Royal Wood is set to embark on a national tour alongside the legendary Bonnie Raitt this spring. On the road since the beginning of the year, Royal has traveled endlessly across North America and Europe impressing audiences with his stunning live show.

Royal Wood's most recent release Ghost Light (Cadence Music) has been met with rave reviews since its release with praise from Canada.com's Pop Forcast who say "Ghost Light is a musical poltergeist you won't want to exorcise." Ghost Light is an album that exudes raw emotion and emanates a feel of the songwriters of the sixties and seventies. Without modern day studio trickery like auto-tuning and digital perfection, the album is warm, inviting and completely forthright

Most recently Royal Wood released Ghost Light Sessions, a series of live off the floor videos that include covers of Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love," James Bay's "Let it Go" and his own "Good To Be Young."

As part of the ongoing strategy to help Saskatchewan artists succeed in worldwide markets, SaskMusic is set to undertake a series of overseas events. We are pleased to be participating in a new export mission this year, to Wrexham, Wales for the Focus Wales festival. Continuing our longstanding partnership with Alberta Music , Manitoba Music, and Music BC , our associations will co-present a showcase under the BreakOut West brand at Undegun on May 12, and Rewind on May 13.

A Lance Andersen presentation featuring the The Music Of Joe Cocker And Leon Russell -
The recent death of Leon Russell, makes this show an even more fitting tribute to that great musical agglomeration known as Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

Featuring 13 artists  including two drummers,(Shamakah Ali & Charlie Coolie) percussion, horns and singers,  Chuck Jackson (Downchild Blues Band), Matt Weidinger (Kitchener phenom) Cheryl Lescom (Long John Baldry), Quisha Wint, and Coco Larain and led by Juno award winning producer Lance Anderson.
This show with many of the country’s top Blues and Roots music artists is a powerhouse Soul and Gospel/rock show guaranteed to bring the house down.

Juno Award winning producer Lance Anderson (who brought The Last Waltz and Genius+Soul=The Music of Ray Charles to Hugh’s Room) has brought together another wonderful line up of BLUES ALL STARS including singers Chuck Jackson (The Downchild Blues Band) and Matt Weidinger (Lumberjunk), Cheryl Lescom and gospel sensations Quisha Wint and Coco Larain to recreate the magic of the award winning 1970’s tour, album and movie of the same name.

Tune Up Toronto is a MusicOntario workshop series designed to cater to the needs of local music communities, for artists and emerging music professionals alike. This edition of Tune Up TO teams up with TD and JAZZ.FM91 and is exclusively designed for Ontario’s JAZZ community, featuring a day of workshops and networking curated to advance your performing, recording and touring careers. Top players in the industry will give you the inside track on how to grow and thrive.

PANELS:
Session 1. Tackling the Conference World 
Attending industry conferences is expensive, daunting and time-consuming. So, how can you make the most of it? Working smart goes beyond just showing up and shaking hands or playing a showcase slot; it requires goal setting, preparation and action. This session will give you the chance to hear from the very people who organize conferences and showcases, experienced managers, and entrepreneurial artists to learn from each perspective how to ensure that each conference you go to becomes a meaningful stepping stone in your career.

Each year SING! Toronto honours a person or ensemble who has made a significant contribution to the vocal arts in Canada and internationally. We are pleased to announce the 2017 honouree: Elaine Overholt. She will receive the award on May 27 at Jane Mallett Theatre as part of the ” O Canada! The Golden Age of Canadian Pop” concert. Tickets at boxoffice.stlc.com

Toronto: Multiple award-winning recording artist Liberty Silver will be joined by pianist Eddie Bullen, singer/songwriter AHI and DJs JC Sunshine (of the original Sunshine Crew), Paul Chin and Michael Williams for a night of classic live Soul music, DJs and dancing onSunday May 7th at the popular Whistler’s Grille in Toronto. This will mark the launch of a monthly Soul in the City Live! Sunday night dance series presented by Michael Williams…

Jammin’ the “back in the day” way!

Gifted Tibetan-Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist DORJEE TSERING is celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday has released a new single, “THANK YOU CANADA,” on Friday, April 21^st, and a full album of the same name, in a concert at Toronto’s Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas Street West, on Tuesday, June 6th at 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Doors open at 6:00 pm and Dorjee invites everyone to join him in a beginner Tibetan dance lesson before the concert. Toronto’s purveyors of folk, rock, blues, and Hindustani music SO LONG SEVEN close out the night.

