It was a year of many grassfires, upon occasion a decent brush fire or three but there weren't any roaring, all consuming forest fires at CMW this year.

The Aussie showcase came close to an all out blaze, especially as the night wore on at The Hideout's new home on College and the outdoors temp on the rise. Ducked in to catch Quivers, making their Canadian debut with a fistful of brisk pop songs, cheeky clever lyrics, lotsa chiming guitars and likeable frontman Sam J. Nicholson. The hard candy-coated Eliza & The Delusionals brought shades of The GoGos and flavours of KPop to their indie poprock with a skittery edge. There are decent hooks and the stirrings of something here but it didn't really get across to the room.

A dazzling roster of musical, literary and stage talent is set to host an uplifting evening while raising funds for a dementia support program.

A marquee Canadian line-up – iconic folk singer/songwriter Murray McLauchlan, best-selling author Margaret Atwood, East Coast fiddle sensation Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, Soulpepper Theatre Company founder, actor/director Albert Schultz, acclaimed Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, dancer Travis Knights and blues singer/guitarist Matt Andersen, will appear at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio on Friday, May 5, 2017 for Voices That Care, a concert benefiting the Room 217 Foundation.

Proceeds from Voices That Care support Room 217’s dementia singing program, which vastly enriches the lives of Canadians suffering with dementia, while providing education to caregivers wishing to integrate music into their care practice. Click here to watch a video of the program in action.

The rich musical legacy of Ian and Sylvia continues to entertain millions of fans across the globe, and today singer songwriter, painter, and essayist Tom Russell announced a project honouring their music with new interpretations of classic songs with his May 19th release of “Play One More: The Songs Of Ian And Sylvia.”

Russell has recorded 35 highly acclaimed records, & published five books - including a book on his art and a book of his songs. Russell and Ian and Sylvia share similar values and cultural traditions – both deeply rooted in the depth of the song and story. Russell says, "The music of Ian and Sylvia has stood up over a half of a century and is still recognized as deeply Canadian, it was an honour to pay tribute to them.”

In 1992, Ian and Sylvia were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame during the Juno Awards ceremony. In 1994 they were both made Members of the Order of Canada.

Headstones, one of Canada's most enduring and hardest rocking bands, announced earlierthis year that they were heading to the studio to record their forthcomingalbum Little Army. Today they are thrilled toreveal it will be unleashed to the world on June 2nd via Cadence Music and have given fans a first taste of thealbum with first single "Devil's On Fire."

A smart, addictive, dirty rock 'n' roll track, "Devil's On Fire" is acontagious, aggressive rock anthem. Fans have been getting an exclusiveinside look at the making of Little Army on the band's socialchannels since February, in real time. With tours of the Bathhouse,adventures around NYC, and a little inside look at the recording process,Headstones once again kept the fans close and a part of the process.Headstones frontman Hugh Dillon couldn't be more excitedto share this with the world, saying "We set out to write the best rockalbum of our career, and I think that's what we've done."

Saskatoon-based roots singer / songwriter Steph Cameron is sharing “Winterwood,” the latest track from her upcoming album Daybreak Over Jackson Street. “Winterwood” is about “being at the mercy of uncertain forces,” says Cameron. “Of a moment where time is frozen and clear and our own vulnerability is stark and beautiful.”

Cameron supported Daybreak Over Jackson Street with a hometown release show on April 15 in Saskatoon before making her way to Toronto for Canadian Music Week.

In 2014, Steph Cameron arrived on the scene like a bracing gust of fresh musical air with her debut record Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady, receiving unanimously enthusiastic reviews. “This is a monumental, brilliant album… heralds the crowning of a bright new talent,” declared PopMatters in calling it the #1 Canadian album of 2014. No Depression termed it “a stunning debut,” while Exclaim! noted that “ Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady delights from start to finish. Steph Cameron is the real deal.” The record also made the coveted longlist for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize in 2015.

Toronto-based alt rock band and Craigslist success story Iduna commands the attention of their listeners through exhilarating rhythms and powerfully rich harmonies and melodies, and I wanted to work with them from the very first time I heard their music. Iduna is heavily inspired by 90's alt-rock, and their debut album COUNTERPART is produced by Mark Makoway (known for his work with David Usher and Moist)! The album is being released at Iduna's May 12th show at Adelaide Hall and wanted to know if you can cover the show.

Iduna is a band bent on bringing back an edgy and mindful brand of alternative rock. Based out of Toronto, Ontario, this quartet spent their formative years playing Toronto-area festivals and the city’s many venues.

Heavily inspired by 90’s alt. rock, their music ranges from heavy and soulful to high energy rock and roll exploring a wide range of melodic flourishes and dynamic flux. With introspective lyrics in tow, sometimes wistful, sometimes fierce, Iduna delivers a unique flavour of rich harmonies, stirring melodies, and rhythms that compel you to move.

