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The Return Of Small Festivals Provide Economic Lifeline

Keith Sharp
The Return Of Small Festivals Provide Economic Lifeline
Lucknow’s Music In The Fields – Summer 22 By Keith Sharp As COVID restrictions are lowered sufficiently enough to allow for concert festivals to be re-introduced this year, many smaller communities can once again benefit from the influx of spectators to attend these events and, in doing so, provide a much-needed injection into local economies and the charity foundations which... Read More

Yukon-Based Singer-Songwriter Joey O’Neil Brings Her Unleashed Tour To Dog Parks Across Canada  

Music Express
Yukon-Based Singer-Songwriter Joey O’Neil Brings Her Unleashed Tour To Dog Parks Across Canada  
Joey O’Neil – Photo by Melissa Naef After being forced to cancel, postpone and re-adjust touring plans due to the global pandemic, Yukon-based folk-country singer-songwriter Joey O’Neil is absolutely thrilled to be back on the road this summer for what she has cleverly dubbed the Unleashed tour in support of her stunning, critically praised sophomore release, Ever Ahead. No stranger to... Read More

Arkells Announce “Blink Twice” To Be Released September 23

Music Express
Arkells Announce “Blink Twice” To Be Released September 23
Arkells announce the official release date for their seventh studio record, Blink Twice, coming September 23rd via Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company. The brand new companion album to the band’s current release, Blink Once, Blink Twice showcases a new collection of songs where Arkells continue to push their sound and creativity to a new level. As Arkells stayed busy making music during... Read More

JUNO Award-Winning MONOWHALES Release “Stuckinthemiddle”, Announce Headline Tour Dates

Music Express
JUNO Award-Winning MONOWHALES Release “Stuckinthemiddle”, Announce Headline Tour Dates
JUNO Award-winning rockers MONOWHALES are taking things to a new level with their latest offering “StuckintheMiddle,” out now.  Anger, frustration, and deep personal struggle take center stage as lead singer Sally Shaar passionately howls “I’m stuck in the middle, I’m chained like an animal,” while the band leans heavily into their hard rock background, bringing an enormous sound complete with... Read More

Sass Jordan – Still Alive & Well

Roman Mitz
Sass Jordan – Still Alive & Well
Sass Jordan can be a little bit sassy. Calling to talk about her terrific new album “Bitches Blues”, the free-spirited Sass is not averse to dropping the occasional colourful adjective in order to make a point, and she often punctuates the conversation with her extremely infectious high-pitched laugh. Her new album can almost be considered part two of 2020’s “Rebel... Read More

Midge Ure Joins Howard Jones for N. American Tour Features Two Toronto Dates

Music Express
Midge Ure Joins Howard Jones for N. American Tour Features Two Toronto Dates
Midge Ure joins Howard Jones as his special guest for a North American Tour that kicks off today. Alongside Ure for what he calls a ‘synth heavy’ set will be musicians Dan Burton, also playing keyboard with Howard Jones and Tony Solis who has played with Midge on previous American tours.  His tour will include two solo dates at Toronto’s El Mocambo Tavern July 4th and 5th. “What... Read More

Tim Hicks Announces 2022 ZERO TO SIXTY TOUR Cross-Canada Tour

Music Express
Tim Hicks Announces 2022 ZERO TO SIXTY TOUR Cross-Canada Tour
Photo by – Lee Zavitz Multi-Platinum, award-winning entertainer Tim Hicks has announced his return to the live stage with the 2022 ZERO to SIXTY Tour. A combination of festival stops and headlining shows across Canada, Hicks expands the ZERO to SIXTY Tour with the addition of eight new shows featuring special guests and CCMA Award winner Robyn Ottolini. The new dates bring Hicks and his... Read More

The Tragically Hip’s Live At The Roxy Set For Release

Music Express
The Tragically Hip’s Live At The Roxy Set For Release
On June 24, The Tragically Hip will be releasing Live At The Roxy worldwide as a standalone live album through Universal Music Canada. Prior to its inclusion on the Road Apples 30th Anniversary Deluxe package last year, the 15-song concert had not been publicly available and was a sought-after show for the bootleggers and diehard fans.  Now, this legendary recording is available digitally for the first... Read More

The Sheepdogs Find Favourable European Response To New Release

Keith Sharp
The Sheepdogs Find Favourable European Response To New Release
By Keith Sharp When the pandemic ground the entire global music scene to a screeching halt, Saskatoon’s The Sheepdogs were in advance preparation for another major European tour. So, according to the band’s lead vocalist/guitarist Ewan Currie, the band did what comes naturally to them, record another album! Now amid a major makeup tour of Western Europe which is responding... Read More

Loverboy Flying High as Top Gun Maverick Sends “Heaven In Your Eyes” Streams Skyward With REO Speedwagon/Styx Tour Taking Off

