This week we highlight Bloorcourt. The Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre at 789 Dovercourt Road. It’s a member of The Daily Bread Food Bank and offers drop-in programs and food access almost every day.

Please support your local food bank. The need is dire.

In a world where ‘cultural expropriation’ has folks fussing about food, clothes, hairstyles, even language, refreshing to see music continues on its merry mash up and mix up ways. Case in point, Métis blues artist Ruby Waters, who just released her highly anticipated sophomore EP If It Comes Down To It distributed by The Orchard. The seven track collection includes recent singles "Rabbit Hole", "Quantum Physics", and the focus track "Difficult".

Praised for a voice that evokes shades of Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse, Ruby’s soulful and unrefined approach on her latest EP guides you through an emotional journey, experiencing gripping and sometimes overlapping themes of pain and pleasure.

HuDost, led by Kentucky-based musicians and activists Moksha Sommer and Jemal Wade Hines, have released a powerful video for their forthcoming single, “Our Words Will Be Louder”.

The new song is a vital message for positive, collective action to be taken in this vulnerable and polarized time. “Our Words Will Be Louder” was co-written with Dan Haseltine (GRAMMY Award-winning band Jars of Clay) and Guitar World magazine’s “Acoustic Guitarist of the Year,” Christie Lenée.

Watch and experience“Our Words Will Be Louder” here:

“What is it like to be a mass shooter? Or a person living with dementia? What plea might a person deeply addicted to opioids make?”

These are just some of the questions indie folk singer-songwriter Scott Garred asks as he approached his new and forthcoming eponymous album, Scott Songs Vol. II, and its newly released preview, “Dementia/Blue”.

Watch and experience this amazing video here:

As a board-certified music therapist working in mental health for over 15 years, Garred has served in state psychiatric facilities, private hospitals, memory care, and prisons; as the frontman for bands Super XX Man and Silver Scooter, and a musician for nearly 30 years, he’s written about thoughts or feelings on a more personal level.

(Part Four of Four)

Another topic to discuss is that people think it’s hard to place songs. After hundreds of placements, I can tell you that it’s not. Still, there is some stuff you need to consider.

Yes, it’s hard to be friends with supervisors and ad-agencies. If you want to be close to them you don’t have the time to be an artist. You need to spend your time between NYC, Los Angeles, and London and make sure you are invited to cool parties to meet all of them to find the latest leads. On top of that, you only have your songs. Okay that is maybe around 50 of them but supervisors need big catalogues of different music and they need it now, so you don’t have the time to write all the things they ask for even when you do get the leads.

This week we spotlight Churches on the Hill Food Bank 230 St Clair Ave W, Toronto. 416-967-3842 christchurchdeerpark.org Tues. & Thurs. open at 10:30 a.m.

Support your local food bank. The need is dire.

Self-styled Montreal eccentric and producer Das Mörtal has released latest single, ‘It Comes’ via Lisbon Lux Records. The single is taken from his upcoming album, Miami Beach Witches which will be released on Halloween. Das Mörtal will also be in the news in the coming months for having participated in the composition of the soundtrack for the next Street Of Rage 4 (SEGA). The planning of both the album and singles upcoming release dates is based around a pagan holiday calendar.

Award-winning Canadian author, filmmaker, and painter Peter Rowe explores stories of musicians in the crosshairs of the authorities — police, border guards, mayors, city councils, the FBI, the Kremlin — in his new book, Music vs The Man is available now.

Watch the “Music vs The Man: Trailer” (90sec) via YouTube Here

Many times, I get the feeling that artists think that I can nag a music supervisor into giving me a placement. That is impossible. Sure, of course, the more people that know about the song the better the chances are. Still, if it is the wrong song it is the wrong song.

A placement is all about supplying the right song in the right place at the right price. So even if you just released this great single, I can’t get a supervisor to take it just because it fits your release plan. They might even want the single that you released three years ago since that fits. Then you just have to go with that or say no. The only time I can be of any assistance is if I have a song that is kind of similar to the one they have chosen but are not really satisfied with it for various reasons.

“Nothing fancy, just the good old blues,” GRAMMY winning guitar master Duke Robillard says of his new album, Blues Bash — available November 20th, 2020 via Stony Plain Records.

To know Duke is to know he would say that, but there’s no downplaying this instant career highlight from one of the world’s best bluesmen.