They're back and harder than ever. Critically acclaimed supergroup The New Pornographers are premiering the title track off new album Whiteout Conditions today. Stream/share the song at https://youtu.be/hXwGX5Es9vM . The album dropped April 7 and is the first release on the band’s own Collected Works Records in partnership with Concord Records and damn fine rock 'n' roll.

If there is a true mystery about Canada-based,US acoustic bluesman Tim Williams, it must surely be why he’s largely unknown and unrecognised. Williams is no new-comer, no new kid on the blues-block. This is a guy who has sure paid his dues, gigging widely and popularly across his adopted homeland in North America and turning out albums that positively zing with class and style. With his latest release, ‘So Low’, an inevitable play on words, selling well to widespread international acclaim, it’s hard not to think that just maybe his time has come.

Williams himself is a tad self-deprecating about the apparent lack of global recognition, acknowledging the difficulty faced by all bluesmen of whatever stripe and style. He chuckles when asked why he’s remained over-looked for so long, responding with typical humility and modesty: ‘Yea, it’s kinda puzzling at times. I’ve been a pro for many, many years but I guess it’s just the way it is. It can be a tough business, for sure, but I love the life and the music.’

Premier Toronto taiko group ‘Nagata Shachu’ continue their 18^th annual concert season titled ‘Toronto Taiko Tales – Global Beats from Around the City’ in the vibrant community of Regent Park. They reach out with a series of four concerts featuring new, original live performance works and launch their new and fourth DVD ‘ Toronto Taiko Tales’, which includes a new 12 track CD (official release date: April 7, 2017), at the Aki Studio Theatre on April 7, 8 and 9, 2017 (includes two weekend matinees).

WHERE: Aki Studio Theatre (inside the Daniels Spectrum Building) – Regent Park – 585 Dundas Street East, Toronto, ON, M5A 2B7.
DATES and TICKETS: April 7, 8 and 9. Advance tickets are $20.00 to $30.00.
Ticket Links:
Friday, April 7 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 8 at 2:00 p.m. (matinee)
Saturday, April 8 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 9 at 2:00 p.m. (matinee)

Riding 'High' on the success of their latest single, Windsor rock group The Silence Factory will be packing up the van and hitting the road for a tour across Canada starting on April 1st with a show opening for Royal Ascot and The Sheepdogs. The tour will take the band from coast to coast in April and May and includes 2 showcase events at Canadian Music Week in Toronto on April 19th and 20th. See below for the full tour schedule.

The Silence Factory released their current single 'High' back in January and after 11 weeks on the Canadian active rock chart, they've achieved considerable success at rock radio reaching a peak chart position of #37 this past week. ‘High’ was produced by Juno Award winning and Grammy nominated producer Gavin Brown(3 Days Grace, Billy Talent). The band just finished recording another track with Brown which will be released in early May.

A recent appeal to the music industry and beyond has been launched to help the son of Ian Thomas who was recently in a devastating accident.

On Saturday, January 7th, 2017, Jake Thomas was snowmobiling with some friends, enjoying the last of the winter holidays, when he endured a serious accident in his resident town of Bracebridge, Ontario. The accident has left him with life-altering injuries, and his family with life-altering circumstances.

Jake’s injuries include 7 broken ribs, a dislocated hip and fractured acetabulum, but worst of all - a T12 burst fracture. On Sunday, the 8th, the Sunnybrook neurosurgeon confirmed that Jake sustained a complete spinal cord injury, resulting in paralysis from the waist down.

Although the news was devastating , Jake has bravely accepted his new reality; he has displayed the ultimate courage, strength and perseverance anyone could ever demonstrate under these tragic circumstances.

Joseph Armand Roch Voisine, OC ONB better known as Roch Voisine, (born 26 March 1963) is aCanadian singer-songwriter, actor, and radio and television host who lives in Montreal, Quebec and Paris, France. He writes and performs material in both Englishand French. He won the Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year in 1994. In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Snowblink released their album Returning Current last September in Canada and now the rest of the world will be able to hear what Exclaim! calls “a blissful ride, sounds as the world does when you’re underwater: soft and calm”.

Stony Plain Records has announced a March 31 Canadian release date for the vinyl LP edition of Time to Roll, the fifth album by award-winning Canadian blues/rock trio, MonkeyJunk.

Time to Roll is unique in that it incorporates elements of all four oftheir previous recordings with added maturity insongwriting and instrumentation, cementing MonkeyJunk’soriginality and sound as its own. It is also progressivefor the band, as they’ve added electric bass on most of thesongs. No MonkeyJunk recording to date has included bass,but they felt that it would be a welcome addition toMonkeyJunk’s sound. In another precedent, the band alsorecorded one acoustic track for the first time on the newalbum.