All Photo Credits Fiona Lawson/Studio 22 Photography

The COVID-19 pandemic took away a lot of things we took for granted, gathering with our friends for meals or drinks or sporting events and a host of other social functions. But most of those were brought back, with certain restrictions and rules we had to follow.

But live music, played by live musicians to live people was one of the last things to be reinstated. I have been playing live music for most of my adult life so this is the longest stretch i have gone without playing out. Finally, after more than a year I got to do what I've always done, play to a live audience with a bunch of other singer/songwriters.

It’s the magic words every kid, and the kid in all of us, wants to hear: Canadian family pop-rockers Macaroni Birthday are serving up a heaping portion of “Dessert First” with this, their debut single.

Check out “Dessert First” here:

Friends for two decades, singers/songwriters Patrick McCormack and Eric Warner have come together as the fresh, new, exciting, and upbeat voices of children’s entertainment in the form of Macaroni Birthday. The pair fuse their love of rock music, with the hilarity of children’s themed music that’s bound to endear parents as it entertains kids.

As the most celebrated and enduring brass quintet in history, Canadian Brass unveil the first peek at their forthcoming and first ever all-Canadian album with the release of “Hallelujah”.

Check out “Hallelujah” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/Iwi-z0ehR9c

The Leonard Cohen cover is first to arrive from the iconic ensemble's upcoming album, Canadiana. The 11-song collection is set to arrive November 12th via Linus Entertainment, and adds to Canadian Brass’ impressive catalogue that has collectively sold over 2M albums.

On Canadiana, Canadian Brass celebrates the popular Canadian artists the group both loves to listen to, and has impressed them throughout their career. In addition to Cohen, Canadiana includes songs by Joni Mitchell, Drake, Daniel Caesar, Shawn Mendes, Rush, Bruce Cockburn, Deadmau5, k.d. lang, and Lara Fabian.

Pre-Order and Pre-Save here: https://linusentertainment.com/artists/canadianbrass/

We recently lost Charlie Watts, the drummer of The Rolling Stones. I just read a review from The Rolling Stones first concert on the postponed world tour from Atlanta. The journalist that was there said that the new drummer did a good job, but couldn’t replace Charlie and in his eyes The Rolling Stones were dead.

I guess we will see a lot of this in the near future. Yesterday’s stars are still the stars; we really aren’t  producing many more household names. Or yesterday I read more twenty years ago. I already had said a little while ago  in early 2000 that we haven’t produced any household names in late of the 90’s. Then both Britney Spears and Eminem got on and suddenly we got back with a lot of household names during the next years.

Now it seems like we are back in the position that we were in the late 90’s. Suddenly, there is no new household names. The question this time is it just one of these moments in time? Is it because of COVID? Or is it a result of the new trends of social media where you are just famous inside a bubble of certain people?

In an epic archival for the ages of one of Canada’s most iconic venues, author David Binks has written and compiled That Night At Massey Hall — available for pre-orders here: thatnightatmasseyhall.ca/shop/that-night-at-massey-hall/

At 240 pages, this limited-edition tome teeming with tales from Toronto’s ‘Old Lady of Shuter Street’ is home to more than 1,500 individual story, photo, and memorabilia contributions, and features over 500+ artists — including Rush, Lightfoot, Dylan, Pavarotti, Aretha, Neil Young, Springsteen, Miles Davis, Van Morrison, U2, and The Tragically Hip.

Joan Armatrading has been a UK singer-songwriter now for around half-a-century, a fact that seems to come as a bit of a surprise to both of us when we hook up for a chat about her career and her latest chart-topping album, ‘Consequences.’

Armatrading is the first UK female singer-songwriter to receive a Grammy Nomination. She is clearly extremely proud of this and when I venture to express an expectation that it must have been an extraordinary thing for a black woman to achieve, back in 1980 when it first happened, (she’s been nominated three times, so far) she swiftly puts me in my place: “It’s nothing to do with being ‘black.’ That’s never been an issue for me. I’ve never felt any pressure or stress because of that, or because I’m a woman. I’m a writer. I never played covers though my first label did ask if I was going to do some covers of others’ songs. That was a short conversation. I don’t do that. It’s just not going to happen. I’m very self-assured. I have a confidence in what I do, what I write, record and how I work.”

Nova Scotia native Ian Janes is a critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, and producer who after a long Covid lockdown finally got back to the live stage and he is the real deal!    I caught up with Ian at the VANCESTOCK X Music Festival in Stouffville, Ontario,  where he and his band , Marito Marques -Drums , Andrew Stewart- Bass, Rob Christian -Keys/Saxophone,  showed what makes him as popular as he is. The show was high energy with a soulful moodiness that kept the audience in his grasp from the beginning to the last note.

Ian grew up in a house full of many different musical influences, his dad played guitar in a few bands and his mom had an extensive record collection.  Ian was exposed to such a broad amount of music as a kid which helped him develop his style , a style he describes as an eclectic sound.

Over the years, France has undoubtedly had the most persistent influence on music development in Canada. Many attribute this influence to the fact that the French arrived in Canada in the 17th century. They were the first Europeans to colonize the country. However, the French did not come empty-handed; they brought their songs. Three and a half centuries later, their descendants are still singing a large number of songs, including church songs.