Music Express
Loverboy Flying High as Top Gun Maverick Sends “Heaven In Your Eyes” Streams Skyward With REO Speedwagon/Styx Tour Taking Off
Multi-platinum rock group Loverboy’s “Heaven in Your Eyes,” a song featured on the original chart-topping Top Gun film soundtrack, first released by Columbia Records in 1986, is seeing streams more than triple since the premiere of the Tom Cruise-starring sequel, Top Gun Maverick. The band just embarked on a summer-long, 46-date U/S. tour with supporting acts REO Speedwagon and Styx... Read More

Carly Rae Jepsen Announces ~ The So Nice ~ North American Headline Tour 

Music Express
Carly Rae Jepsen Announces ~ The So Nice ~ North American Headline Tour 
Multi-Platinum GRAMMY®, JUNO and Polaris Prize-nominated singer/songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen announces a fall North American headline tour. Her first North American headline tour since 2019, The So Nice Tour will kick off September 24th at MTELUS in Montreal, QC and will make stops at marquee venues including Radio City Music Hall in New York City and The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Empress Of will support tour... Read More

High Valley – Way Back & Way Cool.

Roman Mitz
High Valley – Way Back & Way Cool.
Have a little faith. This may well be the signature catchphrase of High Valley, the country band which originated in a small Mennonite community in Alberta and is now based in Nashville. Family values have always been an integral part of the band’s music and this remains an important underlying theme on their latest album ‘Way Back’.  Lead singer Brad... Read More

Ronnie Hawkins Remembered  

Roman Mitz
Ronnie Hawkins Remembered  
Ronnie Hawkins and ME Writer Roman Mitz by Roman Mitz Ronnie Hawkins was an enigma. He was a good ol’ boy from Arkansas but when he pulled on his cowboy boots and hit the stage he became a premier rockabilly shouter and self-described “matinee idol.” Ronnie passed away at age 87 but he leaves more memorable moments than most people... Read More

Stampeders Continue To Roll

Keith Sharp
Stampeders Continue To Roll
By Keith Sharp One thing you cannot say is that The Stampeders take themselves seriously. On stage on April 8th at Oshawa’s Regent Theatre, guitarist, vocalist Rich Dodson, drummer, vocalist Kim Berly, and bassist/vocalist Ronnie King cheerily announced themselves as being “Seventy From The Seventies” about their ages. During their entire 90-minute set, the former Calgary trio poked fun at... Read More

It’s All About Persistence – An Interview With Strange Advance

Keith Sharp
It’s All About Persistence – An Interview With Strange Advance
Strange Advance Releases 4 2022 By Keith Sharp “Just like getting back on a bike, it was so great to play in front of a live audience again,” enthused Strange Advance keyboardist/vocalist Drew Arnott after finally getting to parade his reconstituted line up which now features six musicians; including vocalist/guitarist Sean Dillon, keyboardist Rob Bailey, guitarist Ian Cameron, drummer/vocalist Russ Friesen... Read More

A Call To Arms – Jesus Jones in Toronto, May 15th.

Keith Sharp
A Call To Arms – Jesus Jones in Toronto, May 15th.
By Keith Sharp Even those of you who are not familiar with the progressive British rock band, Jesus Jones, will identify with their mega 1990 hit “Right “Here, Right Now” which was written as an acknowledgement of the ending of the Cold War in Europe and the breaking up of the Berlin Wall. Some thirty-three years later and lyrical message... Read More

Two More Canadian Pop Stars Lost

Keith Sharp
Two More Canadian Pop Stars Lost
Susan Jacks Photo from The Music Express Archives 2013 by Keith Sharp The past couple of weeks have been rough ones for the Canadian Music Industry, with Poppy Family vocalist Susan Jacks (aged 73) passing away from kidney failure at a Surrey, B.C hospital) April 25th and Montreal session guitarist Walter Rossi (succumbing to lung cancer May 1st in Montreal) following the departure... Read More

The Sadies’ Colder Streams Out July 22 on Dine Alone Records; Release Lyric Video For ‘Cut Up High and Dry’

Music Express
The Sadies’ Colder Streams Out July 22 on Dine Alone Records; Release Lyric Video For ‘Cut Up High and Dry’
The Sadies 2022 – Photo by Chris Colohan On July 22, Dine Alone Records will release Colder Streams, The Sadies’ long-awaited and highly anticipated 11th studio album produced by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Watch and share the lyric video for “Cut Up High and Dry”, the third single from the forthcoming album, out today.  Recorded between 2019 and 2021... Read More

Spring Country Round-up  

Roman Mitz
Spring Country Round-up  
Gord Bamford’s “I Ain’t Drunk” featuring celebrated Canadian country star Terri Clark By Roman Mitz Spring is a time of rebirth so we’ll begin with the rebirth of Gord Bamford’s album “Diamonds In A Whiskey Glass” in an expanded Diamond Deluxe Edition. Spring is a time of rebirth so we’ll begin with the rebirth of Gord Bamford’s album “Diamonds In... Read More