With more than 100,000+ streams on Spotify combined, multi-award winning Toronto-based artists Heather Christine and Matt Zaddy have connected their life partnership into a formal musical one to release the debut single, “This Too Shall Pass” as folk duo River North.
“This song began as a poem written by my parents, who are both writers,” Heather shares. “They wrote it to express their emotions during the start of the lockdown when an entire generation was essentially isolated for fear of what the virus could do to older adults.”
“Their words inspired us to express what we’ve been thinking and feeling during these strange times,” Matt adds. “We wrote ‘This Too Shall Pass’ as a beacon of hope, and to remind us that many things have come before us — and passed.”
“That we will make it through this together,” they agree.
“We were privileged to have Wendy Solomon, a gifted cellist, join us on this performance,” Heather continues. “She has performed with so many wonderful acts — Robert Plant, Barbara Streisand, Lights, Rod Stewart, Dionne Warwick, Yes, Brian Wilson — so to have someone of her calibre and creativity really made the song feel that much more special.”
“From the start, Heather had a vision of featuring a cello on this song, and for good reason,” Matt says. “It came together quite naturally, and added a depth and emotion to the piece”
Accomplished musicians in their own rights, Heather Christine won Mississauga Music Award for Best New Artist (2018), and her debut solo album Love In Colour (2019) hit #1 on Spain’s Smooth Jazz Sitges radio, and received radio airplay, including JazzFM, CIUT, and Wave 94.7. An accomplished multi-talented performer, she has played parts in countless major music theatre productions, including the leading roles in Only Yesterday and Patsy Cline & the Queens of Country.
For his part, Matt Zaddy is the former member of Starring Janet Leigh (Ironclad Recordings / Metal Blade Records), From Far & Wide, and The Infringements; he has also released two award-winning solo albums — Be (2019), and Perfect Moments (2015). Having toured across the continent, he’s shared the stage with the likes of Jim Cuddy, Tom Cochrane, The Cowboy Junkies, The Trews, 54-40, Whitehorse, and more, and won numerous awards, including two Mississauga Music Awards — Best Promoter (2019), and Best Acoustic Artist (2017).
River North have toured nationally, been featured on CBC Radio 2, and are co-writers of the City of Mississauga’s official anthem for #Canada150, “We Are The North.”
As slot games across the globe continue to boom, players everywhere are heading online to enjoy them.
One of the most popular types of casino games is music-themed games. Whether you love to rock out or bust a move to some electronic beats, there is a music slot for you at new casino sites in the UK!
In this article, take a look at the top 5 music-themed casino games in 2020. Let’s get started with a look at one of the best.
Jimi Hendrix slot game
Based on one of the top guitarists ever, this slot game uses cult-hero Jimi Hendrix as its dazzling theme. Although he died young, Hendrix survived in this stunning game that comes courtesy of one of the world’s top developers.
Boasting plenty of wilds, free spins and more, this game is a beloved offering that also has a great RTP. As a result, the Jimi Hendrix slot game is widely considered to be one of the best around.
The symbols show Hendrix’s likeness, guitars, vinyl and flowers, with the look of this title just as wild as the man himself! As a beautiful addition, the reel in this title is totally hand-drawn.
With a soundtrack composed of iconic tunes like Foxy Lady and Purple Haze, the Jimi Hendrix slot game has one of the best soundtracks in the realms of music-themed slots.
The Motorhead Slot Game
Perhaps responsible for the best casino song ever, Ace of Spades, Motorhead is a cult group that defined metal for many! This top Netent slot puts the band front and centre to great effect.
With plenty of top elements like wilds, bonuses and much more, Motorhead the slot game is surely one of our top music slots ever.
The realm of online slots is booming right now and fresh games are out all of the time. To get a slice of the fun, Motorhead is a highly recommended slot game!
Guns N’ Roses
Courtesy of NetEnt, the Guns N’ Roses slot game is a 5 reel, 20 payline diamond of a casino game that whisks players on a trip with the band. Launched as part of their 30th anniversary, the Guns N’ Roses slot is packed with wilds, bonuses and much more to keep players excited throughout the duration of their play!
