“Instant Karma” was credited to Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band, apart from in the US, where the credit was John Ono Lennon. Huh.
Harry Styles’ Isolated Vocals For “As It Was”
Harry Styles’ “As It Was” spent ten weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart, becoming the longest-running number-one and best-selling single of 2022 in his home country. It also became his second number one single in the US, the song spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the longest-running US number one by a UK act and the fourth-longest-running number one in the chart’s history.
National Music Centre Launches Showcase: Guitars Exhibition on Get Out Your Guitar Day, February 11
The National Music Centre is pleased to launch a new exhibition at Studio Bell dedicated to the almighty guitar. Showcase: Guitars will open on February 11 to coincide with Get Out Your Guitar Day, a day in celebration of one of the most popular and versatile instruments.
Whether you enjoy classical, jazz, folk, rock, or something in between, the guitar has taken centre stage in the world of music for well over a century, leading to countless augmentations and innovations on the instrument. Showcase: Guitars features 25 guitars curated from NMC’s collection, as well as items on loan from other collectors and musicians. With a selection of acoustic and electric instruments included, visitors will see a wide variety of bodies and styles on display, with an emphasis on instruments that were created, or collected in Canada, or played by prominent Canadian musicians.
Of those guitars, axe aficionados will see an acoustic guitar from k.d. lang that was custom-made by renowned Canadian luthier William “Grit” Laskin for her 1989 Absolute Torch and Twang tour, a rare 1970 electric guitar that belonged to Bill Henderson, lead singer and guitarist of the Canadian rock band Chilliwack, which was made by Mosrite, whose guitars are now coveted by collectors due to their high build quality and sound. Not to mention, guitars that belonged to Canadian legends, including Randy Bachman, Terri Clark, Anne Murray, Jimmy Rankin, and more.
Two Canadian guitar makers, Charles Brasher and Frank Gay, will also be highlighted, along with their respective guitars: a 1930 Hawaiian-style resonator and 1967 flamenco-style flat top acoustic. Both helped to form the very fabric of Canada’s music history yet never gained substantial international recognition.
“How Brasher and Gay are relative unknowns is inconceivable to me,” said David Glass, a guitar player and collector who donated his Brasher and Gay collection to NMC. “After learning about these formidable guitar-makers, collecting their guitars became important to me as a way to preserve their stories and give them a legacy. I have been absolutely pleased to donate these guitars to the National Music Centre.”
“While we’re primarily known for our keyboard collection, we’ve acquired an impressive list of guitars in recent years,” said Jesse Moffatt, NMC’s Senior Director of Collections and Exhibitions. “We’re excited to finally put the spotlight on many of our favourite fretted instruments and the makers and players behind them.”
Located on the fourth floor of Studio Bell, which is all about making music and honouring the tools of the trade, Showcase: Guitars is accessible with paid admission and will run from February 11-December 31, 2023.
Regular admission to Studio Bell is $21.50 for adults, $16.50 for students/seniors (65+), $13.50 for children (3-12 years of age), and free for children under 3 years of age. Admission for NMC Members is free. To become an NMC Member, visit studiobell.ca/become-a-member. Studio Bell is now open five days a week: Wednesday and Thursday, from 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm, and Friday to Sunday, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
My Next Read: “Here I’m Alive: The Spirit of Music in Psychoanalysis” by Adam Blum, Peter Goldberg, and Michael Levin
Here I’m Alive explores the musical foundation of being human from a psychoanalytic perspective.
Writing in collaboration, three psychoanalytic clinicians develop a fresh vision of the essential role of music in psychical life. Through an interdisciplinary exploration, Here I’m Alive shows how music is fundamental to becoming human, establishing our embodied sense of membership and participation in a shared world through the fabric of culture. With one authorial voice, these pages resonate with the musical forms of living that make possible any individual style of conduct or shape of desire and without which we are forever lost in the noise.
Video: A Pre-Monkees Davy Jones on Merv Griffin’s ‘Talent Scouts’ In 1963
Here’s Davy Jones’ full first U.S. TV appearance on Merv Griffin’s Talent Scouts show in 1963. In less than 3 years, he’d be part of one the world’s biggest rock bands in The Monkees.
SiriusXM And The CCMAs Call On Canada’s Next Country Music Stars In Annual Talent Search
SiriusXM Canada announced its fifth annual SiriusXM Top of the Country competition, brought to life through an ongoing partnership with the Canadian Country Music Association. Emerging Canadian country artists are being invited to submit for the chance to be crowned the Nation’s next big star with this prestigious title. Registration is now open to solo artists and groups until February 13 at topcountry.siriusxm.ca.
