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Singer-Songwriter Lisa Hartt Releases Exuberant, Exotic New Single āThe Night I Learned To Danceā
In her joyous, wistful new single āThe Night I Learned To Danceā ā available now ā Montreal, QC-born, Port Credit, ON-based Lisa Hartt weaves a story of a hot, exotic desert night that seems almost like yesterday.
In the late ā60s in London, Lisa Hartt had joined an all-girl big band called The Christine Lee Set – today, known as the famous Britainās Got Talent drummer Crissy Lee. Then, in a spirit of adventure, the band signed a contract to play in Cairo, Egypt, at the Sheraton Hotel.
āOne of our tasks was to play for the cabaret, and then the Belly dancer Nagwa Fouad would come on and she was the āstarā turn of the evening,ā Hartt remembers. āMy secret joy was to sneak behind the chorus of the Arabic orchestra and sing the ululations with the ladies while Nagwa twirled. She was simply entrancing.ā
One steamy, star-filled night Nagwa asked if the group wanted to go out to the oasis at the pyramids of Giza so she could teach them to dance. The other musicians in the band were hesitant, but Hartt was game.
āI got in a jeep with some military guys and Nagwa, and before long we were driving into the desert night to the mystery of learning belly dancing. I have never forgotten this night ā it was magical. āThe Night I Learned to Danceā has all the magic I was feeling.ā
It was so hot the night I learned to dance
I was aware before the trance.
An aged scheming temptress
Placed a shawl around my hips,
She tipped the silver chalice, honey nectar to my lips.
It was so hot, the night I learned to dance,
The night I learned to dance.
āThe Night I Learned to Danceā was lived over 45 years ago, but it only came to light when Hartt was introduced to Jonas Gideon while they were both performing at Lillaby Festivalen 2023 in Rinkaby, Sweden. Hartt explains how this amazing songwriting collaboration began: āJonas asked me to enter an experiment and write some lyrics that he then would put to music. Well, I was thrilled to have made this musical connection and I started writing immediately. The result was āThe Night I Learned to Dance.ā
Another very cool coincidence: Mayada, the lead dancer in the songās accompanying video, had studied with Nagwa Fouad, the dancer Hartt writes about in the song. Nagwa is still alive at 87 in Cairo. āI canāt wait to reach out to her and reconnect,ā Hartt says. āLife is magical, and we are the sum total of all our memories.ā
Juno Award-winning producer Chris Birkett (Sinead OāConnor) gave the song his magical touch, which convinced Dance Plant Records to release it with distribution on Sony/The Orchard, proving that older artists can still make it happen with the right team behind them.
Lisa Hartt has had quite a whirlwind year, launching her career back full steam ahead with single releases, an EP release, and two tours to Sweden, the first being the amazing time she was greeted at Lilla By Festivalen as the Canadian legend she truly is. She deserves that recognition for a story long untold about her collaboration with Swedenās hero, Ted Gardestad.
With a career that dates to the late ā70s, The Lisa Hartt Band topped the charts with a single āOld Time Movie,ā which resulted in major tours around the world. The band broke up, but Lisa never stopped honing her craft. Life had some twists and turns that stopped her touring and sometimes performing, but she continued to write and devote her time to celebrating her music.
Jonas Gideon and Lisa Hartt are now continuing to write together, with new songs for future release. āThis experience has shown me that the best is yet to come, and age, time and space do not matter,ā Hartt said. āItās all about the magic of the music.ā
Hartt recently received the Cashbox Legacy Award, presented to her at the Canadian Embassy in Stockholm, where she was celebrated for her accomplishments and contributions to the Canadian Music Industry.
The Muffins’ Martha Johnson Sets The Pace For World Parkinson’s Month With ‘Slow Emotion’
They say music can be the best therapy but leave it to community-minded Canadian legend Martha Johnson to make her music a form of group therapy. Her new single, āSlow Emotion,ā is a fortifying hit of emotional oxygen for those living with Parkinsonās Disease. Thatās a topic relevant not just to Johnson herselfāwho was diagnosed with the condition nearly a quarter-century agoābut to every fellow patient sheās met or just envisioned along the way.
According to Parkinson Canada, more than 100,000 people in Canada live with Parkinson’s. For people affected by Parkinson’s, help across the country is available in the form of support groups and resources. Find help near you by visiting here.
