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Toronto’s Little Jamaica Music History Walking Tour Returns for 2025 Season

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

Toronto’s Little Jamaica Music History Walking Tour Returns for 2025 Season

The Canada Black Music Archives (CBMA) is pleased to announce that the Little Jamaica Music History Walking Tour is returning for its sophomore year in Toronto after a hugely successful and sold-out run in 2024. The interactive tour takes participants through Eglinton West’s cultural district, exploring shops, restaurants, art, and music.

This free guided tour begins at 2353 Dufferin Street and ends at Marlee Avenue. Dive into the historical landmarks of Little Jamaica, while listening to tracks by local artists. Stops featured include Jimmy Wisdom’s Barbershop, Sunshine Sounds, Monica’s Beauty Salon, Rap’s Restaurant, Reggae Lane, and more.

This year’s tour will also include stops at select food locations, allowing participants to enjoy various Caribbean dishes and neighbourhood favourites.

Now back by popular demand, the 2025 dates are July 13th & 27th, August 3rd & 17th, and September 7th & 21st.

As the first music focused walking tour in Little Jamaica, the CBMA rocked sold-out tours throughout the 2024 summer season and captured the attention of several organizations including CBC Radio, CBC TV, City TV, Global TV, AMI TV, Talk 1010 radio, 105.1FM, Jazz FM, the Toronto Star, Caribbean Camera, and The Jamaica Gleaner.

The area known as ‘Little Jamaica’ stretches along Eglinton Avenue West from Marlee Avenue to Keele Street. With the influx of immigrants between the 1960’s to 1990’s, it became home to many people from the Caribbean. They opened several businesses including beauty salons, record stores, studios, and restaurants.

The strip attracted the biggest names in the industry. Not only was it home for reggae, but housed calypso, dub, ska, and rocksteady, among other music genres. Behind these genres were community greats like Leroy Sibbles, King Culture, Nana McLean, Jay Douglas, Jackie Mittoo, and more.

Join the CBMA in this educational tour and learn more about the many culturally significant contributions this enclave has to offer. Special thanks to the York-Eglinton BIA.

This project has been funded by the City of Toronto’s Main Street Innovation Fund, as part of Government of Canada support through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. To book your tour visit their landing page.

Kristin Nicholls Band Return with Country Anthem “One More Round”

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

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Kristin Nicholls Band Return with Country Anthem “One More Round”

– With a cold drink in one hand and a lifetime of stories in the other, the Kristin Nicholls Band are ready to raise the roof — and your spirits — with their latest country anthem “One More Round.” Out now at country radio and streaming everywhere, the track is a full-throttle, feel-good call to the dancefloor, complete with line-dance energy, soul-saving choruses, and one foot firmly in the honky-tonk.

But don’t be fooled — this isn’t just another party song. For frontman Kristin Nicholls, this track is the result of a personal comeback story that’s more Nashville than Hollywood.

“I got sober… and released a fun drinking song,” Nicholls laughs. “There’s some irony there. But this song is about joy. About celebration. About giving yourself permission to just live again.”

Kristin’s journey through addiction, divorce, and redemption plays like a country ballad in its own right. Following a complicated custody battle and a battle with addiction, Nicholls turned his life around — embracing sobriety, reconnecting faith, and dropping 70 pounds with the help of CrossFit and therapy. Now, he brings that energy to One More Round — a track that’s equal parts party and purpose.

The Kristin Nicholls Band includes Kristin Nicholls on lead vocals and guitar, Luke Cronsberry on lead guitar and vocals, Ryan Barwin on pedal steel guitar, banjo, and dobro, Allen Bilston on drums, and Scott Marsh on bass guitar and vocals. Together, they bring years of stage experience and a love for country storytelling rooted in gospel, rock and roll, and the real-life grit that defines their sound.

Produced by Jordan Honsinger (with previous work in both Nashville and Hamilton), One More Round blends modern country production with the rootsy storytelling fans love. The writing team — Nicholls, Cronsberry, and Honsinger — steered away from cliché and leaned into vivid scenes, catchy hooks, and a playful barroom spirit.

Lyrics like this say it all: “Turn the lights on, turn the night on / Flip on the amplifiers / Get your boots on, put a move on / Let’s light this floor on fire.”

The single follows three previous songs that received airplay across Canada, including SiriusXM’s Top of the Country. If you love artists like Brothers Osborne, Kip Moore, Eric Church, or the swagger of Chris Stapleton, you’ll feel right at home with KNB’s latest offering.

Kristin Nicholls Band are hitting their stride — with the stage set, the amps fired up, and the crowd already two-stepping. And with “One More Round,” they’re inviting you to join the party.

Rascal Flatts and Kelly Clarkson Reimagine “I’m Movin’ On” for “Life Is A Highway: Refueled Duets”

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

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Rascal Flatts and Kelly Clarkson Reimagine “I’m Movin’ On” for “Life Is A Highway: Refueled Duets”

Rascal Flatts release the second collaboration from their highly-anticipated album LIFE IS A HIGHWAY: REFUELED DUETS, “I’m Movin’ On” with Kelly Clarkson.

The track marks a poignant reunion of the longtime friends, who take the ACM Song of the Year-winning tune, penned by Phillip White and D. Vincent Williams, to infectiously emotive, genre-bending heights. With award-winning artist Clarkson taking the reins and Rascal Flatts adding delicate harmonies, the anthem still hits home with a soulful, heartbreaking edge 25 years after its initial release.

LIFE IS A HIGHWAY: REFUELED DUETS is out now. Featuring nine reimagined, beloved Rascal Flatts hits and their latest record-breaking single “I Dare You” with Jonas Brothers, the new album boasts an eclectic lineup of guest artists from all walks of life, each infusing their individual music styles to create all-new arrangements of timeless hits from the trio’s acclaimed catalogue.

Life Is A Highway: Refueled Duets Album Track List:
1. “I Dare You” (with Jonas Brothers)
2. “Fast Cars And Freedom” (with Jason Aldean)
3. “My Wish” (with Carly Pearce)
4. “Mayberry” (with Blake Shelton)
5. “Stand” (with Brandon Lake)
6. “Summer Nights” (with Ashley Cooke)
7. “What Hurts The Most” (with Backstreet Boys)
8. “Yours If You Want It” (with Jordan Davis)
9. “Life Is A Highway” (with Lzzy Hale)
10. “I’m Movin’ On” (with Kelly Clarkson)

Frankie Grande Drops Single “Rhythm of Love” Ahead of Summer LP

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

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Frankie Grande Drops Single “Rhythm of Love” Ahead of Summer LP

Frankie Grande releases his debut single and official music video, “Rhythm of Love” out now via Casablanca Records / Republic Records. The new single heralds the arrival of his forthcoming full-length LP out now.

“Rhythm of Love” is co-written by Frankie Grande, Alex Chapman [Kim Petras, Charli XCX, Troye Sivan], NOVDOR [Troye Sivan, Charli XCX], Neil Ormandy [James Arthur], and Molly Irvine, with production by Prince Fox, and NOVDOR. Despite its dark inspirations, the joy radiating through “Rhythm of Love” sweeps you away in, well, its rhythm, glittering with hope and optimism. Pride festivities will never be the same once this banger drops.

The official music video, directed by Austin Nunes [Troye Sivan], filmed at the iconic nightclub “The Box” in New York City, plunges viewers into a wild night led by Frankie complete with jaw-dropping choreography, stunning fashion, and nonstop energy on the dancefloor. The video embodies and evokes the spirit of the immediately irresistible chorus, “It’s your rhythm of love that’s lifting me up deep into the night.”

Last year, Republic Records President and Chief Creative Officer Wendy Goldstein heard just a handful of Frankie’s songs. Blown away, she immediately signed him on the spot. He says, “I just remember playing the songs for Wendy in the studio and being like, what is happening? I didn’t know I had it in me. I didn’t know it was possible.”

Howard Jones Returns to the Keys with “Piano Composed” in Two Unique Editions

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

0

Howard Jones Returns to the Keys with “Piano Composed” in Two Unique Editions

Howard Jones is again returning to his roots as a classically-trained pianist with the forthcoming release of PIANO COMPOSED. Out now, the offering features 10 brand new piano-based compositions and will be available in two formats, each having different inspirations/origin stories. The limited edition 180 gram heavyweight vinyl version, PIANO COMPOSED IVORY, also includes a 36-page illustrated booklet containing musical transcriptions of five of the ten pieces as well as an illustrated inner sleeve featuring notes by Jones himself. The standard CD version, PIANO COMPOSED SPIRIO, features the 10 ten tracks reimagined and alternatively sequenced.