In addition to the $25,000 grand prize, SiriusXM is furthering its commitment to elevating Canadian talent by awarding $10,000 prizes to the competition’s two runners-up. New this year, all three finalists will also head to Nashville for performance spots at the 2023 CMA Fest, plus showcase and mentorship opportunities with key industry members. They will also receive stage performances at Lasso Montréal this August, and later participate in a Nashville SOCAN song writing camp.
Last year’s winner, SACHA, reached a pinnacle in her career following her victory, when her single What The Truck (with The Reklaws), becoming the fastest-ever Canadian country song to go gold.
“Getting the chance to be surrounded by such gifted country artists, while honing my own performance and song writing skills, is an experience I will never forget,” says SACHA, 2022 SiriusXM Top of the Country champion. “SiriusXM and the CCMA have built a program that honours Canadian country music and gives artists like me the chance to have career defining opportunities. I want to wish everyone setting out on their journey with this competition love and success and can’t wait to see what everyone achieves!”
The competition is broken down into three important stages with invaluable mentorship milestones. Once registration is complete, eight semi-finalists are chosen by a panel of experts in the industry. These eight artists will record their original tracks in-studio and Canadians will be invited to vote for their favourite. Once votes have been cast, three finalists will be selected and then embark on a summer of showcase opportunities before heading to Country Music Week this September, where the winner of the competition will be announced live on-stage.
“Every year, we are astounded by the caliber of artists who participate in the SiriusXM Top of the Country competition and love discovering new talent in partnership with the CCMA,” said Michelle Mearns, VP, Programming & Operations, SiriusXM Canada. “SiriusXM is dedicated to supporting homegrown talent by giving them the platform and resources they need through programs like this and many others.”
“We are thrilled and know that the fifth annual Top of the Country competition will be paved with incredibly talented Canadians who will share their stories and talent with us,” shares Amy Jeninga, President, CCMA. “Partnering with an organization like SiriusXM continues to provide us with the opportunity to collaborate, educate, elevate, and celebrate Canadian talent both here at home and beyond and we can’t wait to hear what that this year’s participants will bring forward.”
SiriusXM Top of the Country in partnership with the CCMA is part of SiriusXM’s ongoing tradition of promoting and elevating the best emerging Canadian music. SiriusXM continues to offer a leading platform for Canadian artists through its significant financial contributions and North American-wide reach.
Canada’s Teen Jam, A Prelude to Kitchener’s Wayback Festival, Will Showcase the Best of Musical Talent July 22
Some of the best, most innovative musical acts ever started out when they were merely teens – The Runaways, The Strokes, The Arctic Monkeys, to name just a few – and Canada’s Teen Jam, a first-of-its-kind performance showcase, is well aware of the immense talent and creativity that can be developed during that wonderful time of life.
Canada’s Teen Jam will allow finalists to perform on a massive concert stage as an opener to this year’s Wayback Festival in Kitchener, Ontario, on July 22. The performance will allow teen artists to explore their natural musical talents in front of both their peers and industry heavyweights, and counts Kitchener Councillor Bill Ioannidis as a supporter.
Teen Jam was created by Mark Higgins, producer, and founder of Big Music Fests, which has featured A-listers including Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, Soundgarden, The Tragically Hip, Slash, ZZ Top and many more legendary acts.
“When you support musical teens, you empower the entire teen community,” Higgins said. “Musical growth is absolutely essential for the future of our music industry. Without our up-and-coming next generation of artists being supported, the creative wall will crumble.”
Teens ages 13 to 19 can submit video performances here, along with a $10 submission fee. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best performances – $1,000 in the band category, and $500 for the solo-artist category. All sounds and musical styles are encouraged, as well as both original songs and covers. More information can also be found on Canada’s Teen Jam’s Instagram and TikTok.
Alicia Toner Releases Haunting “Time Travel”
There’s a certain irony to the chorus of Alicia Toner’s new single, the haunting “Time Travel”: “Only one thing left for you to do / travel back in time and tell the truth.” The lyric is directed toward an ex that the Charlottetown singer-songwriter is struggling to forgive. But there’s another truth lurking beneath.
The song was released on her 2021 album Joan, which garnered seven Music PEI nominations, and took home the prize for Solo Recording of the Year, two ECMA nominations, including the Rising Star award and took home Solo Artist of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. But only now is the acclaimed actor and musician telling the truth about what the album is really about. It’s an uncomfortable truth, a painful personal story that Toner is ready to tell only now.
