With 2.5+ Million plays across platforms, Canadian modern pop / hip hop artist and producer TonyTone is definitely “Not Alone” when it comes to his newest single — available now.
“I imagined ‘Not Alone’ as a feel good, easy listening, summer-style track,” he explains. “I wanted to create a song that had a relaxed mood and memorable vibe that everyone would feel good while listening to.”
With inclusion on upwards of 800+ of Spotify’s most coveted tastemaker playlists, the latest from TonyTone — aka Anthony Marzanek — continues to fall seamlessly inline for his brand of lounge beats and an ambient moods that nod to both hip hop and indie influences, while staying pop-centric at its core.
His knack for the craft is easily apparent in breakout singles “Shaded” (2018), “Losing Control” (2019) and “Two Roses” (2019); early 2020 saw the release of “Fade Away,” “Mental,” and “Poppin.”
“Most of my music was not meant to fall into any sort of genre,” he says of his beat-bending offerings. “I just play around with sounds and write until I come up with something I like.”
“I taught myself how to use recording software,” he recalls of his sleeves-rolled-up start. “Doing the production and mixing process makes me feel like I’m really in control during the creative process and final sound.”
“It felt like time to give folks the torchy ‘bar stool’ ballad,” Toronto-based jazz virtuoso Micah Barnes says of his sad yet sensual new single, “The End of a Love Affair” — available now.
It’s the latest to land from Barnes’ most recent and #1 iTunes Jazz Album charting and 500,000+ streamed album, Vegas Breeze, and follows the hard swinging version of “That’s Life,” his playful and wink-worthy take on “When In Rome,” and the celebratory sizzle that accompanied the release’s title track, “Vegas Breeze.”
“So yes, it was time,” he continues.
“Every Vegas entertainer seems to have that moment where they sit on a stool, in the middle of the spotlight, and sing about the heartbreak of a love affair gone wrong. It’s the flip side of the Vegas high life, when the glitter and neon have faded & our high rolling hero admits to being a loser in love..
“In some ways, ‘The End of a Love Affair’ is the perfect saloon song,” Barnes adds, offering its astute lyricism and gorgeous melody as indisputable evidence. “The listener never drowns in the emotion, but stays buoyed up in its mood of sophistication and intelligence.
“After all, what happens when we are suddenly alone at the end of a love affair?” he muses. “We may drink too much, talk too loudly, drive too fast, but hopefully we’re still in the game, hoping to love again. So the rhyming scheme of this song alone makes the singer sound ‘world-weary and wise’ rather than broken and desolate, which…
“How grown-up and true to life experience.”
It’s this very foundation and creative opportunity that attracted Barnes to the song in the first place. “What attracts a singer to a song? Is it the melody? The lyrics? The overall mood? Or is it perhaps the emotional response to another artist’s performance? With ‘The End of a Love Affair,’ it is for all of those reasons I was interested in working on my own version for Vegas Breeze.
“Like all tracks on the album, the arrangement for this song started with the band in our weekly creative sessions long before we hit the studio. The band and I chose to arrange the song as a sensual and slow Bossa Nova, and give it strings that swirled around the lonely trumpet; an intimate vocal heightens the feeling of dissolution and despair.
“Once pianist and arranger Michael Shand worked his magic re-harmonizing the verses, I felt we’d deepened the languorous mood and really put our own stamp on the song.
“Certainly, this little-known standard written by Edward Redding lands firmly in our #BeyondTheRatPack concept of avoiding the ‘regular Vegas playlist,’” he continues. “Many fine versions exist — including by Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra — but it’s actually Johnny Hartman’s 1956 Bolero version that made me excited to try it myself.
“After laying the bed track with the trio — including Russ Boswell on bass and Al Cross on drums — and getting that classic Bossa Nova feel on guitar with Rob Piltch, the next move was to bring in master trumpet man William Sperandei; his soulful playing makes this essentially a duet between two heartbroken guys, all surrounded by Don Breithaupt’s deliciously silky smooth string arrangement.
“The results perfectly express the kind of mid-century torchy ‘cool’ I was hoping to create on Vegas Breeze.”
The video was one of Micah Barnes’ most intricate and complicated to shoot in his career thus far, he says. “We gathered a top-level team — including our leading lady, Burlesque superstar Laura Desiree, plus Choreographer Dayna Tekatch (resident director of Come From Away), award-winning lighting designer Kimberly Purtell, and my long-time collaborator, director Carlos Coronado.