Preview “Do You Mean It” Video & Single via Stony Plain Records Here

• This week we salute ICNA Relief Food Bank 6120 Montevideo Rd. Unit #4

Mississauga, Tel: 905-858-1067
Email: mississaugafb@icnareliefcanada.ca Because of CoVid, please contact before going.

Support your local food bank. The need is real.

Smooch voiced man with tales to tell, Aloe Blacc, the platinum-selling singer, songwriter, producer, and activist, has dropped new album, All Love Everything. Inspired by his family, the new album is shaped around Aloe not only as a husband, but his journey as a father. The result is a heartfelt, artistic synthesis of family, activism and perseverance that beautifully traverses the tender details that make up life and refuses to be pinned to one genre of music.

Check the single  ‘All Love Everything’ here:

One problem I have is that the artist usually just comes up to me and says that they want me to place their music. It’s not that easy. If I going to approach supervisors, I really need to know all the rights and have those cleared. If I just borrow your song and try to place it, that would be like to borrowing your car. Sure, if I loaned it to a person that you admire like a famous movie star, maybe you wouldn’t mind. Still, I don’t think you would be totally happy that I just borrowed out your car to anyone.

You also want me to borrow out my own car to you. At the same time, why should I do that? Placing a song into production is a lot of work. Just doing it just to be friendly can be total professional suicide in the business.

At 50,000+ streams across platforms, queer, non-binary, Indigenous pop singer/songwriter Angel Baribeau’s messages and representation presented within For Those I Love(d) continues to land loud and clear.

Featuring breathtaking vocals paired with lyrics that traverse emotional terrains rugged and smooth, Baribeau’s debut flows forth with a wisdom-rife, intimate vulnerability cascading through distinctly warm textures and catchy acoustic pop melodies.

With the album taking a Top 3 spot on Apple Music Pop Canada’s charts soon after its Summer 2020 release, the six-track EP’s debut single “Love Is Up The River” quickly garnered more than 17,000+ streams on Spotify and hit Top 10 on the NCI FM Indigenous Music Countdown hosted by SiriusXM Canada; single “Wish We Were Older” followed its path with another ~ 18,000 streams, and was featured on CBC North.

Check out “Love Is Up The River”  here:

This week we highlight ACSA Food Bank, 1911 Kennedy Rd, Toronto, serving the Malvern area. Please donate to your local food bank. The need is real.

This week we’re bookending with some enchanting African music; a debut album from a Nigerian Grammy winner and a classic album reissue from a Senegalese legacy band.

Setting the mood, Soul Makossa from Manu Dibango

The much-anticipated 'ỌPẸ' album, a debut by Nigerian Grammy-winning recording artist and percussionist, Sikiru Adepoju is out now! “ỌPẸ (Gratitude)” now Streaming on All Digital Platforms Via: https://mansmark.com

One-of-its-kind Canadian musical duo Q&A — as in JUNO Award-winning Tony Quarrington and his esteemed counterpart Zoey Adams — deliver the second release in their multi-genre triple EP offering, One More FOLK Thing including lead single “How Do I Love You?”

Following this summer’s big band-to-ballad exploration that is One More JAZZ Thing, One More FOLK Thing falls in line with another five tracks that span from old-timey upbeats to slow-folk styles, and everything in between.

“Clap along with this happy, little bluegrass love song,” Adams says of the album’s first preview, “How Do I Love You?” — a lively duet spotlighting sounds of the fiddle, banjo, and guitar.

Listen to “How Do I Love You?” Spotify here: open.spotify.com/album/2Y5XyWEiwUpYRCoNZTXFUB

“Redbird” lands as another bluegrass-based tune, while “Hold On” and “Last One In Love” slow the pace as an intimate, personal anthem and a whimsical yet poignant look at love, respectively.

(Part One of Four)

I got a request for placement on an old song from one of the supervisors I work with often. This song is from a band that is no longer exists. We create a deal that we can place the song anyway. Still, it was probably over five years ago someone requested something around the songs from their catalogue.

She had a lead on to someone that needed the song. But it was locked on YouTube through the aggregator to the song. This one was so old that back in the days we let the artist upload themselves to aggregators. The reason why we don’t let that happen now is pretty clear in what happened here.

