Acclaimed Toronto-based guitarist Kevin Breit is set to release his new CD, Johnny Goldtooth and The Chevy Casanovas on Sunday, November 26 at Lula Lounge in Toronto. The new disc, available on Stony Plain Records, was written and produced by Kevin Breit. The evening will feature Kevin Breit along with Ian DeSouza, Gary Taylor and special guests.

All femme trio Joseph returns with a seven-track EP, Stay Awake, released digitally by ATO Records. The collection includes three new songs - "All," which opens the set, a demo of "50, 60, 80" and the closing track, "Stay Awake" plus re-imagined versions of two older songs and stunning covers of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and the Rolling Stones' " Moonlight Mile."

Natalie Schepman, who founded Joseph with her two sisters, Allison Closner and Meegan Closner, says, "Stay Awake is a small collection of songs we put together to help ourselves deal with heaviness. It's a bit of telling it like it is. It's a bit of a 'keep going.'"

"When we were recently reminded of Tears for Fears' song 'Everybody Wants to Rule The World,' it hit us how pertinent it is today even though it was written in the 80's. Today, maybe more than ever," explains Natalie, who added a few lines after the bridge that especially speak to the times we live in:

'Make the most of freedom and pleasure.

For those of you not familiar with "Sacred Steel", it is one of the most exciting musical forms on the planet and Chuck is one of its greatest exponents. Ken first met the award winning pedal steel guitarist Chuck Campbell on a Memphis elevator. Even before Ken heard the African-American Sacred Steel superstar group The Campbell Brothers perform, Ken sensed that here were musicians he'd love to make music with.The next day after he heard them play, the deal was sealed. Chuck Campbell played on two of Ken's cds – ‘Listening’ and ‘Another Day's Journey’. With The Campbell Brothers, Chuck has been featured at Luminato, the Hummingbird Centre, The Kennedy Centre, TheHollywood Bowl and has toured extensively across North America and Europe.The last time Chuck appeared on Ken’s Sunday Gospel series it was standing room only so we suggest you get your tickets early.

The world is peppered with musical magpies, musicians who are ever searching, listening out for new, refreshingly interesting rhythms and tones, the next nugget of aural treasure lurking just around the next corner.  For most, there might, if lucky, be a sudden awakening, a new discovery that torches the flame once again and pushes them into a challenging new area or zone. But when you’re Robert Plant your pickings tend to produce pearls.

With Plant’s latest offering, ‘Carry Fire’ on Warner/Nonesuch Records, we have an album that ricochets from area to area, never sitting lazily in any one softly sagging musical zone. From the opening track, with its sparkling, up-beat, up-tempo shades of modern blues and Americana, through the scorching passion of the title track to others that are mesmerising at times and haul indefinably intriguing eastern scales and instrumentation into the forefront, this is an album that is instantly disarming and delicious. Plant includes a take on one of his own personal, life-long favourites, the mid-fifties number, ‘Bluebirds Over the Mountain,’ where he shares the vocals with New Yorker and ex-Pretender, Chrissie Hynde.

Winnipeg band The Treble has announced their fifth installment of 24 Shows in 24 Hours will take place on October 20 and 21. This year the band has chosen to partner with and raise funds for The National Canadian Mental Health Association.

The Treble will play acoustic sets each hour at a variety of businesses, venues, and historical and recognizable landmarks across Winnipeg, in exchange for donations that will go to support the CMHA. Since its inception, the event has grown significantly, and for its fifth anniversary, this year's iteration promises to be a truly special experience. Since it's inception in 2011, 24 Shows in 24 Hours has raised nearly $20,000 for charity partners including the Canadian Red Cross, Winnipeg Harvest, Free The Children, and Cancer Care Manitoba.

Terra Lightfoot's multi talents are on show in a new video for the lead single off her forthcoming studio album. "Paradise" premiered on CBC's q and is now available for streaming and download stores. Lightfoot's upcoming full-length, New Mistakes, is set for release on October 13 via Sonic Unyon Records. The "Paradise" video, directed by Dustin Rabin (photographer for Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and director of performance-based videos for Billy Talent), sees its premiere via American Songwriter.

