A fearless rendezvous of precision and skill, cosmically-wired jazz-R&B New Orleans artist Laranah Phipps Ray and La Funkalicious unveil the majestic and unbridled new single, “Jazz Crimes.”
Embodying the spirited mix of high-energy jazz, R&B, funk, and Afrofuturism start to finish, the multi-talented vocalist, songwriter, producer, and influencer continues to bend boundaries and break barriers with her deeply-rooted musicality and explosive scat execution — her new song arriving as no exception.
Written by Joshua Redman, “Jazz Crimes” features Laranah on scat alongside trumpeter Arnetta Johnson. Produced by consummate hitmaker, guitarist, and co-founder of the legendary Gold Certified Group Instant Funk, Kym Miller, the track serves as a prime preview to Laranah Phipps Ray’s upcoming album, Game Changer — set for release January 2023.
On the highly anticipated forthcoming release, Laranah brings her distinctive sound, phrasing, and storytelling to the table. Most noted for her “far from mainstream” scat-styling, five-octave range, improvisational facility, and volcanic grasp of groove, her voice is laced with a certain ancient richness and her instrument soars with a distinct yet familiar soul and power.
Laranah has penned several powerhouse songs as a recording artist, including the singles “I Rule the Night,” “Love in Santiago” “Sudden Love,” and “Save Me Now.”
In addition, she is married to renowned trumpeter Michael Ray — known for Sun Ra Arkestra, Kool & The Gang, Cosmic Krewe, and more. Affectionately dubbed the ‘Cosmic Couple,’ they consistently co-write and recently collaborated with famed saxophonist Marshall Allen of Sun Ra Arkestra on “Mayan Temple,” Kym Miller of Instant Funk on “Covid-19,” and Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies on “Hello Hello.”
With a prolific career fronting La Funkalicious and collaborating with A-list musicians, her impossible-to-ignore talent is no surprise considering she was born to jazz royalty— the Phipps Family, Newark’s First Family of Jazz; as the daughter of pioneering saxophonist Gene Phipps, Sr., she received an unparalleled education in jazz and entertainment from a young age. As a result, Laranah’s high-energy performances, regal stage presence, and mesmerizing vocal ability make her a favourite of fans worldwide.
While Laranah Phipps Ray is best known for her music, she is also a savvy media entrepreneur and a vital voice in the fight for racial justice. Her production credits include professional stage management, live events producer, and influencer with multimedia outlets Rayborhood TV, Behind the Cosmic Grind, and Down the Rabbit Hole. In addition, she is Executive Producer for the series Tales from The Stage, in which A-list stars reveal the secrets of the entertainment industry, and Co-Producer & Co-Host of kNOw Justice kNOw Peace. This 12-hour live stream provides entertainment, education, and resources to fight for racial equality.
Laranah Phipps Ray and La Funkalicious’ new single “Jazz Crimes” is available now. A Flat 5th Dimension Records (b5D) project, Game Changer is set for release January 2023.
Drawing on hard lessons and a life well-lived, Oshawa singer/songwriter Mark Wihlidal celebrates his golden years with a good ol’ fashioned rock tune about living without regret on his debut single, “Life Can Be A Mystery,” while proving you’re never too young, too old, too anything, to follow what you love to do.
Wihlidal hits the ground running with the supercharged song “Life Can Be A Mystery,” an eclectic rock n’ roll composition about never looking back and staying positive. “This song represents me giving myself some advice and perhaps offering advice to someone else.”
The song came about on a cold December night when the car radio just happened to go down. Cool silence filled the air as silky smooth harmonies brought life to the vehicle. The genesis of “Life Can Be A Mystery” is found here.
“Life Can Be A Mystery” is as musically lush as it is relatable with messages about tried and true lessons that guide the soul toward happiness and a more fulfilling future.
“Don’t look back, you won’t like what you see
Look ahead, let your mind be free
Life isn’t fair, for you and for me
But without a care, you will be free.”