Seeing release under the project name Martha Johnson and Company, the song furthers the reputation for courageous exploration Johnson has carved out as co-founder and lead singer of the seminal art-pop band Martha and the Muffins (sometimes just M+M), and in numerous other projects that have kept her at the vanguard of contemporary audio and video art. This time, sheās used soothing keyboard pads and an easygoing, quasi-R&B bounce to send a message about the need to stop, listen and relate:
Empathy not sympathy
Thatās where we want to be
Take it slow, then youāll know
How to be kind
How to free your mind
Thatās where we want to be
Iām moving in slow emotion nowā¦
āI came up with the title āSlow Emotionā years ago,ā Johnson says, āand it seemed like a good fit with the theme of accepting and adapting to the changesāboth physical and emotionalāthat you go through when you are living with Parkinsonās Disease.
āOne of my favourite lyrics, āEmpathy not sympathyā¦,ā sums up the message of the song very well. I also like the randomness of referencing the title of a J.M.W. Turner painting as a line that has so much power in it: āNo rain, steam or speed.ā
The song came about thanks to a suggestion from Johnsonās neurologist, Dr. Alfonso Fasano at University Health Network (UHN)ās Krembil Brain Institute in Toronto, who felt he could help promote awareness of Parkinsonās to a wider audience while showing that life and creativity donāt end with a diagnosis. Dr. Fasano encouraged Johnson to collaborate with another of his patients, songwriter/musician Fabio Dwyer, and the two hit it off, combining their individual ideas into a cohesive whole. As a third voice, Johnson brought along Mark Gane, her perennial partner in Martha and the Muffins/M+M, to finish the composition. Then it was off to the studio.
āWe wanted to have as many people as possible with PD involved in the recording,ā Johnson says. āFabio had already collaborated with me on writing the song, and he also played guitar and bass beautifully on the track. I managed to find five people with PD who were excited about adding their voices to the song. The vibe in the studio was amazing, and we were all so proud to have recorded a chorus of voices lifting everyoneās spirits higher.ā
Bringing everything full circle, Dr. Fasanoāa talented musician in his own rightācontributed keyboards to the finished track.
The single will be available worldwide on all platforms on World Parkinsonās Day, April 11, 2024. Itāll be accompanied by a āmaking-ofā documentary shot by Toronto filmmaker Jason Cipparrone (and produced with the support of UHN and Parkinson Canada).
That day will mark a highly personal milestone for Johnson, within a career thatās already seen plenty of them. Since co-founding Martha and the Muffins in 1977, sheās been involved with 11 albums, three of them co-produced by band discovery Daniel Lanois (who went on to win Grammys for his work with artists like Peter Gabriel and U2). The group has had five Top 40 hits in their native Canada, and won the 1980 JUNO Award for Single of the Year for their international hit āEcho Beach.ā Timeless follow-ups like āSwimmingā and the Dancesparc album further burnished the Muffinsā sterling reputation for canny songcraft. And with the 1984 dancefloor breakout āBlack Stations/White Stations,ā (Number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Dance chart), Johnson and her group took the lead in exposing the racist underpinnings of big radio.
As a solo act, Johnson hit the Top 10 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with the song āTroy,ā which she co-wrote with German hip-hop group Die Fantastischen Vier. (The tune was later used in the O2 mobile phone companyās advertising campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.)
The birth of her daughter inspired Johnson to release the collection Songs from the Tree House, which won the JUNO for Best Childrenās Album in 1996. She then embarked on a career as a childrenās performer for several years with the Toronto nonprofit Prologue to the Performing Arts.
Her 2000 diagnosis with Parkinsonās was the catalyst for Johnson to stop performing live. Instead, she threw her energies into making recordsāboth new releases and Martha and the Muffins reissues. She and Gane also launched a fruitful side career scoring films and TV programs.
In 2013, Johnson released her debut solo album, SOLOā¢ONE, which she co-produced with Ray Dillard and Gane, and which featured three tracks co-written by JUNO Songwriter of the Year Ron Sexsmith.
Today, Johnson continues to collaborate with younger singer/songwriters and work on new recording projects. Most recently, in January 2024, Martha and the Muffins released a haunting cover version of the Buffalo Springfield classic āFor What Itās Worth,ā which Johnson and Gane had played and recorded entirely on their own at their home studio. The accompanying video, also directed by Cipparrone, generated over 50,000 views on YouTube.