“It’s about the after-effects of an abusive marriage,” she says. “When I first released this album in 2021, I still wasn’t ready to speak to the level of trauma I had been through. It still felt much too private. Like it was just mine. Domestic abuse isn’t an easy topic, and I hid behind veiled references, so I didn’t have to face my own reality. Now I find the full scope of it to be important. What I went through is present in my daily life. It effects how I raise my daughter, how I interact with people, how I react to the world. But I’m lucky enough to have gone through this from a very privileged position and I have a small platform to be able to share my story. If that reaches one person going through something similar and inspires change, that’s important.”
Toner started writing the album a few months after escaping the relationship in question. It took her three years and a journey of self-rediscovery to channel the experience into 10 songs that illustrate her clear, honest approach to lyrics, and matching them to melodies that put her in the same league as Brandi Carlile or one of Toner’s childhood heroes, Jann Arden. Those songs are then delivered by a veteran of the musical stage, one who can quite easily communicate emotional depth to the back rows of a theatre. “It started as therapy, as a way to let traumatic events come to the surface without having to discuss them,” she says of the writing process for Joan. “Topics range from dealing with anxiety in ‘Try Again,’ to the inability to forgive in ‘Time Travel’ to the grief of saying goodbye to what should have been in ‘Easier Today.’ There is even a song about cautiously falling in love again in ‘Tonight.’ What I ended with was a reclamation of myself. Releasing this album, making the videos, and playing these songs live has been a sort of rebirth and a stepping into a power I’ve always had but was too scared to claim as my own.”
Knowing this backstory, “Time Travel” carries even more emotional weight as Toner sings in between heaving pedal-steel swells: “I want to say I’m sorry / for all the strength I lack / for failing to forgive you / because you can’t take it back.”
Alicia Toner was raised in Fredericton, where she spent years playing classical violin with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, which took her to Carnegie Hall. She then spent a decade on the Toronto theatre scene, including stints with Soulpepper (Chasse Galerie) and Mirvish Productions (Once). Relocating to Charlottetown, she sold out the Confederation Centre of the Arts in 2021. Joan was recorded with her trusted recording team of Stuart Cameron (Crash Test Dummies) and Peter Fusco (Matthew Good Band). “That was important to me because there was a level of trust that already existed,” she says, of a creative partnership that dates back to her 2016 debut. “They are incredibly talented at what they do but they always make room for my voice and my opinion. “I knew they would let me tell my story but elevate it beyond my ability.”
Chris Stapleton Adds New 2023 Headline Tour Dates
Chris Stapleton will embark on an extensive series of headline shows later this year. Produced by Live Nation, the newly confirmed “All-American Road Show” 2023 tour dates kick off April 26 at El Paso’s UTEP Don Haskins Center and include stops at Syracuse’s St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview, Mansfield’s Xfinity Center, St. Louis’ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Charleston’s Credit One Stadium, Bangor’s Maine Savings Amphitheater, Gilford’s Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion (two nights), Toronto’s Budweiser Stage and Alpharetta’s Ameris Bank Amphitheatre among many others.
Special guests featured on the tour include Charley Crockett, Marcus King, Nikki Lane, Margo Price, Allen Stone, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives and The War and Treaty. See below for complete itinerary.
Tickets for the headline dates go on-sale next Friday, February 10 at 10:00am local time. Stapleton’s fan club will have early access to tickets and VIP packages with pre-sale starting Tuesday, February 7 at 10:00am local time through Thursday, February 9 at 10:00pm local time.
In addition to the new “All-American Road Show” dates, Stapleton is set to perform the national anthem at Super Bowl LVII next Sunday, February 12 on FOX. He will also headline both RodeoHouston on March 16 and Stagecoach Music Festival on April 30 and will join George Strait for a series of stadium shows with special guests Little Big Town.
Kentucky-born Stapleton is an 8x Grammy, 15x CMA and 10x ACM Award-winner and one of the country’s most respected and beloved musicians. Most recently, he was named CMA Male Vocalist of the Year for the sixth time—setting the record for most wins ever in the category. Additionally, his most recent album, Starting Over, won Best Country Album at the 67th Annual GRAMMYs as well as earning Album of the Year honors at both the 54th Annual CMA Awards and 56th ACM Awards. The record follows Stapleton’s pair of Platinum-certified releases from 2017, From A Room: Volume 1 and From A Room: Volume 2, as well as his x5 Platinum breakthrough solo debut album, Traveller.
In addition to his work as a musician, Stapleton and his wife, Morgane, are founders of the Outlaw State of Kind charitable fund, which supports a variety of causes that are close to their heart. Most recently, their “Kentucky Rising” concert last fall raised over $2.8 million to support flood relief in Eastern Kentucky.