Stony Plain Records proudly announces the November 17 release of the latest CD from multi Blues Music Award-winning guitarist Ronnie Earl and his band, the Broadcasters, The Luckiest Man. Ronnie Earl calls the album, "A traditional blues album of remembrance, love, and unwavering resolve to live with faith and gratitude." The new disc was recorded at Woolly Mammoth Studios, Waltham, Mass.; Keep the Edge Studio, Quincy, Mass.; and in Groton, Mass.

Edmonton-based singer/songwriter VISSIA's new full-length album Place Holder will be released Nov. 10, coinciding with tour dates in eastern Canada (see full schedule below), and the launch of her own label, Hurray Hard Records.

Place Holder follows hot on the heels of VISSIA's three-song EP You Should Be Sleeping, which ARTISTDirect praised as "good ole rock 'n' roll from a powerful female songwriter. VISSIA might be a new name, but she is an old soul who bleeds blues."

Souleye has earned his spot among the most talented performers in hip hop today thanks to talent, hard work, and discipline coming together in one package. Another key and seldom discussed element driving such career is willingness to grow and Souleye, at every turn of his development as both a performer and writer, has shown an eagerness to widen his musical and thematic scope so long as it remains true to the essential core of his artistic and personal vision. He’s joined by visiting artists on a number of cuts and the guest shots that punctuate this album all serve a greater end. They also fully understand their role as guests and do a great deal to take otherwise fantastic tracks and make them even better. Wildman, taken as a whole, strikes you as the sound of an artist at the top of his game and it’s monumentally impressive that Souleye, this far along, hasn’t lost any of his appetite for communicating with his audience.

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers released The Long-Awaited Album on Rounder Records on September 22. The Long-Awaited Album, Martin's newest collaboration with the Grammy-winning North Carolina-based band, The Steep Canyon Rangers, is full of stories that mix humour and melancholy, whimsy and realism, rich characters and concrete details. And lots of banjos.

That instrument, dexterously, even acrobatically picked and strummed, is just as crucial to relating these new tales as the lyrics themselves, each chord and riff revealing new depths to Martin’s narrators and to his musical talent. Produced by Peter Asher, the new album is a collection of 14 stunning new songs including the boisterous and humorous new track Caroline, the deeply romantic tune All Night Long, and the fantastical song Santa Fe, which showcases the lively dynamic between Martin and the Rangers.

The Five Man Electrical Band (originally known as The Staccatos from 1963–68) is a Canadian rock group from Ottawa. They had many hits in Canada, including the top 10 entries "Half Past Midnight" (1967) (as The Staccatos), "Absolutely Right" (1971) and "I'm a Stranger Here" (1972). Internationally, they are best known for their 1971 hit single "Signs”.

The band The Staccatos was formed in Ottawain 1963. It initially included singer Dean Hagopian, guitarist Vern Craig, bass player Brian Rading and singer/drummer Rick Bell (born Rick Belanger). Hagopian left after about a year, and was replaced by vocalist and guitarist Les Emmerson , who would become the band's prime songwriter, while Bell and Emmerson split lead vocal duties.

So it's September and new releases are falling like leaves in my inbox. Love it. In no particular order, this week's sampling.

The final testament from an artist who shaped rock'n'roll, Southern Blood is Gregg Allman’s newest release since the 2011 Grammy Award-nominated solo landmark, Low Country Blues. It serves as a uniquely personal piece, featuring songs written by his friends and admirers (Jackson Browne, Willie Dixon, Jerry Garcia & Robert Hunter, Lowell George and Spooner Oldham & Dan Penn) and is a mix of classic rock & roll, blues, and funk, with emotional texture and powerful subject matter. Produced by Don Was, and recorded at the renowned FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL, Southern Blood highlights Allman’s legacy as an iconic singer/songwriter and exceptional practitioner of the American blues tradition. Harley Davidson will be honouring Gregg, a longtime motorcycle enthusiast, with special events across North America on release day.

Multi-platinum, JUNO Award-winning vocal supergroup, The Tenors are gearing up for the international release of their fifth studio album CHRISTMAS TOGETHER, out on October 13 through Universal Music Canada (UMC), the country’s leading music company, and Decca Records/Verve Label Group in the United States. Bringing the spirit of Christmas to their fans and to complement this release, The Tenors will embark on a 16-city North American tour beginning November 18 in Los Angeles, CA. Tickets for the tour go on sale Friday, September 15 at 10 A.M.