Editor's Note: Cashbox Canada is on holiday! We will return on January 11, 2019, with more stories, more reviews and more personal interviews for you to enjoy. Happy New Year to all of you!

I was recently asked at an industry by an industry colleague how I keep Cashbox Canada going. Considering we have reached a ten-year mark in publishing, it is actually remarkable.

We do work hard to have advertising carry the financial burden to run a magazine while striving to be supportive of the music and the artists. Sometimes a label, artist or publicity person doesn’t understand that we have to pick our stories carefully and although it is not contingent on ad buys, obviously personal interviews do require paying a journalist for their time and efforts.

The same goes for our cover stories-there are only 51 covers a year so we choose carefully and like to make sure we give the established artists their due and perhaps be lucky enough to choose the future stars just before they break as hit artists. 

But that is just the money side and weekly logistics.

Cashbox Canada exists because of the Cashbox family.  And I call it family because this amazing team treats our weekly offerings like their own personal quest. 

From the start of each week, Jain MacMillan researches the artist and cover work I send her weekly, often finding a little special touch; a logo, a font, a background that fits their location or sound. Jain is the one who always makes us look amazing. Somehow she takes my 'stick-man' email requests and turns each cover into a work of art.

To my right-hand man, mentor and friend Lenny Stoute, my irreplaceable Editor, who has faithfully stayed with me and Cashbox Canada, still giving his all to the indies and making me hone up on my dictionary with his antics and writing submissions. Your friendship and insight are so well appreciated and as Curtola used to say -- we are lifers.

To my brother, Don Graham, who always gets the best out of the artists he interviews. More often than not, the feedback I always get is that they felt like they were talking to an old friend. His passion for the music and being a prolific singer/songwriter himself gives him the empathy needed to make the artists feel like they can tell him how they really feel and it shows in his stories.

To Chris Wardman, my web developer and tech support, Chris Wardman, thank you for being smart enough to only give me limited access to the Cashbox site. I could be dangerous without your guidance. Week after week, you put up with photos that are not high rez, broken links from my end, and a plethora of emails in your email Inbox. You are a patient man.

To my occasional contributors; Michael Williams, Pat Blythe, Terrence O’Brien, Chris Kerwin, Kathy Hahn, and Mark Smith, thanks for bringing those gems of stories to Cashbox Canada. Keep up that great work.

So from all of us at Cashbox Canada, remember we are all about the music and the story. Thank you for a great 2018 and we look forward to more music and memories in 2019.

Merry Christmas and to my Scottish friends – Happy Hogmanay!!