PIANO COMPOSED is Howard Jones’ third piano-based composition album. Encouraged by his good friend, composer and technologist, BT, the ten pieces were created during Covid lockdown on his Steinway D piano and would subsequently become PIANO COMPOSED IVORY. PIANO COMPOSED SPIRIO features the same tracks reimagined and resequenced via Jones’ new Steinway Spirio, which allowed him to add multiple octaves and create pieces that couldn’t be played without five or six hands. The result is a kind of evolution of the original IVORY pieces.

Of PIANO COMPOSED, Howard Jones commented, “The piano is the first instrument I started playing when I was seven and it’s like I’ve spent the whole of my life playing piano. During Covid I thought it was about time that I made an album of piano pieces but this time I wanted the compositions to be more considered rather than purely improvised which I had done before. I started composing with my ivory piano software and was able to do lots of editing to the pieces and experiment with arrangements. I was pleased and had the work mastered and pressed some vinyl and I thought that was gonna be it. Then at Steinway’s in London they kindly let me spend a day with a Spirio piano in their showroom. I brought my laptop and ran the IVORY compositions through the piano and was blown away with the possibilities of this modern-day player piano. So you have two versions of these compositions: PIANO COMPOSED IVORY available on vinyl and PIANO COMPOSED SPIRIO available on CD.”

Electronic music pioneer Howard Jones has been a constant presence on the international touring scene for the past four decades, playing live in a number of different configurations including intimate solo shows and dates with his full high-tech band set-up. He first burst upon the contemporary music scene in 1983, with his very English songwriting and pioneering synthesizers with “New Song”. His first two albums HUMAN’S LIB and DREAM INTO ACTION were worldwide hits. HUMAN’S LIB reached #1 in 1984 in the UK and featured the hits “New Song,” and “What Is Love?” In 1985, Jones released the follow-up, DREAM INTO ACTION, which quickly became a Top Ten Platinum album in the United States and featured the smashes: “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life In One Day,” “No One Is To Blame,” and “Like To Get To Know You Well.”

Howard Jones has sold upwards of 10 million albums worldwide and continues to make new music and tour the world. Jones has performed on NBC’s top-rated morning and nighttime shows respectively, Today and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. His ubiquitous hits can be heard in such high-profile television series and films such as “Stranger Things,” “Breaking Bad,” “Watchmen,” “The Carrie Diaries”, “Superstore” and “Bumblebee”. Howard Jones’ most recent studio album is DIALOGUE, which was released in September, 2022. DIALOGUE is the third album in a trilogy of electronic releases from Jones with multi-media project ENGAGE coming out in 2015 and studio album TRANSFORM out in 2019. DIALOGUE garnered serious coverage in outlets such as Spin, Stereogum and more.

PIANO COMPOSED IVORY track listing:

SIDE ONE
1. Five Pianos
2. The Way You Choose To See It
3. Everything Is Connected
4. Cherish Life
5. It’s Great To See You Smile Again
SIDE TWO
1. It’s In Your Hands
2. Winter Always Turns To Spring
3. Finding The Silver Lining
4. Hope Is A Decision
5. Turning Poison Into Medicine

PIANO COMPOSED SPIRIO track listing:

1. The Way You Choose To See It
2. Everything Is Connected
3. Finding The Silver Lining
4. Hope Is A Decision
5. Turning Poison Into Medicine
6. It’s In Your Hands
7. Five Pianos
8. Cherish Life
9. Winter Always Turns To Spring
10. It’s Great To See You Smile Again

Morgan Wade’s “East Coast” Marks a Bold New Chapter in Country Storytelling

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

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Morgan Wade’s “East Coast” Marks a Bold New Chapter in Country Storytelling

Morgan Wade has released her brand new single “East Coast.” Showcasing Morgan’s songwriting prowess, the new single is a masterclass in storytelling and sentiment. The deeply reflective ballad gives listeners a taste of what’s to come from the country singer, solidifying her staying power in the genre and a major artist-to-watch. A fan favorite during her live shows across the country, the single finally arrives alongside an accompanying music video, aptly filmed on the coastline with powerful imagery.

