There’s nothing more exhilarating than being a daredevil in love, and Windsor, ON-based pop newcomer Tayler Lynn paints a soaring vocal landscape of all the beauty and breathlessness in her new single, “Play It Safe.”
With moody guitar, bold piano, and sweeping, cinematic lyrics, “Play It Safe” begins in the wee hours of an abandoned party – “Glittery dust on the hardwood floor/ Solo cups from the night before” – and follows two people just beginning to fall in love on a wild adventure. Instead of helping with the party cleanup, the lovers hop on a train and leave the city, heading up North into nature. And the narrator? She knows it’s reckless but she can’t help herself – even though it feels like falling off a cliff:
I know that this ain’t safe
But we never played it safe
So inch a little bit closer
Not too far
Or we’re gonna drive over in the lake
“I’m just a girl who makes music in her bedroom hoping that my songs can make at least one person feel less alone,” Tayler says of her process. In fact, music began as her therapy, ever since she discovered her namesake Taylor Swift’s music at the age of eight.
“I’ve struggled with anxiety and mental health since I was about 10 years old, and I was bullied a lot in school,” she confides. “So, music has been the only thing that has helped me cope. I would write songs during class at school, in the middle of the night, and pretty much any free time I got. I kept them to myself for years – six years, to be exact.”
Now 23, Tayler’s released more than 20 songs on YouTube and Spotify – some that she’s produced herself and others, like “Play It Safe,” produced by Justin Dow. With her confessional style, crystalline voice, and relatable and evocative lyrics, Tayler is a new talent to watch.
Foggy brain; pounding head; the flashbacks of what might or might not have happened – we can all relate to the morning-after regret from a night of heavy drinking. With grungy riffs and verses full of humor, Grant Boyer captures all the angst on his new single “Alarm Bells (Never Drinking Again).”
Inspired by ’90s bands like Nirvana and Weezer (and infused with the fun, kitschy bratty-ness of Ugly Kid Joe), “Alarm Bells” is a wild romp through a night of partying, and panic the next day.
My head is pounding and I woke up on the floor
Alarm bells are sounding and my landlord’s at the door
Drank all the rent again,
Drunk dialed my girlfriend,
Now she’s not my girlfriend anymore
The corresponding music video, produced by Sam Samiak, depicts a crazy group of hard-partying friends drinking straight from the bottle, drinking out of a bong, and then passing out in a heap on the floor. The video cuts back and forth between the party scene and the band playing and starts out with a landlord getting ready to ring the doorbell.
There’s a mournful, wailing guitar solo that seems to, in its lament, express the same sentiment repeated over and over in the chorus: “I’m never drinking again.” “It was fun trying to make a guitar sound drunk,” Boyer confesses.
“I just wanted to make a fun and relatable song that hopefully makes people laugh,” he continued. “I think most people can relate to the struggle to not drink anymore.”
Grant Boyer is a founding member of Canadian rock group Golden Gate Graves. During their time, the band released a significant catalog of music, toured Canada coast to coast in 2010, and shared the stage with many great Canadian acts including Big Wreck, The Tea Party, Mother Mother, USS, April Wine, and Trooper among others. After five full-length records, the group disbanded in 2018.
As a solo artist, Boyer has shared stages with Honeymoon Suite, Hollerado, Moist, and performed on multiple legs of Canadian tours with members of the Trailer Park Boys. Between 2018 to 2020, Grant took some needed downtime and built a small family in the process, yet never stopped writing new music. His current releases fall under the category of edgy alt-rock with a dash of humour. Don’t call it Dad Rock.
Adele was an astonishing talent from the get-go. In 2006, she began publishing songs and recorded a three-song demo for a class project and gave it to a friend, who posted the demo on Myspace, where she started to sign her first record deal.
2 years alter, she released 19, on the way to selling over 6.5 million copies worldwide.
JUNO Award-winning powerhouse singer-songwriter Crystal Shawanda is back with a new studio album, Midnight Blues, set for release this September 30th on True North Records. The latest fiery bluesy Americana collection features the first single “How Bad Do You Want It” — showcasing her full-throttle raspy voice, unmatched in today’s musical landscape, and an authenticity for the genre dating back to her youth.
“Growing up, all of my favorite music had these breadcrumbs that led me to the blues,” Crystal says. “I often quote Willie Dixon: ‘Blues is the roots and everything else is the fruits.’ Even today’s pop music, there’s all this influence that derives from the blues. I was just always really attracted to the rawness and the realness of the blues.”
