Canadian pop/soul singer/songwriter Alexandra Beck is clearing the way for matters of the heart with the release of her official debut double-single, “Blemished” and “Blew It”.

Watch and listen to “Blemished” here:
music.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHvJkU_zJM&list=RDAMVMrDHvJkU_zJM

“This collection portrays the two extremes that love can make us feel,” Beck shares. “I wanted to show how, one day, a person experiencing romantic love can feel completely and utterly euphoric and, the next day, the extreme pain of loss.”

The two releases — smoothly packaged as Blemished — take swift strides in showcasing the Saskatoon-born, Vancouver-based artist’s dynamic range; her first demo, “Non Lo So” featured Nik Pesut (Carly Rae Jepsen), and she also songwrites for other artists. In New York, she’s performed solo at the Lincoln Centre and the Bitter End, and was also a finalist in the Canadian Music Week x Jim Beam National Talent Search in August of last year.

Multi-award winning Canadian blue-collar country outlaws The Divorcees are taking a moment to reflect with the announcement of their new album, Drop of Blood.

The release includes the premiere single, “Dying Breed” – watch it on YouTube here:

Two-time winners of East Coast Music Association’s Country Album of the Year — plus several more from Music New Brunswick for good measure — members Alex Madsen, Jason Haywood, Denis “Turtle” Arsenault, Shawn Thomas, and Kevin Macintyre celebrate their 16th year as Americana trad-country aficionados this year.

With nearly two decades — not to mention coast-to-coast touring, over 120,000+ streams across platforms, and five studio albums — under their belt, Drop of Blood offers a glimpse into one of Canada’s most bona fide country acts.

Artfully ominous and delicately foreboding, Alexandria, ON’s contemporary jazz-pop artist Katie Ditschun steps surely into winter’s evening glow with the release of “The Moon” — her moody, ethereal new single and video available now.

Watch and experience “The Moon” here:

“This song came to me in a sudden rush,” the multi-talented Canadian singer/songwriter recalls. “I sat at the piano and was astonished at how quickly it flowed out of me. It was like it had been poured into me.”

The third single to shine from the Alexandria, Ontario-based artist’s debut album, Spare Skirt, “The Moon” is a song about secrets, and reflects the anxieties of these inauspicious times. There are three characters in the lyric: “I,” “you,” and “the moon” — the narrator, someone who keeps secrets, and someone who knows everybody’s secrets, respectively.

Funeral director by day, songwriter by night, Toronto singer/songwriter Sagen Pearse has just released the latest music video from his debut album, Nuclear Home. The three-minute, 15-second spanning folk song is called “Haunted” and was released under the moniker Hollowsage & the Three Mile Islanders.

“Haunted,” some might ask?

Watch the video and listen to “Haunted” here:

As someone who clocks in and bears witness to the frontlines of human grief on a near-daily basis, it’s understandable that the up-and-coming musician would cover the ground of dark subject matter.
Monsters, death and darkness... You name it, he’s written it.

Edmonton, AB-born, now Stratford, ON-based alt-pop artist Andrea Rankin is wading amongst the ebbs and flow of life with the release of her sparkling and ever-swathing debut, Tides — available now.

“This is a collection of songs that explores how our lives come to us in cycles… Or in seasons…,” Rankin muses of the offering. “We think feelings will stick around forever, but they crash like waves on the shores of our lives and move back out to the sea.”

Watch “The Party” by Andrea Rankin here:

At over 300,000+ streams across platforms and following their recent debut at #1 on Amazon Music’s playlist, Canadian pop-country band The Record Breakers offer a ‘warm sweater on a cold day’ in song form with “Winter”.

“This is one of my favourites that I’ve written,” member Bella Galasso shares of the song that recently debuted on Spotify’s official ‘Christmas in Canada’ playlist. “I was 18 years old when I wrote it, and had just begun a new relationship. I think this song captured my feelings then and still does now, three years later. This song has always meant a lot to me, and contains lyrics that continue to comfort me today.Check out “Winter” on YouTube here:

Canadian indietronica rocker Oliver Pigott delivers his frenetic, uncompromising and undeniably welcome take on Aerosmith’s 1973 ever-classic, “Dream On”.

Check out this great version of “Dream On” here:

“Here we were, my wife, kids and I, in a charming small town across the border in the US riding out the next wave of 2020,” Pigott recalls of the cover’s earliest inspiration. “We were in a basement playing music with a few new friends and strangers when, that night, we met a man who suffers from amnesia; he came down to listen to us jam.”

“Apparently, he had been a musician himself before his near-fatal car accident,” the Toronto-based singer/songwriter, musician, and actor continues. “As I played a few arpeggios over a D minor chord, he began to half mumble/half sing ‘Dream On.’ ‘You know it?’ He asked me, and of course I replied. He nodded and looked through me with piercing eyes; ‘great song, man.’”

