Mike Sands, the New York-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter whose restless creative spirit has been carving out his own corner of Alternative Americana Rock for over two decades, releases his powerful new single "Abandoned" today, the lead track from his forthcoming seventh studio album 'Happy Hour,' due July 10 on JIB Machine Records. Produced by Lincoln Parrish, the celebrated Nashville producer best known for his work with Cage the Elephant, and recorded at Siena Studios on Music Row, 'Happy Hour' is the most fully realised and emotionally wide-ranging record of Sands' career, a twelve-track collection that moves between gritty rock swagger and plainspoken Americana storytelling with the ease of a man who has finally found the exact sound he has been reaching for.

 Johnny B, the independent rock artist from Patras, Greece, has released his new single "This Is Your Life," a cinematic and emotionally charged track that captures the moment a person decides to take hold of their own path. Rooted in personal conviction and built on a sound that moves between cinematic rock, dark-pop atmosphere, Americana, and blues-rock grit, the song carries the weight of lived experience. From its opening lines, "Listen to your inner wish / You know best what brings you peace," the track sets its course with clarity and quiet purpose, inviting listeners into a space where honesty and courage are what matter most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3cI-7Z_7_M

The alt-country storyteller turns a stripped-down, acoustic-driven sound into an intimate portrait of love, place, and the streets that raised him

Bedford Bells has released "Hands at Midnight," the smouldering lead single from his debut full-length album 'Fell in Love in My Hometown,' out now. The solo moniker of Oshawa, Ontario-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Adams, Bedford Bells crafts songs rooted in country, Americana, folk, and acoustic storytelling that feel both intimate and enduring, and "Hands at Midnight" arrives as the album's most sensual moment.

The Musi-Flo Artist of the Year trades urgency for ease on a sun-warmed ode to lasting commitment, ahead of her second EP due July 3, 2026

Montréal singer-songwriter Silka Weil has released "Forever," a relaxed, feel-good new single that reveals a softer, sun-warmed side of the emerging artist as she continues the rollout toward her second EP, 'Midnight Blue,' due July 3, 2026. Where her recent work has leaned into tension and desire, "Forever" settles into something gentle and secure, an easy-listening ode to the kind of love that makes you feel completely safe.

Toronto-based singer, songwriter, and storyteller Elina Filice releases her joyful, life-affirming new single "Bury Me" today, a Canadiana-soaked punk-pop anthem that announces itself immediately as one of the most infectious and emotionally generous songs of her career. Co-produced by Filice and Kevin Brennan and released on her own Red Vine Records, the track is a love song built around a Molson Canadian t-shirt, a running joke, and the quietly astonishing realisation that you have built a life with someone you never want to give back. It is the kind of song that sneaks up on you, arriving as a laugh and staying as something much deeper and more lasting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlZx4OyrCxc

Toronto Pianist and Composer Rick Maltese Releases New Single "Just Like an Angel," a Stirring Call for Kindness

The veteran singing pianist is joined by an acclaimed jazz trio on a melody-driven plea for compassion, drawn from his album 'Rick Maltese & Friends Vol 2'Toronto pianist, composer, and songwriter Rick Maltese has released "Just Like an Angel," a warm and melody-forward single that turns a simple idea into something quietly powerful: that the smallest acts of human kindness can change a life. Drawn from his album 'Rick Maltese & Friends Vol 2,' the song arrives as a gentle reminder of what connects us, carried by Maltese's lyrical writing and the easy chemistry of the musicians around him.

SATORI, a six-piece neo-soul band from Zagorje ob Savi, Slovenia, release their captivating new single "Walking" today, the lead track from their debut album 'The Seat of the Soul,' out now on Spotify and all major platforms. For North American listeners discovering them for the first time, SATORI arrive as something genuinely rare: a band steeped in soul, blues, jazz, and pop who have built a sound that feels both warmly familiar and entirely fresh, anchored by the extraordinary voice of vocalist Ursula Luthar and the rich keyboard and compositional vision of multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Jure Tori.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vnI47RACxw&list=RD1vnI47RACxw&start_radio=1

San Francisco Bay Area composer, producer, and musician Dren McDonald announces Vox Pterous (Appearing Records), a stunning new album due July 31, 2026 on which he takes the instrumental architecture of his celebrated 2023 record Pterous and opens it up entirely, inviting a remarkable ensemble of vocalists into those layered, sonic worlds to create something wholly new. The result is one of the most emotionally resonant records of his career that sits at a unique intersection of contemporary classical composition, songwriting, and the warmth of the human voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=IomlSuQdlr7fn8_O&v=N3iMjR3ZqFM&feature=youtu.be

Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Maria Butterly joins forces with celebrated Quebec guitarist and producer Martin Larose for "The Last Ship to Shore," a luminous, cinematic new single co-written with arranger Frank Corneau that bridges two of the world's great folk traditions across one extraordinary piece of music. It is a song about longing to belong, about setting out across deep open waters in search of a place to finally call home, and it arrives as one of the most emotionally resonant collaborations of either artist's already remarkable career.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBWtW62I9no

Cooper Benaiah, the Toronto-based 16-year-old singer-songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who won the 2026 Canadian High School Songwriter of the Year award for his single "Falling," releases his debut album 'CRUSH' today on Spotify and all major platforms. Eight original songs, written, recorded, and produced entirely by himself in a makeshift basement studio, 'CRUSH' is a high-energy indie pop record that moves with the instincts of an artist well beyond his years and the fearless, unfiltered charm of someone who has absolutely nothing to prove and everything to share. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqxKz0F2uck&list=OLAK5uy_khBhmKPeHI7rnL9ZikZ8A0kwv3j4HV4u0

