This week we spotlight Thornhill Food Bank 1 Leaside Park Dr Unit 5B, Toronto, East YorkOffice phone647-428-9755

Email: thorncliffefb@icnareliefcanada.ca

COVID19 -- Food bank open by appointment only, call and leave message at any time but please do not call Mon or Thurs * counselling service by phone -- call for appointment or visit website to register.

Stepping off to the beat of JUNO Award-winning Toronto-based singer, songwriter and harmonica master Paul Reddick lauds life’s bounties of great friendship, great music, and great surroundings in this, his new release — Alive in Italia — available now.

“This record is somewhat of a love letter to Italy and our friends there,” Reddick muses. “If I had one wish come true today, I would be sitting on a patio on the narrow, cobbled streets of Italy’s SestriLevante…. I’d be kept cool by a sea breeze, and be drinking a glass of red wine.

Lately, I have seen some really smart new things that bigger artists are doing. They just quit the current social media frenzy that has been going on.  I can really see this breaking through as a lifestyle after the pandemic.

For the past ten years record labels, managers and others have told artists that they should own their fans and a lot of the success has been how many followers you have on different social media accounts. Right now it seems like all the bigger labels have a race to pick up things form TikTok. It has been this way in all parts of the music industry with the exception the live scene.

Don McLean is hardly known for his blues work or output. But as the guy who wrote one of the most important songs of a generation, around fifty years ago, with ‘American Pie,’ he hit the global charts, the airwaves and the world for a cert home-run.  One copy of the original, hand-written lyrics alone fetched over a million bucks at auction and McLean laughs at the thought and says he has a few other hand-written copies still on hand.

When the opportunity again arose to speak with McLean at home (one of four houses, he tells me) in California’s Palm Springs area, I couldn’t pass up the chance of catching up with the guy, picking up on themes we touched on when his last album, ‘Botanical Gardens’ launched in 2018. McLean is always warmly friendly, much as might be expected from a modern US roots music master who generally keeps one strict personal rule in place - writing his own material and seldom, if ever, recording the work of others.

This week we spotlight North York Harvest Food Bank 116 Industry St, Toronto 416-635-7771.
Usually open Mon-Fri 9 to 5 but CoVid hours may vary.
Please call ahead.

Looks like another week with an all-female cast. Lessons in life can come of this. Elusive Canadian pop-soul artist Tali is stepping out of the shadows with the release of new single, “(Don’t) Wanna Be Yours” — available now.

An old soul in a modern world, hopeless romantic in a heartless era, and a timeless artist in a disposable age, the emerging Toronto singer-songwriter introduces us to them all on her darkly compelling (and aptly titled) forthcoming EP, Shadows.

A gifted, dynamic talent whose boundless creativity and presence are matched by a spiritual commitment to her calling. "When I sing, I feel like I connect to my source, to my higher self. It's like a channel for me. One of my favourite quotes — I forget who said it — is 'The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.' That speaks to me. I've been carrying those words with me ever since I first read them."

I actually had the time to clean out the old shed that sits in our backyard. That is the last thing you really schedule for a cleanout. I can’t even remember if I have ever cleaned it out when we moved here thirteen years ago.

I also had time to sort out my comic book collection and put the ones of value in plastic sheets. You know when you have time to do things like this, you really have too much time on your hands. Lockdown was not fun, but right now my house looks as best as it ever did; I even had time to build my greenhouse.

But now I feel the isolation time has really gone on too long. I have my projects rolling, many though sit at a standstill because of the holidays. I finally feel kind of bored. I was thinking to myself, why do I feel bored? You have all these small projects that never end, and you are not experiencing any stress. At first, I could not pinpoint what it was. Then it hit me.

Canadian JUNO Award-nominated world ensemble Toronto Tabla Ensemble is having a party with some Unexpected Guests in this, their newest album release — available now!

Across the release’s seven tracks, the critically acclaimed group of artists weave a variety of instruments, from percussion to bagpipe, piano to taiko, sarod to flute, and more, with their signature sound rooted by the traditional tabla.

"This album is a simple one," TTE Founder and Artistic Director and Roy Thomson Hall Award winner Ritesh Das says. ”Most of the tracks are in very straightforward 4/4 grooves. On our other albums, you had tracks with different time signatures that made it really intellectual and complicated.

“I wanted this one to be something that anyone can sit back and listen to and enjoy." 

This week we spotlight Flemingdon Community Food Bank
10 Gateway Blvd, Basement North York, ON (416) 422-4322
info@fcfoodbank.com

Monday’s 1:30 to 3:30 Singles
Tuesday’s 1:30 to 3:30 Families
Wednesday’s 1:30 to 3:30 Families
Thursday’s 1:30 to 3:30 Families

Thanks for your help.

Stepping in with girls, girls, girls. Leading off, Aussie singer/songwriter Julia Stone and her new single "Break" and the accompanying music video via Arts &Crafts. In a shift from her folk origins, Stone has shed a proverbial skin to emerge in an entirely new form. With its surreal, metallic synths and horns, the single is reminiscent of David Byrne’s ensemble work, and is the perfect introduction to Stone's new era.

With over 100,000+ streams across Spotify, award-winning Kingsville, ON’s alt-folk rock-to-blues duo Fresh Breath direct urgent attention to the world’s obsession with social media in this upbeat, sing-along new single, “Likes & Shares”.

“A single event inspired me to write this song,” Fresh Breath co-front Josh Pascoe recalls. “It happened at one of our performances; we were playing and an audience member, I could see, perked up at the very first note.”

