggest showcase in the world is happening just a couple of hours from your city. Top of that, the week before your event the biggest city in the area holds one of the biggest showcases in the country. I don’t know if you are bold or just plain stupid? Then to add to the stupidity you hold the event online? There is no way you can get a professional to be on since they are already busy. Maybe some local music industry people, but what is the point that two locals should meet online? Then you overcharge for your service and think that the industry delegates should participate for free?

SPIKE is once again getting ready to welcome delegates and performing artists to the ancient city of Plovdiv (EU Capital of Culture 2019) between 25-27 May, 2023. With an expanded program featuring delegates from over 15 countries and over 30 performances from artists coming from as far Canada and Japan, SPIKE is an international music industry hub where talent and ambition will have a chance to acquire new skills, opportunities, and partners.

“We have seen a 100% increase in delegate registration and more than threefold increase in artist applications,” reports founder Boyan Robert Pinter. “We take this is a sign from the music and professional community that have managed to provide the educational and networking opportunities that we set out to do.” 

Guests Who doesn’t love taking a trip down memory lane and reminiscing? If you think back to your youth, there were probably many iconic figures who made a huge impact on you, and wouldn’t it be cool to learn more about what made them tick?

If so, you’re in for a real treat as the 30-year veteran of radio, Jeff Sammut brings you his newly created podcast called, “Remembering with Jeff Sammut”. He unlocks all the behind-the-scenes stories of your favourite cultural figures with his first episode launching on Thursday, April 13th!

Remembering kicks off this Thursday with Toronto-born host, Jeff Sammut remembering the late, great singer/songwriter and legendary Canadian Rock icon – Gord Downie, the Tragically Hip frontman. This episode will give the listeners an in-depth account of his life and an inside perspective from Gord’s wife, Kaya Usher, who shares many amazing, heartfelt stories.

I just got a request from a music company to find new artists for them to develop. This is a really good opportunity for an artist. The style was not a big issue, they want music that works in most places, so not too nice genres like extreme metal, underground hip hop, or experimental music.

Since they want to invest for an extended period of time, they see that the artist is not over twenty-five years old. Not a must, but I can understand their wishes here. In fact, today age doesn’t really matter in the music industry since you can break through in the strangest ways and age doesn’t matter in those cases. Here they want to work with the artist in a certain way and need time that an older artist really might have available.

They had a special request that the artist should be able to write good songs themselves. Of course, they could buy them from writing camps, but they felt that they want a uniqueness for the artists so they would love to have an artist that could write their own material. But not a total must.

“Time takes its toll,” sings the 77-year-old Bruce Cockburn on the opening song, “On A Roll,” his 38th album, O Sun O Moon, out on May 12 via True North Records.  “But in my soul / I’m on a roll.”

Bruce Cockburn has enjoyed an illustrious career shaped by politics, spirituality, and musical diversity. His remarkable journey has seen him embrace folk, jazz, rock, and world-beat styles while earning high praise as a prolific, inspired songwriter and accomplished guitarist. He remains deeply respected for his activism and humanist song lyrics that thread throughout his career. On all his albums Cockburn has deftly captured the joy, pain, fear, and faith of human experience in song.

Bruce Cockburn has won 13 JUNO Awards, an induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada, among many other accolades. He has 22 gold and platinum records including a six-times platinum record for his Christmas album. Cockburn continues to tour internationally.

He’s on a roll.

When I studied to be a sound engineer inside the console was a small plaque with the message “You can’t make gold out of cowshit”. You could only see this if you were working to clean the channels, so it was a message between professionals and people that were on their way.

Of course, the meaning of the message is that how good a production you ever do on a song doesn’t matter if the song from the beginning is bad. The sound itself doesn’t make a great song. You can save the singer that is not too good with auto-tune but if the lyric is cheesy and bad it doesn’t matter.

A week ago, we just saw that Live Nation in Sweden just put down one of their flagships “Summerburst”. It’s very interesting since just a couple of days before that they actually released a new headliner. The reason for Live Nation was that they were to focus on other festivals so they choose to put “Summerburst” down.

You can easily read here that the ticket sales couldn’t have been any good. They tried with a last name and when that didn’t make the needle move they just put it down. Fair to say “Summerburst” was an EDM festival that went really well when it started in 2011 and at its top peeking was 2015 with 50 000 visitors. I guess for me 2015 was the year when EDM died. When Avicii left the whole scene was more or less over. Like Punk is not dead but it should be, this is the same story with EDM, it just kept on as well but should have been put to rest.

