This week we highlight Bloorcourt. The Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre at 789 Dovercourt Road. It’s a member of The Daily Bread Food Bank and offers drop-in programs and food access almost every day.

Please support your local food bank. The need is dire.

In a world where ‘cultural expropriation’ has folks fussing about food, clothes, hairstyles, even language, refreshing to see music continues on its merry mash up and mix up ways. Case in point, Métis blues artist Ruby Waters, who just released her highly anticipated sophomore EP If It Comes Down To It distributed by The Orchard. The seven track collection includes recent singles "Rabbit Hole", "Quantum Physics", and the focus track "Difficult".

Praised for a voice that evokes shades of Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse, Ruby’s soulful and unrefined approach on her latest EP guides you through an emotional journey, experiencing gripping and sometimes overlapping themes of pain and pleasure.

This week we spotlight the Parkdale Community Food Bank, formerly St. Phillip’s Pantry and serving West Side needy for 38 years. 416-532-2375  1499 Queen Street West

Open to the public for food service Wednesday 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Thursday 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Friday 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM (Seniors & People with Disabilities only) Saturday 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM.

Is the battle to take The Tragically Hip’s place on? Hailed as the next big band you haven't heard yet, Kingston indie rock sextet The Wilderness are set to release their first full-length album Until Tomorrow August 21st. The 2nd single from the album 'If I Have To Die' is out today on all digital platforms, along with the official music video created by Chris Mills of Number Four Films (Modest Mouse, Interpol, Metric).

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW6Zdd3ugyA

The 16th Annual Winterfolk Blues and Roots Festival, taking place in Toronto February 16-18, 2018, is set to present the best of urban, blues, rock, jazz, country, folk and roots music, and will feature returning favourite artists as well as fresh new talent. It’s an all-ages, mid-winter, weatherproof event that emulates a multi-stage rural summer festival. More than 100 artists will be performing at four venues and five stages over three days of the long Family Day weekend. For more information on the festival, schedule and for updates, please visit www.winterfolk.com.

Winterfolk XVI featured performers include Borealis Records artists MOSE SCARLETT, who’s been on the Canadian music scene for more than 40 years, fiddler ANNE LEDERMAN, highly acclaimed Canadian folk, blues and gospel singer and multi-instrumentalist KEN WHITELEY, and award-winning singer-songwriter JON BROOKS.

Canadian folk singer, songwriter and social activist Piper Hayes celebrates the launch of her new full-length recording titled ‘Piper & Carson’ with two album release concerts in Ontario. The first show is inHamilton at This Ain’t Hollywood on December 7, and the second is in Toronto at The Dakota Tavern on December 8.

Nowadays, Hayes performs and writes closely with her partner Carson Ritcey-Thorpe and, after a 2017 western Canada tour, many prime showcases at Folk Music Ontario, Folk Alliance International and South East Regional Folk Alliance (SERFA), they have become beloved darlings of Canada’s folk music scene. First single “For All We Know” is about the celebration of life and death. Hayes states, “It is important to seize the moment. To live fully we must embrace life’s unknowns, because for all we know…we only get one chance.”

Terra Lightfoot's multi talents are on show in a new video for the lead single off her forthcoming studio album. "Paradise" premiered on CBC's q and is now available for streaming and download stores. Lightfoot's upcoming full-length, New Mistakes, is set for release on October 13 via Sonic Unyon Records. The "Paradise" video, directed by Dustin Rabin (photographer for Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and director of performance-based videos for Billy Talent), sees its premiere via American Songwriter.

Fall is prime time for sweater-folk music and the perfect time to release the mucho anticipated debut album 'Songs In The Dark' from The Wainwright Sisters, out Nov. 13, 2015.

Although they're sisters, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche didn't grow up together.

Aside from genetics, their true bond was a musical one, both growing up in families steeped in songwriting. Both their mothers would sing them lullabies (Kate McGarrigle to Martha and Suzzy Roche to Lucy). Now to honour that, 30 years later, Martha and Lucy are singing many of these same songs, some penned by their mothers and father (Loudon Wainwright III) on 'Songs In The Dark.'

The record also includes songs that shaped their childhoods, made famous by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Jimmie Rogers. When Martha and Lucy grew up and become songwriters of their own, they discovered their physical separation was trumped by their shared musical DNA. On 'Songs In The Dark,' this is captured in its elemental essence: dark, mysterious, and beautiful.