January 6, 1935 - August 16, 1977

On August 16, 1977, 41 years ago, we lost one of the most significant artists on human beings the world has ever known.  Elvis Presley. Although the anniversary of his death is not as universally recognized as years past his impact on the world has not diminished. In 2010 we wrote the story “The Boy Who Would Be King” and thought it appropriate to rerun it for your reading enjoyment. Elvis didn’t like being called the King and at one show where they held up a sign saying Elvis Is King. He asked them to take it down saying there is only one King and pointed heavenward. Hope you enjoy the read.

The recipe for this country music feel-good story includes; Nashville legend, Vern Gosdin aka The Voice, Beverly Gosdin, Vern’s widow, Dana Hudson, singer/songwriter and Denis Element, Canadian country singer/songwriter.

As a young teenager Rory Block — her full name is Aurora — grew up in New York’s Greenwich Village at the height of the “folk revival.” At 14, already an accomplished guitarist, she discovered the Delta blues — then part of the wide world of folk music. She vividly remembers hearing Mississippi John Hurt in 1963, and spending time with Son House, Fred McDowell and the Reverend Gary Davis.

Her first recordings (under the pseudonym Sunshine Kate) were made for Elektra Records, but she didn’t return to the studio until 1975 when she recorded for RCA Victor and Chrysalis before signing to Rounder Records, for whom she cut more than a dozen albums. She has also recorded for a number of other labels, in between endless tour schedules.

Along the way, she has won five W.C. Handy Awards (now known simply as Blues Awards) from the Blues Foundation, two for “Traditional Blues Female Artist,” and three for “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year.” She’s earned a gold record in Holland, and toured from one end of the United States to the other end of Canada, not to mention Poland and Norway and Italy and a half a dozen more European countries.

The Beaches International Jazz Festival is a 10-day music festival held each year in the lakeside Beaches community of Toronto in the month of July. Originally started in 1988, it is now one of Canada's largest free music festivals with nearly 800,000 attendees, throughout its 10-day span. The Festival takes place across a number of venues; stage concerts are held in several different parks within the area and also along a two-kilometre stretch of the Beach main street - Queen Street East.

Every year, the Festival brings in internationally acclaimed performers while also showcasing local talent, including “new generation” jazz musicians. The Festival now hires around 1000 artists per annum, including 50 bands for its “StreetFest” event along Queen Street East.

Ori Dagan has much to be proud of in his ever-changing musical journey in this crazy business we call music.“A Tribute to Nat King Cole” (Dagan's 3rd recording and the first visual album in jazz history) recently debuted at #1 on the iTunes Canada Jazz Chart, and its corresponding 12 music videos have screened at over 35 Music and Film Festivals worldwide, garnering over 300,000 views on YouTube, Winner of the Best Album, Silver Medal – Global Music Award, Nominated for Best Jazz Vocals- Toronto Independent Music Awards along with a list a mile long of reviews.

Dagan also teaches what he preaches by giving scat lessons and workshops to learn the “Shoe-bee-do’s” and “Shoe-bee-don’ts,” to anyone who wants to learn either professionally or just for the love of the musical era and greats who paved the way for so many in the jazz world.

In November of 2017, I had the good fortune to record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama with the uber-talented and esteemed producer Norbert Putnam. Norbert gained his accolades for his productions, Jimmy Buffett, Dan Fogleberg and Joan Baez to name a few as well as voluminous sessions as a bass player and owning and operating one of the first independent recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee, Quadrefonic Sound Studio. We recorded at The Nutthouse Recording Studio and the experience was amazing.

From Thunder Bay to Melbourne, Toronto to Cannes, Audra Santa's a happening thing. Started happening in Australia, where she spent ten happy years exploring the Aussie badlands and goodlands, playing in various musical projects, including progressive rock band, The Wandering, and Indie-folk duo, Amon and Audra. Her powerful, expressive vocals and talent for instaconnections with people were simply too evident for Audra not to go solo. Recording commenced at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne over Easter 2016 with high enthusiasm on all sides. For Audra though, it was a being put in a blender kind of thing, high on getting her songs down, low down inside with the certain knowledge that the marriage she had cherished with all her being, had put aside her music for at one point, was going off the cliff.

April Wine is, of course, a household name with their string of hit records and 20 albums, many written by founding member and lead singer Myles Goodwyn.

