So noted iconoclast and ex-Deadly Snakes frontman André Ethier celebrates the release of new album Croak In The Weeds with the new video for “Froggy”. Of the track, Ethier says : “It's like Froggy Went a Courtin' except this time Froggy is courtin' existential collapse. “

Watch Froggy here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-nsvjxp3Ls

Out via Telephone Explosion Records, Croak In The Weeds was created in collaboration with Sandro Perri (producer) at his Toronto studio in late 2018 / early 2019.

True that storytelling through song has never been a weak point for JUNO Award-winning Barney Bentall. He continues to prove this with a rare excursion into single land on “Don’t Wait For Me Marie” and its cinematic, century-swapping video, available on YouTube now!

Between frames of fire and wild horses comes the tale of languished lust and Western greed, woven in a way only Bentall can deliver.

The song, of note, is one of many on The Drifter & The Preacher that Bentall says “ultimately wrote itself.

“There are times I look back and think, ‘well, that’s not where I thought this one was going to go,’” says Bentall. “With ‘Don’t Wait For Me Marie’ I thought, ‘I’m going to write a song about a guy leaving the Fraser Valley near Vancouver in the 1800s to look for gold in the Cariboo.’ I wanted it to be an uptempo bluegrass song because we were starting The High Bar Gang… I was very immersed in that style of music.

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.