Music Biz Headlines, July 30, 2018

By Kerry Doole

Canadian cowboy: a 23-year-old singer from Saskatchewan brings a new voice to outlaw country

Colter Wall's voice has hints of Waylon, Willie, Johnny and Merle.  – Ana G. Pruden, Globe and Mail

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! 60 unbelievable facts about Kate Bush

From boo-bams to Big Boi, here are 60 facts about the musician’s life to mark her 60th birthday.  – Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

Review: Jazz Cartier makes his play for stardom on Fleurever

On his major label debut, the Toronto rapper is efficiently and single-mindedly focused on success – almost too focused.  – Kevin Ritchie, NOW

Elvis Costello’s new album features ‘Grace of My Heart’ favorite

"Look Now," Costello's first release in five years, and first with the Imposters in a decade, is due out on October 12. – Chris Willman, Variety

Kidz Bop should never have covered these inappropriate pop songs

"Kidz Bop" is one of pop music’s most inexplicably enduring franchises of the 21st century, beloved by kids and parents for the compilations’ family-friendly renditions of popular hits, and by everyone else for their unintentional hilarity. –  Maeve McDermott, USA Today

Bjorn Ulvaeus calls Abba a European idea

Songwriter, 73, talks Mamma Mia! and AI, but becomes most animated on Brexit. – Anne McElvoy, The Guardian

Rapper translates U.K.’s angry underprivileged for the middle and upper Classes

Scotsman Darren McGarvey raps under the name Loki and recently won the Orwell Prize for his book Poverty Safari. –   Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, NYT

Marilyn Manson abruptly cancels Toronto concert due to 'unforeseen illness'

A video posted to Twitter shows the crowd booing as a show official broke the news Thursday evening, shortly before the shock rocker was slated to take the stage.  –  CP

The two faces of Dub J: software designer by day, hip-hip producer in his off hours

Talking  to local hip-hop artist Dub J — a.k.a. Jonathon Pitman — you get a sense of the strange duality behind Waterloo Region’s most successful hip-hop producer.  –Joel Rubinoff, Toronto Star 

Why the Guess Who’s Burton Cummings hasn’t abandoned his love of music festivals

'I like playing festivals because it’s a throwback to the hippie days,' the Guess Who frontman says. 'In the Guess Who glory days, we played the best one of all, but nobody filmed it. It was the Seattle Pop Festival, in ’69.'  – Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail

Bobby Brown denies domestic violence against Whitney Houston: ‘The public record is wrong’

The singer denied that he was ever violent with his late wife, Whitney Houston, during an appearance at the TCA summer press tour on Friday. –  Joe Otterson, Variety

Thorgy Thor hits all the right notes 

“Queen of classical music” serves orchestral realness to Halifax crowds.  – Brandon Young, The Coast

Review: Homeshake dazed and mellowed the Horseshoe

Montreal's Peter Sagar and his band's smooth, seamless performance set the tone in his first of two Toronto shows on the weekend.  –  Olivia Bednar, NOW

The Enthusiast: How jazz drummer Brian Blade lifts my spirits

To hear Brian Blade’s wisdom, you have to be listening hard. In the 20 years I've been listening to him,  Blade has been teaching lesson after lesson about how to make art and, to my ears, even how to live.  – Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail