By Divine Right, photo Catherine Stockhausen
By Will McGuirk
“Overall, this song is a reminder that nothing…is surface deep." - Haviah Mighty
“You’re done conforming, you’re done caring, you’re over the hanging weight of shame, disappointment, or unchecked goals. You’ve let go, and it’s the most freeing feeling you’ve ever experienced. You just don’t give a shit, and it’s fucking great.” - Tarek Jafar, The Blue Stones
Ria Mae with Virginia to Vegas at the Biltmore Theatre Thursday Nov. 24 2022
By Will McGuirk
Congrats to our old pals in Winnipeg’s Mahogany Frog on their 2022 Western Canadian Music Award, handed out this evening in Calgary. The ‘Frog won Visual Media Composer of the Year for ‘Faust’, an original score set to the eponymous 1926 German silent film from director F. W. Murnau.
Mahogany Frog are Graham Epp (guitar/keyboards/electronics/trumpet), Jesse Warkentin (guitar/keyboards/electronics), Scott Ellenberger (bass/keyboards/electronics/trumpet) and Andy Rudolph (drums/keyboards/electronics). The Frog played a few times in Oshawa back in the days, most notably at the Velvet Elvis where the four piece squeezed a half dozen synthesizers, and a gong into the space between the bar and the couch, which isn’t much space at all. Amazing show, amazing band, nice folks.
The album ‘Faust’ was released this past March and the PR has this to say, “Mahogany Frog brings together their collective experience in composition, experimentation, electronics, intense rock & roll, and searing fuzz guitar. Together they weave a dark and diverse score around Faust’s brooding tale of corruption, devastation and redemption.”
The Western Canadian Music Alliance is a pan western organization created by the Alliance Member Music Industry Associations (MIAs) of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, The Northwest Territories, the Yukon Territory, and in partnership with Nunavut, to promote and celebrate western Canadian music.
Ellen Froese, photo by Landon Johnson
This open mic is a safe space where you can express yourself musically, no judgement, only encouragement.
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By Will McGuirk
When I started slowcity.ca over a dozen years ago the vision was to highlight the makers and the makers of happenings; the support local movement, the farm to table movement, the slow purposeful life, the creative entrepreneur, the future makers. And if I had to design something that would wrap all of that up it would have been something like Cultivate.
Of course I didn’t, however the folks at Cultivate have and its everything one could imagine about a slow life, and then add goats! And then really slow down by sharing the goodness over three days.
Cultivate Festival takes place Friday, Sept 23, Saturday Sept 24 and Sunday Sept 25 at Haute Goat Farm just north of Port Hop, On.
The line-up features indie roots artists, Joel Plaskett Emergency, Kathleen Edwards, the Sadies, Shad, Kate Boothman, Julian Taylor, Brooks & Bowskill, and more.
There are many kid-friendly events and activities, culminating in a children’s parade on the Sunday. Also a book fair, and an arts hive, folk dancing, a pop-up choir, plus local food and beverage vendors, including Smashed Burgers, the Pop Stand, and Northumberland Hills Brewery.
And there will be much more, Slow doesn’t mean less, and Small doesn’t mean not going big!
By Will McGuirk
"In absorbing the tumult of the times, there's a lot of shit to write through, that Bruce Cockburn line comes to mind, ‘you've got to kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight’, and the challenge is to get to the other side with something positive to contribute," - Jason Collett
“You get stuck in the same patterns of thinking, the same loops of addiction. But there comes a point where you just have to say, ‘I'm going to be here, I'm going to enjoy it, and I'm not going to put so much stock into checking the boxes for everyone else.’ “ Margo Price
“You can put a lot of energy and discipline into a project while leaving room for spontaneity, fun, and authentic creativity. In the end, why are we so serious about life?’’ - Emi Jeen
By Will McGuirk
Congolese-born, Montreal-based musician, songwriter, and DJ Pierre Kwenders is the winner of the 2022 Polaris Music Prize.
The prize was handed out at an in-person gala held at the Carlu in Toronto Tuesday Sept 20 2022, the first live event of the award show since the pandemic and was broadcast live on a variety of streaming platforms as well as CBC.ca (where I watched it).
