Page 1785 – That Eric Alper

Colin James Celebrates Commodore Ballroom 90th Birthday

Music

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Nov 5, 2020

Colin James Celebrates Commodore Ballroom 90th Birthday

On December 3, 2020 the famous Commodore Ballroom celebrates its 90th birthday. To kick off a year of festivities, Colin James returns to the venue for the 33rd time with two live virtual performances as part of the Jim Beam Bourbon Presents Live From Inside series. Tickets on sale now at www.livefrominside.ca with a portion of ticket sales benefiting the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. Show times listed below.

Colin James has a long and affectionate history with the Commodore with 32 performances on the stage already under his belt. Having first performed at the venue in 1986, Colin remains one of the Commodore’s most prolific multi-night performers including five back-to-back nights in 1988, four nights in 1991, and three nights of sold out shows in 2012.

“The Commodore Ballroom is simply one of the best live music venues in North America, bar none,” said Colin James. “Places like this are increasingly rare and an irreplaceable part of any city’s entertainment history. It has been the Vancouver choice for established and breaking bands for years, and has played a huge role throughout my career. I am so profoundly happy that my star on the B.C. Walk of Fame is only steps from its iconic doors! I can’t wait to play there again soon, and I hope to “virtually” see you there!”

Preparing to release his 20th studio album in 2021, Colin signed his first record deal in 1988. It wasn’t until 2016’s Blue Highways that James found himself on a blues chart: the album spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart. It also landed him one of his biggest hits: “Riding in the Moonlight,” a Willie Dixon song that James once covered when busking in the streets and subways of Toronto and Montreal, landed on a Spotify playlist and garnered millions of streams.

Since opening its doors in 1930, the Commodore Ballroom has been synonymous with entertainment and nightlife in Vancouver. Throughout the decades, the Commodore has held a special place in the hearts of the fans that visited it, the artists that have performed at it, and the staff and crews that have worked at it. 2020/2021 will celebrate and showcase the history and luster of what makes this venue truly magical. More details on upcoming events and celebrations to be announced throughout the year.

Jim Beam Bourbon Presents Live from Inside features incredible performances broadcast live from acclaimed music venues across Canada. Viewers enjoy a full concert experiences including multi-camera performances with crisp visuals, concert quality audio, and interaction with fans around the globe. Fans are able to purchase tickets, register for access, and then stream live performances in high definition from the comfort of their homes or on the go.

SOCAN Announces New CFO Robert Bennett

Music

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Nov 5, 2020

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SOCAN has announced the appointment of Robert Bennett as the company’s Chief Financial Officer.

Bennett most recently served as served as Lead Financial Officer, Capital Markets, Technology and Operations, BMO Financial Group, in which he oversaw multiple aspects of financial planning and forecasting, accounting and financial management, and the amalgamation of financial technology within operations functions.

Before joining BMO, Bennett served as Director of Finance with Edward Jones Canada and Chief Financial Officer with RBC Dexia Investor Services Trust.

“Robert Bennett’s more than 20 years of financial expertise will serve SOCAN well,” said SOCAN Interim CEO Jennifer Brown. “His impressive financial management, revenue reporting and strategic financial planning experience make him an excellent addition to the executive team.”

“I am thrilled to join SOCAN to be part of a great team,” Bennett said. “It is awesome to join an organization that is dedicated to music creators and music publishers.”

A certified Chartered Professional Accountant, he holds an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Smith School of Business from Queen’s University, and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from from McGill University.

Fluent in English and French, in his spare time he has been singing in choirs since the age of five and is a keen fan of SOCAN members’ music.

Robert Bennett’s career with SOCAN begins on November 9, 2020.

Apply Now: CIMA at AmericanaFest UK 2021

Music

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Nov 5, 2020

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Apply Now: CIMA at AmericanaFest UK 2021

This January, CIMA will be conducting theirthird Business and Showcase Mission to AmericanaFest UK. This year the event will be held virtually from January 25-28, 2021. AmericanaFest UK is a four-day conference, awards show and music festival featuring Americana music from the US, Austria, Spain, Denmark, the UK and more.

As a growing genre, and one very popular in Canada, Americana (a combination of roots, blues, folk and alt country music) is an important market to expand on in the UK for the Canadian Music industry. AmericanaFest UK is keen to build the Canadian presence in the UK with a showcase and business initiative. This presents a lucrative opportunity for the vast number of Canadian music companies who represent this genre of music in Canada.