Multi-award winning Canadian country artist Leanne Pearson yearns for connection amidst COVID with her sweet new single “Miles Away” — available now.

“This is a song straight from my heart,” Pearson lays plainly. “I’ve never released such a personal and emotional song before.”

At 350,000+ streams on Spotify alone, Pearson is well-known for her bop-worthy brand of country rock. With a feature on HGTV, and three Top 100 singles at Canadian country radio — including the Top 50 hit, “Get Outta My Heart” — she won Album of the Year at the 2019 Manitoba Country Music Awards for her debut LP, Pull It Off, as well as Music Video of the Year for her single, “Hot Pursuit.”

But this year hit different for the 2018 MCMA Female Artist of the Year.

While she released “Checkin’ Out Your Truck” earlier in 2020, Pearson was then inspired by the emotional struggle of being away from her fiancé for months in the midst of the nation’s travel and safety restrictions. As a result, “Miles Away” lands as an intimate and heart wrenching release that reveals the Winnipeg artist’s vulnerable sentiments as she grappled with the situation.

From smooth jazz vocalist, Cat Bernardi, comes her very first holiday single, “Let’s Get Cozy”, with music video to come on December 21st. This single is the title track of a holiday season EP of the same name and was generously supported by the Mississauga Arts Council's MicroGrant award.

Listen and enjoy “Let’s Get Cozy” here:

“Lots of people are unable to connect with those outside of their households and unable to partake in the typical activities they would at this time of year,” says Bernardi of her new holiday single, “It celebrates the simple beauty of being at home and making a special event out of spending time with people in your household and taking a break in the solace of the home.”

It’s almost that time, and Conestogo, Ontario’s Carla Muller spreads evergreen cheer with the release of a double A-side single, “Christmas Eve” and “Christmas At Home,” both out now, ushering in the warmth of a much anticipated 2020 holiday season – and beyond.

Watch “Christmas Eve” on YouTube here:

Supporting what we all need right now, Carla fuses Americana/Roots vibes into the songs, and donating 50% of the proceeds to Food Banks Canada. She says, " If I go back far enough, I can remember past Christmases from my own younger days. I just have to close my eyes and I can picture my Mom in the kitchen, singing softly to herself, our old dog Cassidy barking his head off as the doorbell rings and scrabbling to greet friends. Boxing Day would bring carols, sung in a way that only family can, our voices blending as they rose and fell in harmony.

East Coast breakthrough band Arsenal Mills continue their quest to reimagine rock n’ roll as they deliver their sophomore single, “The Bleeding Heart”.

That we have it in our hands is a feat, though; the energy-laden 80s-inspired tale surrounding matters of the heart almost didn’t come to be from the PEI-based band.

“‘The Bleeding Heart’ was never meant to be an Arsenal Mills song, strangely enough,” lead vocalist and guitarist Brad Milligan muses. “It began as a song I had written for someone special in my life, so I was planning on keeping it for myself.

Watch the lyric video for The Bleeding Heart here: https://youtu.be/GesOlP3Fs7A

“But it was a little too raw,” he continues. ““I’m not usually one to write ‘love songs,’ but ‘The Bleeding Heart’ isn’t your average love song. After showing it to the band, we collectively realized it was worth working on and perfecting.”

The single is the second of a few set to land ahead of the emerging East Coast band’s forthcoming debut EP, Lovesick & Broke; it follows this summer’s earlier single offering of the same name.

As the holiday season creeps upon us all and the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, it’s becoming clear to a lot of us that 2020 won’t be a year where we’re able to celebrate with all our family or friends. After struggling with this revelation for the majority of the year, Long Island-based folk musician Josie Bello has released a one-off Christmas single chocked full of raw emotion and sentiments. It’s called “Come Home” and you can listen to it here on YouTube:

The four-minute, 45 second-spanning folk number was penned by the New York musician after her 24-year-old son moved out earlier this year to start life with his fiancee. It features a myriad of vivid lyrics which express the feeling of missing someone so much that it hurts — it’s clear that Bello’s came right from the heart.

When guitarist Jay Geils passed away at age 71, he left behind a legacy of wonderful music, not only for the blues-rock sounds he created within his namesake J. Geils Band, but also on several albums he recorded for Stony Plain Records that explored the music of his formative years – jazz and swing – instilled in him by his father.

“Stony Plain was honored to release several swing jazz recordings by Jay Geils including two projects by New Guitar Summit (Jay Geils, Duke Robillard and Gerry Beaudoin),” said Stony Plain Records founder Holger Petersen. “It was a joy to be in the studio with them and to witness Jay's ability to arrange big band songs for three great swing guitar players. Jazz and blues were his first love and he had a deep understanding of their roots. I admired him for turning his back on rock stardom to play the music he loved.”

“I Won’t Put Up With It” is the newest single from folk pop singer-songwriter, Taylor Abrahamse. This infectious single is widely available on streaming services, with a dance-in-your-seat music video now on YouTube.