She asked me if I knew the company that was blocking it as it was not the usual ones, so I had no clue. I then went back to the leader of the band and asked if he knew.

As many of you know, I started my career in music, radio and retail, I was truly blessed to be one of the very first female Music Directors in Canadian history and I still thank the people in the business who had the foresight to see past the fact I was a woman, and was a person who was passionate about music.

That passion for music has never left me and heading into our 14th year of Cashbox Canada, a magazine inspired by the legendary Cashbox Magazine, we are now working hard to bring back radio to where it used to be with our latest venture, Cashbox Radio.

A little history of where the name Cashbox came from - the name of Cashbox Magazine (originally two words – Cash Box) was named after the actual ‘cash box’ inside the jukeboxes of America. When customers put their money in and played for example - A1, the money dropped down into a specific spot in the cash box and this is how the original Cash Box Charts were derived from collecting that information. 

Canadian collective that is Bent Roads Tavern are revisiting their iconic campus days with the issuance of completely remastered and restored works in the form of The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern Volume 3 & 4 — and stand-out single “Steeples And Turntables III”.

Check out Steeples and Turntables III - Bent Roads Tavern here:

With the release of The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern Volume 3 & 4, the unapologetic clash of indie folk-modern jazz with flashes of protest punk that is BRT catches new listeners up on the history of one of the elusive corners of the Canadian music cultural landscape Fans of Mumford & Sons, Dan Mangan, Tim Baker, Florence and the Machine, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Elliott Brood, The Dave Matthews Band, Bob Dylan and Neil Young may appreciate what BRT is all about as they hit hard on their Hard legendary story and prepare to write new chapters of its enduring legacy.

This week we spotlight The Yonge Street Mission at Yonge/College providing hot meals and nutritious snacks daily to youth at the Evergreen Centre and to all ages at the Christian Community Centre. The food bank welcomes adults and families and offers clothing through a voucher system at their Double Take store. Donations are always in need and can be made online. Food services are available from 12 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Please donate to your local food bank. The need is real.

In keeping with the seasonal vibe, here’s the final solo album from Gord Downie, Away Is Mine. Steered to life by “my oldest Toronto friend,” guitarist and co-writer Josh Finlayson, Downie recorded the ten songs of Away Is Mine in July 2017 at The Tragically Hip’s studio in Bath, Ontario, mere months before he died on October 17th that year.

Since I hold a couple of gateways in various areas, I receive a lot of requests on social media. Most people are,of course, people I never have met in real life. There are fake accounts so the first thing you research is to find out if the person is actually real. If we have friends in common it is a sign that the person is real, not just one common friend but a couple.

Now these common friends also give away a hint of what level you are on in the industry. Almost like a fortune teller, I can read what you want and what will happen with your friend’s request. I have been playing with my staff here in the office to see if my theory is right and so far, I have been better than the fortune teller machine Zoltar in the movie “Big”.

One example is when an unknown artist is making a friend’s request. You can see that they are new to the industry, there are few friends and the ones they have are the usual local heroes in the area they are from. I usually say yes, and my guess is that that in the first 48 hours I will get a message with a question about sending a song for me to listen to.

This week we highlight The Caribbeaan Canadian Catholic Centre at 867 College Street. It’s a member of Daily Bread Food Bank and operates a soup kitchen on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. until noon and also arranges for emergency food when necessary.

Please support your local food banks. The need is very real and getting realer with every lost job.

Three time JUNO Award nominees and Billboard charting Sultans of String are serving up their first ever Live Stream concert in their brand new studio decked out with a fun, interactive set-up for the audience. Fans from across Canada, the USA, and the UK can come together for a special live concert experience.

 “Our plans is to Zoom the show, which is a super fun way to create a community experience among our fans, since we’ll all be able to see each other” says bandleader and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient, Chris McKhool.

A Facebook friend of mine asked this question: Artists, if you had an opportunity to sit down with an industry executive what is the one question you would ask?

It is kind of interesting what the artist would answer. My guess is, of course, they will be aggressive and start accusing this person because they haven’t succeeded yet. Like that would be this person’s fault? Okay, in the old industry there was gatekeepers. That is long gone, everything is really open. The fact is that nowadays it’s not hard to sit down and discuss with even the biggest industry executive what the goals are and how to achieve them.