Mission Details:
• Canadian business in attendance will get the chance to showcase their artists virtually in front of Americana buyers and industry in the UK as well as conference delegates from around the world.
• A business initiative will be set up to connect the Canadian business representatives with UK industry, media and buyers. More details to come.
How to Apply:
This opportunity is currently open to 6 Canadian artists who are export-ready and fit the Americana genre. Each artist must have a business representative who will be available to participate during AmericanaFest UK in the conference and business events/meetings.

Final selection of the artists will be at the discretion of the AmericanaFest UK festival selection committees.

This mission is open to qualifying CIMA member companies as well as qualifying non-member companies. If you meet the criteria outlined above please submit your applications by clicking here.

The deadline to apply is Friday, November 13.

Today’s 1-minute tip for artists: I hereby claim.

Music

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Nov 5, 2020

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Today’s 1-minute tip for artists: I hereby claim.

Congratulations! You now run your own country and get to make up a rule.

Register Now – FACTOR 101: Info Session for Women & Gender Minorities

Music

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Nov 4, 2020

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Register Now – FACTOR 101: Info Session for Women & Gender Minorities

This event is open to women and gender minorities, including but not limited to trans individuals (AMAB and AFAB), agender and non-binary people.

Join us to learn more about what kind of music funding you can access through FACTOR, how the application process works, and general advice and tips on applying! We will discuss our two juried programs, Artist Development and Juried Sound Recording, as well as some other funding programs. In the end we will have time for questions to address your specific concerns. A FACTOR-funded artist (TBD) will join us to give some insights into their grant writing process.

This virtual session will take place on Microsoft Teams. Once you register we will send you a link to join the meeting closer to the event date. You can also find the link to join the meeting on the Eventbrite online event page section. Please note that you do not need to download Microsoft Teams to join the meeting, you should be able to click the link and use a web browser version.

Apple for the free event here.

Steve Earle, Bobbie Gentry, Kent Blazy, Brett James and Spooner Oldham elected to Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame

Music

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Nov 4, 2020

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Steve Earle, Bobbie Gentry, Kent Blazy, Brett James and Spooner Oldham elected to Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame

Steve Earle, Bobbie Gentry, Kent Blazy, Brett James and Spooner Oldham have been elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, according to an announcement made today by Sarah Cates, chair of the organization’s board of directors.

The five new inductees-elect – who next year will join 219 of their previously named colleagues in the elite organization – will be officially inducted during the “50-51” edition of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala on Monday, November 1, 2021, at the Music City Center. The Class of 2020 will join the yet-to-be named Class of 2021 to celebrate the 50th and 51st anniversaries of the event, which was postponed this year because of the ongoing health crisis.

“This year marks our 50th year to welcome a new class into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. And although our year has looked different, we couldn’t be more excited to continue our commitment and core mission by announcing the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Class of 2020,” says Cates. “It’s our great honor today to welcome our class of 2020: Kent Blazy and Brett James in the songwriter category; Spooner Oldham in the veteran songwriter category, Steve Earle as our songwriter/artist and Bobbie Gentry as our veteran songwriter/artist.”

Kentucky native Kent Blazy’s songwriter credits include “If Tomorrow Never Comes” (Garth Brooks), “Ain’t Goin’ Down (’Til The Sun Comes Up)” (Garth Brooks) and “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song)” (Chris Young).

Artist/songwriter Brett James’ resume is known for “Jesus Take The Wheel” (Carrie Underwood), “When The Sun Goes Down” (Kenny Chesney & Uncle Kracker) and “Summer Nights” (Rascal Flatts).

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Spooner Oldham is the writer of R&B and Pop hits such as “I’m Your Puppet” (James & Bobby Purify), “Cry Like A Baby” (The Box Tops) and “Sweet Inspiration” (The Sweet Inspirations).

Multiple Grammy Award winner Steve Earle recorded many of his self-penned hits, including “Guitar Town,” “Copperhead Road” and “The Devil’s Right Hand.”

Artist/songwriter/producer Bobbie Gentry popularized many of her own compositions such as the oft-recorded smash “Ode To Billie Joe,” “Fancy” and “Mornin’ Glory.”

A mandolin and accordion cover of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck!” This. Is. Bardcore!

Music

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Nov 4, 2020

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A mandolin and accordion cover of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck!” This. Is. Bardcore!

Accordion in the Middle Ages??? Yes. This is Johan Carlsberg’s medieval version of AC/DC.

