2023 marks the 50^th anniversary of Skylark’s Wildflower, the classic Canadian love ballad that endures genres and generations like sidewalk chamomile with over 100 covers and sample versions to become one of the most beloved and performed songs in the history of Canadian pop music. 

“Let her cry for she’s a lady, let her dream for she’s a child…”

Listen and watch “Skylark” on YouTube here: youtube.com/watch?v=9MJ8flVWL1I

This tender refrain is recognized around the world, and though written and most often sung by men, the song owes its enduring success in large part to three women: BJ Cook was the force that envisioned and formed the band Skylark and midwifed its record deal; CKLW Program Director Rosalie Tremblay picked Wildflower as a hit and ensured its release as a single; and music publisher Valley Hennell has protected the copyright for half a century.

Mark your calendars and get ready to swing into a world of mesmerizing melodies and soulful rhythms at the much anticipated Kensington Market Jazz Festival. Returning to the heart of Toronto's eclectic Kensington Market, this year's festival promises to be an unforgettable celebration of jazz in all its vibrant forms.

Whether you're a seasoned jazz aficionado or just looking to groove to some captivating tunes, the Kensington Market Jazz Festival has something for everyone.

Born and raised in Kensington Market, founder, organizer, singer-songwriter, and philanthropist Molly Johnson O.C., has been proud to showcase hundreds of established musicians on the Toronto jazz scene since the festival’s start in 2017, in one of the city's most vibrant neighbourhoods, in the heart of Toronto's heritage district. Over the last seven events, KMJF has presented hundreds of concerts featuring hundreds of Toronto’s jazz musicians, in local venues and with the help of over 150 volunteers.

Multi Platinum Award-Winning Songwriter/ Recording Artist, David Pomeranz, known for writing his extraordinary songs for scores of artists like Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Freddie Mercury, Richie Sambora, Danny Gokey, Kenny Rogers, The Hollies, Clay Aiken, Dennis De Young (of Styx), Phoebe Snow, Billy Dean, Lea Salonga, The Carpenters, Glen Campbell, John Denver, The Muppets, Donna Summer and Missy Elliott, has just signed an exclusive Worldwide Publishing Administration deal with Warner Chappell and is thrilled about re-establishing his long-time association with the Company. 

David Pomeranz  is an American singer, composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theater. He is also an ambassador for Operation Smile.

The Åhus-based Malin Östh Band has had performance after performance 

sold out during their gigs through Skåne.

Kiviks Hotell, Café Årum, Jazz Club Blue Bird, Vinterlust, Borgen in Osby 

and Kristianstads Teaterförening are some of the venues in the local area 

that have taken part in the band's performances.

The band was formed in autumn 2018 and plays swing and jazz.

In their diversified repertoire they cover Alice Babs, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, 

Stacey Kent, Barbara Streisand, Rigmor Gustafsson, Lisa Nilsson and Sonya 

Hedenbratt to name a few. Malin Östh Band performs these versions with passion and fervor.

Check them out on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/KmglHh6LgD4

Look out Rinkaby, Sweden, the Canadians are coming! They say good things come in threes and this summer three seasoned Canadian recording artists are setting sail for Sweden to prove that axiom true.

Canadian-born Lisa Hartt, Barry Stagg and Don Graham are packing their stories, songs and six strings and heading across the sea to hit the stages at the Lilla By Festival in Rinkaby on the Baltic Sea. This is the 3rd year of this festival, founded and produced by Jonas Tancred and Malin Östh, both performers in the successful Swedish duo Bara Jonson and Free.

Don Graham performed at last year’s 3^rd Annual Lilly By Festivalen and it will be the first time for Hartt and Stagg to experience the magic of the “little festival” by the bay. This is Don’s second year playing at the event and he is thrilled to be joined stages this year with both Lisa and Barry who has known for most of his early musical career days in Canada.

Xondra, a.k.a. Alexondra O'Connell, the Long Island-based singer, releases her genre-fusing single, "Like You Used To." Check it out on YouTube here: 
Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/track/4aAwwwX4PX0jeLWjnY7j3c?si=004063fc96d44e72&nd=1

An electric guitar walk of a smooth rhythm eases the listener into their silky lyrics.

"Well, well, well, well. You've been hiding from yourself, and everybody here can tell, so you might as well give up your spot. Well, Well, Well, l Well, I've been honest from the start, now I watch us fall apart. Your hand grasped my heart, and I want you to have it."

The longing beat showcases a failing relationship, perhaps an unrequited love affair or one dwindling in quality. Xondra longs for the day the song's subject treats her how they used to, despite their newfound strange behavior.

"You don't touch me like you used to," she admits in front of an accented drumbeat.