Mark Wihlidal is a fearless artist who decided to take a chance on his musical craft later in life with the first of many singles. Wihlidal’s fluid sonic nature is reflected in the recording process, relying mainly on trust between bandmates. “When I create a song, I always encourage my bandmates to create their own parts. Everyone is involved in the creative process. I believe it makes the songs sound better.“
Wihlidal continues to pursue his dream of connecting with audiences from all walks of life through the power of music.
There’s nothing like getting together with friends you haven’t seen in forever, and Ottawa-based Americana artist Francine Honey bottles the excitement of a wild, all-out reconnecting of pals in her new single and video, “One Big Party.”
Rocking and rollicking with a driving rhythm and a singalong chorus, “One Big Party” is an ode to the reunions we’ve all been longing for during the pandemic — as well as reunions of every kind.
“I had my group of high school friends in mind when I wrote it,” Honey shares. “We reconnected at a high school reunion some years ago and have gotten together regularly since then. Our parties almost always involve being outside around a fire and howling at the moon by the end of the night!”
Being stuck at home the last couple of years, we’ve all had cabin fever. “As we were all hunkered down at home, didn’t we all make plans for when we’d get together again?” Honey asks. “I know I did! I don’t know how many times I put an X on my calendar on the wall, only to have to scratch it out and put the X in another spot.”
“One Big Party” was written with co-writer Fabio Ingratta, who Honey met at a songwriters’ meeting she hosted. “He has a certain style that I thought would suit a party song,” she says. “We had so much fun writing it and came up with so many scenarios that it was hard to nail it down. Even though we only lived 15 minutes apart at the time, we used Zoom and lots of texts back and forth with lines describing the kind of party we were going to have with our friends.”
The song features Nashville A-list players Will Kimbrough, Fats Kaplin, Danny Mitchell, Dean Marold, and GRAMMY-nominated producer and drummer Neilson Hubbard recorded live off the floor by Dylan Alldredge at Skinny Elephant Recording Studios in East Nashville.
“They were all together, except for me!” Honey explains. “I was in on the session via Zoom with a sound feed direct from the board.” She then recorded her vocals in her studio in Leamington the week before she was set to move to Ottawa; co-writer Fabio Ingratta sings background vocals on the song.
“One Big Party” is the last single from Honey’s upcoming album, I Carry On, and the song officially kicks off Honey’s ‘summer of fun’ campaign across her social media channels with upwards of 20k fans.
Speaking of fun, the track is complemented by a playful video featuring Kristian Dambrino and Honey getting ready for their party ‘Risky Business’ style.
Having garnered numerous finalist and semi-finalist honours from industry organizations and competitions — including the International Songwriting Competition, Canadian Songwriting Competition, UK Songwriting Competition, a first-place honour from the Austin Songwriting Group for “Stay,” and more — Francine Honey is also a member of the Songwriter’s Association of Canada (SAC), Nashville Songwriters Association International, Canadian Country Music Association, and Americana Music Association.
As a graduate of the Berklee College of Music Professional Singer-Songwriter Certificate Program, Honey regularly makes the nine-hour drive from Ontario to songwriting workshops in Nashville, where she has been mentored by icons like Beth Nielsen Chapman (who contributes backup vocals to Honey’s Snowflakes On My Eyelashes), Mike Reid (I Can’t Make You Love Me), Mary Gauthier (Mercy Now), Verlon Thompson (Boats to Build), Gretchen Peters (Independence Day), and Jonatha Brooke (Put the Gun Down).
She co-ordinates the SAC’s Leamington/Windsor Regional Writer’s Group, mentoring other songwriters, and has showcased at the Texas Songwriters Symposium four years in a row, as well as NSAI Tin Pan North Festival, Hugh’s Room, the WinterFolk Blues and Roots Festival in Toronto, the Kingsville Folk Music Festival, and the Folk Music Ontario conference. Francine’s music and songwriting have not only taken her through Canada and the U.S., but the U.K., Switzerland, and Italy.
With previous album releases including 2014’s Re-Drawn and 2018’s To Be Continued…, her 2019 holiday album, Take Me to the North Pole, made Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top 50 Christmas Albums of the Year list.
