“There is not a false move here, with each track standing alone as a subtly-crafted gem.” Exclaim!
“[goes] deeper into her personal journey while adding elements of psychedelia and neo-soul to an ever-expanding sound.” Popmatters
“After 2016’s roots surprise For Dreaming LP… this five-track EP is an even wider, wilder ride.” Bob Mersereau/Top 100 Canadian Blog
All It Was release shows:
Sept. 21 :: Ottawa ON :: Live On Elgin
Sept. 22 :: Toronto ON :: The Painted Lady
“Cry Baby is going to take Nolan to some fantastic places. He just doesn’t know where yet and, probably, doesn’t want to.” VUE
“Joe Nolan will make you feel many things, but apathy is not one of them.” Spill Magazine
“There is charm in his chaos, a youthful maturity, a broken journey but a hopeful return.” Great Dark Wonder
Cry Baby release shows:
Sept. 21 :: Calgary AB :: King Eddy
Sept. 22 :: Edmonton AB :: CKUA
For his third full-length effort, Late Mornings, Toronto singer/songwriter Craig Robertson turned to Cowboy Junkies co-founder Michael Timmins (no slouch as a songwriter himself) for production assistance, and together with Robertson’s regular cast of players they crafted a dozen songs that cast a light onto dark territory few artists dare tread upon. By choosing detail over confession, Robertson acts more like a guide throughout the album, shifting between scenes populated by characters teetering on the brink—as on the opening track “Drunk In Vegas”—or simply wondering when exactly the world passed them by—as on the heartbreaking “Decker Hollow.”
Late Mornings brims with such description of life’s other side, a skill Robertson has honed over the past six years since he quit a full-time job to solely concentrate on making music. “I had always written songs, but it was always on the edges of my life,” he says. “Now it’s central, something I do every day. My best songs come from real life situations or feelings, so I’m constantly pursuing that muse and jotting down ideas.”
Robertson also notes how his creative evolution is linked to how his band, consisting of guitarist/mandolin player Bob Strome, bassist Jamie Thwaites and drummer James Clark, has gelled in recent years through regular gigging. Indeed, Late Mornings was laid down virtually live at Timmins’ studio The Hangar in only five sessions, with many of the songs being first takes. Robertson later added background vocals, along with lap steel by Andrew James Barker and fiddle by James McKie.
Although Robertson may downplay the narrative aspects of his music, Late Mornings is much like a great short story collection, a work of art that one can become totally immersed in, and reveals new insights each time it’s revisited. With it, Craig Robertson has made an undeniable claim to be mentioned alongside Canada’s best contemporary singer/songwriters.
Congratulations to Toronto alt-pop singer/songwriter Jon Stancer, whose new single “Now That Summer Is Gone” has topped New Music Weekly‘s Indie chart, and also cracked the Top 10 on its Hot 100, alongside Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 and Ariana Grande! Give it a listen and decide for yourself if it isn’t the song of the season:
With its modern day Beatle-esque approach and soaring chorus, “Now That Summer Is Gone” perfectly shows off Stancer’s immense melodic gifts, honed over years as a vocalist and guitarist within Toronto’s alternative music scene. With For The Birds, Stancer set out to make a layered pop album, and achieved that goal in collaboration with producer Jono Grant, creating a collection of lush and lavish hook-laden rock ‘n’ pop songs connected by lyrical themes that touch on reclusiveness and resurgence, regret, revision and rejuvenation. Songs feature a multitude of instruments, sounds and opulent arrangements worthy of L.A.’s legendary 1960s studio collective, The Wrecking Crew.
I’m very excited to be working again with Australian music legend Paul Kelly on his new album, Nature. Check out the first single “With The One I Love”!
Following the triumphant success of his 2017 album Life Is Fine, Australia’s greatest and most enduring songwriter, Paul Kelly, returns in 2018 with his new studio album Nature, set for global release on October 12 through his label Gawd Aggie Recordings, distributed by Cooking Vinyl.
