Music

Hot on the heels of his induction in to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame alongside his ex-bandmates in Barenaked Ladies, singer-songwriter Steven Page has announced the forthcoming release of the most forceful musical statement of his solo music career.  Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II, will be released on Friday, September 14, 2018 via Fresh Baked Goods / Warner Music Canada.

**A digital download of Steven Page’s new album, Discipline: Heal Thyself, Part 2, is included with every ticket for this show. You will receive an email with more details about this offer approximately 7 days after your purchase.

Ahead of the album’s release, Steven launched the vitriolic first single, “White Noise,” a naked look at the current political discourse south of the 49th parallel. (see “White Noise” lyrics below).  Listen to “White Noise” HERE.

“I grew up in a household where social justice was a fundamental value, and I always believed that it was a fundamental Canadian value as well as a central Jewish one,” says Page.  “I’ve watched how the term has been twisted and perverted by the Right over the last several years in an effort to diminish the voices of reason.

Although I grew up politically aware, in a left-leaning household (which, in Canada, was not regarded as anything sinister until the mid-90s and beyond), it wasn’t until I discovered the politically-charged music coming from the UK in the 1970s (the Clash, The Jam) and 1980s during the Miner’s Strike and the Red Wedge movement (Billy Bragg, Style Council, Communards, etc) that I became excited by the power of music and activism.  This song pays tribute to that music, and was written in the wake of last year’s events in Charlottesville.  The open displays of racism and antisemitism, and the chants of “Jews Will Not Replace Us” made me grab my guitar and tell them I’d be more than glad to replace them.”

Watch “White Noise” lyric video HERE

Recorded at Fresh baked Woods Studios just outside of Toronto and Vancouver’s Doghouse of Thunder Studio with longtime live bands Odds and The Original Six, and frequent collaborator Craig Northey, Discipline is Page’s fifth solo album and the spiritual follow-up to 2016’s Heal Thyself Pt. I: Instinct.  Musically, the album tips its hat to many of Page’s influences including the aforementioned punk rock movement and David Byrne as well as a nod to the Bee Gees and the Zombies.

For more details visit www.stevenpage.com

Heather Rankin is a singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the youngest member of the multi-platinum selling and multi-award winning musical group, The Rankin Family. Her 2016 debut solo album A Fine Line was nominated for a Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year and two East Coast Music Awards, for Folk Recording of the Year and Fans’ Choice Video of the Year for “We Walk As One.” Heather has performed in venues and at festivals across Nova Scotia, including headlining the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, the Kempt Shore Festival and Harmony Bazaar. She has hosted Songwriters’ Circles at ECMA Week and the Deep Roots Festival, performed at the Grand Opening of the Celtic Colours Festival, and co-hosted the ECMAs with Ashley MacIsaac. She has also taken her music to venues in Ontario, Alberta, and Kansas City, Missouri.

Heather Rankin’s Christmas Show, Picture Perfect Christmas, includes a mixture of traditional and original songs from her 2017 seasonal album Imagine, as well as favourites she performed with her sisters, Raylene and Cookie, on their Christmas record over twenty years ago. She mixes in songs from her 2016 Juno nominated album, A Fine Line, some Rankin Family classics, and some special surprises, along with stories that are equal parts funny and endearing. Picture Perfect Christmas is sure to leave you full of the spirit of the season, wrapped up in warm, cozy memories, with some rollicking East Coast charm and a thoughtful wish for Christmas future.

After over twenty-five years of performing with her siblings Heather Rankin comes into her own with A Fine Line, her debut solo record. This is Heather Rankin like you have never heard her before, breaking away from The Rankin Family’s signature sound, and forging her own musical legacy with her poetic, intimate original songs, and an eclectic mix of others.

