The McDonald’s training videos from the early 1980s were likely designed to educate employees about the preparation, handling, and serving of popular menu items, including the iconic Chicken McNuggets introduced in 1983.
April Wine’s Legendary Singer-Songwriter MYLES GOODWYN Passes Away At Age 75
Myles Goodwyn, singer, guitarist, writer, producer and leader of the multi-Platinum selling rock band April Wine, who shaped and directed the group from its earliest beginnings, has died today at the age of 75 at Noon Atlantic Time. No further details on cause of death, location or funeral details will be disclosed at this time. The family asks for privacy.
Originally from Woodstock, N.B., Goodwyn formed April Wine in 1969 alongside brothers Ritchie and David Henman, and cousin Jim Henman. The band’s hits included “Just Between You and Me,” “Sign of the Gypsy Queen,” and “Roller.” April Wine would later become a multi-platinum selling group, with over 10 million record sales. The group’s album “The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazy” was the first Canadian album to sell over 100,000 copies.
Goodwyn’s voice is as distinctive and immediately recognizable as his song writing skills are prolific. Goodwyn and the other members of April Wine were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 2010 and Canada’s Walk Of Fame in 2023. Goodwyn was also inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Goodwyn received the prestigious East Coast Music Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 and the SOCAN National Achievement Award in 2002. In 2016 he released his memoir named, Just Between You and Me, which became an instant best seller on the Globe and Mail`s Non-Fiction List. His second book, Elvis and Tiger (fiction) was published in 2018 and was also very well received.
The Myles Goodwyn and Friends Of The Blues recording released in 2018, it earned international acclaim and a JUNO nomination for Blues Recording of the Year in 2019. The recording won the ECMA award for Blues Recording of the Year in 2019. His follow up blues recording that year, Myles Goodwyn and Friends of the Blues 2, won the same blues category in 2020.
Goodwyn left the group for live performances earlier this year, and continued to perform live with his acoustic trio which includes himself, Jim Henman and Bruce Dixon until recently.
London, ON’s Folk Roots Collective MAGGIE’S WAKE Release New Holiday Song “Christmas Is Coming (For You)”
It’s a tongue-in-cheek Christmas for London, Ontario’s preeminent folk-roots collective Maggie’s Wake. Their new single “Christmas Is Coming (For You)” is out now, with a December tour just in time for the holidays.
“Christmas Is Coming (For You)” is not your typical holiday single, however. Maggie’s Wake’s frontwomen Tara Dunphy (The Rizdales, Luther Wright and the Wrongs) and Lindsay Schindler (Rant Maggie Rant, Trent Severn) aren’t afraid to get candid about the ever-expanding holiday season– and how hard they often find it not to roll their eyes.
Listeners will relate to their quippy lyrics about spotting Christmas decorations pre-Halloween, accidentally overspending on gifts, and having to create “a gluten friendly, vegan, pescatarian” meal the whole family can enjoy. But that doesn’t mean Maggie’s Wake has penned a new anthem for Ebenezer Scrooge!
And then you start to feel it growing in your heart
The thing that they’ve been selling from the very start
It’s not about presents or the spending sprees
It’s the magic of the moment and the memories
“Somehow, despite my best efforts to barricade myself from the hype,” Dunphy concedes. “I find myself falling for it every year and on Christmas day I just let the magic that they’ve been force feeding us envelope me. It turns out I’m a sucker and that’s the moral of the story.”
Indeed, “Christmas Is Coming (For You)” is a song for practical people who can’t help but get swept up in holiday cheer, and is sure to spark smiles as a welcome addition to everyone’s holiday playlists.
Maggie’s Wake is a Canadian contemporary folk group, creating a new sound from traditional roots. Founded in 2022 by seasoned folk musicians Tara Dunphy and Lindsay Schindler, both veteran performers contribute fiddle and vocals, with Dunphy throwing in tin whistle, flute, guitar, and banjo. Their powerhouse backing band includes Stephan Szczesniak on percussion, Andrew Kosty on bass, Dean Harrison on piano and accordion, and Kenneth Palmer on guitar.