Megadeth
Another slot game themed after a huge rock band, the Megadeth slot is graced with a top soundtrack, amazing symbols and some seriously fun wilds and bonuses. All of the band are included as symbols, including David Ellefson, Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick and band founder Dave Mustaine!
DJ Wild
This top slot from ELK studios encourages players to boogie along to the beat with colourful symbols, exciting extras and features that are super-exciting. As one of the top music slots around, DJ Wild is full of exciting elements like headphones, decks and more!
The annual Dream Serenade benefit concert will return later this month for its seventh consecutive year, supporting and celebrating the community of children in Toronto with developmental and/or physical disabilities and their families and caregivers, with proceeds directed to its new COVID Family Relief Bursary.
This year, on Saturday, November 28, at 8 pm EST, Dream Serenade will look a bit different than in years past. The virtual live edition, hosted from its creators’ home, plans to retain the spirit that makes these evenings such a heartwarming and celebratory event year after year. A limited number of tickets are available to go live online via ZOOM with Dream Serenade to watch the show together in real-time.
In addition to the virtual show, Dream Serenade will be hosting a fundraising Market and online Merchandise Shop. The sale will include special packages donated by community vendors and previous event merchandise, and new special edition items. Links to these fundraising efforts and online donations can be viewed and purchased now. . All proceeds are directed back to the community, directly supporting children and families in the Greater Toronto Area.
Earlier this year, Dream Serenade created the COVID Family Relief Bursary to meet the community’s urgent needs during this challenging time. The new Bursary received over 450 applications in its first week and provided support to 144 families at 55 schools across the Greater Toronto Area. Proceeds from this year’s fundraising efforts will go towards continuing this COVID Family Relief Bursary program.
The Annual Dream Serenade Benefit Concert was created in 2014 by Toronto parents Christie Greyerbiehl and musician/songwriter Hayden Desser to thank and raise funds for their daughter’s school, Beverley Street School. The popular annual event hosted at Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall has expanded to support other like-minded schools and care-centres in the GTA and raise funds that directly assist Toronto area families with a large summer camp bursary fund.
Dream Serenade has become one of Toronto’s most highly anticipated annual events, combining a celebration of a hard-working community while raising money and awareness for schools and services for children with exceptionalities and their caregivers. Past performers who have come together to celebrate this community and perform unique sets include Feist, Gord Downie, Tanya Tagaq, Broken Social Scene, Barenaked Ladies, Shad, Tom Cochrane, Billy Talent, Sarah Harmer, Bahamas, The Persuasions, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Sloan, City & Colour, Jim Cuddy, Sam Roberts, members of The National, and so many more.
The JUNO Awards are looking for 350 judges; 10 judges for each of the 35 of the craft and technical award categories. To qualify as a judge you must be a Canadian actively working in the Canadian music industry.
The ten selected judges for each category are balanced evenly across age, province, gender, ethnicity, language, and occupation.
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (CSHF) is pleased to announce the song induction for the mega-hit (Let’s Give Them) Something to Talk About, written by Canadian singer-songwriter and composer Shirley Eikhard. The song was made famous by multi Grammy-winning icon Bonnie Raitt who released the recording in 1991’s “Luck of the Draw” album, propelling both Raitt and Eikhard to new heights of success.
“Shirley Eikhard is a Canadian treasure and multifaceted artist who has gifted us with her voice, her music, and her talents as a songwriter and composer,” said Vanessa Thomas, CSHF Executive Director. “A mainstay on radio nearly thirty years later, Bonnie’s recording of Something to Talk About is unparalleled and timeless; and takes its well-deserved place in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.”
Shirley Eikhard, originally from Sackville, New Brunswick, earned JUNO Awards in 1973 and 1974 for Best Country Female Artist, and has had numerous country and pop hits, including You’re My Weakness and Smilin’ Wine. Her songs have been recorded by Cher, Anne Murray, Chet Atkins, Ginette Reno, Alannah Myles, and Rita Coolidge.