Canadian roots-blues duo Blue Moon Marquee are ready to “Scream, Holler & Howl” with the release of their soul-shoutin’ new single.
Bursting with a loose, let-it-all-hang-out kind of groove, the song is the opening and title track of their forthcoming album set for release this September 9th via their own label, Blue Moon Marquee Music.
“”Music is a release, and we encourage expression of the spirit with this tune,” co-front A.W. Cardinal says. “It’s a song to honour what music provides for so many — an escape.”
Recorded live to tape, Scream, Holler & Howl captures their most sophisticated collection of songs yet — all while blazing forward with a full band featuring some of Canada’s finest veteran players. Recorded at Vancouver, BC’s Afterlife Studios, and produced by the band with multi-Blues Music Award-winner Duke Robillard and Erik Nielsen, both the song and its namesake album shine a bright spotlight on the prodigious talents of Cardinal’s vocals and guitar, and Colette’s upright bass and vocals alongside guests Darcy Phillips, Jerry Cook, Matt Pease, Paul Pigat, Bonnie Northgraves, and Señor Erik; Robillard adds his stellar legendary guitar work on several tracks, too.
The album’s ‘Baker’s Dozen’ 13 tracks include 11 original songs plus two distinctive takes on songs written by the legendary Lonnie Johnson: “Another Night to Cry” and “Long Black Train.”
Born of the wild rose country in Alberta, Canada, both Cardinal and Colette played in punk, metal, and rock and roll bands. Leaving home at a young age, they both spent years traveling on their own, working a variety of jobs and touring with different acts. At one point Colette was hitchhiking throughout North America performing vaudeville with her act of hula hooping, skateboarding, and playing trombone simultaneously, while Cardinal was living in New York City working as a bike mechanic and performing at open mics every night.
It was in 2012 that they came together in Vancouver to record Cardinal’s original material for his album, Stainless Steel Heart; a mutual old friend was engineering the project and they connected deeply on their taste and obsession over music.
With their distinct energy and style, this acclaimed duo writes and perform original compositions influenced by anything that swings, jumps, or grooves. Carving a path through blues, jazz, jump jive, folk, country, swing, and Indigenous soul with an authentic spirit, their sound does not idle easily in one certain category. Also known as ‘Badlands Jass,’ Colette not only commands the upright bass but also brings the rhythm with her feet on a custom foot drum kit — all while singing in her signature honey-dipped tones — while Cardinal’s distinctive and soulful vocals barrel out like a raging bull and his guitar crackles with the swinging energy of jazz-tinged blues.
Their gift is bringing all these elements together without anything sounding out of step. They collect the roots and smoothly braid them with lyrics that often touch on the underbelly of society, woven with elements of Indigenous storytelling and poetic cadence.
“Blue Moon Marquee have their own completely original style,” American Roots UK writes. “Modern Blues doesn’t really get any better than this. This is a tremendous sound by a hugely talented duo.”
“To say A.W. and Jasmine are old souls is an understatement, to say the least,” Robillard pens in the album’s liner notes. “They are poised for worldwide recognition in an amazing genre-bending ride through American blues and folk, gypsy jazz, Native American themes, jump blues, swing, and more. These century-old traditions have been redefined and delivered in a new light here. They are astounding in their depth, groove, and soul on this recording. Written, played, and recorded here in a heartfelt and natural old-school way for the world to hear, feel, dance, drink or be alone with.
“For me, working with them in the studio was inspiring and a re-confirmation of my own belief in the power of roots music,” he continues. “Special thanks go out to Afterlife Studios, with their long history of great recordings and real echo chambers, vintage gear, and great engineer Erik Nielsen, who converged magically with all these musicians to make some damn memorable music.”
While they have primarily performed as a duo since 2013, Blue Moon Marquee have recently also performed as a trio or quartet with Darcy Phillips (Jann Arden) on piano and Jerry Cook (Colin James) on tenor and baritone saxophone.
