Bryan Adams‘ new single had a little help from one of his friends – British pop star Ed Sheeran.
The Canadian rocker reveals that “Shine a Light,” the title track off his upcoming album, was co-written by Sheeran after a chance meeting in Ireland.
“I met Ed in Dublin [last] year at one of his shows and we kept in touch,” Adams says. “One day I sent him a chorus I had for a song idea I had called ‘Shine a Light’ and asked him if he was interested in collaborating on it.”
Bryan adds, “I got a couple of verses back a few days later, and man, you should hear him sing it!”
Canadian Music Week is thrilled to announce Robbie Robertson as the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. Robbie will be honoured for his exceptional contributions to the music industry at the annual Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards Gala Dinner at Rebel Entertainment Complex in Toronto on Thursday, May 9, 2019.
Robbie Robertson was born in Toronto, Ontario with roots in both the Mohawk community at the Six Nations Reserve and the Jewish enclave of the city’s downtown. A guitar player from age of 10, he received his rock ‘n’ roll education as a member of the Hawks, the backing band for rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins. The Hawks went on to play with Bob Dylan on his legendary ”Going Electric” tours in 1965 and 1966. Moving to Woodstock in 1967, Robertson and his bandmates recorded the seminal “basement tapes” with Dylan before changing their name to The Band and cutting the groundbreaking Music from Big Pink in 1968.
Over the course of seven studio albums, Robertson penned such classics as The Weight, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up On Cripple Creek, Acadian Driftwood, and It Makes No Difference. The Band’s farewell concert at San Francisco’s Winterland on Thanksgiving 1976 was filmed by Martin Scorsese and released as The Last Waltz. Robertson has created music for many of Scorsese’s films, from Raging Bull and The Color of Money to The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street, and has recently scored Scorsese’s The Irishman coming soon.
Robbie Robertson has released five acclaimed solo albums, with his sixth to be released later this year. In 2016 he penned the New York Times bestselling Memoir “Testimony”, which is being made into a documentary film to be broadcast by Bell Media in Canada.
Robertson has received the Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as lifetime awards from the National Academy of Songwriters and the Native American Music Awards. In Canada he has won several Juno awards, been honoured twice by Canada’s Walk of Fame, been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. Alongside the Band, Robertson was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Robbie Robertson will be joining previously announced 2019 inductees Michael McCarty and Steve Herman in the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame. Tickets for the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards, where Robertson’s induction will be taking place, are available for purchase through the Canadian Music Week website here.
Glen Hansard will release his fourth full-length album, This Wild Willing, on April 12th on ANTI- Records. Listen to the new track ‘Ill be you, be me’ below.
“On first listen, please do so loud on headphones, ” says Hansard.
“This collection of songs is mainly made up of those that came through while improvising and following the melodic lines and threads,” Hansard explained. “Sometimes when you take a small musical fragment and you care for it, follow it and build it up slowly, it can become a thing of wonder.”
In March, ahead of the album release, Glen has 2 sold out gigs in Amsterdam Carré and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie followed by a special PBS Bluegrass Underground Live taping in Tennessee at The Caverns. Ticket for this show go on sale here Saturday January 19th. Post album release, Glen will tour Europe in April & May.
Actor Steve Carell, showrunner Greg Daniels and producer Howard Klein, all of whom are co-creators of the US version of The Office, have reunited for Space Force. The release date on Netflix is still to be announced.
The goal of the new branch is to ‘defend satellites from attack’ and ‘perform other space-related tasks’…or something. This is the story of the men and women who have to figure it out.
Today, Cass McCombs shares “The Great Pixley Train Robbery”, a new single off of his forthcoming album, Tip of the Sphere, out February 8th via ANTI- Records. Following two previously released singles, “Sleeping Volcanoes” and “Estrella”, “The Great Pixley Train Robbery” kicks it up a notch, acting as an Old West-tinged tale that describes scenes of a violent train robbery, the greed for gold, and claims of insanity. Based on a newspaper article McCombs uncovered from the 1800s, the track shows off McCombs’ pure creativity and apt for vivid storytelling.
Recorded at Shahzad Ismaily’s Figure 8 studios in Brooklyn, Tip of the Sphere was engineered by Sam Owens (aka Sam Evian) and features the core band of McCombs (guitar, vocals), Dan Horne (co-producer, bass), Otto Hauser (drums), and Frank LoCrasto (piano, organ, and more), plus a range of guests including Jason Quever (A and Not The Way) on drums and additional engineering in “The Great Pixley Train Robbery.” Tip of the Sphere sees McCombs’ with a newfound confidence, resulting in rock songs that have more fervor, ballads that are more beautiful, and an overall heightened sound.