Eikhard wrote the blues-rock hit Something to Talk About in Nashville in the 1980s, and had offered the song to Anne Murray among other artists, all of whom expressed interest but ultimately did not record it. She had put the song on the back burner; and one day, received a surprise phone message from the American blues singer and guitarist Bonnie Raitt, replaying a recording of Something to Talk About that Raitt had just finished after discovering the song on a demo tape that Eikhard had sent her years earlier.
“I got home and there was this thing on my machine. There was Bonnie…I was numb,” recalled Eikhard. It may have taken seven years in the making for Eikhard to find the right artist to sing her song; but when Bonnie Raitt left that fateful voicemail, the rest is music history.
Raitt’s recording of Eikhard’s composition proved a spectacular success. The single, off Raitt’s “Luck of the Draw” album, peaked on Billboard’s Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts at No. 5 in October 1991, and at No. 8 on Cashbox. It placed even higher in Canada, at No. 3 on the RPM Top 100 chart and No. 4 on Adult Contemporary, and made the Top 20 on RPM’s 1991 year-end chart.
Something to Talk About netted Raitt the industry’s coveted Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and drove the “Luck of the Draw” album to win the Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance, boosted by multi-platinum sales in North America. At home in Canada, Something to Talk About also earned Eikhard a JUNO nomination for Songwriter of the Year, and later SOCAN Classics and BMI Awards for its status as a radio favourite.
The song has been performed by Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, David Clayton-Thomas, and Jennifer Love Hewitt; and Raitt’s edition was the cover soundtrack to the Hollywood film of the same title, starring Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid. Eikhard also sang her own version that was used as the theme song for CBS’s Women of the House.
Following the televised virtual presentation of Eikhard’s song induction on October 6, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame will add the song to its permanent and interactive exhibition at the National Music Centre in Calgary, that features a celebrated catalogue of inducted songs that fans can listen to, as well as displays, exclusive artifacts, and one-of-a-kind memorabilia celebrating Canada’s greatest songs and songwriters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused increased mental health hardship for many employed in the Canadian music industry including artists, crew, behind the scenes support teams and more. Countless individuals in the music community were the first to lose their livelihood, and the entertainment industry will be one of the last to recover.
During a crisis, mental illness doesn’t simply go away and for many, the increased stressors only make it worse. In 2020, Unison has seen a 29% increase in demand for counselling services, and a 61% increase in urgent mental health crisis intervention cases.
At Unison Benevolent Fund, they are committed to providing assistance to music industry professionals and their families – not just during the holidays, but throughout the year. They have more people seeking assistance with their mental health programs than ever before, but their resources are limited. They are dependent on the generosity of donors to continue to provide much-needed services to Canadian music makers who are need of assistance. For many, Unison has been their only source of emergency assistance. It is imperative that they continue this fund to provide this bridge of relief for as many music professionals as we can.
During this time of reflection, personally, I’m asking you today to make a tax-deductible donation to support the work of Unison. No donation is too small; any amount will be greatly appreciated. Donating is easy. You can contribute to Unison Benevolent Fund’s registered GoFundMe, online.
Unison Benevolent Fund is a non-profit, registered charity that provides counselling and emergency relief services to the Canadian music community. We are here to help professional music makers in times of hardship, illness or economic difficulties. Unison Benevolent Fund is an assistance program – created and administered for the music community, by the music community – designed to provide discreet relief to music industry professionals in times of crisis through financial assistance and counselling and health solutions.
SOCAN has announced the departure of Chief Membership & Business Development Officer Michael McCarty, effective Nov. 30, 2020. After that, he’ll provide consulting services for the organization until April 2021, assisting with the transition to the Membership department’s future leadership and structure.