Produced and engineered in Nashville by her husband and long-time collaborator Dewayne Strobel, Midnight Blues — her eighth studio album, and fifth since switching from a chart-topping career as a country artist — is a collection of original songs, such as the seductive-sounding rocker “Midnight Blues,” swampy dance-floor groove “Rumpshaker,” and gentler “Take A Little Walk With The Moon,” as well as covers of the Howlin’ Wolf classic “Evil” and her take on Celine Dion’s hit “That’s Just The Woman In Me.”
“This is absolutely my favorite album I’ve ever recorded because I feel like my husband put me in a picture frame,” says Crystal. “He really captured who I am as an artist. He let my vocal shine. He brought out the best in me and all the songs that we wrote really capture my live show and who I am.”
Born in Wiikwemkoong First Nation, on Manitoulin Island, in Northern Ontario, and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Crystal was introduced to the blues by her eldest brother and to old-time country by her parents. “I was also into other styles of music that led me to the blues,” she says, citing everything from Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” written by Big Mama Thornton, to R&B-pop star Monica’s “Misty Blue,” by Dorothy Moore.
“I was one of those kids who read the liner notes,” Crystal says. “I wanted to know everything, who are the songwriters, the musicians, the producers, the engineers. I’m always wanting to know who are the originators, who are the mothers of invention, who inspired all of us? I’m a purist at heart, so I was always diving back to learn from the masters, like Etta James, as far as vocalists; Muddy Waters, as far as feeling; and Buddy Guy, as far as stylists who have a lot of swagger.”
And yet Crystal’s first foray as a professional singer was in country music, not blues. She was in her early 20s and had immediate success after signing a U.S. record deal with RCA Nashville. 2008’s Dawn of a New Day, featuring the single “You Can Let Go,” reached No. 1 on the Canadian Country Album chart and No. 16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums, the highest charting album by a full-blooded Canadian First Nations country artist (in the SoundScan-era). Her first single, You Can Let Go,”
The following year she left the label and created her own, New Sun Records. Her first release was the holiday album I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Her next country album was 2010’s Just Like You, which won a 2013 Juno Award for Best Aboriginal Album, before she made the change to the blues with 2014’s The Whole World’s Got The Blues.
“I love all styles of music, but there was just always something drawing me to the blues,” she explains. “I had a country hit on the radio, and I would show up at country music festivals and I’d do a BB King cover or Buddy Guy or Etta James. Within country music, as much as I loved it, I had to restrain my voice a lot. It’s very hard to hold back, and sometimes it was exhausting, whereas with the blues, I could just let it fly.”
While other artists have been embraced when they’ve made the switch to a different genre — Taylor Swift from country to pop; Dallas Smith from hard rock to country; and Darius Rucker from pop/rock to country — Crystal doesn’t mind talking about the difficulties she’s encountered.
“Country music is so excited when anybody from any genre comes to their world, hoping it’ll make their world more popular. It’ll up the cool factor but switching from country to blues is a lot more difficult because the blues scene is very protective because it’s such an original genre. They want it to be respected and preserved.”
She would’ve had an easier time if she had created a blues-influenced sound, like the Black Crowes, Sass Jordan or Alannah Myles, but Crystal can hold her own in any conversation about the blues pioneers. Still, she still likes to cover an iconic Canadian artist in her inimitable way. Last album, it was The Tragically Hip’s “New Orleans Is Sinking” and this time, Celine Dion.
“Because I had so much friction coming to the blues where people were like, ‘You don’t know nothing about the blues,’ I’m trying to show them not to be so close-minded because a lot of people are more inspired by the blues than they may realize. Again, I’m trying to reiterate that quote by Willie Dixon that the blues is roots and everything else is the fruit.”
Midnight Blues will be released worldwide on September 30, 2022.
// Midnight Blues Tracklisting:
“Midnight Blues”
“What Kind Of Man”
“Rumpshaker”
“How Bad Do You Want It”
“Why Do I Love You”
“Evil”
“I Just Want My Soul Back”
“That’s Just The Woman In Me”
“Hold Me”
“Walk With The Moon”
South Coast Jazz announces a five-year worldwide first-of-its-kind deal with Stingray DJazz Music TV and Video-On-Demand.