An exploration of heartbreak and loss, “East Coast” chronicles the fallout of a former love and grapples with the feelings of darkness that accompany it. “I’m gonna drive to the coast/Drown myself in the sea,” Morgan laments, “You know I love you most/But you took the life out of me.” With lyrical depth and powerful vocals, Morgan perfectly captures the enduring pain of moving on from a past relationship.

“East Coast” is Morgan’s first look at her forthcoming new music and follows her most recent album, Obsessed, released late last year. The project arrived as a solo-written opus, which No Depression celebrated, “She’s without a doubt one of the finest singers in country and Americana music today, and this album is her best yet.” The 14-track LP pared things back to the essence of who she is as a musician, storyteller, and human. Obsessed followed her debut Reckless (which Rolling Stone declared the Best Country Album of the Year upon release) and sophomore effort Psychopath, which was spotlighted by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, People, Tennessean, Variety, and many more.

John Street and Oskar Cox Jensen’s “Our Subversive Voice” Explores 500 Years of English Protest Songs

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

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John Street and Oskar Cox Jensen’s “Our Subversive Voice” Explores 500 Years of English Protest Songs

Whether accompanying a march, a sit-in, or a confrontation with police, songs and protest are inextricably linked. As a tool for political activism, the protest song spells out the issues at the heart of each cause. Over a surprisingly long history, it has been used to spread ideas, inspire political imagination, and motivate political action.

The protest song is – and has always been – a form of political oratory as vital to political representation as it is to performance. Investigating five centuries of English history, Our Subversive Voice establishes that the protest song is not merely the preserve of singer-songwriters; it is a mode of political communication that has been used to confront many systems of oppression across its many genres, from street ballads to art song, grime to hymns, and music hall to punk. Our Subversive Voice traces the history of the protest song, examines its rhetorical forms, and explores the conditions of its genesis. It recounts how these songs have addressed discrimination and inequality, exploitation and the environment, and immigration and identity, and how institutions and organizations have sought both to facilitate and to suppress them. Drawing on a large and diverse corpus of songwriters, this book argues that song does more than accompany protest: it choreographs and communicates it.

The protest song, Our Subversive Voice shows, is an enduring, affecting, and effective means of expression and an essential element in understanding the drive to create political change, in the past and for the future.

‘One Foot on the Platform’ Captures Peter Goddard’s Legendary Rock Criticism

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

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‘One Foot on the Platform’ Captures Peter Goddard’s Legendary Rock Criticism

The final word from one of popular music’s greatest critics.

In the summer of 2020, acclaimed music critic and journalist Peter Goddard began work on a new book that would take readers on a journey back through his fifty-plus years spent writing professionally about rock music and the musical styles circling it—everything from blues and jazz to country and classical. His plan was to revisit his old haunts and their habitués, scenes and figures he first wrote about starting in the mid-1960s when he became Canada’s first on-staff popular music critic, to show how ongoing revisions continually reframe first impressions.

Tragically, Goddard died in 2022 before work on the manuscript was complete. But many of the core essays—on Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the Who, k.d. lang, David Bowie, Liza Minelli, The Band, Neil Diamond, and others—are here. Accompanying these new essays is a collection of some of the best writing of Goddard’s career—ranging from interviews with B. B. King, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and Janis Joplin to reviews of classic albums by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Neil Young, to close readings of Leonard Cohen, Anne Murray, Led Zeppelin, and Gordon Lightfoot. Taken as a whole, One Foot on the Platform represents more than fifty years of thought and writing by one of Canada’s foremost cultural critics.

Conan O’Brien Unleashes Comic Chaos on Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

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Conan O’Brien Unleashes Comic Chaos on Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Before podcasting royalty and late-night dominance, Conan O’Brien lent his voice to the surreal brilliance of Space Ghost Coast to Coast. This raw behind-the-scenes clip captures his signature absurdity and fast-talking wit in full form — a cult classic moment from a cult classic show.

Flashback Fun: ‘Fun Rock’ Compilation Spins the Best of Novelty and Nostalgia

Music

Eric Alper

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Jul 5, 2025

0

Flashback Fun: ‘Fun Rock’ Compilation Spins the Best of Novelty and Nostalgia

Relive the golden age of novelty and feel-good rock with Fun Rock, the 1986 compilation from Heartland Music and Warner Special Products. Featuring hits like “Wooly Bully,” “Tequila,” and “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” this four-LP set is pure retro joy with a wild streak — perfect for collectors or anyone craving a dose of pure musical fun.