A Fine Line is an exploration of the balance between grief and joy, love and loss, and life and death. While the sound is distinctively Heather’s own, songs like “We Walk As One” conjure evocative imagery from the past she shared with her siblings, and with fans all over the world. Other songs showcase a more upbeat and contemporary side of Rankin, like her rendition of Tears for Fears’ 1985 hit “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” which features Hip Hop Artist Quake Matthews. It is a social commentary with a Dance Club vibe. A song like David Tyson’s “Valentine” is a heart-felt love song, poignant in its simplicity, where Rankin’s soaring, angelic voice is all that is needed to hit straight to the heart.

It is clear that A Fine Line is a personal record for Rankin, who co-wrote seven of the eleven tracks with David Tyson. “We Walk As One,” the song that her siblings, Cookie and Jimmy, sing backup vocals for, is the album’s most obviously autobiographical track. It speaks to the idea that, although physically separate, those who love and care about one another, continue to move forward together in spirit. Similarly, “I’ve Got Your Back” expresses a sense of unconditional love and support amid a cold and tumultuous world. “Titantically” is the record’s most poetic and ephemeral, the personification of a violin that is rescued from the wreckage of the Titanic, and ripped from the grasp of the person who loved it most in the world. There is a deeply emotional acknowledgement of an inherent sadness to life in A Fine Line, but what is most prominent is Rankin’s resolve to continue to move forward in spite of it.

It’s an impressive feat that one album can include a myriad of songs that are individually so different from one another and yet, they come together to create deeply affecting variations on a common theme. When played separately, each track stands assuredly on its own, revealing different aspects of Rankin’s immense talent and her vibrant, complex perspective on life and music. Taken together, one begins to see rich thematic and lyrical intersections, often between the most disparate songs. She begins with laying out the struggle of the human condition, our quest toward finding, and then living as our authentic selves, and then as the album progresses we are plunged into the depths of that struggle. She leaves us, undeniably, with a pure testament of hope and gratitude.

This is an exciting record and an exciting musical departure for Heather Rankin, who sold more than a million records as part of The Rankin Family, sang backup vocals on Carly Simon’s album The Bedroom Tapes and has been featured on the recordings of such artists as The Chieftains, Johnny Reid and Will Ackerman. Perhaps the most dramatic sense of balance in A Fine Line is Rankin’s own graceful sense of balance between her own musical past, present and future.

Heather Rankin is a singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the youngest member of the multi-platinum selling and multi-award winning musical group, The Rankin Family. Her 2016 debut solo album A Fine Line was nominated for a Juno Award for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year and two East Coast Music Awards, for Folk Recording of the Year and Fans’ Choice Video of the Year for “We Walk As One.” Heather has performed in venues and at festivals across Nova Scotia, including headlining the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival, the Kempt Shore Festival and Harmony Bazaar. She has hosted Songwriters’ Circles at ECMA Week and the Deep Roots Festival, performed at the Grand Opening of the Celtic Colours Festival, and co-hosted the ECMAs with Ashley MacIsaac. She has also taken her music to venues in Ontario, Alberta, and Kansas City, Missouri.

Heather Rankin’s Christmas Show, Picture Perfect Christmas, includes a mixture of traditional and original songs from her 2017 seasonal album Imagine, as well as favourites she performed with her sisters, Raylene and Cookie, on their Christmas record over twenty years ago. She mixes in songs from her 2016 Juno nominated album, A Fine Line, some Rankin Family classics, and some special surprises, along with stories that are equal parts funny and endearing. Picture Perfect Christmas is sure to leave you full of the spirit of the season, wrapped up in warm, cozy memories, with some rollicking East Coast charm and a thoughtful wish for Christmas future.

After over twenty-five years of performing with her siblings Heather Rankin comes into her own with A Fine Line, her debut solo record. This is Heather Rankin like you have never heard her before, breaking away from The Rankin Family’s signature sound, and forging her own musical legacy with her poetic, intimate original songs, and an eclectic mix of others.