Watch “The Great Pixley Train Robbery” Video –
Cass McCombs Tour Dates:
Mon. March 4 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage *
Tue. March 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live *
Thu. March 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Murrmr
Fri. March 8 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom *
Sat. March 9 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair *
Mon. March 11 – Toronto, ON @ The Horsehoe *
Tue. March 12 – Cleveland, OH @ The Beachland *
Thu. March 14 – Nashville, TN @ The Exit-In *
Fri. March 15 – Indianapolis, IN @ HiFi *
Sat. March 16 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall *
Sun. March 17 – Milwaukee, WI @ The BackRoom at Collectivo *
Mon. March 18 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club *
Wed. March 20 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre *
Sat. March 23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room *
Mon. March 25 – Vancouver, BC @ St. James *
Tue. March 26 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey *
Wed. March 27 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater *
Fri. March 29 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s *
Sat. March 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre *
Thu. April 4 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s *
Fri. April 5 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore *
Fri. April 26 – Marfa, TX @ Marfa Myths
Sat. May 25 – Madrid, ES @ Tomavistas
Tue. May 28 – Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory
Wed. May 29 – Berlin, DE @ Franzz Club
Thu. May 30 – Copenhagen, DK @ ALICE
Fri. May 31 – Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher
Sat. June 1 – Gent, BE @ DOKBox
Mon. June 3 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Noord
Tue. June 4 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
Thu. June 6 – London, UK @ Hackney Arts Centre
* = with Sam Evian
Music: The universal language. It’s the one thing that connects all of humanity, transcending cultural boundaries and uniting us all in our appreciation for the art of sound. No matter where you come from, a good song can lift your spirits or bring you to tears. Music lets us express our emotions when we don’t have the words to speak them, building off the fundamental mathematics of the universe in order to tell stories to people we couldn’t otherwise communicate with. Right? Well, um… No. Not really. But that’s a good thing!
Let’s remind ourselves just how cool and awesome Veruca Salt was. Formed in 1992 by vocalist-guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post, drummer Jim Shapiro and bassist Steve Lack, the isolated tracks for their 1997 classic Volcano Girls is a gorgeous and still-rockin’ slice of alternative grunge. A genuine throwback in the bridge, too, to their own hit Seether, inspired by The Beatles’ Glass Onion.
In 2009, Martin Kelsey — a teacher at South Valley Middle School in Liberty — wrote to Pixar’s award-winning animator Pete Docter and asked for some advice to pass on to his students. Here’s his response.
Having announced news of his long-awaited return at the end of last year, Rustin Man, a.k.a. Paul Webb of Talk Talk, is pleased to share a second track – “Judgement Train” – from his forthcoming album Drift Code, to be released on February 1st via Domino.
On “Judgement Train,” which Webb describes as “the Marx Brothers in a musical version of Apocalypse Now,” he casts himself as a man playing poker with God on a train. “He is a bit of a cheat and a chancer, confident he can outwit God to win his place in Heaven. As it develops, he realizes it’s not going so well and God has cunningly switched places with the devil. By the end, the guy has been out-played and realizes he actually has a lot in common with the devil. I like to think it has a happy ending!”
Webb, formerly the bass player in Talk Talk, has released one record under the moniker Rustin Man so far, the superb Out Of Season in 2002 – a collaboration with Beth Gibbons of Portishead. He has been working on the follow-up ever since – recording it in his home, a converted barn, in an Essex field three miles from the nearest village, an extraordinary building as much Old Curiosity Shop as modern living space. Creating that, and raising two daughters with his wife Sam, was happening alongside the making of Drift Code.
This is the first time Paul has written songs specifically for his own voice, and he turns out to be a gifted character actor, adopting various vocal roles across the songs, as heard on “Judgement Train” and the previously shared “Vanishing Heart”.
As you might expect from someone of Webb’s pedigree, Drift Code is a deep, detailed work. The passage of time, the living space full of art, treasured objects and junk, the years spent listening to film music and ’40s standards are all audible. But there’s a surprising spontaneity to it too. The album has a warm, wise kind of euphoria to it, coupled with an acute sense of storytelling and surreality.
SiriusXM Canada, the country’s leading audio entertainment company (and where you can hear my show, @ThatEricAlper every weekend on Channel 167, Canada Talks), today announced the return of SiriusXM Top of the Country in partnership with the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA). This nationwide search for Canada’s next big country music star provides emerging artists with a national platform, performance opportunities at some of Canada’s biggest country music events, SOCAN songwriting camps, and valuable industry mentorship to help propel their careers to the next level – not to mention a chance to compete for one of the biggest music prizes in Canada – $25,000 cash.
Canadian country solo artists and groups can register for SiriusXM Top of the Country starting January 14 at 10 am ET until 12 pm ET on February 1 at topcountry.siriusxm.ca.
Following registration, eight semi-finalists will be chosen by a jury of industry experts to record professional, original tracks and in-studio videos for the Canada-wide online vote, taking place later this spring. Once voting is complete, the top three acts will emerge as Top Country finalists, receiving a stage spot at one of Canada’s largest country music festivals. Finalists will also attend a SOCAN songwriting camp in Nashville and an exclusive mentorship session in Toronto with major country artists and industry professionals.
The grand prize winner will be chosen live during the CCMA’s Country Music Week, being held this year in Calgary, AB from September 5-8. Finalists will battle it out on stage at the SiriusXM CCMA Top of the Country Finale, airing live on SiriusXM Canada, with industry professionals deciding the winner of the $25,000, plus attendance at an international SOCAN songwriting camp.
SiriusXM Top of the Country in partnership with the CCMA is part of SiriusXM’s ongoing tradition of promoting and elevating the best emerging Canadian music. SiriusXM continues to offer a leading platform for Canadian artists through its significant financial contributions and North American-wide reach of over 35 million subscribers.
