Joe Nolan and Stephen Fearing earn 2021 Canadian Folk Music Award nominations!

Big congrats to Joe Nolan and Stephen Fearing for earning nominations in the Contemporary Album of the Year category for the 2021 Canadian Folk Music Awards!

With Drifters, Edmonton, Alberta singer/songwriter Joe Nolan continued a remarkable creative run over the past two years, getting down to the bone with a 10-track predominantly acoustic collection, his first to be released in partnership with Canadian roots music label Fallen Tree Records.

Like other artists who are loosely categorized as ‘folk’ and ‘Americana’, Stephen Fearing questioned what those terms really mean on The Unconquerable Past, an album that can be seen as embracing and transcending the labels and genres simultaneously. Above all, on The Unconquerable Past, Fearing stepped out once again with a fresh perspective and a new batch of songs and stories drawing deeply from over thirty years of writing and playing across Canada and around the world.

Screening Room: VISSIA – “Walk Me Home”

Click the single artwork below for links to purchase/stream VISSIA’s “Walk Me Home” on all digital platforms.

Edmonton singer/songwriter VISSIA begins a new stage of her musical evolution today with the release of the single “Walk Me Home,” a slow-burning ballad that showcases the Edmonton singer/songwriter’s soaring voice and a message of empowerment. It’s the first taste of her next album With Pleasure, due out in Spring 2021 on Hurry Hard Records.

On “Walk Me Home,” VISSIA takes the plunge into alt-pop, while drawing from dance, R&B, rock and soul influences. Her intuitive creative choices as a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist explore our emotional heart-spaces with unquenchable curiosity and playful awareness.

Screening Room: Leah Barley – “Mountains”

Click the album cover art below to purchase Leah Barley’s Bring Out Your Dead from Bandcamp.

Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Leah Barley’s first full-length album Bring Out Your Dead contains eight stirring original songs that evoke both the jubilation and heartbreak inherent to classic folk and country music. An accomplished banjo player as well as guitarist, Barley is joined on the album by a full band featuring longtime collaborators violist John Kastelic and multi-instrumentalist Ross Christopher Fairbairn to create a sound as affecting today as it was a century ago.

Screening Room: The Hello Darlins – “Aberdeen”

Click the single art below to purchase The Hello Darlins’ “Aberdeen” from Apple Music or to stream on Spotify.

With their impeccable pedigree, The Hello Darlins continue to shake up the Americana and Roots music scene with each single they release leading up to the arrival of their full-length debut album, Go By Feel. Their latest offering, “Aberdeen,” (out now on digital platforms) features singer/guitarist Joey Landreth of The Bros. Landreth, the latest addition to The Hello Darlins collective, showing again how they’re living up to their reputation as “the Broken Social Scene of Americana.”

Screening Room: Silver Clouds – “Peter Sellers”

Click the single art below to purchase Silver Clouds’ self-titled debut album from Bandcamp!

“Peter Sellers” is the second single and first video from their self-titled debut album by Winnipeg alt-rockers Silver Clouds, available via Disintegration Records on all digital platforms. The clip, directed by Caelum Vatnsdal, captures the band in full flight on stage, along with references to the song’s inspiration, the legendary British comedian and actor. Have a cuppa tea and enjoy!

SILVER CLOUDS-Peter Sellers [2020 Single] ART

Screening Room: Roxanne Potvin – “Jump In”

Click the single art below to stream or download!

The summer of 2020 will forever be remembered as, well, the summer that never was. But that hasn’t stopped Roxanne Potvin from releasing her latest single “Jump In,” the perfect summer jam that can invigorate us now and for years to come.

Having honed her home recording skills on her previous two releases — full length For Dreaming and EP All It Was — the pandemic didn’t really hinder Ottawa-based Roxanne’s musical vision. Working remotely with her trusted crew consisting of drummer Olivier Fairfield, bassist Mark McIntyre, keyboardist Jesse O’Brien and guitarist Nick Zubeck, Potvin created “Jump In” as an anthem for anyone pondering making a fresh start.

Roxanne Potvin-Jump In [2020 Single] ART

#NewMusicFriday: Mallory Chipman & The Mystics – Aquarian

Aquarian-streaming

“There is a difference between an artist experimenting for the sake of freedom and one who is so educated and confident in their diverse toolkit that they combine the elements together in the best possible way. Mallory Chipman & the Mystics are unarguably the latter. (8/10)” Exclaim!

Purchase from Bandcamp HERE

#NewMusicFriday: Joe Nolan – Drifters

Joe Nolan-Drifters [2020] COVER

“In the midst of the cacophony of noise that constantly fills modern life, Nolan’s turn toward simple arrangement and minimal accompaniment [on Drifters] offers welcomed respite. Over ten tracks Nolan mines the trials, travesties, and triumphs of life’s journey; deep in that mine Nolan strikes a vein of sequestered gold.” Americana Highways

Purchase from Fallen Tree Records HERE
Stream on Spotify HERE