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.

BTW Latent Lounge (performances from Cowboy Junkies, Skydiggers, Lee Harvey Osmond, Jerry Leger, Harpacash & The Morals and others), Bill Plaskett and Joel Plaskett, Wild Rivers, Ninjaspy, The Harpoonist & The Axe Murderer, Snoop Dogg/ BADBADNOTGOOD , Danny Marks.

In 1982, while living in the UK, Michael Timmins and Alan Anton, were inspired by the independent label scenethat sprung up around the English punk movement, and created Latent Recordings. Latent subsequently released a 45rpm single of their first band Hunger Project and two albums by their second band Germinal. Upon returning to Toronto and forming Cowboy Junkies, they used Latent to release the band’s first album Whites Off Earth Now!! and then, in 1987, thebands' ground breaking The Trinity Session.

Flogging Molly announces their 2017 North American Headlining Tour, which kicks off on May4^th in Oakland, CA and brings the band’s adrenaline-fueled liveperformances to cities including Vancouver, Denver, New York City,Montreal, Toronto, Chicago and more. Tickets go on sale Friday, March 17 ^th at 10:00 am local time. The tour is insupport of Flogging Molly’s long awaited new album, LIFE IS GOOD, out on June 2^ndvia Vanguard Records. Fans will be excited to know that every ticket order(in select markets) will include a digital download of the new album uponrelease. For additional ticket information, visit www.floggingmolly.com, and see complete list of tour dates below.

Tommy Hunter celebrates a milestone birthday on Monday, March 20th, 2017. The much loved TV personality and country music singer will turn 80 on that day! Hunter retired from the concert stage 5 years ago to the day in 2012 and has been happily ensconced in retirement ever since.

The soon to be octogenarian is best known for Country Hoedown and The Tommy Hunter Show which broadcast into Canadian homes for a groundbreaking 36 years. Canada’s ‘Travelin’ man’s endearing stage presence and familiar voice brought back a simpler time and place when family gathered around the television on Friday night - a ritual what was well established and time honoured regardless of where in the country you lived. Tommy Hunter remains a true home grown legend and of course, always, Canada’s ‘country gentleman’. Hunter will celebrate the day with family and friends!

The following is a story we ran in Cashbox in 2012 on the eve of Tommy’s 75th birthday.

Self-described as “pilgrims of funk, soul ‘n’ roll,” the Julian Taylor Band makes music as eclectic and all-encompassing as its taste will allow. They move effortlessly between vintage soul, tasty funk, tender balladry, indie rock, and even the occasional foray into social comment, solo acoustic, reggae and psychedelia all done expertly. Leading the band, Taylor boasts a drop-dead killer voice, impressive guitar work and a knack for writing catchy, earworm choruses – all of which pegs him as an authentic, eclectic talent foranyone’s palate. Current opus is the stellar double album Desert Star, a self-described labour of love for Taylor and the band, clearly evident by the prolific flurry of songs that resulted from their hard work. Now they’ll be bringing the new music to fresh audiences on the upcoming 401 Tour.

After the critically acclaimed full length album E in 2014, Toronto-based pop vocalist Emilia had nowhere to go but up. So that's exactly where she's gone with new EP Up. The five song cookie finds Emilia rolling with three heavy hitter Juno winners in producer Ryan Stewart (Hedley, Carly Rae Jepson), songwriter Anjulie and engineer George Seara (Drake, Rhianna, Holly Cole) working out of Toronto's Noble Street Studios, which boasts a client list that includes Shawn Mendes, Drake, The Weeknd and Usher. From this quality team has come a high-sheen, high quality EP that arrived bringing dispatches from the front lines of progressive pop.

On Tuesday, April 4, Avery Raquel and her band(s) will celebrate the release of Without a Little Rain at 3030 in the Junction. Avery has been working extremely hard over the past year – nothing new for this very focused young woman who started in the entertainment industry when she was just 7 years old – she has risen to every challenge handed to her - probably the biggest to date, has been to write original songs, and to that end there are six Avery Raquel originals on this her sophomore recording.

Her passion for singing has never wavered, and has led to an impressive list of career accomplishments on her musical resume. Avery Raquel has garnered numerous vocal awards over the years, and has excelled on the festival circuit too, delivering winning performances at The Oakville, Brantford, TD Niagara, and South Coast Jazz Festivals and sharing the stage with the likes of Matt Dusk, Lou Pomanti, June Garber, and other prominent Canadian artists.