Kwenders won for his album ‘José Louis and the Paradox of Love’ (available via Arts & Crafts) which combines Congolese rumba and electronic music with pop-R&B and jazz, adds in vocals sung and rapped in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, AND features collaborations with Tendai Maraire (Shabazz Palaces), Branko (M.I.A., Buraka som Sistema), Win Butler (Arcade Fire), Michael Brun (J Balvin), and Uproot Andy (Poirier).
The Polaris Music Prize awards $50,000 to the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year, judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration for genre or record sales. The nine other nominated acts whose albums make the 2022 Short List will receive $3,000 each courtesy of Slaight Music. Additionally, Polaris Music Prize has partnered with Play MPE to award the winning artist with a global music promotion distribution package for one release (single or album) worth up to $3,025 CAD. Play MPE will also gift all nine remaining Short List artists with distribution packages worth up to $1,000 CAD each.
Kwenders joins a pretty rad list of past winners; Cadence Weapon (2021), Backxwash (2020), Haviah Mighty (2019), Jeremy Dutcher (2018), Lido Pimienta (2017), Kaytranada (2016), Buffy Sainte-Marie (2015), Tanya Tagaq (2014), Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2013), Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), Karkwa (2010), Fucked Up (2009), Caribou (2008), Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy / Owen Pallett (2006).
By Will McGuirk
One of Canada’s finest practitioners of the Blues, Jack De Keyzer, is at the Biltmore Theatre Thursday Sept 22 2022. This is the launch of a new festival in the downtown, titled Convergence. We will I imagine learn more on the night itself.
By Will McGuirk
Bilingual folk singer-songwriter Kristine St-Pierre at the Dakota Tavern Thursday Sept 22 2022. Tickets here.
By Will McGuirk
Alt-country roof rattlers Elliott Brood at Lee’s Palace Saturday Sept 24 2022. Tickets here.
By Will McGuirk
Belgian/ Egyptian singer Tamino is at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern Wedneday Sept 21 2022. Tickets here.
By Will McGuirk
On Saturday September 24, 2022, The 2022 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala presented by The El Mocambo, will induct Alanis Morissette, Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance, David Foster and Daniel Lavoie.
Hosted by singer-songwriter Marie-Mai, there will be performances by Corey Hart, Chad Kroeger and Ryan Peake of Nickelback, Alessia Cara, JP Saxe, Charlotte Cardin, Jessie Reyez, Serena Ryder, Deborah Cox, Pierre Lapointe, Neil Donell of Chicago, Maurice Moore, Bobby Bazini, Bruno Pelletier, Ruby Waters, Clerel, and others. Grammy winner Olivia Rodrigo will make a special appearance.
Jadea Kelly will play the Biltmore Theatre in Oshawa Sunday Oct 2 2022
By Will McGuirk
“It was important for our new music to be positive and to show our fans that we needed Life After to talk about our experiences in 2020/2021, but that we're back touring, traveling the world, making new music, and ultimately, we're good!" - Young D, Snotty Nose Rez Kids
“The music is steeped in queer love, young love, and lost love. I knew I wanted the aesthetic of the ‘Teenage Love’ music video to reflect all of these things.” - Bells Larsen
“This is a song about shooting yourself in the foot, told from the foot’s perspective. There’s barely any gray area left in the middle ground. We are so averse to seeing the other side achieve a win, we would rather that all sides lose.” - Dan Mangan
Ruby Singh And The Future Ancestors
By Will McGuirk
“When I’m sad, anxious, nervous, or confused my posture gets worse, and I clench my jaw. I hold so much of my emotion in my neck and jaw.” - Charlie Houston
“When I wrote "Easy", I was thinking about a situation in which I was during a couple of years, trying to please someone without any guidance from the other side, not knowing if I was doing the right thing.” - Léonie Gray
“The pressures we feel from the outside mutate into something we perceive to be coming from within, endlessly pursuing things we don't need, or even want, while trudging through existence. But it works the other way too - misinterpreting the outside world to fit our egoistic desires.” -Evan Resnik