A Fine Line is an exploration of the balance between grief and joy, love and loss, and life and death. While the sound is distinctively Heather’s own, songs like “We Walk As One” conjure evocative imagery from the past she shared with her siblings, and with fans all over the world. Other songs showcase a more upbeat and contemporary side of Rankin, like her rendition of Tears for Fears’ 1985 hit “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” which features Hip Hop Artist Quake Matthews. It is a social commentary with a Dance Club vibe. A song like David Tyson’s “Valentine” is a heart-felt love song, poignant in its simplicity, where Rankin’s soaring, angelic voice is all that is needed to hit straight to the heart.

It is clear that A Fine Line is a personal record for Rankin, who co-wrote seven of the eleven tracks with David Tyson. “We Walk As One,” the song that her siblings, Cookie and Jimmy, sing backup vocals for, is the album’s most obviously autobiographical track. It speaks to the idea that, although physically separate, those who love and care about one another, continue to move forward together in spirit. Similarly, “I’ve Got Your Back” expresses a sense of unconditional love and support amid a cold and tumultuous world. “Titantically” is the record’s most poetic and ephemeral, the personification of a violin that is rescued from the wreckage of the Titanic, and ripped from the grasp of the person who loved it most in the world. There is a deeply emotional acknowledgement of an inherent sadness to life in A Fine Line, but what is most prominent is Rankin’s resolve to continue to move forward in spite of it.

It’s an impressive feat that one album can include a myriad of songs that are individually so different from one another and yet, they come together to create deeply affecting variations on a common theme. When played separately, each track stands assuredly on its own, revealing different aspects of Rankin’s immense talent and her vibrant, complex perspective on life and music. Taken together, one begins to see rich thematic and lyrical intersections, often between the most disparate songs. She begins with laying out the struggle of the human condition, our quest toward finding, and then living as our authentic selves, and then as the album progresses we are plunged into the depths of that struggle. She leaves us, undeniably, with a pure testament of hope and gratitude.

This is an exciting record and an exciting musical departure for Heather Rankin, who sold more than a million records as part of The Rankin Family, sang backup vocals on Carly Simon’s album The Bedroom Tapes and has been featured on the recordings of such artists as The Chieftains, Johnny Reid and Will Ackerman. Perhaps the most dramatic sense of balance in A Fine Line is Rankin’s own graceful sense of balance between her own musical past, present and future. She harkens back to her childhood in Mabou, Nova Scotia and honours her roots in that community, and in her family, but she does so in her own authentic voice. This voice has been shaped by the Gaelic traditions of her home, and by the years she spent singing the songs of her brothers and sisters, but her voice is set free here, and often euphorically so, in a way previously unheard. Proving eloquent songwriting runs in the family, Rankin takes us to more private places in her lyrics, and this mixture of vulnerability and exhilaration makes for a powerfully compelling record. After more than twenty-five years in the business, A Fine Line suggests that we are only just now getting to know Heather Rankin. She has always been known as the youngest of The Rankin Family, but now, as a solo artist, in some ways, she sounds younger, and more timely, than ever.