“We thank Michael McCarty for his leadership, creativity, and commitment to our members over the past seven years,” said Jennifer Brown, Interim CEO of SOCAN. “During this time, he has transformed our Membership services and strategy, built one of the strongest member bases in our industry, and helped to change our company culture to being even more optimistic and leading-edge, serving music creators and publishers in Canada and around the world.”
McCarty has a 40 -year career in the music industry. Before becoming SOCAN’s Chief Membership & Business Development Officer in 2013, he was president of EMI Music Publishing Canada for 17 years and contributed many years of service as a member of the SOCAN Board of Directors.
“One of the great joys of my job has been to work with a strong team of people dedicated to a single cause – serving our members,” McCarty said. “I will always be proud of our accomplishments and the journey we took together, improving the recruitment and retention of members and impacting the culture and business of SOCAN. I want to thank everyone at SOCAN for their support, advice and help in achieving our mandate.”
In 2019, Michael McCarty was inducted into the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame.
Five of Newfoundland’s most cherished artists braced for the challenge of creating music together during this year’s worldwide health crisis. The result: a six-song EP due out November 13 titled SONGS FROM HOME, – a collection of music from Alan Doyle, The Once, The Ennis Sisters, Fortunate Ones and Rachel Cousins.
The first single, “It’s OK,” features all five artists reimagining a song from Doyle’s EP Rough Side Out, released earlier this year. “It’s OK” perfectly captures the spirit of the time we are living in and the essence of this project, and will be out October 30.
For the first time in many years, Doyle found himself at home, with no live shows on his calendar for the foreseeable future. This was an opportunity he did not want to waste and reached out some of his fellow Newfoundland artists to see if they wanted to record together. They all worked from their own homes, only seeing each other in person during the socially-distant recording session for “It’s OK.”
“It’s really all about making and keeping connections at a time when it was so difficult to be connected,” said Doyle. “It was such a feeling of closeness to be working on something together even though together was what we certainly could not be when this whole thing started.”
Celebrating the release of Songs From Home, Doyle will livestream two of his four upcoming sold out performances from The Public House at YellowBelly Brewery in St. John’s, Newfoundland, on Friday, November 13 and Saturday, November 14 at 7:30 p.m. ET / 8:30 p.m. AT. Accompanied nightly by guitarist Cory Tetford and fiddler Kendel Carson, the livestreams will also feature special guest appearances by Fortunate Ones and Rachel Cousins on Nov. 13 and The Once and The Ennis Sisters on Nov. 14.
The most legendary and iconic bass player on the planet, Leland Sklar, has launched his highly anticipated and long awaited coffee table masterpiece “Everybody Loves Me.” The book is filled with unique and unexpected photos of over 6,000 celebrities and everyday people giving Sklar the proverbial middle finger.
The California based rocker and most respected bassist in the industry has played and toured with artists including James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Brown, Linda Ronstadt, Phil Collins, Toto, Bee Gees, Laura Branigan, Glen Campbell, Ray Charles, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Diamond, and countless others. All told he has contributed to over 26,000 albums and has done many soundtracks for films and television shows. Many of those superstars appear in the book as well as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Nicholson, Bonnie Raitt, Bernie Williams (NY Yankees), Katey Sagal, and about 6,000 others.
“Everybody Loves Me” had created a buzz long before the book even came out. Random people and fans were known to walk up to Sklar giving him the bird before ever saying hello. According to Sklar, noticing the expressions on people’s faces as they held up their middle finger was of artistic interest to him while shooting the photographs.
The book sells for $60.00 however you can obtain a signed copy for $80.00. You can order this colorful Conversation piece directly from his website at https://www.lelandsklarsbeard.com
2020 marks 50 years since Paul McCartney released his self-titled first solo album. Featuring Paul playing every instrument and writing and recording every song, McCartney’s effortless charms have only grown in stature and influence over time. The chart-topping album would signify not only a creative rebirth for Paul, but also as a template for generations of indie and lo-fi musicians seeking to emulate its warm homespun vibe and timeless tunes including Maybe I’m Amazed, Every Night and The Lovely Linda.