The platform is set to air a Special Edition of the South Coast Jazz Festival featuring performances and music from jazz legends Gene DiNovi, Dave Young, John Finley, the Lou Pomonti Trio, Charu Suri, Queen Pepper, Heather Bambrick, Aleef Mehdi, Ben Duff, and more.
Co-hosted by Canadian media icon Dini Petty alongside SCJ founding director, Juliann Kuchocki (Actra/SOCAN), the Special Edition release will be available in Fall 2022.
Heralded by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best festivals in the world to watch online, South Coast Jazz was originally founded as a live event in 2014 — pivoting swiftly to streaming amidst the global pandemic.
Created to celebrate and sustain live music and the arts, South Coast Jazz also endeavors to enrich and preserve culture, offer a diverse and inclusive platform for artists to thrive, and create both jobs and much-needed tourist experiences within its home base of Norfolk County, Ontario.
Now heading into its ninth annual event, the South Coast Jazz Festival has featured a wide array of emerging and established artists — including multi-JUNO and GRAMMY winners, Order of Canada recipients, and Walk of Fame icons — with amplification of Indigenous, youth, educational, family, and ASL programming.
Of the latter, the South Coast Jazz — and its non-profit umbrella, South Coast Cultural Society — are exponentially increasing accessibility and diversity with the addition of SCJ Certified ASL Deaf Musical Interpreter Gaitre Persaud, who visualizes the sound of rhythm, harmony, and melody for both the Festival and forthcoming live shows, streams, podcasts, and more.
“Our goal with South Coast Jazz is to delight audiences with the very best the scene has to offer,” Kuchocki shares.
A culmination of hope and togetherness is often the imagery we get when we think about the ‘light at the end of the tunnel,’ and multi-award-winning artist Craymo delivers just that in his newly reimagined single, “One Love One World (We Are One) (Freedom Mix).”
A reggaeton anthem promoting harmony, peace, love, and sacrifice, the song features uplifting lyrics and much-need messages of unity and peace to provide the saving grace many are looking for.
Having first debuted 21 years ago as a message of love after the 9/11 attacks in New York, “One Love One World (We Are One)” recently received a makeover — just in time to deliver hot summer vibes.
With Brandon Jarrett offering backup vocals throughout this production as well as assisting in additional songwriting, the remix features tight drum machine work that drives a smooth reggaeton groove.
Above everything, fervent vocals provide themes of equality, tolerance, brotherhood, and unity as the song continues to offer an enduring message that encourages comradery throughout the world.
“In this world of constant changing / All our lives are rearranging now
All the struggle and all the pain / Are part of what we call the game…”
“21 years later, this song is still having a positive impact on the world!” Craymo shares. “This is a timeless song… We are one human race; I feel the world needs this song now more than ever.”
Craymo is a multi-award-winning songwriter who received Best Pop Dance Song and Best Pop Dance Mix for One Love One World in Fall 2021 Clouzine International Music Awards; his song “Love Me or Leave Me Alone” won Best Dance Song and Best Dance Artist in the Fall 2022 Clouzine International Electronic Music Awards.
Craymo was born in Massena, New York as Craig Stephen Raymo. Possessing music in his soul from an early age, Craymo found great joy in imitating the singers and bands he would listen to on his 45-RPM record player. Picking up the saxophone early on in primary school was merely Raymo’s introduction to the performing arts – he eventually played in bands throughout his school years, performed in choirs, and performed in community musical theatre productions.
From there, it was California dreaming as Craymo moved to Los Angeles to pursue his ambitions; he landed acting gigs in TV Soap Operas like General Hospital and Days of Our Lives — a return to the screen having first appeared on the international music scene as a male vocalist on Star Search ‘89 with Ed McMahon.
With his music licensed across multiple indie films and TV shows — including The Mysteries of Laura (NBC), The X Games (ESPN), The Orlando Citrus Parade (SYND), Sinbad’s Reality U (pilot), Toddlers and Tiaras (TLC), Chris And John to the Rescue (Canada), and more — he’s written hundreds of songs in between acting gigs; he eventually mentored under the great Bobby Womack before meeting producer David Longoria and going on to produce his first single, “Love Touch.”
Eventually, in 2001 post the 9/11 attacks, Craymo released the first rendition of “One Love One World (We Are One)” which was well received worldwide — the song was featured in the United Nations project UNESCO website newsongsforpeace.org; school teachers around the world downloaded the song and taught it to their students for performances at their schools; a village in Pang Liu Village in China used the song to help students learn to read English.