Innovative and electrifying, Toronto jazz drummer Ernesto Cervini has energy to burn, whether radiating it from behind his kit or working on any number of musical and educational projects.  With his sextet Turboprop Cervini flexes his arranging muscles, creating a vast landscape of musical textures, and moods on which these monster musicians can play. The band features his regular quartet of Joel Frahm on Tenor Saxophone, Adrean Farrugia on Piano, Dan Loomis on Bass and Cervini on Drums, plus Tara Davidson on Alto Saxophone and William Carn on Trombone. The band's sound is reminiscent to the hard swinging Jazz Messenger bands of Art Blakey, although they tackle a wide range of music; from Charlie Parker to Claude Debussy to Radiohead, plus originals from all the band members.   They have already toured across Canada multiple times to rave reviews, and released their sophomore album, Rev, on ANZIC Records (NYC) in the fall of 2017.  Rev was nominated for a 2018 JUNO award for Jazz Album of the Year (Group). Guided by Cervini’s driving, effervescent rhythms, the group’s eponymous debut album jaunts into the realms of chamber jazz, balladry, hard bop and free jazz.  Regardless of the stylistic focus, the results are always alluring and rendered alternately with polish and precision or daring excitement. Mark Holston – Jazziz Rev is the second album from Ernesto Cervini’s Turboprop, and it’s a shoot-the-lights-out blast of a listen... The group has an infectious, propulsive energy that delivers a powerpunch without forsaking nuance and melody... Here and throughout the entire program there’s a sense of closeness and shared spotlight, playing with, around and through, but never over, each other... Overall, Rev is a bright wave of an album and Turboprop is the real deal. Turboprop will be on the road in 2018 and I, for one, would love to see this band live. Frank Alkyer – Editor of Downbeat Magazine The band features his regular quartet of Joel Frahm on Tenor Saxophone, Adrean Farrugia on Piano, Dan Loomis on Bass and Cervini on Drums, plus Tara Davidson on Alto Saxophone and William Carn on Trombone. The band's sound is reminiscent to the hard swinging Jazz Messenger bands of Art Blakey, although they tackle a wide range of music; from Charlie Parker to Claude Debussy to Radiohead, plus originals from all the band members.   They have already toured across Canada multiple times to rave reviews, and released their sophomore album, Rev, on ANZIC Records (NYC) in the fall of 2017.  Rev was nominated for a 2018 JUNO award for Jazz Album of the Year (Group).

Good Lovelies return with their annual Christmas tour with shows across ON, QC, the Yukon and the US Midwest. What better way to celebrate the season than with classic holiday and winter selections, timeless and original material polished to a warm and welcoming glow?

Accompanying Good Lovelies (Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Susan Passmore) is their band of merry men - Steve Zsirai on upright bass, Robbie Grunwald on keys and Mark Mariash on drums. This six-piece will have you humming along, laughing, and full of mirth by the show's end.

Good Lovelies first united in 2006 for a one-off performance and have since compiled a catalogue of studio albums, EPs, a live album and a Christmas collection.  They have toured extensively across Canada, the US, Europe, UK, and Australia and have earned a Juno Award (2010), a Juno Nomination (2012) and four Canadian Folk Music Awards along the way. Their latest release, Shapeshifters, was released in February to much acclaim.

“Let the beguiling harmonies of Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough, and Sue Passmore right into the very core of your heart.” - ET Canada

“one of the finest blends the country has known” - The Top 100 Canadian Singles

Good Lovelies return with their annual Christmas tour with shows across ON, QC, the Yukon and the US Midwest. What better way to celebrate the season than with classic holiday and winter selections, timeless and original material polished to a warm and welcoming glow?

Accompanying Good Lovelies (Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough and Susan Passmore) is their band of merry men - Steve Zsirai on upright bass, Robbie Grunwald on keys and Mark Mariash on drums. This six-piece will have you humming along, laughing, and full of mirth by the show's end.

Good Lovelies first united in 2006 for a one-off performance and have since compiled a catalogue of studio albums, EPs, a live album and a Christmas collection.  They have toured extensively across Canada, the US, Europe, UK, and Australia and have earned a Juno Award (2010), a Juno Nomination (2012) and four Canadian Folk Music Awards along the way. Their latest release, Shapeshifters, was released in February to much acclaim.

“Let the beguiling harmonies of Caroline Brooks, Kerri Ough, and Sue Passmore right into the very core of your heart.” - ET Canada

“one of the finest blends the country has known” - The Top 100 Canadian Singles

With an undeniable voice and an arsenal of powerful songs, Martha Wainwright is a beguiling performer and a refreshingly different force in music. Martha began building a buzz with her well-noted EPs, prior to her 2005 critically and commercially successful debut LP, ‘Martha Wainwright’. London’s Sunday Times included the song, “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” in their songs of the year and Rolling Stone called it “a blistering prelude to her debut album.”