Singer-songwriter and blues/roots traveler Markus James’ 2015 CD, Head for the Hills, garnered international critical acclaim, and now a song from that album, “On a Mississippi Porch,” is in the soundtrack of the new Oprah Winfrey film, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which premiered on HBO Saturday, April 22, 2017.

The song features Markus James playing a hand-made gourd banjo, accompanied by legendary Mississippi Hill Country drummer Calvin Jackson, on hambone percussion.

In anticipation of the May release of their debut album, In The Wind, LA-based alt-folk trio, Magic Giant, announced their In The Wind 2017 tour with shows in San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC, Vancouver and more! They will also be playing at various music festivals including WayHome Music and Arts Festival, Emerge Festival, Sun Drenched Music Festival, LaureLive, Firefly Music Festival, RiSE Festival, and more. See below for the complete list of tour dates. Magic Giant premiered Set On Fire live from The Bunker via Culture Collide.

The band has released two songs from In The Wind, Set On Fire and Jade.  In The Wind will be released on May 19th via Washington Square/Razor&Tie. The album was co-produced with Ben Allen (Walk the Moon, MIA, Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective).

To date, Set On Fire, amassed over 4 million streams in less than one year, and reached #4 on Spotify's US Viral 50.

Just before the kick-off of the Beautiful Freakshow cross-country arena tour, Dean Brody’s latest single, "Beautiful Freakshow", a progressive track featuring a rap vocal contribution from Halifax native Shevy Price, was released to country radio on April 12. Co-written by Price and Brody, lyrically the track takes a look at an exquisite, imperfect, relationship between two people coming together from different walks of life, which are mirrored by the synergistic fusion of country and rap.

Just one week after its official release, Beautiful Freakshow was the #1 Country Album, with the second single, “Time”, remaining the top-selling single for 13 weeks straight.

In the greenrooms around Southern Ontario, the passenger seat of a worn-down vehicle, the living room of a sound-proofed house, Streetlight Social was born. Here to serve you, Chris Millar (vocals/guitar), Brandon Ptolemy (vocals/guitar/mandolin), Kevin Austin (vocals/piano/guitar/banjo), and Brendan McMillan (bass/strings) work together in close quarters to bring you their first full-length record, Blood From Stone. Set for release on May 5 th, the album is the culmination of years of hard work, and the years of hard-rock left behind. Have a listen to the lead single, Daybreaks – which can currently be heard on radiowaves across the country – for a taste of what Blood From Stone has to offer.

The legendary Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin brings her extraordinary voice to the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, performing on Saturday, July 1 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.

One of music's greatest treasures, Aretha Franklin has inspired a generation of vocalists, paving the way for all other artists who followed - from Whitney Houston to Beyonce, Alicia Keys to Adele.

Labeled the "greatest singer of all time" by Rolling Stone, Aretha has solidified her place in the popular and soul music pantheon. There is simply no one better.

The 2017 ‘Spotlight on France’ marks the first-ever official mission from France to CMW, and is long overdue.

The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Music and the Arts (CAAMA), in association with Canadian Music Week, is facilitating access for Canadian artists and music companies to do business with music companies and market specialists from France.

With a population of 66.7 million, France is ranked by TheInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) as the 5^th largest music market in the world for recorded music with $USD 809 million in trade value. France is also ranked 5^th worldwide for both physical and digital.

48.7 Increase in Streaming Revenue

In France, streaming revenues grew last year by a remarkable 48.7 per cent. Streaming is well on its way to overtaking physical, with income from the consumption of music streams on ad-supported video services now equal to the revenue from vinyl sales (US$12.6M vs. US$12.7M.)

Bell Media has joined forces with ole, the world's fastest-growing independent rights management company, in an exclusive music publishing and administration partnership encompassing Bell Media's extensive in-house music catalog. With this deal, ole has concluded $20-million inacquisitions in the first quarter of 2017.

The multi-year deal will increase revenue generated from Bell Media's premier audio-visual collection of more than 12,000 tracks, including iconic television music such as "The Hockey Theme", CTV News themes and compositions from Bell Media's roster of #1 hit original programs.

"With our extensive music catalog, this is a great opportunity for us to grow its use internationally and capture new revenue streams," said TysonParker, Head of Artist and Music Industry Relations, Bell Media.

"ole is very pleased to be working with Bell Media and its world-classcontent production teams," said Robert Ott, Chairman and CEO, ole. "I lookforward to adding value to what this talented team is creating."