Years from now when the generation studies music history, the folk music revival of the 1960’s to be specific, Eric Andersen will be a large part of that study. But for now, Eric is going back in history for his projects for Meyer Records. His output on the Meyer label has included a tribute to the existential Camus and the rock star Lord Byron mingling with the Universe. And now his focus is Heinrich Böll; a Nobel Prize-winning writer, an anti-fascist, and soldier in the German army who deserted the army and eventually was captured by Americans where he was sent to a Prisoner of War camp.

Silent Angel: Fire and Ashes shines a light on the life and adventures of Heinrich Böll; who dedicated his life to chronicling his experiences of wartime and post-war Germany. And from these writings, Eric was able to knit together songs that tell those tales but also manage to warn of the ever-present danger of history repeating itself with the current political landscape.

When you ask someone what they think of you mention Irish music, most will say things like Molly Malone or Black Velvet Band or some other traditional Irish folk song. But although England and Liverpool, in particular, are front and center on the British Invasion front, there was a lot going on in Ireland as well.

In Ireland in the 1960’s there were what were called Showbands, groups of performers who played at dancehalls and clubs putting on a show and playing repertoires that included all the American and British hits of the day. Pretty much if you wanted to be a professional musician in Ireland Show bands was the chosen route. Irishman like Van Morrison, Henry McCullough and Rory Gallagher worked in Irish Showbands who would later become rock stars. Van Morrison achieved international success in the 1960s with the group, Them and the hit “Gloria” before launching a huge solo career.

Liona Boyd has lived the kind of life that most folks only dream of. She has performed around the world for kings and queens and world leaders, been awarded the Order of Canada and inducted into the Guitar Gallery of Greats, sold millions of albums, won five Juno awards and was romantically involved with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The long-awaited sequel to Liona’s memoir, "In My Own Key", "No Remedy For Love" is a must-have for Liona Boyd fans and music lovers.

We caught up with Liona at her winter home in Palm Beach where she was enjoying the warm weather. “Life is good. I couldn’t be happier. I’m enjoying my home and being creative, writing songs and playing music. I’ve been very fortunate my whole life to achieve what I’ve achieved and still have so much more to do. I love it here in Florida, I do my yoga and I’ve rediscovered bike riding. Keeps me fit. I can still wear the same size clothes I wore in University.”

The society we live in and especially the music community is built on the conception that it’s essential to keep moving, always pushing through adversity and obstacles. Although this is true for the most part occasionally that action causes an artist to push ahead without taking time to see what else is around him or her. That was the case with Kamloops singer/songwriter Marshall Potts. Not to the point of harm but just not taking time to stop and smell the roses. It took a life-changing event to let Marshall reset his compass. “ I donated a kidney and there were complications. I didn’t react well to the operation and it forced me to make changes in my diet, my stress level management and lifestyle changes in general.”

From the dream of a whale to songs at the North Pole, to a vision of peace and a call to stand up for a healthy planet, the Toronto-based singer, producer and activist Parvati is transforming the world.

It’s been seven years since we last spoke to Parvati. At that time, she was just back from the North Pole where she gave the northernmost musical performance ever, to raise awareness of the melting polar ice. Since that interview, the political and environmental climates have changed radically. We have seen a spike in extreme human rights violations as well as unprecedented hurricanes, forest fires, famines, floods and droughts. Yet, Parvati says that with the advancement of technology and the speed at which our environment is changing, this is a pivotal moment in human history when we have never had a greater opportunity to come together as one Earth family. Whether it is by working alongside the United Nations, convincing global leaders to shift to sustainability or touching the hearts of the world through the pop music mainstream, Parvati is the voice of change.

We caught up with Canadian born singer/songwriter at his home in California and he wants you to know he’s no joke, that nobody is a joke and bullying is not a joke. Every living person deserves respect and to be treated with dignity no matter what their station in life. Andrew was born in Toronto, Canada but he and his family left when he was only 6 months old for Liverpool, England. “I went to about 20 different schools and I was always a little different, an outsider. I’m not really sure why my parents moved around so much. Dad was a truck driver and Mum was a nurse so it wasn’t like their occupations required travel and relocating. But I remember always moving, I guess they were looking for the best place to be for me to grow. We had moved back to Canada and Mum decided I needed to get a British education so we moved back to the U.K. And so it went.”

