Road not taken: Jay Gavin gets lost in Austin
Roots Music Canada is excited to be premiering Jay Gavin’s new single and video for “Lost in Austin” here on Saturday. To whet your appetite, here is a beautiful telling of Jay’s story written by Leslie Alexander. Somewhere on the ...
Love and art at the edge of apocalypse
Ever since Grade Seven social studies class, I’ve been walking around waiting for a piano to drop on my head. I remember going home to my parents and asking why they’d never told me about the prospect of a nuclear ...
Leslie Alexander’s Top 12 musical moments of 2019
January: I’m introduced to the exceptional country-noir stylings of the Shaela Miller band, getting a “Hard Knock Upside My Mind” after opening for them at the Foothills Folk Club in High River, AB. Bringing together elements of classic country and ...
How Tom Jackson’s Huron Carole transformed this holiday hater
“And so this is Christmas . . . and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun . . .” John Lennon The familiar strains of John Lennon’s Christmas classic filled the old Empress theatre ...
Stephen Fearing: Conquering the unconquerable
“Is your present pretty tense? Is it all just too much for you? Does anything make sense, Or does everything just bore you?” Stephen Fearing, “The Unconquerable Past” Fear not. Stephen is back with his 13th solo recording, The Unconquerable ...
Emily Triggs – Middletown
“All I need is a little fire,” sings Alberta songwriter Emily Triggs in the opening line of her sophomore solo release, Middletown. And that’s exactly what she delivers in this multi-layered ten-song collection of musings about love, longing, and loss. ...
Canadianamericana: new country vs. true country at Americanafest
Heading down to the Nashville Americanafest, my heart is light. It’s the first time I’ve attended an event like this as an observer, rather than a participant. With no new record to promote or even a music career to speak ...
How I Lost the Muse, Quit the Biz and Found ...
“You’re quitting music? Are you NUTS?” That was the unspoken reaction on their faces when I told them, after 20 years of chasing the music biz brass ring, that I was so over jumping through hoops. No more Photoshopped promo ...
High hopes, hula hoops, and the mystical secret to festival ...
Leslie Alexander wrote this piece a few years ago and published it in BC Musician Magazine. She generously agreed to share it with us here at Roots Music Canada, and we’re thrilled to be able to share it with you. ...