In 2008, Martha followed with her sophomore album, ‘I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too’, which showed her great musical maturity and talent as a songwriter. In 2010 she toured the world promoting her third album, ‘San Fusils, Ni Souliers A Paris: Martha Wainwright’s Piaf Album’. This extraordinary album, an homage to the great Edith Piaf, was received with glowing reviews, leaving audiences stunned by Martha’s incredible range and talent. Her last album, ‘Come Home To Mama’, produced by Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda, was heralded by Mojo Magazine as a “substantial and brilliantly sung career best.”

Now, four years later, ‘Goodnight City’ is poised to be her best record yet. This album returns to the rawness of her first release and includes songs by Martha, as well as songs written by notable artists to highlight her incredible voice. These songs are written by her friends and other great songwriters such as Beth Orton, Glen Hansard, her brother Rufus Wainwright, Michael Ondaatje, and Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs.

‘Goodnight City’ was produced by Thomas Bartlett (Sufjan Stevens, Glen Hansard) and Brad Albetta (Angus and Julia Stone, Teddy Thompson) to create a poignant album that covers a dynamic spectrum in a fluid and cohesive manner. The album was recorded in Montreal, where Martha and her husband have resided for the last couple of years with their two children. ‘Goodnight City’ will be released November 11th worldwide.

Martha was born in New York City to folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. She is Rufus Wainwright's sister and they often collaborate in shows and on records. Martha is also half-sister to Lucy Wainwright Roche and they recently made a record together, ‘Songs In The Dark’ to much acclaim including a JUNO nomination. Martha tours her music around the world to sold out audiences on several continents. She has spent time on the silver screen playing characters in Martin Scorsese’s “Aviator” and more recently in the HBO special “Olive Kitteridge” alongside Frances McDormand. Currently Martha is finishing up a book titled “Stories I Might Regret Telling You” which, like her songs, is a window into her life without artifice, pretension or fakery.

Back by popular demand, Rita Chiarelli returns to the Aeolian stage.

Rita Chiarelli is Canada’s most highly acclaimed female roots and blues artist.

With a JUNO award and 4 subsequent JUNO nominations, she is known across Canada as the “Goddess of the Blues”. Chiarelli is a gifted songwriter and an entertaining performer, but it is her soaring 3 octave voice that sets her apart from her peers, inspires awe and often tears in her audiences, and causes critics to gush. “ a voice so blue it could make the angels weep”….  “a voice that can growl at her demons or soar with the angels, a gift for lyric, an ear for melody and the heart to combine them”. 

The one thing Chiarelli is not; is predictable. Over the past few years she has released Cuore, a recording of traditional Italian folk songs, which won the World music category at the prestigious Canadian Folk Music Awards; Uptown Goes Downtown Tonight, a highly acclaimed collaboration with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra; and Music From the Big House, an award winning documentary movie filmed in Louisiana, at Angola prison, which premiered in New York and L.A.  Her CD Sweet Paradise, heralds a return to Chiarelli’s blues roots, and is her first album of all original tunes since 2001 ‘s JUNO nominated Breakfast at Midnight.

As if creating beautiful music wasn’t enough, Rita has entered the film world starring in the critically acclaimed Music From The Big House. She also developed the original concept for the film, one that takes Rita on a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the blues, Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary a.k.a Angola Prison. She never imagined that her love of the blues would lead her to a historic jailhouse performance with inmates serving life sentences.

Her most recent release is the critically praised Music From The Big House Soundtrack, recorded LIVE with the musical inmates of Angola Prison as seen in the film and featuring Rita’s gut wrenching performance of These Four Walls.

Over the past decade Rita Chiarelli  has won every major Canadian blues award, including multiple Maple Blues awards, CBC’s Great Canadian Blues Award, Toronto Independent Music Awards, Hamilton Music Awards, Manitoba Blues Society and the Hamilton Blues Society’s Lifetime Achievement Awards. Most recently Rita was awarded the prestigious Maple Blues ‘Blues With A Feeling Award’ for Lifetime Achievement.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Chiarelli continues to tour incessantly in North America and Europe and intends to spend more time performing in the U.S. over the next few years.