“She reached for her phone with excitement and began to film,” co-front Katie Pascoe adds. “You could obviously tell this person took a short video, posted it to social media, and then proceeded to talk through the rest of the song.”

“There wasn’t a single hoot, holler or clap (from her) once the song was complete,” Josh continues. “I thought to myself: nobody cares, it’s all about the likes and the shares.”

Another clickbait headline.Yes, I have been experimenting with things like that. But the whole new world that we see after COVID-19 is starting to be interesting.

I'm in a secret forum with other colleagues in the music industry and there the chatter right now is much how lower Spotify still is in their payment per stream. At the same time, Spotify just launched that you could have one account for two people to the price of one. That will not get more money into Spotify to raise the other. And as many have said the streams are going down during the crisis since people have stopped listening to music to work and from work, since they’re not commuting that much at this time.

This week we spotlight The Sharing Place. It’s an essential resource for the Junction and Bloor West area providing food, clothing, items for home and other supports including showers and laundry for those in need.  Regular meals weekly on Thursdays. They accept donations from the community for all of the items and families can get free winter clothing items

624 Annette Street Toronto. Open Thursdays 9.00 am-8 pm. (416) 762-3322

Stepping in with a never-before-heard solo version of the late Aretha Franklin’s riveting and powerful collaboration with Mary J. Blige about faith and race, 2006’s “Never Gonna Break My Faith,” is very much getting heard...

 Sony’s RCA Records, RCA Inspiration and Legacy Recordings released the song aligning with the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that all enslaved black people learned they had been freed from bondage.

“Never Gonna Break My Faith” resonates today, featuring lyrics like: “You can lie to a child with a smiling face/Tell me that color ain’t about a race.”

Imagine that you are going on a hike to climb a high mountain like Mont Blanc. You have some cool friends with you and you have a great team that has a good chance to actually reach the top. All people in the team know what to do and how to do it; they are specialists in their own way.

Then suddenly your old Dad calls you up. By mistake, you had posted on Facebook (only old people use Facebook) that you are about to climb this mountain. Of course, old pap really wants to join in on this climb. In the height of his career, he climbed mountains. Mont Blanc was one of them. But that is back in the days and the routes he took are not available any longer. You are taking a totally different route. The equipment that is used is different. On top of that old Dad is walking with a cane and will just start nagging around things he did over thirty years ago.

Canadian country-pop artist Greg Rider takes to wondering if the love of his life is just “One Town Away” in this, his new single release.

“This song was actually written in two days,” Rider recalls, looking back at a songwriting session with collaborator Rich Cloke. “I didn’t plan it at all. I was a bit stuck,” he explains. “I had songs that I couldn’t release yet, so William Gaboury — producer and owner of Father & Son Records — suggested I write something new and come visit him in Montreal that same weekend to record everything. It all happened so fast… Within four or five days, everything about ‘One Town Away’ was done!

Watch and listen to ‘One Town Away’ here:

This song’s particular process may have been quick, but the concept had been percolating in Rider’s mind for years — albeit subconsciously, for the most part.

James Cohen and the Prairie Roots Rockers are exactly who they say they are.

And nowhere can you hear just what the Winnipeg-based outfit means — or how awesome that is — than on their new video for their long-loved single, “These Long Nights,” available now.

“The origins of this song go back several years,” frontman and band namesake James Cohen considers. “The general theme is one of loneliness and isolation which, unfortunately, are sentiments many of us can relate to during these difficult times currently.

“The video attempts to convey a longing for someone special who was perhaps met long ago, not unlike reminiscing about a long-lost romantic partner who we have lost track of and wonder about today.”

“The song isn’t necessarily meant to be sad,” he insists. “But… The D minor key it was written in lends itself to a melancholy tone.”

Watch These Long Nights here:

Ottawa neo disco funk band DeeDee7 and their freshly minted self-titled EP will tease the heck outa ya because its contents are tailored made for getting sweaty and mashing up on the dance floor and well….

Is the band a septet? It certainly is! We have a drummer AND a percussionist, a singer-synth player, singer-violinist, singing-bassist, a righteous guitar player and me, DeeDee Butters out front :)

That being said, the band is actually named after an old stain remover called DiDiSeven that came out in 1987 (I was 7, so I thought it was the best thing I'd ever seen). It was one of the very first viral infomercials.

Describe your sound?

We're channelling Nile Rodgers meets Chromeo meets Thelma Houston and Donna Summer. Toot-Toot-Beep-Beep.

Who does the songwriting?

Andrew Burns, our bassist, and I wrote the bones of the songs. Then we played them live with our awesome bandmates so that they could add their own flavour to the tracks before we went into the studio. Just like touring bands used to do back in the day.

The Canadian urban pop dynamo’s second single of the year lands after February’s “Circles” and September 2019’s breakthrough debut, Things Get Good. The seven-track release — and each single thereafter — teems with the First Nations artist’s irrefutable musical magnetism and signature songwriting, delving deep into topics of love, lust, vulnerability, self-awareness, and everything in between.

“It’s about looking in on a friend’s toxic relationship, and reflecting what I might do in that situation while also trying to help them see they’re worth more,” Lynn shares about “I Can’t Relate” and its inspiration; she drew from personal experience as the scenario was one Lynn frustratingly found herself in. “I was venting to my co-writers that I didn’t understand how my friend couldn’t see what I saw was going on, and couldn’t see that she deserved so much more.

Watch and listen to “I Can’t Relate” here