Nova Scotia songwriter Jesse Thomas, a.k.a. Awolk, has found his ...
I once read that if you follow your passion, you’ll find your purpose. If there’s one thing Jesse Thomas has done, it’s that; he’s found his purpose in song-writing. Jesse grew up in the small town of Truro, NS, where ...
The Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival recapped by the guy that ...
Troy Greencorn is the artistic director of the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, N.S. He offered to recap the Lunenburg festival for us here at Roots Music Canada. Thanks, Troy! The best folk festivals happen in storied communities with ...
The Stan Rogers Folk Festival: is there magic in ...
For anyone unfamiliar with the late great Stan Rogers (1949-1983), here’s what you need to know: he is celebrated for immortalizing the experiences of ordinary Canadians in song – particularly those Canadians on Canada’s East Coast. Songs like “Northwest Passage,” ...
Broomsticks & Hammers, the Raven and the Fox, Ludgate and ...
Here at Roots Music Canada, Gordy the Moose spends a solid amount of time rifling through the digital mailbag looking for interesting or outstanding new Canadian roots music to discover. He shares his discoveries periodically in this column. Here’s the ...
The AfroMétis Constitution project and the redemptive power of song
For Chris White, having mixed black and Indigenous heritage was never a big deal. It was a well-established fact within the Nova Scotia native’s family that his father’s parents were former slaves from Virginia, while his grandmother had Mi’kmaq ancestry. ...
Piper and Carson capture sounds of the country on self-titled ...
Piper Hayes is a Toronto-raised musician with a keen interest in grassroots music. Her latest album, Piper & Carson – with partner Carson Ritcey-Thorpe – was released Dec. 8, 2017, and Piper is now preparing to go on tour through ...
Matt Anderson rocks out with The Mellotones on Live at ...
From the first notes of “Weightless” to the slow-dying roar of the crowd as the last licks of “Devil’s Bride” squeal out, Matt Andersen’s newest release, Matt Andersen & The Mellotones Live at Olympic Hall, which just came out Friday ...
London ON’s Aaron Allen brings outlaw country attitude north
There’s a revolution underway in country music, and Aaron Allen is doing his part. On his latest album, Judgement Day, the native of London, Ont., shows his solidarity with artists such as Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell in ...
The Young Novelists – In City & Country
From the outside, the new record by The Young Novelists, In City & Country, is a lyrical investigation of small town Ontario life and its (in)compatibility with the big city escape hatch. On a deeper level, it’s about not being ...
The LYNNeS – Heartbreak Song for the Radio
Out of Ottawa, here come The LYNNeS, Lynn Miles and Lynne Hanson, bearing a fresh Heartbreak Song for the Radio, an album with an aggressive sound which may propel the already successful award-winning songwriters into a new category of international ...