The release of āSlow Emotionā maintains Johnsonās seemingly unstoppable forward momentumāironically in the context of a song that urges everyone to consider living life at a slightly more relaxed pace.
āIām hoping that people are moved by the song to a place of better understanding,ā she says. āParkinsonās is continuously a life-changing event for me. Beyond that, generally speaking, life is what you make of it, and youāll have a better time if you just slow down a little and really take it all in. I think thatās relevant to everyone.ā
Three Chords And The Sleuth: Murdoch Mysteries Soundtrack Album Is A Real Whosungit
The first-ever musical episode of the CBCās Murdoch Mysteries was a hit with just about everybody. The fans loved it. Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv called actor Thomas Craigās big number, āBloody Hell,ā ābloody marvelous.ā And on March 25, the night before the episode aired, JUNO Awards host Nelly Furtado even gave this melodic milestone, a special shout-out from the stage of Halifaxās Scotiabank Centre. The episode subsequently premiered on Alibi in the U.K. on April 4 and on Ovation in the U.S. on April 6. It will also air on Acorn in the U.S. soon.
Now everyone who was positively enchanted by āWhy Is Everybody Singing?ā can relive its meticulously orchestrated delights over and over again. The episodeās entire musical soundtrackāand then someāhas been collected on a commemorative digital album distributed by The Orchard. The track list makes for a compulsively listenable, audio-only encore run through the episodeās clever plot, in which turn-of-the-century Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) gets shot in the head by a mysterious assailant and has to solve the crime while languishing in a coma. All he has to go on is the overheard musings of his worried colleaguesāobservations heās now hearing entirely as show tunes.
The actors on the program all sang their own songs, which were written especially for the episode by scripter Paul Aitken. The digital album includes all 14 of those original numbers, plus a host of extras. There are eight tracks from composer/musical director Robert Carliās original score, overlaid with character dialogue; a re-orchestrated version of the Murdoch Mysteries opening-credits theme song; a reprise of āBloody Hellā; and some bonus behind-the-scenes interviews with the actors-turned-vocalists. Itās 40 minutes of pure listening joy that hits with the same impish charm poured into it by Jono Grant, who produced and arranged the songs, and Ron Proulx, producer of the soundtrack itself. Christina Jennings is executive producer.
Bringing āWhy Is Everybody Singing?ā to the air was the culmination of a process, and nobody had tried the approach on Canadian TV until Murdoch Mysteries used it as the premise of the 22nd episode of its 17th season. While a gutsy move on paper, having the Murdoch characters repeatedly break out into song was a logical enough step in its own way for the show, which has built up a fervent worldwide audience with its inherently quirky approach to the mystery genre.
Its concept and execution have made the program a favorite of viewers not just in its native Canada, but across the U.S., Australia the UK and Europe. Everywhere itās shown, fans sit for multiple viewings of each adventure, even when they already know how it comes out.
And if you think watching it is a good time, just wait until you find yourself re-creating its musical highlights in the shower. Why is everybody singing? Bloody hell, how could we not?
Vancouver Country Rising Star JUSTIN MATTOCK Goes Back To The Bar For “Where I Come to Drink”
Some things never go out of style, like having your heart broken and boozing away the pain. Vancouver country crooner Justin Mattock pulls up a barstool and aligns himself squarely with that proud tradition on his latest single, the irresistibly besotted āWhere I Come to Drink.ā
An instant classic of the tears-in-your-beer genre, the song chronicles the fallout of what Mattock has called āa goodbye that wasnāt meant to be permanent.ā
āWe had stories in this bottle/ Never time to take a sip,ā our crestfallen narrator laments. āBlack and white label and a colt cigar hanging off my bottom lip.ā The picture painted and the stage duly set, his voice rises in righteous self-pity to let us know just what this night is going to entail.
Iāll break it out, have a couple, pour āem strong
Tonightās gonna be one hell of a storm
āCause with this life away
From you and me
I took my time and space
Felt anything but free
Thereās a hole in this Comfort 10 feet wide
What I wouldnāt do to see that look in your eyes
Forget those words you left in ink
This is where I come to drink
The sentiment is timeless, and soās the sound. Everything from the arrangement to the instrumentation to the performance calls back to the best of country while signaling massive success in todayās marketplace ā credit for which Mattock is eager to share with his session partners in crime. Produced by Dan Botch and Garrett Ward of The Renaissance, āWhere I Come to Drinkā fleshes out the singer-songwriterās already-sturdy framework with authoritative drumming by Grady Saxman (Luke Combs) and nimble steel guitar from Travis Joy (Luke Byran).