This year they cut out having the festival in two cities and just focused on one, and even that didn’t work out. I really would love to see those numbers, which would be shining proof of how 'out' EDM is right now.

Several people in my social media circle from the music industry reacted to a report that was released by Luminate and reported by Music Business World Wide. The numbers from Luminate, a company that monitors several streaming sites were that of the 158 million songs they were monitoring 24% had no streams whatsoever during the year 2022. 24% is close to 38 million songs that were never been heard during 2022.

That is like every person in Canada has released a song and no one heard it. At the same time just look at the number they monitor, a staggering 158 million songs. Are they any good?

This is my problem today with all art. We have all channels to reach out to people. There will be great art that will be discovered. At the same time, how much great art is just buried in the brown wave of art that really has no meaning at all?

Sometimes revolutions begin quietly.

In 1988, Cowboy Junkies proved that there was an audience waiting for something quiet, beautiful and reflective. The Trinity Session was like a whisper that cut through the noise -- and it was compelling. It stood out in the midst of the flash and bombast that came to define the late 80's. The now classic recording combined folk, blues and rock in a way that had never been heard before and went on to sell more than a million copies.

Cowboy Junkies will release Such Ferocious Beauty on June 2, 2023 via Latent Recordings. This is the band’s first release of new material in five years and follows their heralded 2022 collection of covers, Songs of the Recollection.  Such Ferocious Beauty is vintage Cowboy Junkies and another dimension from the lo-fi Canadian band comprised of siblings Margo, Michael and Peter Timmins and lifelong friend Alan Anton. Such Ferocious Beauty is a rumination on aging, losing parents, facing mortality and creating space for one’s life in the midst of the ruin that comes from merely living.

Global Ambassadors of Musical Diversity, SULTANS OF STRING, will shine a light on the Plight of Refugees with its Cannes World Film Festival Winning Documentary, Sultans of String: The Refuge Project - Visual Album, at the 18^th Annual CANADIAN FOLK MUSIC AWARDS on Sat April 1, 2023 @ 3pm).

Leading with four nominations for their “Sanctuary” album (Contemporary, Global Roots, Pushing the Boundaries, and Producer of the Year), this Billboard charting band’s film features music and interviews from “Sanctuary” as well as sister album “Refuge”, both served up under lockdown.

This 1.5 hour screening will be followed by a fun Q&A with bandleader and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient Chris McKhool and co-producer John “Beetle” Bailey, hosted by Michael Tymchuk.

Sultans of String: The Refuge Project - Visual Album OFFICIAL TRAILER

I was just looking at the new trend in Sweden “EPA-dunk” which you can say is like you mix punk music with bad disco stuff from the 90s. More or less find yourself a pretty bad loop and just go for it. Fill it up with a lot of lyrics about drugs, parties, and sex and you have done your first EPA dunk song. It’s really nothing new it was the same when I was young, bad homemade stuff that we shared on cassette tapes back then like Eddie Meduza or Nerf Herder. And the same topics as well, nothing really new under the sun and to be upset about..

The phenomenon though has another side that is interesting. The leading artist in this genre has been doing it since 2017, but the first hit came in 2022 that really spread like a wildfire on TiktTok. The interesting part is that he releases a song every week or even two and has been doing so for the past years.

With the current state of the world, it's no wonder that everyone yearns for a bit of peace in their everyday lives. Berlin based Afropop songwriter and producer Mister Wawa channels this desire into an upbeat new single "Amina, Amina." Check it out on YouTube here:

Soft whispers of "Amina Amina peace" open the song like a prayer before lead vocals by Ggrande makes a gentle plea for "Amina" to come to him and cure his restlessness. The song likens "Amina" to a female lover as Mister Wawa sings of his desire for connection and wisdom.

"Can you hear me
Can you hear me
We need to be connected
Tell me something baby, oh my boo
Oh my
Help me baby with all your wisdom
Eehl
To understand most of the necessary things
}All that joy you can bring"

The entertainment world is filled with extraordinary stories of musical power-couples, but few match the beguiling true-life tale of Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy. Known as Canada’s reigning stars of Celtic music, the two musicians’ combined album sales exceed one million; they sell out performing arts centers across North America, and their enthusiastic traditional folk music loving fan base (which boasts Shania Twain and The Chieftains) stretches from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Sydney, Australia.