In honour if Rock of Fame Induction

On September 28th, Rough Trade will be honoured at Canada’s Rock of Fame Induction, as part of a once in a lifetime celebration of the most influential rock legends from the 70’s and 80’s. 13 of Canada’s most coveted bands and artists will be honoured as part of Canada’s Walk of Fame 25^th anniversary celebrations. 

To mark this very special occasion, The Phoenix Concert Theatre welcomes Rough Trade in concert, on Friday, September 29th, presented by boom 97.3. The evening will feature Rough Trade as well as many special guests, including Hawksley Workman and Chilina Kennedy. 

Rough Trade was formed in Toronto in 1974 by multi-instrumentalist Kevan Staples and vocalist Carole Pope. Known for their openly sexual songs and burlesque theatricality of their live performances, Rough Trade was one of the first mainstream musical acts to include explicitly gay and lesbian references. They were groundbreaking and trailblazing, empowering generations to express their sexuality and love regardless of their orientation. 

“The Rez” is a collaboration between 2x JUNO Award winning blues and country music artist Crystal Shawanda and 3x JUNO nominated, 6x CFMA winning Sultans of String. Crystal is an Ojibwe Potawatomi Indigenous singer, born in Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, is also decorated with multiple Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards, Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, a CCMA, a Canadian Radio Music Award, and too many JUNO nominations to list.

Watch and listen to this beautiful piece of music here on YouTube here:

David comes from career, he has worked as a director, actor, singer, musical artist, screenwriter and more.

In 2012, he directed Emil's production of The Sound of Music, a collaboration that has continued ever since. The Phantom of the Opera is his ninth musical sitting in the director's chair. David has also been on stage in most of the Entertainment Patrol's productions at KristianstadsTeater, most recently in School of Rock. He is also very current with Kristianstad, Sweden and is a multitasker in culture.

In his diversified his participation in Kabaret Kulan at Vinbäcken this summer.

This year will be his second year of being featured at the Lilla By Festivalen in Sweden. The festival has been gaining notoriety this year for a host of legendary and talented people.

instagram.com/davidlrix/?hl=en

For more visit:
lillabyfestivalen.se

Music festival season is in full swing in Ontario, and the signature event to cap off the summer has just announced its 17-day concert line-up. The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) has revealed its 2023 Bandshell headliners including new music from platinum-selling powerhouse Amanda Marshall, nine-time JUNO winning artist Jann Arden, Bollywood music icon Shafqat Amanat Ali, legendary reggae songstress Marcia Griffiths, singer-songwriter William Prince, and fellow country superstar Brett Kissel. Six-time GRAMMY-winner Dionne Warwick will headline on Saturday, August 19, to delight fans on the only Canadian stop along her North American Tour this summer.

On July 13, 2023, the Canadian Country Music Association® (CCMA®) unveiled the nominees for the 2023 CCMA Awards presented by TD. Returning to Hamilton for the seventh time, Country Music Week 2023 and the 2023 CCMA Awards presented By TD offer fans the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get up close to their favourite artists in one place, while showcasing and celebrating some of country music’s biggest stars and homegrown talent. Winners will be announced on September 16 as the 2023 CCMA Awards presented by TD are broadcast live from Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre at 8 p.m. ET/PT exclusively on CTV, CTV.ca, and the CTV app.

The 3rd edition of the AWA Niagara Festival 2023, presented by the African Women Acting (AWA) organization, celebrates African Cultural Heritage and special guest artists. The annual festival presents talented, hard-working, resilient artists, who demonstrate tremendous effort in pursuing their artistic visions and careers. The festival offers a full day, family-friendly program, with an action-packed schedule including professionally curated arts and crafts exhibitions, interactive African Djembe drumming workshops for all ages, dance, music, delicious authentic African and Canadian food, and vendors, all in one stunning site in celebration of the best of African and Canadian Music, artisans, and vendors.

Artists Roster  - August 26th

African Drum Circle -  Mohammed Diary Khadim Mbegue
Afrobeat Music/Dance - DJ Moussa
Alternative/Contemporary Music by J.A.S
Native Artist - Esther Jane Willow
RnB - Kyla Wheeler
RnB/Soul Music - Shake Street (Rob Leclerc)
Afrobeat - Exclusive Connection FT Tolu
African Drumming - Mohammed Diaby & Khadim  

Showcases are popping up like mushrooms in the world. I think I wrote about the subject a year ago and said that each country now has its own showcase festival. I correct that most countries now have three or four showcase festivals. In the end, they are too many, like I said on a panel on one of them recently and people gasp.

There are definitely too many of them and with this many, you can as an artist start to pick the ones that are needed for your career.