āWe had some of the best session players Iāve ever worked with on this song,ā Mattock gushes. āThe steel guitar solo is one of the coolest things weāve done on one of my tracks.ā
The overall effect is so authentic that itās all the more remarkable this isnāt Mattocksā first time at the image/identity rodeo. His history with the bands Chase Your Words and Woke Up Waiting (later Harbourside) plants his roots firmly in pop-punk (which you can hear more than a hint of in the wall of crunching electric guitars that gradually insinuates itself into the new track). But his emergence as a solo artist coincided with an unabashed reinvention as a country/pop/alternative crossover act. Suffice it to say that it worked: His debut single “By Your Side” (also produced by Ward and Botch) laid the foundation for a five-song run that had netted half a million streams by the time Mattockās 2022 release “First Time” became a bona fide international breakout, rising to #4 on the UK Country charts. Follow-up “Seventeen” widened his geographic reach even further, lighting up country radio playlists across the U.S., Canada, the UK and Australia.
Yet as any corner-bar philosopher will tell you, the best-laid plans have a way of landing flat on their back on the saloon floor. Mattock ended up having to take an extended hiatus from music due to a serious health crisis that made it impossible for him to play or write for a solid two years. What you hear on the new single is the result of a long and determined crawl back to fighting form. And in marked contrast to the defeated soul he portrays in the tune, heās utterly upbeat about the end result: āI could not be happier with how it turned out.ā
Now that his health woes are behind him, Mattock is hoping to get back out on the road to play for his fans face-to-faceāfirst at some smaller gigs, but ultimately leading up to big festival appearances. Hereās hoping it happens sooner rather than later. If āWhere I Come to Drinkā can be believed, heās already had more than enough to cry about.
Montreal Rocker/Singer/Songwriter Annabel Gutherz New Single “Shame” Out Now
Canadian singer and songwriter Annabel Gutherz unveils her new single, āShame,ā out now. Following the success of her latest single, āEclipse,ā this new track continues to introduce listeners to Annabelās unique blend of classic rock influences and modern pop sounds. “Shame” was co-written with and produced by Mikal Blue (OneRepublic, Jason Mraz, Colbie Caillat) and Bret āEpicā Mazur (Crazy Town, Prince, The Black Eyed Peas).
āShameā is an open-hearted single about acknowledging and overcoming relationship insecurities. Underscored by full-bodied instrumentation, Annabel wields her sharp lyricism and sonorous vocals to explore anxiety, comparison, and self-doubt. She elaborates, “‘Shameā is about the ruminations that can arise about your partnerās former relationships and the invasive fears that often emerge as a result.”
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Annabel Gutherz creates timeless music that speaks to the soul of what it means to be human. Characterized by her compelling storytelling, honeyed melodies, distinct vocals, and keen musical intuition, her songs take listeners on a heartfelt journey packed with raw honesty and emotional conviction.
Since the release of her 2021 album, Loose Ends, Annabel has continued to develop her sound by working with an array of esteemed collaborators, including Bleu McAuley (Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Jonas Brothers) and Bonnie Hayes (Bonnie Raitt, Bette Midler, David Crosby). Fiercely committed to her craft, Annabel graduated with a baccalaureate and masterās degree from Berklee College of Music. With her undeniable talent and more music in the works for 2024, Annabel is certainly an artist worth keeping on your radar.
Friendly “Fire”: Uke Master James Hill Draws On The Passion Of The Multitudes
When one man honestly commits his emotions to record, thatās par for the musical course. But when he conscripts nearly 200 people to join him in it ā¦ well, youāre in for a lot of feelings.
And a lot of feelings is what we get on āHearts On Fire,ā a spotlight track from Brookfield, Nova Scotia-based singer/songwriter/ukulelist James Hillās latest album, Uke Heads. Hill enlisted a legion of his friends and fans to appear with him on the record, with the new single as a particularly effective advertisement that an enormous collective can still convey the solitary sorrows and joys of an individual soul.
