Toronto unit Great Lake Swimmers are currently halfway through a nine week North American tour in support of acclaimed new album, The Waves, The Wake. The band returns home for what promises to be a very special performance on November 23 at The Danforth Music Hall with special guests Sister Ray prior to heading across the Atlantic for a 19 date European tour to close out the year.

Recorded in the 145-year-old Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church in London, Ontario and produced by Chris Stringer (Union Sound), lead singer-songwriter Tony Dekker decided to challenge himself by writing new music without any acoustic guitar, which has always been his instrumental mainstay. He further digressed from previous songwriting patterns by looking at each track individually and then tailoring the instrumentation to bring each song to life in its own distinctive way.

The Strumbellas know how to plot a long game. The six-piece collective may have rocketed to mainstream success two years ago with their breakthrough hit, Spirits, but they have always been thinking one step ahead. Today, they announce two of those next steps – the release of their new single,Salvation, and the start of a partnership with eOne Music. The band will release their new single on November 30^th, via their own imprint, Underneath A Mountain Records, which is under exclusive license to eOne Music for Canada.

“The Strumbellas are a global force of nature and we are so excited that they have honoured us with the opportunity to work with them on this new music,” says Chris Taylor, Global President, Music, Entertainment One. “We are going to take very, very, very good care of them. Their manager has too many incriminating photos of me to do anything less!”

Kicking off with something from the short’n’sweet category. Tired Of Waiting is a short statement of 6 songs, all written on the same $100 guitar. Recorded in three days at Jim Bryson's Fixed Hinge Studio with Jonas Bonnetta (Evening Hymns), the EP features the playing of the Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara, Scattered Cloud's Philippe Charbonneau, and Jamie Kronik.

If pressed for an answer, one might say Tired of Waiting is a place where maybe folk and indie music marry with almost punk edges and words at the forefront for those who listen to that sort of thing.

Bryson has released 5 critically acclaimed solo recordings, including 2010’s The Falcon Lake Incident - a collaborative effort with Winnipeg wonders The Weakerthans. His most recent studio album, Somewhere We Will Find Our Place, was produced by Charles Spearin (Do May Say Think, Broken Social Scene). Album single, “Ontario”, reached CBC Radio 2’s Top 5.

60 years into her career, the legendary Ginette Reno has achieved yet another milestone, by reaching #1 on the cross-Canada sales charts for a second week in a row. The 13 song French-language album “À Jamais”, which topped the Quebec sales charts in the first week of its release on October 19, shows no signs of slowing. It continues to out scan the seemingly unstoppable “A Star Is Born” Soundtrack by over 30 percent

“Ginette’s staying power is unparalleled,” said Anne Vivien, Executive Vice President of Music Development for Quebecor. “À Jamais is Ginette’s 40th original album. Her ability to top the charts after so many years is a testament to her incredible talent, the unique connection that she has with her fans, and an incredible ability to gain new fans over the course of more than a generation”

Said Ms. Reno, “After all these years, I’m deeply honored that my album has reached #1 across Canada and that my fans are still there to listen to new music. I thank each and everyone that has made this possible once again.”

Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne has decades of playing, countless globetrotting tours and a slate of acclaimed, award-winning albums under the belt of his flamboyant zoot suit, the 74-year-old piano master might be the hardest-working bluesman in show business. And this true original isn’t changing his tune on his topnotch 10th album Inspired By The Blues. “I’m not looking for a different path,” says the Kelowna-based performer. “I love that jump blues and boogie-woogie. That’s where my heart is at. I’m just trying to keep that style alive. That’s classic stuff. And I’m at that classic age, so it all works out.”

Initials carved into a tree in a forest in Holland in a wooded area outside of the town of Eelde went largely unnoticed for nearly 70 years. The tree was marked by the letters HWR with the words Toronto Canada underneath. The message was discovered by a local resident who took a photo of it and posted it on Facebook and through the magic of social media, the wheels of discovery began turning.

A Dutch journalist named Ernst Abrouw was intrigued by the picture and began researching the initials and the location; Toronto, Canada. His search proved fruitful and the mystery was solved. The initials were carved by a Canadian soldier named Harold Wilber Roszwell. He was killed in action in April 1945 at the tender age of 21 only days before his scheduled return home.

Toronto singer/songwriter Chase Stevens was stuck in traffic and flipping through radio stations just around Remembrance Day last year and he came upon this story on the airwaves. He listened closely and was fascinated by the touching story and when he got home decided that this needed to be put into song form to get the story out to the world.

Since bursting onto the Canadian music scene with his 1994 self-titled album, 6-time Juno Award Nominee and a 3-time recipient of ‘Guitarist of The Year’ at the Maple Blues Awards, David Gogo has racked up a long list of accolades and accomplishments over his illustrious career.

David Gogo has released his 15th (!!!) studio album and because he’s not one to be pigeonholed into a strict blues category, “17 Vultures” may be his most diverse album to date. It was released on October 19 on Cordova Bay Records.

