This week we salute ACSA Food Bank, 1911 Kennedy Rd, Toronto, serving the Malvern area. Support your local food bank. The need is dire.

Stepping in with Strippers Union,  fronted by the harmonic duo of Rob Baker (The Tragically Hip) and Craig Northey (Odds), who have released Disc 1 of their new double LP, The Undertaking. Disc 2 of the album will arrive March 12. The album is also available on limited edition vinyl today which includes both discs.

In 2006, Strippers Union released their debut LP, Strippers Union Local 518, and then followed it up with The Deuce a short five years later. Now, nearly a decade later the band is ready to share their third LP, The Undertaking, a double LP recorded at The Bathouse Studio with drummer Pat Steward and bassist Doug Elliott.

In Jaime, Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard has a contender for album of the year. Howard’s most recent offering, 13th Century Metal, “as "a roller-coaster of a spoken-word rant that's part self-help exhortation, part sermon. View Howard performing the song live with her touring band in this Danny Clinch-directed video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YtOa7jD_c

Howard, who performed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on September 26, has extended her North American headline tour into November. Every online ticket purchased for the U.S. fall headline dates will include a CD of the new album, Jaime.

This week, we kick it off with a comeback story of sorts. Ottawa and Leamington-based Singer/Songwriter Francine Honey has been nominated for her single “Stay” in both the Americana and Sing Your Heart Out/Love Songs Categories in the 2019 International Songwriting Competition Awards with the same song. This is a shade unusual, having the same song nominated in two diff categories but the lady is loving it.

Although the bilingual Canadian roots/Americana artist has made music since childhood, she never dreamed of making it a career. Instead, she studied math and computers, got married, had kids and worked as a project manager. Her life seemed perfect. Then a near-simultaneous breakup and job loss forced her to relocate, find a new career and raise a family alone. Music went on the back burner; she never stopped writing, but songs went unfinished — until her kids fixed that.

BTW is given over to saluting the musicians who have so graciously and generously donated their time and energies on my behalf by performing at Lenny, We Got Your Back! This benefit concert for yours truly takes place at the Horseshoe Tavern, Mar.28 with an 8PM showtime. My heartfelt thanks to everyone, and there have been many of you, who have had a hand in making this happen. I am humbled and grateful. Gonna be a hot show, tell your friends.

Jaymz Bee is an artist, musician, philanthropist and broadcaster who has produced countless events, over a dozen albums and been a member of several bands including The Tiki Collective, Tuk, The Royal Jelly Orchestra, Bonzai Suzuki and Look People. He's hosted and/or produced charity events for JAZZ.FM91 (over 16 years), Unison Benevolent Fund, Covenant House and the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation (amongst others).

With all the grey clouds and freezing rain, thought we’d start with music bright, warm and of curious intent. Victoria pop experimentalist Lief Hall (a former member of MYTHS/The Mutators) is large in Japan, with a nice fan base and two record labels, Moorworks and Fennelly, which are joint-releasing her entrancing new album Roses For Ruins in Japan. The album, released in North America in April 2018, will be available on CD in Japan on March 6, 2019.

Just out is 'Glass & Obsidian', the second music video from Roses for Ruins. With its minimalist beats, distant reverberating squeals and low hushed vocal choruses, the song uses imagery of the earth's elements colliding and transforming to explore forms of renewal and radical change. Earth, metal, crystal and air emerge throughout this video as themes which bring to life the song’s lyrics through sparse, surreal and fantasy-like environments. Dramatic lighting shimmers reflect and flares accentuate the hypnotic and dream-like quality of the music while dancers explore the sound through austere and sensual movement.

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.

Hugh’s Room Live is Toronto’s cozy nest for singer/songwriters, especially of the rootsy/folkie bent. Its new Songwriter Sessions series explores songcraft in a round robin format with players peeling back the stories behind their work. Crossing genres and tapping into the natural Canadian gift of open, honest lyrics and tunes, the artists get to delve deeper as they share their songs and bond with each other. This week’s Songwriter Session features Tony Quarrington, Andrea Ramolo, David Leask and Melanie Peterson, and happens Tues. Oct. 9, 8.30 start.

Veteran musician Quarrington has been a formidable and thriving presence on the Toronto music scene for more than 40 years. He first appeared at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1966, and played at many renowned Yorkville nightclubs and coffee houses in the late ‘60s, performing ballads, blues and his own original tunes. Quarrington’s relentless career as a sideman and studio musician has seen him appear on literally hundreds of other artists’ recordings, playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, piano and dobro, and lending his voice as a singer.

Pre-eminent Canadian taiko group Nagata Shachu present rhythm and music as a force for unity and solidarity and bring together diverse elements of the world's multicultural mosaic in their 19^th annual concert season 'Beats Beyond Boundaries' at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.

The season kicks off featuring the group's visually stunning production 'Half Cycle, Full Moon' (directed by Nagata Shachu's Aki Takahashi). They balance tradition with innovation in this collection of 15 new works, which follows the waxing moon illuminating through its various phases in this celebration of night, light and life at Fleck Dance Theatre Saturday, November 18, 2017.

They're back and harder than ever. Critically acclaimed supergroup The New Pornographers are premiering the title track off new album Whiteout Conditions today. Stream/share the song at https://youtu.be/hXwGX5Es9vM . The album dropped April 7 and is the first release on the band’s own Collected Works Records in partnership with Concord Records and damn fine rock 'n' roll.