With 2019’s release of Bare Knuckles and Brawn, they were nominated as Blues Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards and Indigenous Songwriter of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. With a “totally unique approach…such a powerful original mix of swing styles with jazz and blues, west coast swing and New Orleans feel” (Sound Guardian) the record topped both the Earshot National Folk/Roots/Blues Charts simultaneously with the National Jazz charts — a rare feat.
Appreciated for their lyrical candor, outstanding musicianship, and vivacious live performances, Blue Moon Marquee was the most-requested band in the country for the Canadian International Jazz Festival Circuit following their 2017 release, Gypsy Blues. That full-length album of original material also garnered the Indigenous Artist of the Year nomination from Western Canadian Music Awards as well as Best New Artist nomination at the Maple Blues Awards.
“As a long-time fan of Blue Moon Marquee, I’ve had the pleasure of following and appreciating their development over the years,” says Holger Petersen, Founder of Stony Plain Records and longtime radio broadcaster. “The combination of A.W. and Jazz with Duke Robillard takes their music to another inspired level. ‘Scream, Holler & Howl’ is a wonderful hybrid of their combined swing, blues, and gypsy jazz influences and unique songwriting often inspired from A.W.’s Metis Cree heritage. It’s a joy to hear and to see their on-stage chemistry and natural showmanship. I encourage everyone to get to know them by checking out their website, videos, and original artwork.”
“Their presentation is spellbinding and their original songs are unforgettable,” legendary award-winning American blues pianist David Vest vouches. “To me, they represent the real core of the folk-blues tradition. They would not seem out of place if they were on stage beside Lonnie Johnson or the young Memphis Minnie.”
“They embrace the retro vein celebrated for decades between ragtime blues, shady mambo, and vintage swing,” Paris Blues Magazine writes from France. “With a smoldering live performance and outrageous vocals… Welcome to the baroque cabaret, where the Charleston disjoins itself!”
“The sound of Blue Moon Marquee is delicious and sacrosanct cross-border blues,” Keys and Chords’ Philip Verhaege adds.
“Scream, Holler & Howl” is available now. Scream, Holler & Howl, the album, is available September 9th, 2022 via Blue Moon Marquee Music.
From Will himself: “This is the true story of one small boy, me, Will Sergeant, navigating the 60’s and 70’s, a woolly-back (hick) spawned one drunken night on the outskirts of a Nazi pocked and battered Liverpool, growing up with the spectre of WW2 still creeping about most adults padlocked minds. I trudge on into a piss wet 1970s, just as the pustules of teenage years approach popping point. It is a heady time of power cuts, strikes, flying pickets, bread shortages, skinhead gangs, IRA bomb scares, nuclear war fears, rock gigs, glam clothes, drowned motorbikes, explosives, dead-end jobs and the usual school lessons of chicken strangulation. With the help of music, I manage to navigate myself through the sinking sand of prog rock and into the safety of punk. My boots still muddy with a bad attitude, I head into the winter of discontent to become a post-punk trailblazer worshipped all over the world as a god. Well? An inventive and influential guitarist of some note at the very least.”
If there’s one thing dance and soul-house artists Tortured Soul know for sure it’s that “Your Body Doesn’t Lie”… So goes the underlying sentiment of their latest release and accompanying remixes — available now from Tstc Music through Slammin’ Media and distributed worldwide by Believe Distribution.
Diving deep into the search for happiness and discovering how sometimes the journey to find it can be messy, Tortured Soul frontman John-Christian Urich leaned into the song’s theme after recalling how he met his wife. “She was talking with a guy at a bar and I interrupted them and asked for her number,” he shares. “The guy was quite annoyed, but she gave me her email and the rest is history…
“I took a bit of creative license here as my wife and this guy were just chatting and not directly involved, but I think almost everyone can relate to #1 – being in an unhappy or unfulfilling relationship, and #2 – not being in a relationship, and being quite lonely,” Urich continues. “So what happens when #1 meets #2 — and they hit it off?”