The 1970s saw Paul forming his second band Wings and dominating the charts, stages and airwaves of the world, with multiple #1 singles, sold-out world tours, multi-million-selling albums including Band on the Run, Venus and Mars, Wings at the Speed of Sound, London Town and more. In 1980,10 years from the release of McCartney, Paul wrapped up the decade of Wings with the surprise release of his second solo album, the electronic-tinged McCartney II. Once again featuring Paul entirely on his own, McCartney II would come to be regarded as a leftfield classic, with classic cuts such as Coming Up, Temporary Secretary and Waterfalls.
The 1980s saw Paul start again, this time kicking off an unprecedented solo run. The following four decades would see Paul’s iconic and legendary status grow exponentially, with solo masterpieces including Tug of War, Flowers in the Dirt, Pipes of Peace, Flaming Pie, Memory Almost Full and New, and massive live shows the world over — actually setting the World Record for the largest attendance at a concert. In 2018, 54 years since The Beatles first hit #1 on the Billboard Album Charts – Paul’s Egypt Station would be yet another historic #1 McCartney album.
Hard as it is to believe, it’s only been two years since Egypt Station went #1–and it was only last year that Paul’s Freshen Up tour played its last show before Covid hit pause on live music, a legendary blowout at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Paul hadn’t planned to release an album in 2020, but in the isolation of “Rockdown,” he soon found himself fleshing out some existing musical sketches and creating even more new ones. Before long an eclectic collection of spontaneous songs would become McCartney III: a stripped back, self-produced and, quite literally, solo work marking the opening of a new decade, in the tradition of 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II. Recorded earlier this year in Sussex, McCartney III is mostly built from live takes of Paul on vocals and guitar or piano, overdubbing his bass playing, drumming, etc. atop that foundation. The process first sparked when Paul returned to an unreleased track from the early 90s, When Winter Comes (co-produced by George Martin). Paul crafted a new passage for the song, giving rise to album opener Long Tailed Winter Bird—while When Winter Comes, featuring its new 2020 intro Winter Bird, became the new album’s grand finale.
Speaking about III, Paul said: “I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day. I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought what will I do next? I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished so I started thinking about what I had. Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, it was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”
Long Tailed Winter Bird and Winter Bird/When Winter Comes bookend McCartney III’s vast and intimate range of modes and moods, from soul searching to wistful, from playful to raucous and all points between — captured with some of the same gear from Paul’s Rude Studio used as far back as 1971 Wings sessions. And Paul’s array of vintage instruments he played on the new album have an even more storied history, including Bill Black of Elvis Presley’s original trio’s double bass alongside Paul’s own iconic Hofner violin bass, and a mellotron from Abbey Road Studios used on Beatles recordings, to name but a few.
In keeping with McCartney & McCartney II’s photography by Linda McCartney, the principal photos for III were shot by Paul’s daughter Mary McCartney—with additional photography by Paul’s nephew Sonny McCartney as well as photos Paul took on his phone (it’s a family affair). The cover art and typography is by celebrated American artist Ed Ruscha.
McCartney and McCartney II each saw Paul open up a new decade with reinvention, both personal and musical. Just as McCartney’s 1970 release marked Paul’s return to basics in the wake of the biggest band break-up in musical history, and the 1980 avant-garde masterpiece McCartney II rose from the ashes of Wings, McCartney III finds Paul back on his own, turning unexpected circumstances into a personal snapshot of a timeless artist at a unique point in history.
McCartney III will be released December 11 on Capitol Records across digital platforms, on CD, and on LP manufactured by Third Man Pressing. Vinyl configurations will range from standard 180g to a Third Man Edition of 3,000 hand-numbered red vinyl copies, a ‘333’ Edition sold only via Third Man Records online store and limited to 333 copies on yellow-with-black-dots vinyl created using 33 recycled vinyl copies of McCartney and McCartney II, a U.S. indie retail exclusive pressing of 4,000 hand-numbered white vinyl LPs, and more.