“We shot in six locations over seven shooting days, both before and after the ‘lockdown’ — including the legendary alternative theatre, The Theatre Centre, where I started my professional career.”
Which, speaking of…
Born in Vienna and raised in Canada, Micah Barnes cut his teeth in the cabarets and jazz clubs of the city while still a teenager, before touring the world as a member of the A Cappella vocal group The Nylons. A JUNO Award-nominee, the years since have seen Barnes developing as an International SOLO artist with top-charting hits including the Billboard #1 “Welcome To My Head,” & #1 Jazz Albums New York Stories & Vegas Breeze. Micah is also an internationally respected Vocal, Performance & Career Strategy Coach.
Most recently, Barnes completed a 14-date digital cross-country tour, a creative and inventive pivot in response to COVID-19 restrictions, and looks forward to the upcoming European release of Vegas Breeze in 2021, thanks to its Canadian success.
“I’m one very grateful jazz singer,” Barnes shares of the experience. “COVID-19 has effected so many people in so many ways, and I appreciate the opportunity to ‘travel’ into the ears and hearts of so many with this unique concert series we offered.”
Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer and 11-time JUNO Award-winning artist Murray McLauchlan challenged himself to look within before tabling conversations on systemic racism, privilege, and economic disparity in this, his new double-single, “The One Percent / I Live On A White Cloud” — available now.
“In the aftermath of the public killing of George Floyd in the U.S., a massive wave of revulsion against systemic racism swept the world,” the Toronto-based McLauchlan prefaces of “I Live On A White Cloud.” “It prompted many of us, myself included, to look honestly into our hearts and not flinch from what we might find.
“I remember thinking, ‘well, I’m not to blame!’” he continues. “But then I thought about my friends who had been stopped for ‘driving while black’… And I thought about the experiences of the First Nations people….
“And I thought, ‘if I watch all this go down, and shake my head but say nothing, I’m just as guilty as anybody else.’ I recognized my life has been easier — even in its difficulty from time to time — because of what I am.”
When it came to the second single, “The One Percent,” it was McLauchlan’s pointed perspective of the rapidly widening chasm between those with outsized resources and the rest of the world’s population.
“A while ago, when ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrations happened, many people scorned the demonstrators for being unable to articulate what they were there for,” McLauchlan recalls. “I remember thinking, however, ’this isn’t going away.’
“As the accumulation of great wealth has increased for the very few, the vast majority of people have seen the opposite.”
Murray McLauchlan has 19 albums and countless songs, honours, and awards to his credit — including 11 JUNO Awards and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. A singer/songwriter, painter, author, actor, and radio host — plus an Honorary Doctor of Laws and appointee to The Order of Canada — he’s long-lauded as one of Canada’s most regarded artists throughout his 48-year career.
“I’m just a songwriter,” he lays plainly. “That’s the only voice I have, other than my vote.
“But I do know this: If we can’t find a way to make the world a more equitable place for everyone, our future is in question.”
Internationally renowned jazz label Justin Time Records signal the start of the season with the return of their annual Holiday compilation, Justin Time For Christmas Six — available now.
Offering a cool slice of styles that blend seamlessly for the season, Justin Time For Christmas Six heralds 11 new and previously unreleased tracks from a multi-talented roster — plus a rosy revival of Katherine Penfold’s evergreen favourite, “Keep Christmas With You.”
Wrapped inside you’ll find Emma Frank’s haunting take on the folk hymn, “I Wonder As I Wander,” while the Susie Airoli Swing Band and Jordan Officer team to offer a nod to Bessie Smith in “At The Christmas Ball.”
Barbra Lica postures Santa as a cat in her sparkling jazzy sojourn, “Santa Claws,” and Ranee Lee delivers a picture-perfect imagine-no-other soundtrack for decking the halls with “Deck The Halls.”
There are instrumentals, too; Oliver Jones stuns with an inspirational rendition of “Bless This House” while Matt Herskowitz wears it all on his sleeve in his heartfelt version of “White Christmas.”
The sixth volume of holiday tunes from the longstanding label also includes features from Ariel Pocock, Carol Welsman, and Angela Galuppo.
“Women lead the way in this collection of singers and pianists from the always-excellent Canadian jazz label,” Top 100 Canadian Blog’s Bob Mersereau says of the release. “It’s mostly made up of the old, reliable numbers done in a mellow, fireside mood, giving that most excellent late-night vibe (for) wrapping the last presents or enjoying an egg nog with just the right amount of holiday cheer in it.”