The Canadian Country Music Association® (CCMA®) Board of Directors and the CCMA are proud to announce Dean Brody as the 2023 recipient of the Gary Slaight Music Humanitarian Award, honouring the multiple CCMA Award winner for his remarkable achievements across numerous initiatives through The Dean Brody Foundation. Awarded annually, the Gary Slaight Music Humanitarian Award recognizes an individual(s) and/or event(s) that have made an outstanding contribution of time and energy in the support of humanitarian causes through country music.

Brody Will Be Celebrated For The Remarkable Achievements Of The Dean Brody Foundation During Country Music Week 2023, September 14-16 In Hamilton, Ontario. 

Following the worldwide debut at SXSW 2023, the documentary feature, 299 Queen Street West, is coming to Canadian venues. After each screening will be an Intimate & Interactive with iconic MuchMusic VJ’s and the Director, Sean Menard.

With unprecedented access to the MuchMusic archives, the two-hour feature tells the origin story and meteoric rise of the seminal music and pop culture brand, highlighting its beginnings as a scrappy Canadian television upstart.

Watch the doc trailer here:

Since Simon Roosé was five years old, he have wanted to be a musician. “It wasn't until I was 13 that I became completely obsessed with playing, creating, and listening to music. In the past eight years, I began my musical journey by singing in choirs. Later, I attended Christian 4:s Gymnasium in Kristianstad, where I experimented with many musical genres, including pop, rock, indie rock, hip-hop, jazz, funk, and fusion. I also studied a variety of instruments, including the guitar, drums, bass, and piano, but I fell in love with playing the guitar and have been playing the guitar as my main instrument ever since,” Simon tells us from his home in Sweden.

In addition to producing his own instrumental music, Simon eventually formed an indie band with some of his friends but as the story always goes the band eventually disbanded.

Hot off the heels of their most recent single "Hey Mona!", Toronto's terrific trio Redpath Traffic is striking a different chord with their latest release, "Do You Love Me Now?", featuring the legendary Chris Birkett on lap steel, keyboards, and backing vocals. Both tracks will be available on the group's debut LP Under The Crimson Sun, available everywhere this October. Check out “Do You Love Me Now?” on YouTube here:

 The electrifying brainchild of drummer Kerem Balci, bassist Mark Fernley, and guitarist/vocalist Rick Todd, Redpath Traffic creates genre-agnostic music that fuses blues and rock with a touch of punk, while weaving through their personal narratives of love, loss, redemption, and change.

To celebrate the release of his twenty-seventh studio album, the gorgeous O Sun O Moon, Bruce Cockburn will perform more than forty solo shows this year throughout North America and into the U.K. It is an ambitious schedule for any performer. At seventy-eight, with profound osteoarthritis and a congenital condition that limits his mobility, Cockburn sounds better than ever. His voice is clear and strong with a richer tone and perhaps greater range than in younger days. And his guitar playing, although not as acrobatic as it was forty years ago, is jaw-dropping. Playing the Royal Oak Music Theatre in Royal Oak, Michigan, in mid-June, the Canadian-born California resident demonstrated why he is recognized as one of the most important singer-songwriters and outstanding guitarists of his generation.

Agnes Mai sings and plays the piano to her narrative pop songs with a lot of feeling and wisdom beyond her years. Her lyrics are often playful and written from a slightly unexpected perspective, and they can be about both the happy and difficult parts of life, taking you on a rollercoaster of emotions from joy to heartache and back again.

Even difficult things can turn into something beautiful in Agnes Mai's musical world. Agnes writes all her own songs as well as doing all her own productions, an amazing undertaking at such a young age, but when you listen her music she is writing and singing material beyond here age, with an ethereal way of presentation and delivery.

She has always loved making music, but started writing songs regularly in high school. Before that, she played a lot of covers, and was active in the choir in Lund, which has influenced her music and given her tools to create her own music. This shows in her song “Like a Virus”. Watch Agnes Mai with a live version of “Like a Virus” on YouTube here:

I have stopped going to Swedish galas. Recently it was the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm. You have never heard of the Polar Music Prize? I’m not surprised. To make it simple the fifth member of ABBA, Stickan Anderson left a big chunk of money to make a Nobel Prize for music. You get a Polar Prize for your good work in the music industry. And there are many famous artists that have gotten the prize like Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Max Martin, and BB King to mention a few.

In the beginning members of the music industry were invited also to the Gala. The problem has always been that the only real famous people have been that one big artist that won. A Gala with just one big artist and then a whole concert room full of nobodies. It’s not like the Grammy Awards in L.A or even better the Oscars where you really have famous people. Over the years they have tried to fix this problem by removing people from the music industry and replacing them with more famous people. Famous in that way that the general public in Sweden know who they are, not the global audience.