āāHearts On Fireā is about feeling the feels,ā Hill says. āThose gut-punching, skin-crawling, pupil-dilating moments that define us. When your blood runs hot, thatās it. Thatās the feeling: Your heart is on fire.ā
With lyrical references to everything from the George Floyd murder to the spiritual purity of dogs, the song paints those automatic responses heās talking about in bold strokes:
Oh the mountain is high
Iām an eagle, Iām a stray bird
Hold me no more
Iām a lion, Iām a tamer
And a black sunrise
Comes over the blue-eyed hills
And my heartās on fire
And my heartās on fire
Still
Hill compares his music to that of The Black Keys and Jack White, but your ear isnāt off if it also locates this particular track in the tradition of Big Country and fun. And no matter how much you might think you hear a guitar on itāor anywhere on the 10-song album, for that matterāyou donāt: Itās the sound of Hillās baritone ukulele, overdriven to the point of distortion.
āWho needs six strings when four will do?ā he muses.
Besides, it isnāt as if the album is lacking in strings anywayāor much of anything else. A truly crowdsourced piece of work, Uke Heads was assembled over the course of two years from contributions laid down by 175 players and singers from 15 countries. In May 2022, Hill invited anyone to perform with him on his new record, as long as they purchased one of his self-created pieces of digital art as a ticket. Participants attended monthly rehearsals, practiced their parts, then recorded themselves singing and playing. Hill then mixed the album himself, blending more than 100 layers of audio per song.
The result is less cluttered than simply diverse, ranging from uke-based riff rock to jazz to sound collage to psychedelia to epic singalongs. Itās a major milestone for Hill, whose 25-year career has included discography entries like 2011ās Man with a Love Song and 2014ās JUNO-nominated The Old Silo. Along the way, heās also picked up a Canadian Folk Music Award. And now he may be standing on the precipice of an entire movement:
“Could Uke Heads grow beyond a community of album supporters into a lifestyle Ć la Dead Heads or Parrot Heads?” writer Nick Grizzle wondered in a recent issue of Ukulele Magazine. “For some, perhaps it already has.”
Old-School Funkateer John Orpheus Reaches New Heights On “Get Right!”
Break out your velvet couches, champagne flutes, and Soul Train swagger: Performance artist, musician and author John Orpheus brings back the golden age of get-down on his mood fixer of a new single, āGet Right!ā
Like an urgent, time-traveling bulletin from an era when funk, punk and pop coexisted happily on the dancefloor, the new record finds the Trinidad-born, Toronto-based Orpheus applying his talent for musical shapeshifting to deliver a motivational sermon that’s nostalgically succinct:
If it feel right, jump on it
If it aināt right, we donāt want it
If it aināt right, we donāt get your money
Now what could be fairer than that? The rhythm section maintains a breezy bounce as Orpheus raps out his exhortations with a trebly delivery that harkens back to both 90s west-coast rap and the Funkadelic records they sampled. Meanwhile, the songās melodic flow is kept at the forefront by the indispensable purring of female guest vocalist Elise LeGrow.
āāGet Right!ā is about finding your swag, securing the bag and eating well,ā Orpheus says. āItās a party vibe with an old-school funk energy reminding you to get up, get down and get right. The goal is to dance and shake off whatever is holding you back from your best and baddest self.ā
Asked to name the biggest influences on the song, Orpheus has a shortlist handy: āRick James, Prince, Sly and the Family Stone, soul music, cognac and daddy issues.ā
Come again?
āMy brothers and I grew up mostly without my dad around, and we would go into the basement and play all his old music. Thatās where we first heard funk and disco, and it was kinda our way of kicking it with our dad.ā
The retro aesthetic is on full display in the accompanying music video by ace production house Moon Reel Media, which combines house-party antics with onscreen titles straight out of a circa-ā73 grindhouse flick. Thatās not to mention the canny wardrobe choices of Orpheus himself, whoās bound to receive some sort of Best Costuming award for his judicious use of a snorkel.
āGet Right!ā is the title track to Orpheusā forthcoming EP, due in June of this year. Itās the follow-up to his 2021 album Saga King, and like the single thatās preceded it, it revels in the decor of vintage R&Bāspecifically the oeuvre of George Clinton as filtered through a litany of ā90s homages ā we mean you Dr. Dre. But its āwhole-schoolā approach embraces the entire musical diaspora, holding space for everything from dancehall to Afrobeats.