Historians reveal that missionaries came to Canada from France to convert the natives. They claim that these missionaries were men and women who could read music and possessed other musical skills. Moreover, it was the French that brought the first musical instruments into Canada.

Studies also show that Louis Jolliet was the first Canadian-born resident to travel to France to pursue his studies, and music was among them. Nevertheless, historical records claim that music was not encouraged nor developed during the French regime in Canada from 1608 to 1760. There were a few exciting individual efforts during the time.

The big news here in Sweden was that a “famous” artist was arrested for robbery and extortion yesterday. Nothing really new but it proves what times  we are living in and what lies ahead.

Of course, we in Sweden have a gossip page where they discuss who this “famous” artist could be. The article said that he was one of the most listened to artists on Spotify. Of course, it just takes a couple of hours then the name drops on this site and ninety-nine percent of the readers on there don’t know who that artist is. Neither did I, sorry even though I have worked in the industry for over thirty years and read the most on everything. Nope, I never heard of this guy. Of course, it’s a rapper from the suburbs of Stockholm. Sure he has many streams over (100,000 million) and he was one of the most-streamed artitst last year. Still, no one outside the rapper’s community of Stockholm knows this guy which was pointed out very quickly. I guess after robbing the store he got “real” media so it would boost his career so that more people actually know who he is.

Streaming is not getting you anywhere.

I was talking to a local politician. Suddenly they started to  brag about some local act and told me that this artist will get somewhere because they signed a record deal with a company abroad. Yes, the person was middle-aged;  they usually are. The truth is that signing a record deal is not the same as it was in the eighties. Still many people that are not familiar with the music industry or haven’t worked in it for the past five years still see a record deal with glittering eyes. To be honest it’s so far from that.

First, that record deal they were bragging about we don’t know anything about it.  A foreign record label can be anyone putting up a homepage and buying some streams.  In fact, most of them are that way. There are very few companies that have the power and money to make the global campaigns that are needed.

The mesmerizing stylings of Laura Fernandez on vocal, Glenn Crosse on arrangement and guitar, and George Koller on bass have come together in their magical new single, “Fotografia” – Check it out on YouTube here:

Whisking audiences to a place where wonder and longing interlace, guitarist Glenn Crosse leads the multi-talented artists into this stunning arrangement, unveiling a renewed take on a lesser-known and rarely-covered gem by Antonio Carlos Jobim

Following on the heels of her recent solo album, Okay, Alright, singer/songwriter, pianist, producer, radio host, and artist Laura Fernandez lends to the track an intimate and inimitable vocal in both Portuguese and English.

Each complementing the song’s timeless groove and feel with finesse, bassist, producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist George Koller brings a powerful and sensitive bowed upright bass.

Re-imagining the fabled tale of a folklore favourite has been the latest creative challenge for Chris de Burgh, and his new album, The Legend of Robin Hood, finds the iconic artist at his imaginative best.

Available now, the compelling release breathes music and lyrical life into a centuries-old and much-loved classic, re-telling the story with cinematic vision coupled seamlessly to music of emotional depth and power. The concept for the 27th studio album by Chris emerged from his involvement in ‘Robin Hood’, a stage musical about the infamous Sherwood Forest nobleman and his band of outlaws. Chris was invited to contribute storylines and melodies to the musical, which will be produced later in the year in Fulda, Germany, by Spotlight Productions, a theatrical company that has already mounted eight successful musicals.

“Since I was writing songs for this,” he explains, “I thought ‘Why not expand the story and put an album out, too?’”

Check out Life Life, Live Well here on YouTube:

The live industry events are back!

For some it will be still early though to say how the countries are changing rules and making the whole restrictions a difficult task to run live showcase festivals. The first showcase festival to cancel back in 2020 was Mastering the Music Business also called MMB. I was really glad that now that the first that was available at least in most part live was MMB. Full circle as they say.

MMB has been around for six years now and is a steadily growing showcase festival. I have been following their progress for three years now. If you ask me MMB is one of the best showcase festivals right now. Its size is perfect;  it’s not too big and it’s not too small. This is a great festival for all levels of people in the industry both experienced music industry professionals and newcomers can get great things out of the festival as all levels of expertise are represented.

I was on my first in real ‘live in person’ conference last week, Mastering the Music Business (RO). The first one in almost 2 years.

I did some rookie mistakes like forgot to bring my business cards and my power bank for my phone. It was great though; I did more business than I have done in the past 1.5 years in just one day of the physical conference. It’s all true; you need to meet people face to face to make the more groundbreaking business and connections.

And I should know since the pandemic started, I have been on an online conference each once a week, sometimes two. I just calculated that I have attended around 84 of them. The problem is that nothing really happens. You get into business direct and just talk business, but no business is really done. I talked to a lot of people at the MMB conference, and they had the same opinion, well that could be biased since we were all so glad to be back again in the live environment.

As a result of the COVID 19 pandemic and the resulting lockdowns, one of the first things to go was live music. But I am happy to announce that after over one full year of not playing out I am finally able to announce a real live gig with real live people playing real live instruments.