“Your Body Doesn’t Lie” includes feature mixes from South African DJ/Producer Fka Mash and British DJ/Producer Atjazz. Urich discovered Fka Mash’s work while reviewing potential South African producers to collaborate with; he was struck by the artist’s sound and reached out in hopes of working together. “Lucky for me, he was down and created a really gripping remix,” Urich shares.
Also having been a fan of Atjazz’s productions and having a chance to meet the producer at a festival in South Africa, Urich contacted him to also work on the track. “I was certain he would come up with something great — which he, sure enough, did,” Urich continues. “I was also pleased to discover we share a pretty strong affinity; we each have an over-the-top sense of humour complete with a healthy dose of self-deprecation which I think tends to be a prerequisite for any good musician.
“It’s good to be able to crack some jokes when working together to keep the ball rolling.”
Tortured Soul is 100% live modern, deep, soulful, house music freed from the DJ Booth. Influenced by the classic songcraft of Prince, Heatwave, and Kool & The Gang, Tortured Soul is a collective of incredible international musicians united under a groove-centered rhythm. Frontman and songwriter John-Christian Urich leads the group while simultaneously drumming and singing with effortless mastery. Likened to “The Roots of House Music,” Tortured Soul’s sound is reminiscent of Neo-Soul groups like Jamiroquai or Brand New Heavies, while also being influenced by the contemporary freshness of House purveyors like Dave Lee and Louie Vega, and Nu Disco artists like Soul Clap and Purple Disco Machine.
Based on a Chinese fairytale about literal star-crossed lovers, Toronto-based award-winning pop artist Harriet Chung’s new single “Through My Tears” – available now – pays tribute to the aching bitter-sweetness of being far apart from the person you love.
On “Through My Tears,” Chung’s ethereal vocals float above dreamy piano and soaring, meandering flute as she narrates the story of the Cowboy and the Weaving Girl who fell in love on earth but were separated against their will. “I dream as the wind blows/ Across the heavens through the skies/ Your voice sewn in my memories/ Your face locked in my eyes.”
Chung explains the fairy tale as she remembers hearing it: “The Weaving Girl was forced back to heaven by her mother, and the cowherd remained on earth,” she said. “Their love was so strong that they remained faithful to each other for eternity. And once a year they appear in the night sky as the stars Vega and Altair.”
In fact, those stars form a bridge of stars that we all know as the Milky Way. “Together they form a bridge to reunite and dance the night away until they are forced to disappear with the rising of the sun,” she said.
Chung was attracted to the sad longing and the relatable universality of the tale. “The song is like a dream about missing the one you love,” she explains. “And in that dream, you reunite in the sky like the Cowboy and Weaving Girl.” Her angelic singing on the song is accompanied by Christopher Siu’s arrangement and piano, and Mailynn Jenkin’s beautiful flute.
Harriet Chung is an international singer, actress, and award-winning performer. Her debut single “A World Away (Remix)” won Best Original Song at the Hollywood Gold Awards, and its music video has won 10 Best Music Video awards from film festivals around the world. She has appeared in many musical theatre productions, including The Phantom of the Opera (Toronto), Cats (Germany), The King and I, Iron Road, and Golden Lotus, for which she has received numerous awards and nominations for Best Actress on both stage and screen for her portrayal of the titular role.
She is also an accomplished dancer, choreographer, director, and teacher. She shares her love and experience as a triple-threat performer with students all over the world through her school, Harriet Chung Performing Arts (HCPA).
Some songs become known for one standout, dramatic element – a scream, for example – and Ontario-based alt-country duo Fresh Breath’s new single “Find Your Way Home” – available now – just might be one of them. It’s bluesy, it’s catchy, it’s harmony and harmonica-infused, and it also stops the action in the middle of everything for a memorable husky, guttural YEAHHHHHHH.
From their 2021 EP, How Did I Get Here, “Find Your Way Home” explores the question of what it might have been like to have not been born human – “Sometimes I wonder/ How my life would have been/ Had my soul not been placed down here/ In this body wrapped with skin.” The song questions how it might have been to have been born a deer rather than someone who spends their day in an office, a dolphin rather than a factory worker, or even a river whose only job is to rage on.