David Gogo has made a name for himself as an incredibly skilled and dynamic performer, effortlessly ripping up the stage as a lead guitarist. However, over the last decade, he has built a solid reputation with his acoustic performances as well. His solo shows not only display his diversity as a guitarist but also as a performer, sharing entertaining stories from the road between his songs.

Usually, he opts to keep these two sides of his abilities separate, but after listening to The White Album by The Beatles, he chose to accentuate both in his new album.

When casting the male lead what elements were you looking for?

I had a look and intensity that I wanted, but equally important was finding someone who was game to try different things. I went into the shoot with a rough outline and a few key shots I wanted to capture to tell the story, but the rest was improvised play.

Harrie Demero was recommended to me as someone who was professional and easy to work with. He endured freezing cold water, getting eaten by ants when tied to a tree, dodging rocks falling from the cliffs, and all my random ideas. Even the kiss at the end was decided on the day, while he was shivering between takes.

After I met him I actually rewrote the script slightly. I originally had a more nuanced plan for the video, but it would have required multiple takes and being able to review the shots to see if we captured what I was looking for. I realized that we only had a few hours to shoot to catch the morning light, so rewriting it in a way where the story was told more physically was helpful. Being able to tie him up wasn’t so bad either. I should write my own scripts more often.

Backwoods philosopher Dan Mangan’s More Or Less is about “witnessing a birth, and in some ways rebirth,” says the wise one. “It’s about feeling disconnected from a popular identity and becoming acclimated to a new one. It’s about raising kids in a turbulent world. It’s about unanswerable questions and kindness and friendship and fear.”

Out on Arts & Crafts, More Or Less is an album that he claims “feels more like ‘me’ than ever. More sparse. Less meticulous. More kids. Less time. More direct. Less metaphor. More discovery. Less youth. More warmth. Less chaos.”

In the years since 20-year-old Dan Mangan began boxing his way into the corner of every noisy bar that would let him bring in his guitar he’s released four other albums, toured relentlessly, won a few awards, found a partner who tolerated his schedule, married that partner, then welcomed a baby into their home...which is when things changed.

The Ferreira siblings spent their whole childhood travelling between Toronto Canada, and Smalltown Portugal where their heritage and much of their family still lived. Through being divided between Canadian, indoor boredom, and European culture, the common thread that was present on both sides of the globe, was the influence of the music that they were exposed to.

Northern Swedish pop outfit The Magnettes, consisting of lead vocalists Rebecka Digervall and Sanna Kalla and producer Tomas Bäcklund Tuneström, are back with their new single ”ANX”, available Nov 23, on all digital platforms. The track with its hearty chorus chant, it’s raw guitars, 80’s synths and upbeat, driving rhythm contrasts to the deeper message of the song. The band explains: ”It’s like an ambivalent party anthem. The song is about dealing with FOMO, about wanting to let go, throwing yourself out there and failing. It’s that feeling like you gotta do what everybody else is doing but it doesn’t really come naturally to you. It’s fake, it’s scary and it’s just fucking exhausting.”

This pop band was founded in Pajala, Sweden and has crafted their own blend of electro-pop and riot grrrl punk. In 2015 they performed at SXSW in Austin, TX and signed with label Digsin, where their debut album ”Ugly Youth” was released in 2017. The album was chosen as one of the best albums of 2017 by PopCrush.

This 7-Disc definitive box set Contains all known recordings/rehearsals from the RCA vaults and from original NBC-TV videotapes available November 30, 2018.

So this summer, dark romance duo Folly & The Hunter returned from hiatus with fresh energy and a hot hand of polished, sophisto, cinematic indie-pop, led by the gritty new single, “Remains”. The Montreal based band of multi-instrumentalists Laurie Torres (Rae Spoon, Little Scream, Land of Talk) and Nick Vallee are way pumped on the release of upcoming album, Remains, dropping Oct.26

Remains is filled with striking melodies and tightly woven rhythms which come together to stay memorable. Recorded over 2 weeks at the Tragically Hip’s Bathhouse Studios, the goal was to get the band sequestered into a studio without outside distractions and have them live and breathe the making of this album. Engineer Nyles Spencer was a source of technical inspiration with Nick handling bass and guitar duties while Laurie played most of the other instruments. Mathieu Parisien (Karkwa, Patrick Watson, Aidan Knight) mixed the album.

Here’s a feminist Resistance anthem doing it right, by being simultaneously trenchant and grabby. Winnipeg singer-songwriter Madeleine Roger released new single '60 Years More' recently, somewhat off the radar but that won’t last long. It's the third single to be released from debut solo album Cottonwood, out October 26th.

Last week the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland, Canada came to life for Live At Heart Newfoundland- an international music conference in its inaugural year, drawing heavy-hitting music industry delegates such as award-winning producers, managers, strategists, record labels, bookers and writers and connecting them with artistic talent from all around the world. The magic that this incredible showcase festival embodied was as much a product of the landscape, community and culture of its "islanders", as it was in the artists that brought their passion and dreams to Newfoundland, charged with the hope of impressing the industry and furthering their careers.