Recorded over the course of just nine days at Copper Sound in Guelph, in collaboration with musical director Adam Bowman and producer Mike Schlosser, the record shows Orpheusā affection for the past by emphasizing live instrumentation and real-time performance. āMaking records the old-school wayāplaying instruments, vibing off each other in the same room, sharing the momentāis still a magical way to make music!ā he enthuses.
With that attitude, itās no surprise he’s in such demand as a live act. Whether appearing at festivals across Canada and the U.S. or opening for Liam Gallagher on a UK tour, heās become known for rabble-rousing shows filled with audience participation, chanting and impromptu dance-offs that make his time on stage feel more like a Caribana road party than a simple concert.
When he isnāt tearing up studios and stages as John Orpheus, this tireless and multifaceted artist is giving vent to his literary alter ego, Antonio Michael Downing. Under that moniker, heās published a well-received memoir, Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming (Penguin Random House), written two children’s books and is hard at work on his debut novel, Black Cherokee (Simon and Schuster). But whatever the medium and whichever name heās going by at any given moment, heās cominā at ya with the same sense of playful reclamation and joy. And that, at its core, is what āGet Right!ā really means.
āMy life right now is about being whole and happy and having a blast,ā he says, āand this song says all those things to a beat.ā
3-Time GRAMMY Nominee and Blues Legend Eric Bibb’s Live at The Scala Theatre Is Out Now
Stony Plain Records, under an exclusive worldwide license agreement from Repute Records, has released the new album from 2024ās āBest Traditional Blues Albumā GRAMMY nominee and Blues/Roots music legend Eric Bibb, Live at The Scala Theatre. The disc follows 2023ās Ridinā, which has also received two Blues Music Award nominations from The Blues Foundation, whose winners will be announced May 9th in Memphis.
Eric Bibb also recently taped a performance at the SiriusXM Radio studios In New York City that will premiere on BB Kingās āBluesvilleā channel in April around his live album release, and then air shortly thereafter on āThe Village.ā
Performed in front of a live audience at Stockholmās Scala Theatre in 2023, the atmosphere captured in these recordings is electric. Live at The Scala Theatre contains a selection of songs cherry-picked from Bibbās history, infused with the folk and blues tradition with contemporary sensibilities. The performance features an all-star lineup of musicians including Eric’s longtime collaborator, musical director and producer Glen Scott on bass, keys, drums and backing vocals; Olle Linder on drums and acoustic bass; Johan Lindstrƶm on pedal steel and electric guitar; Christer Lyssarides on electric guitar and mandola; Esbjƶrn Hazelius on fiddle and cittern; Greger Andersson on harp; Lamine Cissokho on kora and vocals; special guest vocalists Sarah Dawn Finer, Rennie Mirro and Ulrika Bibb, as well as string arrangements by Erik Arvinder and David Davidson, performed by Hanna Helgegren and Sarah Cross on violins, Christopher Ćhman on viola and Josef Ahlin on cello.
āThe Live at The Scala concert was, without a doubt, the most ambitious gig and recording project of my career,ā says Eric Bibb. āCaptained by my super-talented friend, musical director and producer, Glen Scott and graced by an amazing array of musicians, the resulting album is one that defines me as an artist. I couldnāt be more pleased and eager to share it with you all.
āIn selecting the albumās songs we wanted to cover three categories: 1)Tried and true fan favorites that had not appeared multiple times on previous live recordings; 2) A few songs from the recently released studio albums, Dear America and Ridinā; 3) At least one song that Iād never before recorded.
āEvery song on the album holds a special place in my heart. Iāll elaborate on three of them: āRosewood,ā which tells the story of the horrendous massacre in 1923, that wiped out the African American community of Rosewood in Florida, is both an important history lesson, particularly relevant today in the current climate of disunity in America and the world and hopefully, a story that encourages us to face and learn from our past.Ā āWhole Worldās Got The Bluesā is, in the way that songs can sometimes be, prescient. It is both a lament about the current state of the world and a warning. āThings Is āBout Cominā My Way,ā adapted from āSittinā On Top Of The Worldā and written by Walter Vinson, is a bluesy affirmation that resonates with my own journey.Ā And one of my fondest memories of that night at The Scala Theatre was being surrounded by the spirited singing, on stage and in the audience, of āMole In The Ground.āā
With a career now spanning five decades, three Grammy nominations, a multitude of Blues Foundation awards and countless more accolades, Eric Bibb has secured his legacy as a legendary figure in the blues and roots genre.