Nature is launched by the single “With the One I Love” and a video directed by Siân Darling, shot in Melbourne’s Old Magistrates’ Court, where Ned Kelly was famously tried and sentenced to death in 1880. Kelly explains, “I’m on trial in the witness box, Mojo Juju plays the judge and Vika and Linda are my defence lawyers.”
“With the One I Love” continues in a rocking spirit similar to that of last year’s “Firewood and Candles” (which won Paul the coveted APRA Award in Australia for Song of the Year) and again echoes the melodic guitar rock of Paul’s ’80s work with the Messengers.
Kelly entered the studio in Melbourne earlier this year to record Nature with his esteemed band: Peter Luscombe on drums, Bill McDonald on bass, Ash Naylor and Dan Kelly on guitars, and Cameron Bruce on keyboards. “I love playing with them,” he says. “They can morph from delicate scientists to big riff rockers and all states in between.” The album also features the vocals of Vika and Linda Bull, his daughters Madeleine and Memphis Kelly, Alice Keath and Kate Miller-Heidke.
Nature brings together poems from five literary greats — Dylan Thomas, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Phillip Larkin — alongside poems that Kelly wrote himself and later put to music, and his own original songs that came along in the usual way, as sounds sung to chords that then turned into words.
Explaining the creative process behind Nature, Kelly says, “I’ve been playing around with poems since 2012 and it’s now become another way for me to write songs. I think most writers get sick of themselves and their own habits so it’s a happy surprise, after 40 years of writing songs, to find a new way.
“What links them all is the natural world — trees, birds, animals, plants, dust, desert, water —and human nature’s small place in that world. Most of the pieces were written over the last four years in and around the recording sessions for The Merri Soul Sessions, Seven Sonnets and a Song and Life Is Fine. I didn’t realise I had the makings of another album until I put the songs in a folder and saw the titles staring me in the face. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re doing until you look back.
“I think of Nature as a companion piece to Life Is Fine, itself full of moons, rain, rocks, rivers, seas, smells and lovers.”
Kelly’s Platinum-certified 2017 album Life Is Fine debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, giving Paul his first ARIA Number One album in his long career. At last year’s ARIA Awards — Australia’s equivalent to the GRAMMYs — Kelly took home Best Male and Best Adult Contemporary Album, along with Best Cover Art and Engineer of the Year. These results ensured Kelly a remarkable 14 ARIA Award wins from a career tally of 51 nominations.
Nature will be available physically in both standard and deluxe versions. The standard version is the 12-song single-disc CD and vinyl.
Click on the moose to watch Jennifer Holub‘s new video, “Island,” now at Roots Music Canada!
There are several definitions of the word “reckoning,” but the one that’s been foremost on Jennifer Holub’s mind is the most ancient—punishment for past misdeeds. That theme runs through the 10 songs on the Sudbury, Ont., native’s sophomore album, The Reckoning, a collection set for release on Sept. 28 that she envisioned from the start as a feminist call to action.
Working with co-producer Jonathan Danyliw (Murder Murder, Pistol George Warren) and engineer Matthew Wiewel, The Reckoning marks a major artistic step forward for Jennifer, who builds on her previous Americana-tinged sound with a range of elements—everything from vintage soul to EDM—that add up to a reflection of her northern environment: pastoral, cold and resilient, elements captured brilliantly in the video for the first focus track, “Island.”
“This was a very emotional project to make,” Jennifer says. “Some of the leads in the video shared with me that the scene they were depicting, or something very similar, had happened to them or a family member in real life. As for the male characters, they are all feminists in their own right, and as a result, they were all very uncomfortable acting in this. Some had to take some time to consider their participation, but ultimately they realized that their participation would have an overall positive impact. When putting out a call for extras in the restaurant scene, I was overwhelmed with the support. My extended family, fellow artists, and former kindergarten students all volunteered. It was a very touching day.”
Wax Mannequin (aka Hamilton, Ontario’s Christopher Adeney) is now on tour in support of his seventh album, Have A New Name, released June 22 through Coax Records/Outside Music [GET IT HERE]. To coincide, he’s also released a surreal new video for the anthemic track “People Can Change” [WATCH IT BELOW].