“I’m fascinated with pushing the boundaries for what’s possible in a catchy pop song” says Abrahamse. “‘I Won’t Put Up With It’ was bedtracked in Nashville with top session musicians... A Michael Jackson-inspired slice of 80s funk with a modern protest message, it twists and turns through key changes and a complex arrangement.”

Father/Daughter duo that is Steve and April Bennett string up some “Holiday Lights” this season with their newly released Christmas song — available now!

As Wild & Blue, the Bennett’s take the time-honoured tradition of family harmony into inspirational and new territory; theirs is a musical partnership deeply rooted in country music’s tradition, yet firmly contemporary in its emotionally charged lyrical offerings and genre-blending approach.

There’s a debut full-length on the horizon; Restless is set for release in early 2021. In the meantime, “Holiday Lights” radiates with exuberant joy thanks to April’s timeless take-notice vox and the song’s decidedly uplifting vibe.

Check out “Holidays Lights” here:

Canadian folk-pop jazz artists The Keen & The Kind have mindfully mined family archives, unearthing the makings of a compelling new single, “Joseph” — available now.

The Winnipeg-based five-piece that is Violet Vopni, Clinton Giesbrecht, Kevin Cote, Alana Giesbrecht, and Stephen Chubaty released their critically acclaimed debut album, Unacknowledged, earlier this year under their former moniker, Nineteen, and were featured on CBC’s Up to Speed, the Indigenous Music Countdown, and Manitoba Music’s Song of the Week.

Now, the band increasingly known for their expansive range in easy-going upbeat pop to groovy smooth jazz to thought-provoking emotive folk is putting the finishing touches on a forthcoming deluxe LP, The Things We Don’t Know, set for release this June 2021.

This sophomore offering’s first preview, “Joseph,” attentively ushers audiences into the fractured legacy and aftermath of Vopni’s lineage, and the story of the song’s namesake, her great grandfather Joseph Huppe.

Watch and listen to “Joseph”  here:

Celtic ‘super group’ Runa is back with a brand new Christmas album and it’s a dandy!

The current climate of the pandemic may have slowed the band down but they refused to let it stop them. The band , consisting  of vocalist and step-dancer, Shannon Lambert-Ryan of Philadelphia, Dublin-born guitarist, Fionán de Barra, Cheryl  Prashker of Canada on percussion, Jake  James of New York on the fiddle, and Caleb Edwards of Nashville on mandolin and vocals have released their long awaited Christmas album, The Tide of Winter. In the tradition of their past work of blending tunes of Ireland and Scotland with the tight harmonies and the rhythms and percussions of jazz, bluegrass, blues and folk they have carved their own niche in the Celtic/Americana/ Roots world.

Americana-folk singer/songwriter Roland Roberts traveled to the Canadian north for a creative gold rush all his own, All About The Timing.

“I walked into Old Crow Recording in Whitehorse, Yukon on a cold, snowy January day,” Roberts recalls. “I’d only brought a ‘bag’ of new songs and an acoustic guitar, and had little knowledge of what the outcome would be.

“What happened next, though, was pure gold.” 

In more formal terms, what he means is All About the Timing, Roland Roberts’ 10-track debut LP, released in Fall 2020.

Check out the title track “All About the Timing” here on YouTube:

From Peter Bloom Band (alias of alt-pop singer/songwriter, voiceover artist, and former radio personality Pete Cugno) comes an all-new original holiday season single called “Reindeers Away.” This toe-tapping tune will certainly have you dancing in your seat all month long.

“The coronavirus pandemic had a multi-pronged effect on me and my creative outlook,” Cugno says. “First, it made me stop feeling sorry for myself as I realized just how lucky I have been and still am. Many have not been so fortunate as a result of the pandemic.

“Second, it made me take stock of what really matters to me and gives me a sense of purpose, which is making people feel good... Making them smile and laugh. God knows, we could all use more of that in these times.

“Finally,” he adds, “with less voiceover work coming in, I had more time on my hands to get in my studio and focus on creating music that would make people feel good. Despite the unfamiliar territory of writing in this style of music, ‘Reindeers Away’ just came pouring out of me, and I figured if it makes me feel this good, then hopefully it can do the same for others.”

Up-and-coming singer/songwriting duo Cameron & Crawford  have just released their fourth single in this year alone. It’s called “I Want a Song” and it’s a groovy, upbeat, jazz song jam-packed with all sorts of vivid imagery which invokes some of the smaller, yet more powerful, beauties of life — much like music itself.

Check out “I Want a Song” here:

Trish Cameron and Wendy Crawford first started jamming in the early 2010s and co-wrote their first song — a country-inspired tearjerker entitled “Never Said” — in 2014. Two years later, they made their performing debut in their hometown of Saskatoon, SK, with an eclectic mix of covers and originals.