More information on Rita Chiarelli visit www.ritachiarelli.com and www.musicfromthebighouse.com.

Singer-songwriter Jessica Mitchell has been lauded as ‘country’s Adele’ and likened to Sheryl Crow, and much like them, her genre-bending vocals and tone are universally appealing. She is, at heart, a storyteller – an open book, inspired by the raw honesty and storytelling nature of the genre.

Mitchell’s much anticipated debut album Heart of Glass, was released May 11, 2018 to much critical acclaim, and inclusion on Hello Magazine’s Most Beautiful Issue. She has spent the last decade travelling between Toronto and Nashville, collaborating with top-notch songwriters, focusing on writing new music and crafting her richly unique sound, culminating in an a raw, relatable record that embodies powerful and soulful melodies and lyrical brilliance. Mitchell has recently toured with the likes of Kiefer Sutherland, Terri Clark, Johnny Reid, Bonnie Raitt, and was recently asked to perform at the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame to honour Neil Young.

Success is a mystical pursuit; a blend of timing, talent, good fortune, dedication and hard work. A break in the schedule of award winning roots-rockers The Bros. Landreth offered Joey Landreth a chance to step forward and test the creative waters with is 2017 debut solo album Whiskey.

It proved to be a very potent recipe.

Whiskey was an extension of the kind of eclectic, aurally pleasing, and deeply meaningful songs produced by the band, but accentuated and amplified by Joey Landreth’s dynamic guitar stylings as well as his passionate vocal performances.

The album and subsequent touring earned rave reviews from critics and fans, showcasing Joey Landreth as a songwriter, vocalist, musician and performer in his own right.

With his one-of-a-kind guitar prowess, charming on and off-stage demeanour, the sincerity and authenticity of his words and music, every piece of music Landreth composes with carry with it his unmistakably evocative and melodic hallmarks.

Seeking a new creative challenge, Landreth recently stepped out of the proverbial comfort, writing a great deal of music completely on his own, as well as alongside the precociously talented young songwriter/producer Roman Clarke. It is a bold step, but one that he has approached with great relish and excitement.

“I would often write on my own, even for The Bros. Landreth, but I would usually get about 50 to 75 per cent of the way through a song and bring it to my brother and we would work on it together from there. For this new project, I am trying not to do any of that, because I wanted to know what it was like to push through that barrier when I got stuck on my own. What does the song sound like when I try to learn on my own, if I pushed myself through and so far, the result is songs that sound a bit different, which is kind of interesting,” he said.

“I am also writing with Roman, who is producing the record with me. I truly believe he is a rising star because he is young, but an insanely talented multi-instrumentalist. His band opened for us and I was inspired by his work ethic and his musicianship and just his whole vibe. His sensibilities are totally different than mine. He has taken me places I might not normally go.”

But fear not, it’s not a radical departure, simply a broadening of horizons and an opportunity for personal and creative growth. The results of Landreth’s labours are going to be road tested during upcoming touring and an upcoming album release.

When Landreth is on the road, he is doing what he does best, entertaining audiences with his soulful musical storytelling and infectiously emotive melodies. As engaging a performer as you will ever encounter, it took a little while for Landreth to overcome the trepidations of touring solo or with new bandmates.

The Whiskey tour took Landreth across Canada, USA, and Europe.

Landreth has said that there will be a new The Bros. Landreth album coming out later in 2019. In the meantime, fans of Joey Landreth will not have to wait long to bear witness to his stirring solo shows as he embarks again on a full touring schedule, and he finishes off the final touches on his yet to be titled new album.

It promises to be a wonderful opportunity to hear the next stage in the evolution of a truly remarkable artist, one who possesses the rare ability to connect to people through his melodies, through his lyrics, and through his riveting performances.