Be sure to catch Maggie’s Wake performing “Christmas Is Coming (For You)” and more holiday tunes on their Spirit of the Season tour, kicking off December 1st at Hugh’s Room Live in Toronto. Whether you’re a holiday enthusiast or a bit of a Grinch, Maggie’s Wake gets it, and celebrates you.
Maggie’s Wake Tour Dates:
Dec 1, Hugh’s Room, Toronto, Ontario
Dec 2, Aylmer Town Hall, Aylmer, Ontario
Dec 3, Revival House, Stratford, Ontario
Dec 9, Roxy Theatre, Owen Sound, Ontario
Dec 10, The Gibson Centre, Alliston, Ontario
Dec 17, Aeolian Hall, London, Ontario
Ryan Shane Owen Invites You On An Electro-Classical-Folk Odyssey With His New ‘Wintersong’ Album
After spending the last 20-plus years focused on electronic music production and songwriting with an emphasis on dance music, independent Canadian musician Ryan Shane Owen revisits his roots in classical and traditional music with his new album, Wintersong.
Ryan turns his electronic production skills towards music from the 15th to the 19th century, adding percussion and beats to bring a modern interpretation to the multilingual album. He sings in 7 different languages on Wintersong: English, Welsh, French, Italian, German, Norwegian, and Finnish. Ethereal, atmospheric, cinematic, gothic, moody, romantic, and mystical, the album explores old territory with a fresh twist.
The album “Wintersong” opens with “Early One Morning”, a traditional English folk song that many Canadians will associate with the beloved Bob Homme, also known as The Friendly Giant, host of the magical children’s TV show that ran from 1958 to 1985 on the CBC. Ryan wanted to imbue the track with a feeling of standing on a steep alpine mountainside, hearing the song of the maiden “in the valley below”.
Ryan then presents a pair of folk songs in the enigmatic language of Wales, with the spacious “Ar Lan Y Mor” (Beside The Sea) and “Myfanwy” (pronounced Mu-van-oy, a Welsh female name) known by many as “the greatest love song ever written”. The song tells of a poor poet’s unrequited love for a beautiful noblewoman. Ryan brings a folk-country touch to the famous Welsh ballad.
Moving on to one of Franz Schubert’s most famous pieces, “Ständchen (Serenade in German), this “Lied” (poetry set to music) from 1826 is just as popular in classical music as an instrumental, commonly performed on piano or string instruments. It was written to a poem by Ludwig Rellstab. It is referred to by many as “Schwanengesang” (Swan Song), but that is actually the title of the collection of 14 songs which it is from.
Ryan then moves on to two French pieces, “Belle Ô Nuit, O Nuit d’Amour”, popularly known as “Barcarolle” from the opera The Tales Of Hoffman (1881) by Jaques Offenbach. The dreamy waltz tells of a beautiful night of love, while the classic “Plaisir d’Amour” laments that “the pleasure of love lasts a moment, but the pain of love lasts a lifetime”. The song dates all the way back to 1784, and has been recorded by countless classical and contemporary musicians from Joan Baez and Nana Mouskouri to Marianne Faithfull and Nick Drake.
Italian is next up on the album, with Ryan’s version of “Lascia Ch’io Pianga” (Let Me Weep) a song dripping with baroque drama and splendor by G. F. Handel from the opera “Rinaldo”, written in 1711. Ryan then moves on to “Caro Mio Ben”(Thou, All My Bliss), a stately Arietta by Tomasso Giordani likely from around the year 1783.
Ryan returns to English with the traditional American folk song “Shenandoah”, which dates back to the fur traders of Canada and the USA, known as “voyageurs”. It references the Missouri River they travelled up and down by canoe in the 1800s. Shenandoah was the name of an Iroquois chief who lived in New York State. It then became a sea shanty sung commonly by sailors and has since been covered by artists from Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits.