Co-founder and guitarist of one of Canada’s original garage bands The Haunted from the 1960’s has passed away in British Columbia. Details are not available at the time of publishing.

The Haunted were a Canadian garage rock band from Montreal , Quebec. The band was formed by Jurgen Peter (guitar) in 1965, and went on to release several records before finally disbanding in 1971. They were among the first Canadian bands to achieve a level of success in their musical genre.

In 1965, Jurgen Peter joined up with Bob Burgess (vocals), Al Birmingham (lead guitar), Glenn Holmes (bass), and Peter Symes (drums) to form The Haunted. Besides Peter, the other constant band member through most of its six-year history was Birmingham. The band membership that recorded the band's best known song, "1-2-5" was composed of Birmingham (lead guitar), Peter (rhythm guitar), Burgess (vocals), Mason Shea (bass) and Dave Wynne (drums).

The Wall, one of Taiwan’s premiere event hubs, is bringing an exciting lineup of bands to the Rivoli on Thursday, April 20th for an exclusive showcase during Canadian Music Week. “Taiwan is a small island, but full of energy and passion,” says The Wall’s CEO, Orbis Fu. “People are nice, kindly, friendly, and this comes through in the music.”

The showcase, aptly titled Taiwan Beats, is highlighting three bands on the lineup, including bluesy garage band, 88 Balaz, Indigenous group, Outlet Drift, and electro-indie outfit, P.C.B. See complete details below.

On his Southern Ontario “401 Tour,” with stops in London, Peterborough,Hamilton, Waterloo and more, Julian Taylor releases new(radio edit) single “Chemical Low” from his monumentaldouble-album Desert Star (Aporia Records).Dropping Friday, March 24^th, the song will be available on allmajor online outlets including Spotify and iTunes plus a video is in theworks, with a teaser currently available for viewing. New tour datesannounced are March 26^th at The Rivoli with Taylor playing solo, along with PatRobataille and Cameron Murray; Folk Music Ontario Icebreaker on March 29^th atLula Lounge with Taylor sharing the stage solo, with AHI and Coco LoveAlcorn; CBC Music Presents on March 31^st atMavericks in Ottawa, for JUNOFest; Canadian Music Week Presents on April 22^nd atThe Horseshoe Tavern.

BNQT, a new indie super group conceived and led by Eric Pulido of Midlake, havedebuted new track, Unlikely Force, featuring Band Of Horses’ BenBridwell on vocals. The track comes from their“sumptuous, immensely pleasurable” (Uncut) debut album, Volume 1, set for release on April 28 via Last/GangDualtone (Entertainment One companies). Listen to the wistful, psychedelictrack over at Pitchfork.

Says Pulido: "Unlikely Force was the first of all the album tunes that we worked on and a guinea pig of sorts. We wanted a lush 70s feel good vibe and Ben's song was a perfect foundation to build upon that ultimately set the precedent for what was to come!”

Avery Raquel recently learned that she has been awarded a a full-scholarship (tuition and housing), five-day intensive jazz program  at The Berklee Global Jazz Institute Workshop at the Newport Jazz Festival, hosted by Salve Regina University and  taught by world-renowned faculty and led by Danilo Pérez, artistic director, and Marco Pignataro, managing director.  The program features ensemble rehearsals, master classes by musicians who have appeared in the Newport Jazz Festival, and final performances by all students, with selected groups chosen to play on the Newport Jazz Festival stage. Berklee Global Jazz Institute Workshop at the Newport Jazz Festival Participants study and stay in the heart of Newport on the campus of Salve Regina University.

The National Music Centre (NMC) has launched a new online platform, connecting music lovers from around the world to NMC’s extensive and rare collection of musical instruments and memorabilia at the click of a mouse.

This new digital platform will kick off with 150 of NMC’s top collection items viewable online in celebration of Canada 150.

NMC stewards one of the most impressive music collections in the world, including over 2,000 historic musical instruments, artifacts, and Canadian music memorabilia, which collectively spans over 450 years of music history, technology and innovation.

NMC Collections Online will be an important and accessible resource for a wide audience, that includes the general public, students interested in music and music history, industry, artists and producers from around the world, aspiring participants in NMC’s Artist in Residence program, and various scholarly and cultural institutions.

NMC believes that this resource will open up future collaborations, more national and international interest in its unique collection, and raise awareness of the need to preserve musical artifacts and our Canadian musical heritage.