Singer/songwriter Don Graham has written hundreds of songs in his long career about dozens of subjects. He’s written songs about good love, bad love, lost love, unrequited love, songs about war, about his friends, about his travels and his mother and sisters. But one topic has eluded him all these years, until now. “I could never write a song about my Dad. I tried. But I didn’t want a ‘punch in the shoulder, good ole boy hey Pops song and I didn’t want a song about ‘my old man’. Dad hated that term. I wanted to write something from my heart like I’d done for Mum. So I made a deal with myself to try every Father’s Day to write a dad song. I had zero success until this year. “

On Father’s Day 2017, Don sat down with his guitar and being true to his promise to himself started to try and write a Dad song. “I figured I’d at least try. I started to play and the first two lines came and I liked them! Then within an hour, I had the whole song. All I could think at the time was – finally! ”

We all have a road we’re destined to travel on to take us where we’re supposed to be. Sometimes that road has obstacles and detours that we have to deal with and then we can carry on to our destination. That’s exactly what happened to Levi Hart. The up and coming artist from Ottawa came from a large musical family, his Uncle Bob Webb is a Canadian Bluegrass mainstay and was well on his way with his band and his music including a slot as an opening act for Kid Rock.

“That was a strange one. I had entered a contest to open for Kid Rock. I had more or less forgotten all about it when I got the call that I had won and to get myself to Colorado for the show.” But he ran into a bit of a detour, a bump in the road that I will explain in a minute.

But in the beginning, Levi grew up surrounded by music and the bug really bit him when he saw one particular artist. “When I saw Garth Brooks I was immediately in awe. Watching him perform with such passion and intensity and having so much fun doing it was a real life-changer for me. This is what I wanted to do.”

Fort McMurray resident, Newfoundland native Al Brake has traveled halfway across this great country to be where he is supposed to be. The 11th of 11 children that includes 8 boys and 3 girls is “foot off the brake, pedal to the metal ready” for his moment in the spotlight. He is making all the right moves and feels like now is time. | Music has always been a huge part of my life, especially growing up in Newfoundland. Everybody plays music and it bonds together families and friends.”

Going back to my Montreal roots, there are always artists that say in my memories, Gino Vanelli, Ken Tobias, Andy Kim, Pagliaro and of course Barry Stagg –one-half of the ever popular Green and Stagg.

Barry Stagg, singer/songwriter, musician, playwright and musical entrepreneur is a prime example of what tenacity and talent are all about when it comes to the love of music.

Born in Montreal, Quebec he graduated from Université de Montréal and started on his musical path with Tony Green to become Green and Stagg. The duo was signed to Gamma Records out of Montreal under the tutelage of manager Ben Kaye.(who also managed Celine Dion) Their debut single, "To Love Means To Be Free", became an instant hit when released in February 1970. The song won the Canadian Business Music Industry writing award.Green and Stagg rode the charts for the better part of the early '70s.

Every year we hear all the standard Christmas songs hit radio again; Brenda Lee, Bobby Helms, Bing Crosby with David Bowie, Elvis and Frank Sinatra.

Then we start receiving new product here at Cashbox Canada and we always enjoy the fresh offerings of new artists or at least their new Christmas albums.

But on this rare occasion when this new CD came in, it was a perfect combination of the old tunes offered by a young artist, Canadian icon Matt Dusk.

A Christmas album that embraces the festive swagger of the 1960’s, Old School Yule! is an up-tempo, cocktail party album that will have you feeling a little “Ring-a-Ding-Ding” while you croon along to “Fa-La-La-La-La”.

“It’s supposed to feel like a classic variety show,” says Dusk while on tour in America. “I wanted to record an album that you would have sitting on the turntable right next to your Bing Crosby Christmas records.”

Freddie Hart was born in the tiny town of Loachapoka, Alabama and moved to a sharecropping farm in Phenix City, Alabama when still an infant spending his childhood in nearby Phenix City, Alabama.

Freddie Hart has come full circle. In 2001, Hart was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. And a few years later, Phenix City declared a major east-west street Freddie Hart Parkway in his honor.

Freddie has seen it all in country music and after 7 decades on the scene not only has he seen it all, he’s met them all. “I remember meeting Hank Williams at the James Robertson Hotel in Nashville, just up from the Ryman, in 1949. What a nice generous and talented man,” Freddie said from his home in California. “What really changed everything for me was when I met Lefty Frizzel in 1951 in Pheonix Arizona. He took me under his wing and took me on the road with him. He’d get me up on the stage to sing a couple. I had to sing covers cause I didn’t have any of my own, and I would introduce him on stage and then I went back to California with him.”