Next, the Wintersong journey takes us far to the north with “Finlandia” the famous “tone poem” by Jean Sibelius. Originally an instrumental, it has had numerous different lyrics set to its plaintive, haunting melody, the most well-known being the Christian hymn “Be Still, My Soul”. Sibelius wrote the piece in protest against the censorship of the Russian Empire, and thus it had to be performed covertly under various alternate titles. It is considered now by many to be the unofficial national anthem of Finland. Ryan imagines a cinematic interpretation full of wind and ice, with the distant call of a tribal choir and drums ringing across the snowy landscape.
Ryan ventures westward into Scandinavia next, with a Bjork-inspired take on “Solveig’s Song” by the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. The song is from the play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, which Grieg wrote the music for, including “In The Hall of the Mountain King”, and “Morning Mood”, some of the most familiar pieces of classical music. Ryan adds a playful touch with some heavier percussion and bass that invokes the mystical, mysterious journey of the play.
The Elfin Knight sneaks up on us next, in one of the historically oldest songs on the album, dating back to the 1600s. Actually the earliest-known version of “Scarborough Fair”(the most modern incarnation made famous by Simon and Garfunkel), the song describes the impossible tasks requested by the suitor/antagonist. Ryan adds an organic rhythmic touch with a drum n’ bass feel to the ominous chant in a world full of elves and fairies.
Ryan brings us his version of the ubiquitous “Greensleeves” next, which dates all the way back to the 1500s, and was falsely rumoured to have been written by King Henry the 8th for Anne Boleyn. This was just a myth however, it likely dates to an Elizabethan origin, and its melody was later used for the Christmas carol “What Child Is This?”. Ryan builds the song into a brooding, harpsichord-laden expression of the indignation of spurned love.
Wintersong ends with a buoyant “Loch Lomond”, skipping across the rocky cliffs of the Scottish countryside. Rich with the legends of Celtic culture, it is one of the most familiar melodies of folk music, as “Ye take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland before ye” challenges the listener to “meet again” on a journey across time, language and culture.
Toronto All-Star Musicians Join Forces with WoodGreen Community Services to Tackle ‘The Forgotten Homeless’ Crisis
A major crisis in Toronto has reached a critical point, with over 8,000 people experiencing being homeless every night. These individuals often find shelter in the city, while many more grapple with this, relying on the generosity of relatives, friends, or strangers with little sense of stability.
The problem is exacerbated by Toronto’s severe lack of affordable housing, with the wait being several years long, forcing families to spend over 50% of their income on housing, leaving less for necessities like food and medication.
In response, Toronto-based Richard Todd, best known as the singer/songwriter/guitarist for the band Redpath Traffic, has teamed up with WoodGreen Community Services, one of Toronto’s largest social services organizations, to address this urgent problem with creating “The Forgotten Homelessness” charity single with a cast of all-stars.
“I’m incredibly grateful for WoodGreen’s unwavering commitment to this cause,” says Todd, who is also the founder of Warm it Up!, a Toronto-based initiative dedicated to providing essential items to individuals experiencing homeless. “Our grassroots project aims to raise widespread awareness and to support WoodGreen’s UNMET Needs Campaign.”
Notably, several of Toronto’s top indie artists, including Chris Birkett, Michael Quattro, David Moses, Sarah Siddiqui, Anna Goldsmith, Luciana Santaguida, Shari Tallon, Signe Miranda, and Chattrisse Dolabaille, along with singers Esmaeel Abofakher, Rahaf Alakbani, and Osaze Dolabaille, have joined forces with Todd in this collaborative effort, highlighting how poverty has touched even the city’s artistic community.
Expressing gratitude, Teresa Vasilopoulos, Executive Director of The WoodGreen Foundation, adds, “On behalf of WoodGreen, thank you for this beautiful and uplifting song that highlights the urgent need to provide housing for the unhoused.”