As Wax Mannequin, Adeney has established himself as a profound lyricist and songsmith, as well as a self-effacing showman. His music also reveals him to be a student of the human psyche, constantly finding fresh and interesting ways to frame the people we are and the things we encounter. All of that is gloriously displayed on Have A New Name, the result of Adeney reuniting with producer Edwin Burnett, with whom he made some of the first Wax Mannequin recordings in the early 2000s.
Working in a small east-end Hamilton industrial space containing an array of vintage and modern gear, the pair—along with percussionist Mark Raymond—crafted Have A New Name’s eight songs out of semi-impromptu sessions that eventually expanded with the addition of grand piano, gamba da viola, double bass and a 12 piece choir. The end product is the most sonically ambitious Wax Mannequin album to date, and also arguably the most powerful.
WAX MANNEQUIN TOUR DATES
Wed. July 18 :: The Townehouse :: Sudbury ON
Thurs. July 19 :: Downtown Street Fest :: Sault Ste Marie ON
Fri. July 20 :: The Foundry :: Thunder Bay ON
Sat. July 21 :: Brandon Folk Fest :: Brandon, MB
Sun. July 22 :: Johnnie’s Social Club :: Flin Flon MB
Tue. July 24 :: Cafe Koi :: Calgary AB
Wed. July 25 :: Royal On Baker :: Nelson BC
Thurs. July 26 :: The Wise Hall (Lounge) :: Vancouver BC
Fri. July 27 :: Hootstock :: Forest Grove BC
Mon. July 30 :: Elks Lodge :: Vernon BC
Thurs. August 2 :: Rolla Pub :: Rolla BC
August 3-6 :: Artswells :: Wells BC
Wed. August 8 :: Nancy O’s :: Prince George BC
August 10-12 :: MOM Festival :: Fort St James, BC
Tues. August 14 :: The Aviary :: Edmonton AB
Wed. August 15 :: Black Cat Tavern :: Saskatoon, SK
Thurs. August 16 :: The Windsor Hotel :: Winnipeg MB
Fri. August 17 :: The Foundry :: Thunder Bay ON
Sat. August 18 :: Lop Lops :: Sault Ste Marie, ON
On their fourth studio release, the six-song Sunshine EP, Alberta roots-pop collective The Hearts take the listener on a pleasantly sentimental trip up and down peaks and valleys. From ‘hit’-style pop songs to tear drenched ballads, the album maintains an allusive intensity between the sonic layers, plaintive lyrics and open spaces.
The Hearts deliver memorable pop melodies and moody folk harmonies that fit comfortably at dive bars, soft seat theatres or international folk festivals. What sets them apart is just how easy their down-to-earth songwriting rests against a backdrop of stylish cosmic textures — six standout musicians blending into one unshakable sound.
The Hearts are comprised of Jeff Stuart, Dwayne Martineau, Gavin Dunn, Christopher Quesnel, Brad Tebble and Alex Vissia, and Sunshinewas recorded at their home studio in Edmonton, Alberta. It was produced by guitarist Gavin Dunn and mixed by American producer and engineer Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Joy Kills Sorrow and many more). Everything you hear was written, arranged and performed by The Hearts.
The Hearts’ music has been featured in HBO and MTV productions, received international critical acclaim and charted on radio all across Canada. Their 2015 album, Equal Love reached #1 on CKUA Radio and landed on Earshot’s Top 30. They’ve toured extensively and performed at many international festivals and events including SXSW, Edmonton Folk Fest, Calgary Folk Fest, Interstellar Rodeo and many more. They’re revered for delivering an exciting live show where they trade, layer and cohere splendidly — mixing equal parts glitter and grit.
UPCOMING SHOWS
June 23 (Sat) :: North Country Fair :: Waterton Lakes AB
June 29 (Fri) :: Wild Oats & Notes :: Tofield AB
Sept. 1 (Sat) :: Waynestock :: Drumheller AB
More to be announced!
![Craig Robertson-Late Mornings [Cover]](https://jasonschneidermedia.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/craig-robertson-late-mornings-cover.jpg?w=620)
