“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.

My latest achievement is I am on now on the cover of Cashbox Canada!

During my festival Future Echoes. I was awarded The Cashbox Canada Magazine Legacy Award. I have got prizes and accolades before, there has been gold, and platinum records, Grammy awards, and MTV awards, and that has been great, but this is personal. The others are awards chosen from a list of people. You are just a gear in the big machinery. You do not even get the award you just send up the artist and you hope that they will remember you while they send out thanks to dad and mom and the producer.

This prize is really special. This is for my achievements in the music industry. When I was told in advance of this award, I was questioning what I have done? Then we went through all the different projects that I have achieved over the years. Since we are going for AI right now, I asked Chat GPT who I really am. So, here is my career so far.

For the sixth year in a row, Beatcave will be hosting CAMP (Creatives Arranging Musical Projects), a two-day all-inclusive educational and creative songwriting camp. On March 4th and 5th, CAMP will include workshops, music creation, networking, and other opportunities for creatives to be wildly productive and have tons of fun.

Held inside Lynx Music in Toronto from 10am to 8pm each day, songwriters, artists, producers, engineers, instrumentalists, and other creatives are welcome to join this getaway in the middle of the city to jumpstart the creative process and foster collaboration with other creatives. It’s a multi-genre writing camp – previous tapes have included Hip Hop, R&B, Soul, Pop, Dancehall, and Reggae.

It’s going to be harder to be an artist. It will be easier to be an artist and be an artist as a hobby. We can just look at the journalist and photographers and you will see what will happen with the music industry.

Starting a newspaper today is extremely easy. Since we don’t really print any copies, to be honest, the only thing you need is a homepage and a URL. With that, you can start an online magazine and start writing about whatever you want. That is the easy part, the hard part is to gather readers. Since it’s so easy anyone can do it, well there will be a lot of people doing it, at least for a while. The reader will then have so many of these free publications that they will lose value. Same with photography. A good camera is kind of cheap and suddenly everyone is a “photographer”. On top of that now you can create pictures with AI so illustrations are not really needed.

Kaiso Street Collective, led by Jesse Ryan In the spirit of honouring calypso’s The Mighty Bomber, will debut new arrangements to celebrate the connections between jazz and Afro-Caribbean traditions on February 17 at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Tickets are available in advance here and also at the door.

The Collective’s line up for this concert will feature the rhythm-section of guitarist Andrew Marzotto, pianist Ewen Farncombe, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, Juno award-winning bassist Roberto Ochipinti and Cuban Canadian drummer Anthony Daniel. Fronting the ensemble is Cuban-Canadian trumpeter Alexander Brown, trombonist Kelsey Grant, tenor saxophonist Jeff La Rochelle. Jesse Ryan will function as music director and play alto & soprano saxophones.

We would love to do this, but we need to get paid. You bump into this all the time. It’s true, but as an artist, you have to think when you use this.

First, is your value really that much? Sure, you might draw 200 people in your hometown. And there is a value to that. People might buy tickets and they will buy alcohol from the bar. If you then seek out a gig in the next city just an hour away there is nothing that says anyone will show up. You might have no audience here. Sure 20 people from that 200 audiences will come over just because they like you. But the value of these 20 is not as high as the 200.

Suddenly the promoter has to go much more miles than the organizer in your hometown to reach people that might be interested in your music. This is a risk for the organizer, so they want a door deal for the show. Here you have two choices. First, don’t go outside your comfort zone and just play in your hometown until you get a hit and are safe to go to the next city. The problem with that is that your shows will be so many that the audience has seen you so many times that they stop going. The second choice is to take a risk and go for that door deal.