Check out “Woman Of The House” featuring Rhiannon Giddens on YouTube here:

All cultures are equal, but some cultures seem more equal than others. Right now, this hasn’t been truer than ever. Here in Sweden, we have an Opera House that is over a hundred years old. Of course, the house is totally nonfunctional by today's standards. Also, it hasn’t been looked after, the pipes are leaking and the whole house is like a nonstop building site.

To rebuild the house would probably be one of the most expensive costs that have ever been done for an Opera House. In light of the fact that several other cities like Gothenburg have brand new Opera Houses, with the latest fashion, they are also talking about building a new opera house, central in Stockholm of course. Then that will cost a lot of money, almost the same as renovating the old one. But probably with a better result.

Born in Toronto, Canada, singer/songwriter Murry Robe has been a guitar strummer and authority avoider since he was a kid. His sound is inspired by 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll but this is not nostalgia music. The thoughts expressed in his crude rockabilly quatrains are that life is not easy or nice… but it is fun. Whether you hear his wild and unusual music or know his eccentric personality, it is evident that Murry Robe is a Rock & Roll laureate.

When Murry isn't playing with the rebel-rousing rockabilly band Shook Boys or the unhinged rock ‘n’ roll band the Slow Drags, he has been honing his songwriting talents while releasing solo music as he often releases demo recordings on Bandcamp. With that came his new EP “Let’s Rock” out March 18, 2023.

“Let’s Rock” is in the realm of Murry Robe’s past music where familiarity meets novelty. A mix of 1950s rock n roll, garage rock, rockabilly and doo wop. The authentic low-fidelity sound comes with the fact that everything was recorded at home, written, and instruments played by Murry himself.

“Time takes its toll,” sings the 77-year-old Bruce Cockburn on the opening song, “On A Roll,” his 35th album, O Sun O Moon, out on May 12 via True North Records. “But in my soul / I’m on a roll.”

Bruce Cockburn has enjoyed an illustrious career shaped by politics, spirituality, and musical diversity. His remarkable journey has seen him embrace folk, jazz, rock, and worldbeat styles while earning high praise as a prolific, inspired songwriter and accomplished guitarist. He remains deeply respected for his activism and humanist song lyrics that thread throughout his career. On all his albums Cockburn has deftly captured the joy, pain, fear, and faith of human experience in song.

Pre-order album here: truenorthrecords.com/brucecockburn/

Earlier this month, Chris Birkett received MPP Chris Glover’s Community Recognition Award. Birkett is a multiple award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer who has worked with such A- list artists as Sinead O’Connor, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Talking Heads, Quincy Jones, and Steve Earle.

He was nominated in recognition of his song “Everyone Deserves a Home”, which shines a light on the growing homelessness crisis in Toronto.

Check out “Everyone Deserves a Home” on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCCgverqy-LH3Gu0rOQOG_zg

 “As someone who experienced homelessness in my youth,” says Mr. Birkett. “I believe that the millions of dollars certain billionaires spend on frivolities such as vacations in space could go a long way to supporting social programs that provide safe and secure housing. Giving a homeless person a place to live helps them to become an active, contributing member of society.”

Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/artist/13EQJBvl1NJaMrpjrQ9tHL

A Beautiful Darkness is a collaboration between 3x JUNO nominated, 4x CFMA winning Sultans of String and Marc Meriläinen, the creative force also known as Nadjiwan, who has been recognized in many corners, including Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, the Native American Music Awards, the Indigenous Music Awards, along with invitations to perform at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2015 Pan-Am Games in Toronto.

Watch A Beautiful Darkness - Sultans of String feat. Marc Meriläinen (Nadjiwan) on YouTube here:

It is the second single off the upcoming Sultans of String album entitled Walking Through the Fire (Sept 22, 2023 release), the most ambitious and important project of their career, a CD and concert of collaborations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists across Turtle Island.

Lisa Hartt's new EP, "Arrival," is a deeply personal and heartfelt collection of songs that has been 40 years in the making. The second single, "Tell the Truth," is out now. Check it out on YouTube here:

 Lisa was born in Montreal but grew up in La Tuque and Dorval, Quebec. At the tender age of 10, she embarked on a long music career, taking her to many parts of the world, which included London and Cairo. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lisa toured extensively with various established musicians before returning to Canada, where she founded The Lisa Hartt Band. Throughout the 80s and 90s, Lisa explored multiple genres of music before eventually combining her vocal talents with world instruments and the ancient practice of reiki. As a result, she became a reiki master and developed her music into a holistic and transformative experience.