Photo Gallery: The Glorious Sons with The Blue Stones at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Centre
All photos taken by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her through Instagram
Vicky von Vicky Returns with “Goodbye My Love” – A Nostalgic Indie-Rock Gem with a Modern Twist
Toronto indie-rockers Vicky von Vicky are back with “Goodbye My Love,” their third release of 2023. The track’s rock-heavy chord progressions and upbeat tempo are the perfect foil to tender, heartsick lyrics that serve as an ode to a lover already on their way out the door. Perfect for fans of Pixies, The Velvet Underground, or R.E.M., the band’s sound is a nostalgic blend of classic rock and late 20th-century pop — with a unique, irresistible modern twist.
First formed from the ashes of Kingston group Trains of Winter in the late 1990s, the four-piece released two albums before going on hiatus in 2001. Nearly two decades later, in 2019, Vicky von Vicky made their long-anticipated return to the Toronto music scene, carving out their own niche with a distinct style that draws inspiration from a variety of genres, including punk, grunge, soul, and hip-hop. It’s an approach that works and is largely tied together by the strong storytelling characteristic of their whip-smart lyricism.
“Back in May of 2020, I lost my full-time job to cuts that were COVID-related,” Michael Wynn explains. “Shortly over the next couple of days I wrote four or so songs. ‘Goodbye My Love’ was one of them. I go back to the Springsteen style of songwriting here, where you develop characters and a story, largely fictional, that is partially drawn from personal experiences. I usually like to put some sort of twist on it too, like the Pixies would. And for myself, somewhat ironically, when it comes to writing ‘happy-pop’ songs I tend to go the ‘breakup song’ route.”
Wynn knew ‘Goodbye My Love’ was something special, so he presented it, along with the other songs he’d penned, to the rest of the band. The group was blown away and set out to record it, enlisting Nixon Boyd of Hollerado fame to produce the tracks. They soon laid down most of the recordings, working primarily at Nixon’s new Simcoe Mechanical studio in Orillia, before putting finishing touches on vocals and guitars at Nixon’s Toronto-based Banquet Sound space.
The finished song is Vicky von Vicky to the core — the track is catchy, intimate, and addictive, ultimately driven home by rich vocals and a hook that will be stuck in your head for days. “Goodbye My Love” is a must-listen for fans of alternative music, proving that this band is one of Toronto’s rising stars.
GRAMMY and JUNO Award-Winning Chin Injeti Collaborates with daysormay on Atmospheric “Make You Understand”
A chill and introspective journey through heartbreak, the new single from Chin Injeti “Make You Understand” began as merely a chorus on TikTok and then blossomed into a beautiful collaboration.
“I was in a precarious place at the time,” the Toronto-based songwriter/producer recalls. “A relationship that was hanging by a thread was coming to an end. So, I wrote the chorus and posted it on TikTok, and then my friends from daysormay sampled the chorus and wrote the rest of the song.”
Although it was hardly planned, the collaboration seemed like kismet. “We made the song in two different spaces and then later came together to complete the composition. Musically it’s like XTC meets Mike Dean, with some Kanye-isms. It felt organic and effortless.”
An inspiration and a force of nature, Chin Injeti fuses nostalgic sounds from the ’80s and adds a modern flourish to create refreshingly innovative new music. Formerly known for fronting the JUNO Award-winning Bass is Base, Chin has been releasing his own music independently, all while writing and producing for countless big-name artists.
He’s well-known for his collaborations with DJ Khalil, and together they’ve written and produced songs for 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Drake, Clipse, P!nk, and K’Naan. His work with Eminem and Lecrae won three GRAMMY Awards, and he’s also earned GRAMMY nominations for Aloe Blacc’s Lift Your Spirit and P!nk’s The Truth About Love.
In addition to all of his other accolades, he won SOCAN’s Songwriter of the Year Award, and enjoyed years of creating, touring and performing with the likes of The Fugees, The Roots, Jamiroquoi, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and more.