“I’d still help you find your/ Find your way home,” the duo concludes.
Overall, the song is about reclaiming and rediscovering one’s humanity by philosophically going outside of it for a little while. “It’s a hypothetical question about having your own mind but in a different body,” Fresh Breath explain. “Perhaps a bird or dolphin. Realizing that all living things have their own unique issues and struggles and maybe it would be easier to be a bridge or a river that helps you ‘Find Your Way Home.’”
Although it deals with lofty and difficult questions, “Find Your Way Home” doesn’t take itself too seriously. The earthiness of the exercise is reflected in the music video, shot exclusively on an iPhone 12 mini by the band themselves. It shows Josh and Katie Pascoe hanging out on their family farm, chillin’ in the hayloft and the old cow shed, and playing in the sunshine. When that aforementioned YEAHHHH comes, they stop to do a little bit of hair-flipping and headbanging in glorious slow motion.
At the end of the video, they even include a funny blooper. “When we did the slow-motion shot, Katie thought it would be a cool effect to toss her hat – not realizing that it would surely smack Josh directly in the face as he came back up violently fast,” the duo said. “Luckily he wasn’t hurt or injured, but what we managed to grab on film was too good not to include as a blooper at the end of the video.”
It’s just one of those things that reflect the duo’s ethos. “We ultimately love to have fun, and try not to take ourselves too seriously,” they share.
Donnie Walsh has experienced a lot of things in his over 53 years of playing the blues, since forming The Legendary Downchild Blues Band in 1969 with his brother, Hock Walsh. Perhaps none more rewarding than getting the call that he will be inducted into the North Bay Musicians & Entertainers Hall of Recognition on September 1, 2022, at Downchild’s performance at the Capitol Centre in North Bay as part of the Capitol Centre Bluesfest.
“It’s really exciting to be inducted to the Hall in North Bay as it’s where, as a kid, I started to actually listen to music and began to play guitar” states Donnie Walsh.
Donnie spent his formative years in North Bay, when his parents moved to the city in 1957 and bought The Lakeview Inn in West Ferris, Ontario, now part of North Bay, as it was known then. It was at the infamous Lakeview Inn where Donnie and Hock discovered music on the jukebox. “At 11:30 every Saturday night it was closing time” says Walsh. “People would load up the jukebox throughout the night to play well past the time we shut down for the evening. Hock and I would sneak in there on Sunday mornings and plug it back in and listen to hours and hours of great music by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley and the Comets, Louis Prima, and Keeley Smith, to name a few. It was around this time that I got a steel guitar one Christmas and quickly exchanged it for a regular guitar. Then I took guitar lessons for almost a year from local guitar legend, Russ Smith, who played guitar on a TV show with Irwin Prescott and His Mellowtones.”
He attended grade 7 and 8 at Tweedsmuir Public School in West Ferris and then spent two years at Algonquin Composite Collegiate in North Bay, before heading to Toronto in 1962. Two year later, Walsh began his journey to becoming a full-time musician, forming Downchild in 1969 with Hock, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Downchild has long been known as the inspiration for Hollywood stars Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s hit film The Blues Brothers. In fact, two Downchild songs “I Got Everything I Need (Almost)” and “Shotgun Blues” are found on The Blues Brothers smash album Briefcase Full of Blues.
Downchild has released 19 albums, including their 50th Anniversary Live At The Toronto Jazz Festival recording (featuring special guests Dan Aykroyd, Paul Shaffer, David Wilcox, Kenny Neal, Gene Taylor and Erja Lyytinen), won 2 JUNO Awards and over 26 Maple Blues Awards.
Donnie Walsh wrote Downchild’s song “I’ve Got Everything I Need (Almost)” that was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019, where he joined some of the greatest songwriters of our time, including Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and Leonard Cohen.
Downchild is a Canadian blues institution with an international reputation. They have shared the stage with blues icons B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and John Lee Hooker to name a few and have performed around the world, leaving fans thoroughly entertained wherever they go. The band continues to perform regularly and are currently on The Longest 50th Anniversary Tour Ever!