Canadian folk and roots duo Tomato/Tomato are all about the groove when it comes to their newest track, “Better at Leaving” — available now.
The track is the next to land from their forthcoming album, It’ll Come Around, set for release this November 20th, and features funky drums, bass, and stereo guitars. Motown-inspired strings for good measure keep the song delivering good vibes beginning to end.
“When we began writing for the album, we weren’t quite sure what direction we would be heading,” John McLaggan shares. “We were, though, feeling strong pulls back to our roots.”
For John, that was how he grew up listening to mix tapes his father made for him, complete with generous helpings of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, and loads of other early rock n’ roll in between. For Lisa McLaggan, who grew up in Chicago, it was a draw to early influences of Motown and the Blues.
“The direction for It’ll Come Around was solidified when a long-lost family heirloom returned to our lives,” Lisa adds. “In 1974, John’s Uncle David died tragically at the age of 19 in a gas station explosion. John never had the opportunity to meet his Uncle, but he knew they shared a love for the guitar.”
“I’d always wondered what happened to his guitar,” John says. “After we moved into our new home, the 40-year mystery was solved, however: as it turns out, our neighbour had the guitar and generously agreed to a trade!”
Inspired by this connection to his family’s past, John soon finished writing the album on the newly acquired ’64 Fender Stratocaster in their home base of Saint John, New Brunswick.
“It turned out to be the missing piece of the puzzle,” John says. “Everything else just fell into place.”
Recording It’ll Come Around involved a return to Nashville to work with producer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Estes. The McLaggan’s spent six days recording the majority of the instrumental parts with some of the city’s finest before returning home to round out the vocals. The final result is a high-energy roots-rock album with a vintage vibe.
Tomato/Tomato have toured nationally as well as to Australia and the UK. They’ve received multiple nominations from the East Coast Music Awards, Music/Musique New Brunswick, and the Canadian Folk Music Awards, as well as awards for Group Recording of the Year, SOCAN Song of the Year, and the well-deserved Hardest Working Artist Award.
Their fifth release, It’ll Come Around arrives at the end of a year where the title’s message of optimism feels both relevant and needed, and follows 2019’s Canary in a Coal Mine, 2017’s Pinecones and Cinnamon, and both of 2016’s So It Goes and I Go Where You Go.
“Better at Leaving” is available now. It’ll Come Around is available November 20th, 2020.
Chicago indie rocker Alan Zreczny and his band bluefront confront the often harrowing reverberations of emotional “Aftershocks” in this, their new single — available now.
The title track from bluefront’s 2019 sophomore album release, the song “was written after I watched a news report about an earthquake and its aftershocks,” Zreczny lays plainly. “It started a process of thinking about the correlation to emotional aftershocks, like the flash of a memory where the whole thing would sort-of hit again.
“The song is my small way to address my own aftershocks and being ‘ready’ to handle them when they come,” he continues. “I realized that the aftershocks could actually feel worse than the shock or the event itself. In essence, I had already made it past the initial blow but now, on top of reliving that, I’m upset with myself because I’m thinking about it again, and it’s affecting me in the same way.
“It felt like it was time to stop, so the first part of the song is about letting go and leaning into something unseen that may not necessarily make sense as a way to make it through. When the big change in the music happens, it’s sort of the challenge: you know the aftershocks are coming, so what are you going to do about it?”
Song three of the album’s seven narrative poems set to spirited melodies, “Aftershocks” marks its own moment on the album’s Richter scale of shimmering melodies and intricate instrumentation deftly demonstrated alongside Zreczny alongside bandmates Jason Steele, Nick Kabat, and Mark Burns.
“I love how the music became more textured as we kept playing it,” Zreczny offers. “And I absolutely love the brushes added during recording; they sort of glue all those textures together.”
The same goes for the song adhering the rest of the album together; it is, after all, the titular track. “The rest of the songs were chosen because they just seemed to fit in and pick up on the theme of emotional aftershocks and what causes them.”
A lawyer-turned-singer/songwriter, Zreczny first picked up a guitar at the age of ten, having grown up in a house always filled with music and music lessons. His love for music and writing remained under the surface while he went to college, law school and grad school, and continued as he worked as both corporate in-house counsel and later at a law firm…
The thoughts about creating music were ever present: “I always thought of being a musician and writing songs as the most fulfilling modes of self-expression. And then, a terrible break-up happened.”