Further, Injeti has created and taught curriculum for Vancouver’s NIMBUS, been a featured speaker at TEDx discussing the healing properties of music and is long-recognized for his life’s work as an inspiration, teacher, mentor, leader, innovator, singer, multi-instrumentalist, writer, collaborator, student, and yes, icon, with a star on Vancouver’s prestigious Walk of Fame.
Roots Rockers The Brother Bicker Band Roll in with ‘Another Kind of Train’
The Brother Bicker Band is country, Canadian style, and the seven-member group of roots rockers are bringing more of their signature sound with the release of their new single, ‘Another Kind of Train’, out now. The band’s self-described sound of ‘Maple Whiskey Rock n Roll’ is packed into the storytelling chorus and sliding notes of ‘Another Kind of Train’.
Based in Calgary, AB, The Brother Bicker Band has a rich and full sound, put together by seven friends; Jeremy Hrdlicka on acoustic guitar and vocals, Tom Mogan on guitar and vocals, Jennele Coulson and Clarie Wilkes on vocals, Ben Ellard on keys, and completing the lineup are Matt Dawe on drums and Jim Duncan on bass that earned them two YYC Music Award nominations this and last year.
The Brother Bicker Band’s last album, ‘Hospitality and Northern Charm’, which released in 2020, was a wide-open look into the group’s range, influences, and how the seven friends all see the world, and it feels like everything the group has been working toward comes to a head in their latest single, ‘Another Kind of Train.’
The Brother Bicker Band have told stories and brought people together, in ways that only music can, and ‘Another Kind of Train’ is a revealing and bright indication of just how far the seven friends have gone and how many trips they still plan on taking. Gravel roads, dirt roads, whatever path that lies ahead, the Brother Bicker Band will be there with ‘Another Kind of Train’ for everyone to take.
Breaking Boundaries: Hani Abadi Unveils Acoustic Brilliance with Tiamat Album
Hani Abadi steps out from his comfort zone with his new acoustic project Tiamat, out now.
With anything but a dull musical journey, Abadi has taken on his first solo project since being part of Bilocate, a dark metal band. Originally from what was formerly known as Yugoslavia, Abadi explains he is from a place that labels anyone a satanist for looking different or listening to music that is misunderstood. With Bilocate, he rebelled through music and even risked imprisonment with shows that were eventually shut down by authorities. Today, the musician calls California home, and he can’t recall the last time he performed the last time he played in his country, Jordan.
Now, after a history of musical rebellion, comes his first solo project: a collection of personal stories enveloped in a delicate and emotive album.
Tiamat is a deeply personal creation. Abadi does not shy away from the tough stuff as he wanders through the emotional heartache of losing family members while miles away, the darkness of disease, and how our lives have collectively changed since the pandemic. Emotion is felt in every track through moving melodies and powerful songwriting. Tiamat is truly an honest creation. The multi-talented composer explains the album has no restraints — it is just music that led the way.
The album knows no genre or style. With strong, moody vocals and solid guitar features, it’s clear Abadi’s rock influences are present alongside alternative and folk elements. With honesty and deep emotion, the album’s first single, “Oblivion,” is slated for release on Nov. 17. Just as he does for every track, Abadi has poured his heart into “Oblivion,” which follows themes of loss and reflection.
After years of writing, composing, and creating, Tiamat was finally recorded, many of the parts of which were recorded in Abadi’s home studio in the Bay Area. And while it is a solo project, Abadi feels fortunate to have connected with other international musicians, notably drummer Eduardo Sinatra and mixing engineer Tom Maclean, among other talented artists.
“Everyone who participated and contributed to this album has been patient with me, and I firmly believe this whole record wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for all those incredible souls,” says Abadi.
Hani Abadi is a name to watch out for. This is only the beginning of his expression and genre-defying creations. Tiamat, Abadi’s innermost emotions reflected in an impressive soundscape, will soon be yours to discover.