As Eric reflects on his musical journey, gratitude pervades. Evolution is evident in his voice and guitar playing, with his words grounded in truth and fostering a vision of unity in a world filled with divisive rhetoric. Eric Bibb is more than a blues troubadour ā he is a storyteller and philosopher. His legacy is not just in the notes he plays or the stages he graces but in the questions, he poses and the hope he instills.
Live at The Scala Theatre is a continuation of the vision that informs Bibbās artistry as a modern-day Blues troubadour. Grounded in the folk and blues tradition with contemporary sensibilities, Bibbās music continues to reflect his thoughts on current world events and his own lived experiences, whilst remaining entertaining, uplifting, inspirational and relevant.
Eric Bibb summarizes the new album by saying: āTo all the wonderful players, singers and facilitators who contributed to this triumphant endeavor, I can only say, from the bottom of my heart:Ā
Thank You! Merci Mille! Tusen Tack!ā
No Surrender: Country Crooner Angie Bohlke Takes Quitting Off The Table With “Don’t Give In”
Every once in a while, you need to hear a friend say, āJust keep going.ā Would that they could all do it with the priceless gift for melody Canadian country upstart Angie Bohlke brings to the subject on āDonāt Give In,ā a musical wellspring of support thatās the latest single from her debut album, The Best Part of Me.
Itās impossible to remain unswayed by Bohlkeās sincerity as she implores a loved on to persevere and vows the result will be worth it. Imparting thoughtful coping strategies like ātrust in yourselfā and āthink of something beautiful; a place youāve never been,ā she makes the emotional stakes plain on the songās absolute haymaker of a chorus:
Donāt, donāt give up
Donāt give in
You will make it
Donāt give up, donāt give in
You will win, just reach for my hand
I will understand, but donāt give in
The exquisite balladry plays out at a stately pace, affording maximum breathing room for Bohlke to show off her impeccable tone, sustain and vibrato. Thatās not to mention the clearly heartfelt quality of the wordsāwhich, like those on the rest of the album, reflect a period of personal growth in her own life that paid off in spades thanks to a determination to keep going at all costs.
āI, like many others, have struggled not only mentally but also emotionally,ā Bohlke says. Among the many challenges sheās faced, she cites single motherhood and ācoming to terms with my own sexualityā as merely two. But with the passage of time, she says, āI grew increasingly more aware of who I was. I focused more on my own needs and desires.ā
And then?
āI found someone who helped me find my true self. I found true love. I found my strength. I found my way.ā
This is clearly not someone whoās afraid to play the long game. And itās been that way for Bohlke on the musical front too. Raised in Placentia, NL, she was performing in school and community concerts at a young age, taking her inspiration from musical muses like Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless and Kenny Rogers. Playing in cover bands was the next logical step. But writing her own songs remained purely a private exercise for a great many yearsāsomething she did to help her work through lifeās ceaseless ups and downs.
That all changed when COVID hit in 2020, and she realized the secret stash of tunes she had amassed would make perfect fodder for a weekly series of Facebook concerts. Playing live every Saturday to the lockdown crowd exploded her reach on social media and put her career on an unmistakably upward trajectory.
āIt was simply amazing,ā she reflects. āThe fan base that started to follow me has been supporting me ever since.ā
The foundation was thus laid for Bohlke to release her first single, āTrue Love,ā on Bandcamp the same year. She followed it in 2022 with the more widely disseminated āThe One I Hold at Night,ā then āJust One Lookā in 2023. The capper was when her first full-length collection, the seven-song The Best Part of Me, dropped last November.
āThe album comes just at the right time in my life when I am finally ready to share my experiences through my music,ā Bohlke says. āFrom being in a dark place, to being a single mom, to not knowing who I truly was, to finally finding someone who somehow just put everything into perspective. And finally all the scattered pieces just fell into place.
āI think this album really is the best part of me.ā
Along her path of self-actualization, sheās been able to seize a bunch of ancillary opportunities, like performing at the Live at Heart NL Global Music Showcase Sweden and participating in a province-wide tour of Newfoundland and Labrador arts and culture centres. Sheās also been featured in the Voices of Placentia Songwriters Series. Thatās all pretty good for someone who had sat on her original material for a decadeāand the true yearnings of her heart for a good while longer. So when she says āDonāt Give In,ā you can be sure she knows whereof she speaks.