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.

At 10,000 streams across platforms, Karizma and Alessandro Montelli continue to amplify messages of equality, justice and humanity in their new collaborative track, “1 Race” — available now!

“This is a song that represents the change we want to see in the world right now,” they say. “It’s inspired by everything that’s been going on in our world with police brutality, racism, and injustices.

Karizma feat. Alessandro Montelli - 1 Race (Official Music Video) here:

“It also looks at the tough times, especially recently, and is wishing for everyone to stay safe and keep social distancing for a better world to minimize the spread of COVID-19.”

Stepping in this week with ‘Hallucinate’ from Dua Lipa.

Highlighting The Sharing Place, 624 Annette Street. This non-profit compassion organization provides warm meals on a weekly basis as well as a food and clothing bank for all people regardless of faith, income, or culture. Donations of non-perishable food items or funds are always needed.

"Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust…"

Yes, you can hear me humming that Queen song when I bump into artists or industry professionals that play the headless chicken game. This phrase was invented by an intern many years ago around the behavior of a couple of artists that had screwed him over.

“They just run around like a headless chicken screwing everyone or screwing each other!” he screamed in frustration. And the whole office just laughed out loud. We all knew what he meant; we all knew the behavior he was trying to describe. After that, it became known as “the headless chicken game.”

So, what it is when a person just runs around and tries to use everyone they meet as a steppingstone? At the same time, they try to be friends with everyone. They don’t understand that connections in this business are all about trust, networking, loyalty and friendships. So if they try to climb the ladder on several different places, the end result will be that everything crashes down around them.

Indie Week (Canada) and Cashbox Radio has assembled a diverse panel from Sweden, Spain, Colombia and Canada with backgrounds in online radio, magazine, network TV, and artist management for an Indie Week Panel on September 15^th at 1 PM EST.

Four Industry Professionals will be discussing the new importance and value of online radio and media exposure on a global level. The moderator is Darryl Hurs, Founder/Owner of Indie Week/ Director of Market Development Canada at CD Baby.

Panelists:

Sandy Graham
Cashbox Radio: Program Director/On-Air Host
Cashbox Magazine: CEO/Editor-in-Chief

This week we highlight Eastview Neighbourhood Community Centre at 86 Blake Street, a member of the Daily Bread Food Bank that has been operating for over 40 years. Monetary donations can be made online, while members of the community are also encouraged to reach out to find out how to run a successful food drive in schools or workplaces. Open Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m

Back in June, The Dead Centuries released their catchy sun-baked vibed song “Pop a Soda”, and drunk on carbonated joy, their second summer single “Crystal Summer” is ready for ears August 28.

Many artists follow all the rules and advice that are given to them at conferences, online or in workshops, etc. One rule seems though seems hard for them to understand: format.

Format is how the general audience listens and how music presented to them. You have every artistic right and freedom to not follow these format rules. You need to be aware that you are excluding yourself from a lot of listeners. No, you cannot change people. Either you change for them or you accept a smaller range of audiences. Either way is the right way for you, it's your choice. Right now, however, we have too many people that have chosen to leave formats and then doing PR and efforts that are in a format world, and then complaining that they don’t get the same chance as other artists and that the world is too shallow.