Alan Gerber, the Chicago-born, Val-David, Quebec-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and founding member of late-1960s Elektra Records supergroup Rhinoceros, releases his irresistible new single "Put Back My Heart" today, the opening track from his deeply personal new album 'The Well,' out now. A swaggering, blues-drenched soul romp co-written with his son Eli Gerber and produced by the two of them together, "Put Back My Heart" announces the album with exactly the kind of high-energy, good-humoured, emotionally honest songwriting that has made Alan Gerber one of the most beloved live performers in Canada and beyond for more than five decades.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_tBzQtiCAU

The Sling Sisters, the powerhouse Blues-Americana-Country trio from Cambridge and Toronto, Ontario, release their gorgeous new single "The Reason" today, a warm, string-kissed love song that showcases an entirely different dimension of a band already celebrated for their grit, groove, and three-part harmonic fire. Where their debut album 'What I Hope to Find' arrived in January 2026 with Nashville swagger and roots-driven confidence, "The Reason" pulls the lens in close, trading the dance floor for something quieter and more lasting: the moment you realise that someone you love has become the thing you believe in most. It is a song for anyone who has ever been caught off guard by the depth of their own heart.

Swedish singer-songwriter Jonas Carping releases his powerful new song "This Whole World's On Fire" today, a stirring piece of Americana that arrives as the lead song from his fifth studio album 'Always & Evermore - Side A,' out now. The song finds Carping at his most searching and elemental, delivering a meditation on collective uncertainty and the persistent human need for connection through imagery that is as cinematic as it is intimate. From its opening lines, "This whole world's on fire / Chasing ghosts, on hell-bent desire," the track pulls listeners into a landscape of restless longing and quiet resolve. 

Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter explores new frontiers with Icelandic Producer/Composer Frosti Jónsson for first time collaboration honoured by the International Songwriting Competition

The recent Artemis II lunar fly-by captured global fascination and reignited the spirit of exploration in many of us. Watching the intrepid crew - including Col. Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to travel to the vicinity of the moon - carry out their mission and land safely back home was an awe-inspiring adventure with the most satisfying ending. Fueled by that spirit of exploration, award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Henry Lees has since been counting down to launch day for his cinematic, hook-powered new single, “Into Your Orbit”.

“Into Your Orbit” is an uplifting, driving pop anthem that celebrates the undeniable attraction of first love and how good it felt, and still feels, to be near that special person.

For Ernest, the Niagara-rooted indie folk duo of Michael Saracino and Tara Stanclik, release their debut full-length album 'Cinema' today, a luminous and deeply considered record that arrives as one of the most moving and fully realised singer-songwriter statements to emerge from Ontario in recent memory. Written, produced, and performed by Saracino and Stanclik in their own barn studio and brought to life over two extraordinary months in early 2026 with nine guest musicians, 'Cinema' is a ten-track album conceived and sequenced as a single continuous thirty-minute piece, a film score without a film, as the duo themselves have described it, and an unflinching, ultimately hopeful passage through some of the heaviest experiences two people can carry.

Cornwall, ON Hosts Intimate, Boutique Two-Day Festival Pairing Major Canadian Headliners with a Comfortable, Crowd-Friendly Destination Setting 

Following a breakout inaugural year that attendees called “the party of the year,” DevFest returns June 26–27, 2026, with a major expansion and two of Canada’s most celebrated live acts, The Trews and The Strumbellas, sharing equal-billing as dual headliners. Set on the stunning Dev Hotel and Conference Centre’s 70-acre private property overlooking the St. Lawrence River along the 401 corridor between Ottawa, Montreal, and Kingston, DevFest has quickly built a reputation for doing festivals differently, through intimate programming and an elevated, hospitality-driven festival experience that attracted over 2000 people in its first year.

Feura Unleashes "Lose Your Head," a Bold Debut from a Queer BIPOC Rock Artist Done Asking Permission

 Feura takes a stand. The Toronto-based queer, BIPOC, East Asian rock artist releases her debut single "Lose Your Head" today, a sharp, unrelenting rock anthem that calls out every system, every person, and every institution that has ever had a problem with her existing. Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Toronto Arts Council, written by Korol Pikulik, Alexandra Jelilyan, and Marc Koecher, and produced by Illegal Audio (Marc Koecher and Lexie Jay), "Lose Your Head" is the opening statement of an album that has been a lifetime in the making.

The McDades Release "Dance Around The Spinning Wheel"

The First Single From ‘Thread The Light,’ the Long-Awaited New Album From One of Canada's Most Treasured and Beloved Folk Ensembles

Photo:  The McDades with Farhad Khosravi - Photo Credit: Lyle Bell

Red Deer Artist Channels Freedom, Resilience, and Raw Honesty Into Her Most Visceral Song Yet, Ahead of Debut Album 'Light The Fire'

Mercedes Brown, the Wet’suwet’en Tsimshian singer-songwriter whose sound reaches back to a time when rock music was built on grit and truth, releases her debut single “Playing With Fire” out now on all major platforms. The track arrives ahead of her debut album 'Light The Fire,' due June 19, 2026, on Ukee Sound Records, and it announces an artist of rare instinct and intention: a young writer who arrived at this song not through calculation, but through the kind of unguarded honesty that makes rock music matter.

The Canadian Legend Delivers 13 Tracks of Soul, Story, and Hard-Won Wisdom on His Most Personal Record Yet

Danny Marks, one of Canada’s most enduring and deeply revered figures in blues and roots music, releases his new album 'Back to the Blues' on all major platforms. Spanning 13 tracks and drawing on more than five decades of living, listening, and playing, the record is both a homecoming and a declaration: a master musician at the height of his craft, returning to the music that has always told the truest story. In Marks’ own words, “The inspiration for 'Back to the Blues' is both a homecoming and a way forward, set to music. This is for you. My heart is on the line.”