My Next Read: “150 Glimpses of The Beatles” by Craig Brown

Music

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Nov 4, 2020

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My Next Read: “150 Glimpses of The Beatles” by Craig Brown

Though fifty years have passed since the breakup of the Beatles, the fab four continue to occupy an utterly unique place in popular culture. Their influence extends far beyond music and into realms as diverse as fashion and fine art, sexual politics and religion. When they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, fresh off the plane from England, they provoked an epidemic of hoarse-throated fandom that continues to this day.

Who better, then, to capture the Beatles phenomenon than Craig Brown―the inimitable author of Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret and master chronicler of the foibles and foppishness of British high society? 150 Glimpses of the Beatles is a wide-ranging portrait of the four lads from Liverpool rivals the unique spectacle of the band itself by delving into a vast catalog of heretofore unexamined lore.

When actress Eleanor Bron touched down at Heathrow with the Beatles, she thought that a flock of starlings had alighted on the roof of the terminal―only to discover that the birds were in fact young women screaming at the top of their lungs. One journalist, mistaken for Paul McCartney as he trailed the band in his car, found himself nearly crushed to death as fans climbed atop the vehicle and pressed their bodies against the windshield. Or what about the Baptist preacher who claimed that the Beatles synchronized their songs with the rhythm of an infant’s heartbeat so as to induce a hypnotic state in listeners? And just how many people have employed the services of a Canadian dentist who bought John Lennon’s tooth at auction, extracted its DNA, and now offers paternity tests to those hoping to sue his estate?

150 Glimpses of the Beatles is, above all, a distinctively kaleidoscopic examination of the Beatles’ effect on the world around them and the world they helped bring into being. Part anthropology and part memoir, and enriched by the recollections of everyone from Tom Hanks to Bruce Springsteen, this book is a humorous, elegiac, and at times madcap take on the Beatles’ role in the making of the sixties and of music as we know it.

BTS: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Music

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Nov 4, 2020

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NPR has been trying to make a BTS Tiny Desk concert happen for years now — even gaming out ways we might move show host Bob Boilen’s desk far enough forward to accommodate the superstar Korean boy band’s dance moves.

In the end, it took a global pandemic — and the launch of Tiny Desk (home) concerts back in March — to make something happen.

Crystal Shawanda on the cover of Maple Blues

Music

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Nov 3, 2020

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Crystal Shawanda on the cover of Maple Blues

There’s a tendency these days to try to pigeonhole any artist that attempts to breach the boundaries. Chalk it up to the restrictions of radio playlists or the media’s attempt to strictly define musicians by the music it believes artists ought to be making, creative instincts be damned.

Nevertheless Crystal Shawanda opted to defy those demands and chart her own path forward. Initially signed to RCA in 2007, she hit her stride as a country singer and songwriter when she scored a top 20 hit with her song “You Can Let Go” and subsequently tallied sales of over 50,000 copies of her debut album Dawn of a New Day and subsequently debuted in the Billboard Top 20. Nevertheless, she began to realize that the blues had captured her muse, and with that, she left the label, shifted her stance and began recording albums that reflected her love of blues and her natural affinity for that sound.

As she once told an interviewer, “The whole time I was singing Patsy Cline on stage, I was singing Etta James at home.”

Her new album Church House Blues reflects that dedication and devotion and finds her co-writing seven of the ten songs on the album. Produced by her husband, collaborator and cowriter Dewayne Strobel, it not only marks her fourth blues effort to date, but one of her most demonstrative as well. That’s evident at the outset, from the fiery delivery of the title track, the riveting drive of “New Orleans Is Sinking,” and the assertive strains of “Rather Be Alone,” to the quiet, contemplative desire and despair that scorches “Evil Memory,” the radio-ready hooks illuminated in “Hey Love,” and the emotive strains instilled in the bittersweet ballads “When It Comes To Love” and “Bigger Than the Blues.” At the center of it all is Crystal’s evocative vocals, a powerful, provocative force of nature that elevates each encounter and sends the album’s entries soaring towards the stratosphere.

Credit is also due some spectacular guest artists, including session superstar Dave Roe on bass (Johnny Cash, Yola, Ceelo Green, among the many), the McCrary Sisters on backing vocals, Dana Robbins of Delbert McClinton’s band on sax, and Peter Keys of Lynyrd Skynyrd playing keys.

Most importantly, Crystal says that the recording allowed her to express herself without feeling like anyone was looking over her shoulder. “This is the most I’ve ever loved an album out of everything I’ve ever done,” she insists. “This is really who I am. It’s my most definitive album yet. All these songs reflect different aspects of who I am. It’s putting a finger on that definitively. I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m just being me. I’m done with trying to fit in.”