Inspired, Zreczny started writing and hasn’t looked back since. Unless, of course, it’s for valuable songwriting supply, which is the case for Aftershock’s premiere single released earlier this season, “It’s Not Over Yet.” “Looking back, things are a lot more clear,” he reveals, marvelling a bit. “Let’s just say I was in one of those cliche relationships where it’s quite tumultuous and there are more breakups and ‘on-and-offs’ than you can count, or even care to admit…
“Anyway,” he continues, “that’s what’s going on here.”
Aftershocks was recorded at Electrical Audio by Scott Steinman, mixed at GardenView Sound Studio by Scott Steinman for Studiomedia Recording, and mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Services; it follows Zreczny’s debut, The Arbor Sessions.
Zreczny and bluefront have performed at Uncommon Ground, The Elbo Room, The Gallery Cabaret, The Red Line Tap, Old Town Art Fair, Subterranean, The House Cafe, and The Cubby Bear, among others, and appeared on WGN Radio and the Chicago Acoustic Underground podcast.
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Award winning Canadian folk collective The Fugitives have thumbed through extensive archives to raise and reimagine the past in this, their new album, Trench Songs — available now.
“Trench songs were written by frontline soldiers during WWI,” Brendan McLeod explains of the concept behind the album. “Essentially protest songs, they were often parodies of well-known tunes at the time.”
“The lyrics were all written by soldiers,” co-front Adrian Glynn continues, “but in the same way a black and white photograph or staticky radio speech can create an obstacle for the modern observer, the original music arrangements could have distanced us from the emotions of these 100-year-old lyrics.
“To this, we’ve rewritten new melodies and music in order to more readily access the emotional content of the lyrics, and to continue folk music’s long tradition of reshaping songs over time, the same way soldiers reshaped these songs in the trenches. There are many creative projects that revolve around WWI, but only some centre on soldiers, and it’s rarer still to illuminate their aesthetic spirit, or their anger, caustic humour, and sadness.”
“This album is about how we respectfully remember soldiers while also looking squarely at the futility of the enterprise of war, and the callousness of political and military leaders,” McLeod says. “It’s also about how to remember ‘fully,’ or as fully as possible, and the difficulties of doing that as each passing year pulls us further and further from the past.
“Amongst the parades and poppies and flying flags, I’ve always been troubled by how easy it is for us to forget the humans who endured these horrific battles on the ground were much more than just noble mechanisms of war,” Glynn adds. “It’s my hope that, by breathing new life into these angry, bitter, scared and sardonic words, we honour these soldiers as the people they truly were with all their un-warlike emotions.
“I sing especially for my grandfathers Glynn Roberts and Paul Keryk, and my step-grandfather Harold Jack McMorran. This album is dedicated to all WW1 soldiers who wrote, played, and sang these songs. We think of them when we sing, and hope you do too.”
Other than percussion, the recording of Trench Songs was performed by the The Fugitives’ four current touring members — songwriters Glynn and McLeod, as well as banjoist Chris Suen (Viper Central) and violinist Carly Frey (The Coal Porters). Much of it was captured life off the floor in an effort to capture the energy and spirit of friends and comrades singing together through tough times.
The sentiment turned out to be more timely and prescient than The Fugitives could have foreseen. “During the pandemic, war metaphors abound,” McLeod offers. “We are ‘at war’ with the virus; Heads of States say they are ‘wartime’ Presidents. This album reminds us what vulnerable communities have been forced to endure, during a crisis, at the hands of their government.”
There’s also a movie, Ridge — available online November 11th. Originally scheduled to be a live performance, Ridge was reimagined as a feature film using Cooke Anamorphic lenses and a variety of locations throughout the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Through direct storytelling, verbatim theatre, and live music, The Fugitives create a vivid and kinetic ride through history to examine misconceptions and varying perspectives around the battle of Vimy Ridge while probing difficult yet necessary questions about how and why we grieve.
Trench Songs is The Fugitives fifth album release, and follows In Streetlight Communion (2007), Eccentrically We Love (2010), the Top #10-charting Everything Will Happen (2013), and The Promise of Strangers (2018) — the latter of which was nominated for Canadian Folk and Western Canadian Music Awards, and won Best Folk Album from the German Music Critic’s Association. Since their inception 12 years ago, they’ve toured extensively on the national and International stage — including the UK’s Glastonbury Festival — in a show CBC dubs “simply brilliant.”
Every university campus worth its salt has long-fabled legends of yore and, for the alum of University of British Columbia, that indisputable status goes to Bent Roads Tavern.