CHRIS STAPLETON CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
BOLD “All-American Road Show” tour on-sale next Friday, February 10 at 10:00am local time
March 16—Houston, TX—RodeoHouston
March 17—Durant, OK—Choctaw Grand Theater
March 18—Durant, OK—Choctaw Grand Theater
April 26—El Paso, TX—UTEP Don Haskins Center*
April 27—Albuquerque, NM—Isleta Amphitheater*
April 29—Los Angeles, CA—Hollywood Bowl – Willie Nelson’s 90th Birthday
April 30—Indio, CA—Stagecoach
May 6—Glendale, AZ—State Farm Stadium†
May 27—Columbus, OH—Buckeye Country Superfest
June 1—Moline, IL—Vibrant Arena at The MARK‡
June 2—Grand Rapids, MI—Van Andel Arena‡
June 3—Milwaukee, WI—American Family Field†
June 8—Syracuse, NY—St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview+
June 9—Mansfield, MA—Xfinity Center+
June 15—Spokane, WA—Spokane Arena§
June 16—Bend, OR—Hayden Homes Amphitheater§
June 17—Seattle, WA—Lumen Field†
June 22—Des Moines, IA—Wells Fargo Arena§
June 23—Wichita, KS—INTRUST Bank Arena§
June 24—Denver, CO—Empower Field at Mile High†
July 6—Bangor, ME—Maine Savings Amphitheater§
July 8—Cavendish, PEI—Cavendish Beach Music Festival
July 13—Charleston, SC—Credit One Stadium#
July 14—Virginia Beach, VA—Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater#
July 15—Baltimore, MD—CFG Bank Arena#
July 19—Omaha, NE—CHI Health Center**
July 20—St. Louis, MO—Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre**
July 21-22—Cullman, AL—Rock the South
July 28—Nashville, TN—Nissan Stadium†
July 29—Nashville, TN—Nissan Stadium†
August 5—Tampa, FL—Raymond James Stadium†
August 10—Gilford, NH—Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion**
August 11—Gilford, NH—Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion**
August 17—Toronto, ON—Budweiser Stage‡
August 19—Montreal, QC—Lasso Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau
August 25—Alpharetta, GA—Ameris Bank Amphitheatre††
*with special guests Margo Price and Nikki Lane
†with George Strait and special guests Little Big Town
‡with special guests Marcus King and The War and Treaty
+with special guests Charley Crockett and The War and Treaty
§with special guests Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives and Allen Stone
#with special guests Margo Price and Allen Stone
**with special guests Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives and The War and Treaty
††with special guests Marcus King and Allen Stone
The Smile Announce North American Tour Dates
Having just completed a triumphant tour, The Smile have confirmed a new run of North American dates for summer 2023. Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner will kick off the 14-date excursion on June 22nd with the band’s first ever show in Mexico City. The tour will then proceed throughout the United States and Canada, marking The Smile’s debut live performances in every city they play—with the exception of their return to New York where they’ll headline Forest Hills Stadium on July 7th.
For those who can’t make it out to one of these shows, The Smile are also releasing a limited edition live EP simply titled Europe: Live Recordings 2022. True to its title, the EP is comprised of live recordings of fan favorites from The Smile’s widely acclaimed debut album, A Light For Attracting Attention, as well as the band’s rendition of Thom’s 2009 solo track “FeelingPulledApartByHorses.” Europe: Live Recordings was recorded in various cities over the course of The Smile’s first ever tour this past summer. Replace the needles and cartridges on your turntables as this release, out March 10th via XL Recordings, is vinyl only.
Full tracklist here:
A1. The Opposite
A2. Thin Thing
A3. FeelingPulledApartByHorses
B1. The Same
B2. Waving A White Flag
B3. Free In The Knowledge
2023 Tour Dates
06/22/23 – Mexico City, Mexico – National Auditorium
06/25/23 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at The Moody Theater
06/29/23 – Miami, FL – James L. Knight Center
06/30/23 – St Augustine, FL – The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre
07/02/23 – North Charleston, SC – North Charleston Performing Arts Center
07/03/23 – Asheville, NC – Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
07/05/23 – Richmond, VA – The National
07/07/23 – Forest Hills, NY – Forest Hills Stadium
07/08/23 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
07/10/23 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
07/11/23 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Ballroom
07/15/23 – Laval, QC – Place Bell
07/19/23 – Kansas City, MO – Midland Theatre
07/20/23 – Chesterfield, MO – The Factory