The FYI News Bulletin

By David Farrell

William Shatner has a new album he's calledThe Bluesand itsports an all-star cast that includes Albert Lee, James Burton, Harvey Mandel & Canned Heat, Albert Lee, Steve Cropper, Ritchie Blackmore, Sonny Landreth, Brad Paisley, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Pat Travers. With Travers' shimmering guitar licks, here’s the 89-year-old Captain’s fiendishly delicious version of I Put A Spell On You. There are also audio-only editions of In Hell I'll Be In Good Company and Crossroads available on YouTube.

– A PhD-trained statistician for Statistics Canada is an unlikely candidate to become a mega singing star in China, but this is what happened to Canadian-born George Sapounidis after listening to Chinese folk music through a friend in Ottawa back in 1999.

That introduction and a few fortuitous connections have led him to make six albums and complete 40 tours in 25 Red Star cities as well as garnering over 50M television viewers on average for his Chinese performances. There’s even a doc (Chairman George) about his extraordinary stardom, released in 2014 and earlier broadcast on CTV and the BBC. Below, the trailer for Chairman George, and you can livestream him Oct. 10 and 17 at 3 pm EST on Facebook and Instagram. – Story courtesy of Tasos Kokkinidis, Greek Canada Reporter

– Jan Haust and Duff Roman are working on digitally remastering Roman Records’ 60s catalogue for release on vinyl and CD. Specifically, sides with David Clayton Thomas, The Shays, The Paupers, Little Caesar and The Consuls and the first recordings of Levon and The Hawks. Under the umbrella of “Roman Records Presents,” they are adding other recording artists who “animated the local Toronto/southern Ontario music scene during the generational changing of the guard in the 60s”.

Roman wants to “tap into the Southern Ontario radio grapevine to track down any live-to-tape radio broadcasts from the 60s of Canadian rock artists. We've been told there was a show that aired on CKOC in Hamilton on a Sunday night, edited from tapes recorded live at a show on Friday or Saturday nights on Hamilton Mountain. Some of these production reels, not the assembled, edited broadcast reels, ended up curbside for the garbage at Ron Scribner's home. His wife had finally gotten him to clean out the garage. But there must have been other copies of these shows...or the original broadcast reels. Somewhere there might be a large cache of recordings from this era - could be wishful thinking.

“The late Scott Richards (Universal Executive/ bass player w/ The Shays) in the past suggested CHIQ (now CHAM) & CKOC had unheard Shays tapes. Unclear if it was just Shays or included DCT...or both. I know that CHIQ underwent many changes over the years...also that Dave Marsden was there circa 1965. So, if there were Shays tapes, there might well be tapes of other groups like Checkmates, Consuls etc. We’re hoping that some tapes survived. I guess it's not much to go on. Perhaps someone might know a local guy who is an avid collector of these types of artifacts. Maybe there are others in your own networks that can shed light.

“More wishful thinking. Perhaps recordings made within the CKSL London studio or at CHLO St. Thomas. For example, Richard Manuel's pre-Hawkins group The Rockin' Revols recorded 3 songs at CKSL in London, 1959. Or Robbie's pre-Hawkins group Johnny Rhythm and The Suedes recorded 3 songs in the CHUM studio in 1959. Dave Charles at CJBQ Belleville was very supportive of Canadian acts in those early pre-CanCon days. Neil Young recorded his Squires' single, The Sultan, for V Records at a Winnipeg radio station. There have been recent revelations that Joni Anderson (Mitchell) recorded 9 songs at a Saskatoon station.... including House of the Rising Sun. There must be more...many more. These types of recordings are likely soft cuts...acetates.

If you have any knowledge of, or hunches about, who we might follow up with, please point me in the right direction by name and contact info where possible, and I will do the rest (and) does anyone know the whereabouts of Mike Jaycock of CKOC?”

Duff can be reached by email at duffromanmedia@bell.net.

– The first streamed music therapy program at a Canadian hospital will be operating soon at Grand River Hospital, thanks to $25K from The Awesome Music Project — a not-for-profit that raises money for mental health and addiction programs. Music therapy for children and adolescents started at GRH four years ago with funding from the hospital foundation and was expanded to adults thanks to a $50K grant from Awesome. Terry Pender at The Record has the story.

– Live concert streaming platform Mandolin has announced a $5 million seed round to boost expansion. The red-hot upstart (launched in June) is the tech used in the Ryman Auditorium streamed concert series, recent shows by The Jayhawks, The Verve Pipe, and Richard Thompson and the Oct. 9-12 40^th annual John Lennon tribute that includes performances by Patti Smith, Bettye LaVette, Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal and many others.

– Following in the footsteps of Germany’s Restart-19 project, The Sala Apolo concert hall in Barcelona will host a pilot concert with over 1,000 participants that will serve as a clinical study for a rapid antigen test, which detects coronavirus in minutes, on the same day of the concert. Only those with negative test results will be permitted to attend the gig. IQ has the story.

– AC/DC’s Nov. 13 Power Up album release includes a US$49 boxed-edition with built-in speakers and a flashing logo that can be recharged with a USB cable that's included. The single-disc ‘lightbox’ edition comes with a 20-page illustrated booklet. This and an exhaustive complement of merch can be found on the band website. Below, the album’s teaser, track Shot In the Dark.

– Jon Bon Jovi’s newly released 2020 album captures the mood of the times, as evinced on this included song, Do What You Can.

– Omnivore Records has a couple of notable Record Store Day releases on tap by Little Richard and a 1982 Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks reunion. You can find further details in the respective embeds and watching the teaser video trailer below.

– Larry LeBlanc writes: Many of you know that I am involved with the Palestinian Music Expo for the past four years. I've made friends with many musicians there, and they are featured in this short documentary film. To perhaps understand my enthusiasm for what's happening there, would you watch this! It will fully blow away your idea of what you think of the music in this region. You will be surprised.

– After two years, Rob Lowe and wife Sheryl (Berkoff) have unloaded their sprawling Montecito home ...for US45.5M. The 20-room Santa Barbara residence sits on a 3.4-acre plot. One of Lowe’s many trophies is a Golden Raspberry for worst supporting actor as Billy Hicks in St. Elmo’s Fire.

– The Oct. 14 Billboard Music Awards are shaping up to be a stargazer fantasy. The Kelly Clarkson hosted NBC telecast from LA’s Dolby Theatre includes appearances from Alicia Keys, Bad Bunny, BTS, Luke Combs, En Vogue, Demi Lovato, Sia, Post Malone, Swae Lee, Khalid, and newcomer Doja Cat.

– London, ON Hot AC singer Justin Maki hits all the right notes on his latest,  a funky Bruno Mars-styled ode to a distanced romance in covid times called Different Kind of Love. Its accompanying lyric-video is a screen recording of a one-sided mobile text conversation with actor Louis Engel of Go Produce enjoying a sugary snack in the back of Maki’s car.

– And finally, in case you have missed our zealous plugging of Ontario retro power-duo Crown Lands, here's the latest video for Sun Dance from Kevin Comeau and (singer) Cowdy Bowles' recently released self-titled album.