Crystal Shawanda
By Will McGuirk
“It’s about watching someone grieve and being in awe of their ability to keep going, despite being in a lot of pain.” - Bells Larsen
“a track about “getting stuck with yourself, forever, like an assigned middle name, or DNA. Some of it’s already built in, but mostly you’ll be walking around as you, doing dishes, meeting people, untangling what it means, being busy being busy.” - Sam Sarty, Living Hour
Geneviève Racette
By Will McGuirk
“The purpose of these songs is to connect. They are meant to be offered and received, and the best way to do that, hands down, is in the magical shared experience of live performance.” - Raine Hamilton amilton.com/
"Viral is about the accelerated world we live in. A world in which technology grapples with nature and ingenuity spawns unintended consequences," - Matthew Barber.
“I think love is a beautiful thing. It’s just intriguing how no one actually knows how it works and what it’s made of. I’m pretty sure that’s the main reason why I write songs: I’m just trying to figure out what the heck love is,” - Geneviève Racette
"I was so tired of seeing so many of my friends feeling like “s**t” cuz a guy or girl they were seeing stopped responding out of the blue. "No Emotion = No Tomorrow" is my pop-punk take on my friends and my own dating experiences," - Emi Jeen
‘Blue Hour’ Artwork by Yann Kebbi
By Will McGuirk
Change is constant but there is reoccurrence, there is pattern, season, cycles and revolutions. It is time again to settle inside, to pull closer the elements of warmth, all that which brings comfort and look forward to the curve which brings it all back round again.
“It's so easy to just assume that the narratives we're telling ourselves about ourselves are true and that can be pretty debilitating. The song is about those moments when you're quiet and present and suddenly you realize that the story you've been telling is false, and there's this tremendous relief that maybe you'll be ok, that everything will be ok.” - Jordan Klassen
"but when you move quickly, you miss certain aspects of the journey. I could be missing out on some really wonderful information that I would get if I stopped to smell the roses once in a while. I worry that when something or someone really important comes around, I will be moving too quickly to catch it or them." - Adrian Glavin, Yoke Lore.
Oh Susanna
Whatever gets you through the night as Johnny Lennon says or the day or the year, whatever gets you to celebrating another trip around the sun, thats whatever it took to get you here and you are here and I am here and that is enough of a reason to play some songs and enjoy the day which happens to be the anniversary of my birth. And considering its been a year since the last, well, it didn’t seem to take too long. Thanks to Ponytails, Oh Susanna, Jessica Rhaye & the Ramshackle Parade (covering Bob Dylan for his birthday), Jordan Klassen, Geneviève Racette, Black Mountain, Sigala & Becky Hill and Colour Tongues for the tracks. Cheers to you whenever your birthday is.
By Will McGuirk
Its like its Groundhog Day, you know where the beast sees his shadow and the sun is to shine in six weeks but you think it would be gradually warmer but not that Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day the movie and you wake up and EVERYDAY IS THE SAME; more snow, more cold, more snow, stop with the cold!!! The beast has a cold, cold heart or maybe its not Groundhog Day its Russian Doll, either way these tunes will warm you up and keep you sane. Lets kick it with our pal, the clean as crystal voice of Jadea Kelly, two-fer-one special from Darth Jadea. The rest of the line-up is Micah Erenberg, Geneviève Racette, Lydia Persaud, Living Hour, Gesaffelstein & Pharrell Williams, Bad Animal and Ben Rogers. Stay warm, stay positive, the sun will shine eventually.
Shows:
Ben Rogers Mar 23, New Vision United Church, Hamilton, ON; Mar 25 Showplace Performance Theatre, Peterborough, ON
Jadea Kelly May 9 Burdock, Toronto, ON. (Early Show: 6pm & Late Show: 9pm)