This year, the storied Canadian collective mined their previously unreleased archives to remaster, reimagine and reissue their previous works. The result is The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern, Volumes 1 – 5 — with Volume 5 and stand-out single “Rainstorm” freshly released now.
First formed in November 2001, Bent Roads Tavern packed local venues like The Gallery, The Pit Pub, Koerner’s Pub, and more to sell-out crowds. They were fixtures on the scene and a fitting representation to an entire class’ — and their own — most formative and explorative years.
For years, band members — including Collen Middleton, Christian Stokkmo, Bradley Dean, Graham Langridge, Lis Campsall, Anthony Lee, Brian Lynch, Jim Riecken, James Cook, and guest musicians Mark Langridge and Heidi Noel Langridge — delivered flashes of protest punk mixed with modern jazz, folk and roots with an “unapologetic sound,” Middleton recalls.
“The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern roughly follows the chronology of the band’s writing, including early recordings of songs by Christian, Graham and myself recorded in a single marathon session between midnight and 6:00 am,” Middleton continues. “We had just performed three sets at The Gallery, which would end up being the last live performance all seven original members of BRT would do together.
“That recording session was the initiation of The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern,” he considers. “The recordings were very crude, though… Limited microphones and mixing capabilities meant there were so many audio issues that made them virtually unlistenable by contemporary standards.”
The cuts offer a glimpse into the band’s inventive improvisation, inimitable chemistry and communication between instrumentalists, and the raw determination of a band out to capture the very essence of that time in their lives. “Before we were pulled apart by the sands of time and untimely circumstances…” Middleton shares.
Last year, Christian Stokkmo passed away at age 38, which was the second passing of one of the original members; Bradley Dean passed away in 2016 at age 33. “Both before their time,” Middleton regrets.
Feeling called to act on their grief, the revival of BRT first sparked in the early days after they learned of Stokkmo’s tragic passing in 2019. “Word travelled quickly and, within a few days, the five of us decided to pay tribute to Christian by re-recording ‘Sweet Mirona,’ one of the songs he wrote and recorded in UBC Basement Sessions in 2003,” Middleton explains. “It was always my favourite of Christian’s songs, but the only recording we still had of it was of such poor quality that I couldn’t salvage it.”
What was first considered a sentimental re-record and slideshow for Stokkmo’s family and friends soon inspired submission to CBC’s Searchlight competition. “I felt that submitting it would give it the chance of reaching the widest Canadian audience,” Middleton says. “Although Christian wasn’t born and raised in Canada, I considered him as ‘Canadian as they come’ given how passionate he was about nature, conservation, and kindness towards strangers, family and friends alike.
“Canada was the inspiration for a number of Christian’s songs written for BRT,” he continues. “Just before starting at UBC, for example, he had completed a month-long canoe trip on the Nahanni River in the Yukon, which was the inspiration for his artwork of the midnight sun — which has become emblematic of BRT.
“So the remaining members wanted to pay tribute to Christian and Brad, and also to this band that came together in a pivotal time in our lives,” he continues. “The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern is as much highlighting the legacy of Christian and Brad as it is a reflection on the life-long pursuit of musicianship of the remaining members.”
The result was a mix of remastered reissues paired with a handful of pared-back, stripped-down solo singer/songwriter versions from Middleton, as well as some new releases such as “Fallow” and “West Coast Wedding.” They arrived in Volumes 1&2, 3&4, and now 5. “With the anniversary of both Brad and Christian’s passing approaching in early November, I wanted to conclude The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern with Volume 5,” Middleton offers. “It features Brad’s bass playing and a recording of Christian’s Monologue, and allows for the chance to really showcase their talents as musicians as well as for us to pay homage.
“This started as a tribute, but with the completion of The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern in sight, I’m realizing this has been a cathartic project for me too,” Middleton reflects. “I have always been so proud of this group and what we accomplished in a short amount of time as a bunch of misfit minstrels at school, away from home, and belonging together in Vancouver.
“We found brotherhood in each other and I realized that one way or another, I needed to put this project together and out there. These songs have been stuck in my head for so long, I needed to ‘finish’ them — we may have started in 2001, but The Legend of Bent Roads Tavern Volumes 1 – 5 are the first official and commercial releases we’ve ever put out into the world as that band.
“With the support of Bent Head fans that have come out of the woodwork and who share those memorable live music experiences with us all those years ago, we’re inspired to continue working on our original music,” Middleton forecasts. “We got together in 2001 and now we’re catching new listeners up on the history of what we think is one of the most elusive corners of the Canadian music and cultural landscape.”
