Though he’s been called a “young Leonard Cohen” for his lyrical skill, Mark Berube‘s true calling goes beyond words. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, a curator of many-layered compositions and a master of marrying pop, Afro-beats and strings. He comes by the ability to craft sonic blends honestly — he was born in Manitoba, raised in Swaziland; [...]
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It’s a winter’s day here in the big city. Slush is piled up beside the street car tracks, tiny flakes of snow are rapidly falling, and the sky has been the same shade of grey for what feels like weeks now. It’s also a time to celebrate — there’s a folk festival going on this [...]
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In honour of the day of love, David Myles has released a free download of his romantic song “I Will Love You” — available until this Friday, February 17. Visit David’s site to get your copy, or to send it to your Valentine. What’s the story behind this song, “I Will Love You”? I’ve always [...]
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Every time we mention the Grammy Awards in these parts, it seems to stir up some kind of discussion about their value in terms of working musicians in Canada, and the community that supports them. But even the most strident skeptic could hardly have made it through 2011 without hearing Adele‘s heart-breaking “Someone Like You” [...]
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Musicians looking to their fans to help foot the bill for a project is becoming more and more common (our friend Dave Cool over at Bandzoogle just posted a great piece full of tips on how to do this, by the way) but Toronto singer-songwriter Corin Raymond and his community of fans are doing things [...]
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Well folks, it’s arrived. The first track from Joel Plaskett‘s newest album, Scrappy Happiness, was released yesterday. “You’re Mine” is a rollicking, rhyming rock song that loosely brings together the process of making songs and of living a life — aging, youth, the passage of time and some references to Husker Du. As for the [...]
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After ten years on the scene, Hugh’s Room is generally acknowledged to be the best listening room in Toronto when it comes to folk and roots music. It’s no stretch to say it’s one of the best clubs in Canada, the stage where the likes of Jesse Winchester and Leon Redbone have headlined, along with [...]
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Our final wrap up of 2011′s very best songs comes from all of us here at Roots Music Canada. Many thanks to all of our volunteers, for being our writers, photographers, videographers, social media hosts and production assistants — sometimes all at the same time. You make it happen. Thanks also to everyone who contributed [...]
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Our series on the best songs of 2011 continues today with choices made by some of the musicians who make the very thing that brings our community together. Some of them don’t play by the rules (it is hard to choose just one song!), but we think you’ll find their choices are diverse as they [...]
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This week we’ll be running a special year-end retrospective series featuring the best songs of 2011 — as chosen by members of our community. In this edition: the publicists and community builders who work behind the scenes, forming a bridge between artists and media outlets like ours, finally get a moment in the spotlight. Here [...]
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